I realized tonight I had not blogged for a couple of days. There is really nothing new. I am still
pretty uncomfortable. I am better about 45 minutes after I take the pain medication, but start aching again about 3.5 hours into it. I can take the medicine every 4 hours. With some pain meds, including mine, the pharmacy needs a hard copy of the prescription to refill it. The doctor cannot just call it in. Today I realized I would run out over the weekend. Hopefully, I will be better by then, but I just can't count on that. When I needed to refill last
Wednesday, Dr. Miller's secretary said she could not get him to sign the prescription until after 1:30pm as he is in surgery till then. I was going to be at Crawford Long seeing Dr. Saba at 11am but I did not want to hang around till 1:30. First I asked if she could just mail it to me. She said their mail goes to two different places before it actually gets mailed, and it would take a few days before it would even get out of the buidling. She was concerned that I would be out of drugs before I got the prescription. That is a heck of a way to do business isn' t it. If I had been her (I hope) I would have just put a stamp on it and dropped it in a mailbox somewhere-- to heck with hospital mailrooms, but I guess they do not think that way. I ended up just getting Dr. Saba to write the prescription. So, trying to plan ahead, I called Dr. Miller's office today hoping if they went ahead and me the prescription, knowing their crappy mail system, I would have it by the time I needed it later in the week when I run out.

Dr. Miller's nurse, Melissa, who I have not met, called me back today. She told me my records indicated I had gotten a prescription from Dr. Saba last week, and I should not be out yet. I told her that was true, how many he gave me and that I was just trying to get ahead of the game and not run out over the weekend. I was really hoping I would not need them by then, or maybe I would just need a lesser drug but I was just planning ahead. I know she did not mean to, but I did feel like I was having to defend myself like I was a druggie or something. I think after I told her about my understanding of their mailroom system, she understood I was not a junkie downing percoset every 15 minutes. However, the resolution was that on Friday I am to call her early in the day and she would order a different pain medication for me -- one that did not require a hard copy prescription. I am not sure why I have to go the extra steps, but it is "my pain" and I will do so. It seems to me she could just call it into the pharmacy to be issued on Friday and not before, but what do I know. I am just the patient (with no patience I guess).

Thursday I am going to find out the true meaning of "Misery loves company". Janet, a friend and business associate is also recovering from an illness and going through similar pain issues. She lives only a couple of miles from here. Like me, she feels pretty miserable, and she is bored out of her mind too. So on Thursday, I am going to go over to her house, and we are going to just lay around and recoup together. It will be nice to see her and while I hate that she is going through this, it will be fun to spend time with her both knowing what the other is going through to a degree. No makeup, no wig, no nothing. I may even take my Pj's and slippers for a nap.

I try to get out and run at least one errand every day. It gets me out of the bed and makes me get up and get my lungs working. I have to time it just right in the pain pill cycle or I get into trouble. I am not doing anything exciting--just going to Publix, Target etc. Today Susan and I went to Costco. I thought it was going to be a major undertaking but we timed it just right. Did you know you can actually get in and out of Costco in under 30 minutes and spend less than $50. I never knew that was even possible! I needed to get somespecific underthings because of my incision, and after checking a half a dozen other places, everyone kept referring me back to Costco. I accomplished my mission and left with exactly what I needed. The only extra thing I got was a bunch of socks. It certainly was the quickest and cheapest Costco trip ever. Having a handicapped sticker does help and keeps parking from being too much of an issue.

Now that I have bored you with the details of my last couple of days I will sign off. I just wanted you to know I was ok and am keeping the blog alive for a little bit longer. Thanks for hanging in there with me.