I Was On My Way Out the Door...

I called to Daniel, "time to change your site!" He's pretty much at the point where he is changing it on his own, and I think he likes me there for moral support. I had to leave for yoga class, so if he wanted me there for support, it had to be NOW! So down the stairs he came and said, "don't worry, I don't need you to be here. You can go to class." I said fine, and was going to head out, but turned around to take the insulin out of the refrigerator for him as he's pulling out the other supplies. I had picked up the insulin prescription yesterday at CVS.

As I'm walking over to Daniel with the box, I glance down and see a strange name where Daniel's name should be. I stopped, went back to the fridge and got all three boxes. They don't have Daniel's name on them. I said, "Daniel, there's something wrong. This isn't your insulin."

Daniel said, "I just pulled out the site." He comes to look at the box. "Well, anyway, it's novolog."

I looked at the box, and I looked at Daniel's box from his finished bottle. "It's not the same insulin. The box that didn't belong to us said Novolog 70/30. Not right. Not good.

I grabbed the boxes and the receipts from yesterday and shot over to CVS -- probably a little too fast -- going over in my head what had happened the day before. Picture it -- a long line, later in the evening. Two or three pharmacists busy in the back, two people working the registers. I'm finally at the front of the line, and the girl behind the register finishes ringing up her customer, then folds her arms down on the counter and says, "God, I just want to go home!" I smile, thinking, yeah, it's been a long day, I want to go home, too.

I give her Daniel's name and she goes to look for the prescriptions (keytone strips and novolog). She gets the strips and then looks in the refrigerator for the novolog. She looks and looks and I say to her, "look in the door of the refrigerator," but she doesn't hear me and can't find it. She walks back over to the pharmacist with the paperwork in hand, and the pharmacist says, "It's in the fridge! Look in the door!" So register girl goes back to the fridge and looks in the bottom, and in the back, but NOT IN THE DOOR.

I call out a little louder, "LOOK IN THE DOOR." She finally does. Picks up three boxes rubber-banded together, turns them around, looks them over, and says, "okay," and puts them in the CVS pharmacy bag. I took them home.

So I flew back there tonight and thank goodness there was no line. Register girl is behind the counter again, and I restrain myself from leaping over the counter and into her face. I explain that I received the wrong prescription, the wrong medication, and that my son needs his insulin NOW. She goes back into the fridge, pulls out three more rubber-banded boxes, and says, "Daniel, right?" YES.

I get the boxes and triple check them. They are Daniel's. She smiles at me. "Okay! All set!"

I dropped the boxes off at home and hit the road to try to make it to yoga. On the way I called CVS and spoke to the pharmacist and explained what happened. I said that it was lucky I happened to grab the boxes and look at the name. Daniel wouldn't have looked, he would have just injected. I found out later that 70/30 novolog is a combination of fast and slow acting insulin. Daniel only uses fast acting insulin. I don't like to think of what could have happened. The pharmacist said he would remedy the situation.

I hope so. Register girl needs to know that she could have caused an awful problem. Tired as she may be, if she's dispensing medication, she has to focus on what she's doing.

Never walk out of a pharmacy without opening the bag and looking at what they gave you. Check the name, check the medication. You might save your life.

Getting Needled - AND - The RAINaissance Festival

Morning, Part I:

I forgot to pick up Daniel's pen needle prescription yesterday afternoon and we're getting precariously low. I ran into CVS this morning first thing and asked for the prescription. The lady says, "do you have a new insurance card?" Oh, yes... and then I remembered I had just grabbed my money & driver's license. NOT ON ME! Damn! She says, "that will be $78." I told her I'd be right back. Luckily the CVS is very close.

I grabbed the card, headed back, and started the process all over again. The lady goes to her computer and types in the info. Types. Types. Shakes her head. Types. I see the same screen popping up over and over. Finally she comes to me and tells me that the pen needles are not covered.

WTF??? That's impossible? I told her to hang on, I'll try calling the insurance co. I call the # on the back of the card and got someone who was not too helpful. She said she saw the BD ultra fine needles, but not the BD ultra fine mini needles as being covered. I told her that was ridiculous. Who else can I talk to? She said I could call my benefits people. Funny, I thought I did call them, but then realized I should have called the # on the FRONT of the card. So I do, and I get customer service, and she says that all disposable items like that are covered. I told her that the CVS people can't get the computer to say that, is there a code? So the very nice lady calls a different department, the people who deal with the disposable stuff, and talks to someone who offers to call the CVS, speak with the pharmacist, and get it all straightened out.

I passed that info to the pharmacist, and waited another few minutes for the call to come through. When it did, there still seemed to be some confusion going on at the computer, but suddenly the pharmacist smiled and said, "Thanks!" to the very nice man named "Les" on the phone. She bagged up the needles and handed me the bag. They were FREE. Free!

Morning, part II:

The things we do for our kids.

Last year we went to the Renaissance Festival for the first time. We took Nora for her birthday, and she loved it. It was a boiling hot day and I could not imagine attending in costume -- long cloaks, long dresses, wigs for God's sake, hats, etc. etc. Too hot. Too heavy. The sword would get in the way & thwack my legs as I walked. Plus I don't think it is physically possible for my breasts to be pumped up and put on display in the various and interesting ways I witnessed that day. People watching was fun for all! With all the walking, the various games, and the intense humidity, we spent lots of money on cold drinks that day.

Fast forward to today, the day we planned to go again, the only day we COULD go for weeks & weeks. All other weekends have stuff going on pretty much through the end of October! Of course it rained. I knew it was going to rain. I popped a couple of umbrellas in the car, grabbed a baseball cap, and we set off. Minus my husband, of course, who told me at the last minute (actually, Nora called to tell me while I was at CVS dealing with the needle thing) that he had too much work to do to go. GRRRRR. Fine.

Rain? Did I say rain? Deluge. Buckets. Talk about experiencing life the way it used to be (before umbrellas). I didn't feel like carrying an umbrella, so I just wore my hat. Dominic opted for an umbrella. Nora wore her cloak (former Halloween costume piece) and hobbit ears. Daniel didn't want to carry an umbrella. Until after we walked into the place and the skies opened up. Then he didn't want to go back to the car. At one point we ducked into one of the clothing stores and I actually considered buying one of those ridiculously expensive cloaks. Might have, too, if they had considered putting in slits for the arms to go through.

We watched all the people dragging their glorious costumes through 4+ inches of mud. The rain would lighten up for a few minutes to a drizzle, enough to lure you out into the alleyways to find entertainment, and then the clouds would spew once again. It was crazy, but we had fun! Thank goodness I found one stall that sold hot herbal tea. AHHHHH. Nora's birthday present of choice this year was a large wooden sword. No, she's not a girly girl. Don't get on her bad side.

Family fun at its sloppiest. Who loves you, kids? Who? Your mommy! Show your appreciation! Get that woman some tea!