I have to admit that I rarely get mad. Seriously, maybe two times a year, if that. So, I hate it when I do. Actually, I was trying to fast for Ramadan, and I think my blood sugar being low made it more difficult for me to cope since the climax of what made me mad happened during the part of the day that I most struggle. That part is 2:30-5:00, and I call it my "witching hours" where my brain is low on serotonin (regulates impulse control and boosts mood) and dopamine (controls the brain's reward and pleasure center). Food usually helps elevate these (in moderation it is helpful, but this is when most of us overeat). Since I was fasting, I was already vulnerable!
FYI, here is a handout on these two important brain chemicals and how to elevate them naturally:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/469660/Health%20and%20Fitness/FINAL%20Natural%20Ways%20to%20Increase%20Serotonin%20StressLess.doc
Embarrassing to say that I was mad, but here is one of those days (that started out great):
I woke up this morning a bit sore from lifting weights (The Firm Time Crunch aerobic weight
training - a video I started doing in 1995! Now they have it on DVD!) for the
FIRST time since FEBRUARY! That latissimus dorsi injury took TWO months to heal
and then the next TWO, I was TOO busy! (Pilates keeps you in pretty good shape,
but weight lifting make you even stronger)
My early morning bike ride was so exhilarating, and I
plan on biking 100 miles this month for kids cancer: https://greatcyclechallenge.com/Dashboard#_=_
BUT HERE IS MY RANT. Sometimes it is good for me to
process things in writing. Don’t feel like you have to read this.
Yesterday was hard emotionally. The morn was great, but I
had such a difficult time getting a certain drug prescribed for my son’s
surgery. The pharmacies did not have it, and I drove to a pharmacy in another town because
the doctor’s nurse assured me that
they had it only to get there and to have them say they made a mistake and do
not have it and cannot order it. The pharmacist overheard me telling the
cashier that I was assured that they did have it and could they check to make
sure, and she had pity and called around and NO ONE HAS THIS DRUG, but my
doctor’s office insisted that they prescribe it all the time.
I had to wait until the office came back from lunch to
find out the next move (if we did find the drug, it would have to be ordered
and can take up to a week so I needed to find a resolution yesterday), and I
did not know whether I should stay in the town I had driven to or go back to my
town because he has offices in three different places and his answering service
does not know where they are on any given day.
When she finally called back, she gave the solution my
husband had suggested (in consultation with our pharmacist) at 9 AM THAT
MORNING (and it was 2:15 by the time she called) that would have saved ME hours
of calls and driving around looking for it at different pharmacies! I told her
that this is what my husband suggested at 9 AM, and she said, “No, he suggested
that we prescribe LORTAB and the doctor said that is not strong enough for this
surgery.” My husband does not even know what LORTAB is so it would not have
even been in his vocabulary to suggest an alternative drug. He suggested the
same two drugs in the original prescription as directed by the pharmacist.
So, I had to go to his office and get the new
prescription (thankfully, I had made the right call and come back home instead
of waiting 1 ½ hours for them to call me back after their lunch, and they were
in my town that day.)
When I went to pick up the prescription, thinking it would
be at the front desk, I got called in his office and lectured by him! I was
floored.
He said, “My office people spent 2 ½ hours looking for this drug for you, etc.”
My question is if he prescribes it all the time, then TELL ME WHERE I CAN GO TO
FIND IT! He had no answers in that way. He said he prescribed it two weeks ago
with the people having NO PROBLEM finding it.
My suggestion, “Then call that patient up and ask them
where they got it.”
Reply, “Oh they are in another town, and they probably
got it at this place.” When I said I was willing to go and get it in that place
(an hour drive away), the reply was, “Well, you might go there, and they might
not have it so we think we will just do this. (Which is what my husband suggested at 9
am. It is now 2:45pm).
I felt like I was
treated like I was an idiot. I was SO MAD. I cannot tell you how much I do not
appreciate arrogant doctors (I used to work in a hospital, and I know how some
of them can be.) He also lectured me for not calling me over the weekend when
his office was closed when we discovered that we could not find the drug over
the weekend. We waited for his office to open on Monday, but that was also our
mistake for not calling sooner.
Anyway, they made it way more complicated than they
needed it to be, and apparently, it is our fault that we cannot find this drug.
(All the pharmacist we talked to did not have the drug and could not order it
and some would not give that information over the phone without the written
prescription which would have required us to go to each pharmacy on foot.)
I
have to admit that my husband volunteer to take care of all of this, and he is
sometimes NOT PERSISTENT in making sure he can get information. If someone
tells him, “No,” he doesn’t pursue it, but I am a little bit more dogged in my
quests for the right information. My doctor also said there is no proprietary
reason why a pharmacy would have to have the written prescription to check on
whether they could order a drug. But that is the answer my husband got, and I
would have pressed, but my husband never presses.
Bottom line for the doctor, just tell me where all these patients from the past went, and we will go to wherever we have to go!
Silence. It was really frustrating.
Sorry for this rant, but it was a really upsetting day
for me, but the good news is that I didn’t overeat as a result! I did break my Ramadan fast (I am not a Muslim but thought I would do it to empathize with my Muslim friends. It did this 6 years ago, and it was really great), but I did not overeat in stress. (I did get
myself a little sundae to celebrate when I finally purchased the alternative
medication at 6 pm after trying to get it since 9 am that morning! I still only ate 1618 which is great because of my exercise during the day [880 calories])
END OF RANT
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