Shopping and Other Things

Feeling better means that I have to get out and run my own errands. He who has been my errand boy left early this morning on a job that will keep him from home until a lot later this evening. He is on the road and unavailable to go to the store. His prescriptions need to be filled. He only has one day left on one of them. I want to do some baking and I need supplies, mostly butter and flour.

So, I get ready to go out into the big wide world. Don't want to, mind you. The memory of my last panic attack still too fresh in my mind. But, I drink my coffee and convince myself that I can do this all by myself. Errand boy extraordinaire has my little bug all fueled and ready for me (remember, I do not do this, being delicate and all). Dreary skies follow me all the way.

I have been ensconced in my sewing room with my happy light ablaze (thanks to my daughter and son-in-law) every day for at least 5 hours. This dull gray light is a little disheartening. I spy the state troopers positioned all along the interstate and I keep my speed just two miles over the speed limit. I make it to WalMart and turn in the prescriptions with instructions on how many I want of each one, then prowl the store for bargains and my list of necessities. I arrive back at the pharmacy an hour later and join the others in the long, long line.

Finally I reach the front of the line and am excited to be nearly done and on my way home. Because there were so many waiting and I was anxious to get home, I did not open the bag and check each prescription like I normally do. I was started to get that little tingle at the nape of my neck and knew I had to be on my way.

I loaded the car and got in and started the engine, carefully waiting for the glow plug light to go out. It can be a little cantankerous in cold weather. The gear shift did not want to come out of "park". It has done this before. I turned off the engine and tried again. It worked. I wanted to pick up an iced tea to drink on the way home, so I pulled out of the back side of the parking lot in order to go through McD's drive-thru. Two big trucks were blocking access, so I pulled into the parking lot of my favorite consignment shop ...... who knows, maybe they had a bargain I could not live without.

I did not linger long in the shop, not finding anything I wanted to give a second glance to and went outside to see that the street I wanted was clear. I was ready to be home and the shop had been stuffy and hot. Got in the car and it stuck in "park" again. I tried all my trusty little tricks. I tried everything I could think of. No luck. So, I called he who cannot hear. He is in Illinois picking up a truck. He shouts instructions to me (why do people who can't hear you assume that you can't hear them?). He tells me to do everything I have already done and nothing is helping. If I turn the key part way I can get the gear shift to move ...... But, unless you are in "park" or "neutral" you cannot start the engine and when you start the engine it won't move to reverse or drive. I was almost in tears and the panic was coming full on. I was blubbering about my butter melting and how I just wanted to go home where my happy light waits for me.

I finally agreed to wait for a tow to come get me and my butter and drugs. I started stuffing everything into as few bags as possible to be able to unload quicker. Then I decided to pick up all the trash that had accumulated. I pulled the emergency brake and after cleaning up and releasing the brake I decided to try again. For whatever reason it started and went into gear and I was able to drive home. I cancelled the tow (in case you were wondering).

Made it home and only two dogs escaped as I brought in the bags. Fortunately, it was the male dogs and they have had too many swats from my fly swatter to disobey my command to get back inside. I opened the bag with the drugs. As anyone who watches TV knows, there is a list of drugs that WalMart will fill a 90 day supply of for only $10. Knowing this, why would you get a 30 day supply for $4? And yet, I always have to tell them. Always. One of the drugs he takes is $70 a month, so I only get a 30 day supply. I am always hoping it might go down in price, since it is already the generic. They got that one right. They got all of them right except the cheapest one. It comes in those hated prepacked blister pack things. There should have been 3, there was 1. I checked carefully and the amount was right there on the 1 package as 90. I pulled it opened and counted to make absolutely sure that the packaging had not changed, but there were just 30. It happens. I called and asked to speak with a pharmacist, since I know that this is the only person who can fix the error. I must have gotten a newbie. She listened carefully as I told her what had happened, then she told me to hold on.

She did not put the phone on hold and I could hear her as she asked how to access the information relating to the prescription in question. She wanted to know how to tell if I was lying ........ Then she pulled up the screen with the image of the RX the doctor had written. She then decided that I had only gotten 30 because it was written for 30. Having worked at WalMart before, I could have answered all of her questions and told her how to pull that information up. While it is true that the doctor had written #30 on the prescription with 5 refills, the customer can buy as few or as many covered in that prescription as long as it is not a controlled substance. And if I was going to try to rip WalMart off for some pills, let me just say that it would not have been the cheap ones, but the ones that cost $70 a month.

She finally came back to the phone and told me to bring "it" back and she would fix it. I had just driven 46 miles to get them and was loathe to hop into a car that had already sent me into a panic attack with gear issues and go back over what amounted to less than $10 worth of something. I simply told her that I was not willing to do that and she handed the phone to the other pharmacist who verified the name and RX# and my address. They are sending the other 60 to me.

A cup of tea, a happy light and a fire. I am feeling better.