Doctors And Their Drugs

It was just plain weird

Yesterday, elsewhere on Substack, I wrote about my wife’s stay in the hospital. You can read all about that here:

Pale Moons In The Hallway

She’s home now, and recovering quite well, but there is something we experienced that I just can’t get out of my mind, and something that we learned that I think might be helpful to others. I’ll write about both of those things here today.

Photo by insung yoon on Unsplash

As I wrote about in the other post, a time came in which one of the doctors told us that she needed surgery.

We asked what I thought was a totally reasonable question, and a question that I assumed everyone would ask.

We asked if the surgery was absolutely necessary, or if there were other possible things that could be done in order for her to heal.

The answer was no. It was explained to us that the risk of death if she was to not do the surgery was too high to risk. Given that explanation, we opted for the surgery.

What I’ve not been able to get out of my mind ever since that discussion is the fact that the doctor told us that she has never been asked that question before. That is just shocking to me. Now in fairness, she appeared to be quite young, so her experience talking with patients is probably a lot more limited than a grizzled old hospital veteran, but even so, I was amazed that she has apparently never heard that question before.

I understand that when a person is in the hospital, flirting with extreme danger and death, he or she will be super motivated to grasp at anything that might end suffering and prolong life. Likewise with whomever is watching as their loved one struggles.

But, even in that situation, I have to wonder, wouldn’t one ask about alternatives to going under the knife?

Particularly in this post Covid world, when we have all seen just how wrong the medical establishment can be. Surely that proved to everyone that medical professionals should be questioned, and that their opinions can not be taken as gospel.

Ultimately I believe that my wife received exceptional care while in the hospital, and surely the surgery was the right decision.

I remain shocked to learn however that apparently most people don’t ever ask if there is any reasonable alternative to surgery.

That is, I think, a profound error, seemingly often repeated.

My learning experience came late yesterday afternoon, after she was released from the hospital.

When they released her, it was almost, but not quite time, for her next dose of a very powerful painkiller. We should have insisted that they keep her until she received that last dose. But, we didn’t.

When I was younger, I remember that upon getting released from the hospital, one would go to the hospital pharmacy to get the drugs one needed to continue taking at home. I’m told that most hospitals no longer have that kind of pharmacy, and ours does not. It was explained to me that hospitals generally lose money on those operations, so are discontinuing them.

As part of her discharge in the late afternoon, we were assured that her surgeon had called in her prescriptions early that morning, and that those would be waiting for us at the pharmacy not far from the hospital.

So, I loaded her in the car, and off to the pharmacy we went, planning to pick up her meds on our way home.

That was a Walgreen’s Pharmacy. (Yep, I’ve decided to use real names here. Walgreen’s in Chehalis, Washington.)

We pull up to the Drive Thru and are told that they don’t have her pain medication. That apparently they had run out of it. They did not tell the hospital, nor did they call around to their partner pharmacies to see if it was otherwise available. (We were informed that WalMart was the only partner that they could transfer the prescription to.) The Walgreen’s pharmacist suggested that we check with WalMart.

We pulled into the parking lot and called the WalMart pharmacy, also in Chehalis. No one ever answered the phone.

My wife was now well beyond the time at which she was supposed to receive her meds, Walgreen’s didn’t have them, and we were unable to reach anyone at the only pharmacy that we were told they could transfer the prescription to.

So, I drove back to the hospital, and returned to the surgical station where she had been released.

The nurses there, three of them, all of whom had taken care of my wife, seemed extremely surprised that we had been unable to get the prescription filled. One of them called Walgreens and confirmed that it was true.

They also told me that her surgeon was at that time operating on someone else, but that he was the one who would have to write a new prescription for a different pharmacy.

They paged him.

One of the nurses told me that I would get it the quickest if it was sent to Safeway. I chose the Safeway in our little city, Centralia.

The surgeon (I’ve really got to give him kudos, a wonderful doctor) came out of surgery and wrote a new prescription for Safeway in Centralia.

I knew that it would take a bit of time to get the prescription filled, so drove my wife home, got her settled, then jumped in my daughter’s car and the two of us headed off to get the prescription.

My wife was now over an hour beyond when she was supposed to take her meds.

We got up to the counter and the pharmacist explained that given the potency of the medication my wife needed, they keep it locked up and that there was some problem with the lock. They couldn’t get to it.

The pharmacist told us to drive to the Safeway in Chehalis, that they would transfer the prescription there.

We did so, and my wife was now about an hour and a half beyond the time she was supposed to take her meds.

Right as we made it to the counter, the pharmacist told us that he was closing for the day. He told us that flatly and rudely.

I presume that he saw a look in my eye that he might die, because he then quickly explained that the pharmacy is alarmed and that if the grates aren’t closed and he isn’t out of there by a set time the alarm will go off. Maybe that’s true, maybe not, I don’t know, but clearly we weren’t going to get the medication from the Chehalis Safeway.

Standing in one of the aisles, we called the hospital.

The nurse who answered the phone was aware of the fact that we had been unable to get the medicine from Walgreen’s, and we let her know that Safeway was a bust as well.

She called pharmacies in the area, and discovered that CVS Pharmacy, back in Centralia both had the medication and the actual means to fill the prescription.

She then got in touch with the surgeon, and he wrote the prescription for the third time, this time to CVS.

We drove there and were finally able to get the medication. It was quick and easy, the pharmacist indicating that he had talked with the hospital and knew that it was needed in a hurry.

It was quite an ordeal, and it is good that my daughter was with me. She is calm, rational, and firm. Had it just been me, I probably would have been dragged out of Safeway by security. But, since she did the talkin’ I was just able to stew in silent anger.

That’s an awful long lead up to what I learned, so here it is…

The next time either my wife or I are in the hospital (I presume there will be a next time) and the hospital says that it’s time to go, we aren’t leaving. Instead we are going to send one of the kids to get the necessary medications, and we aren’t leaving the hospital until those medications are in hand.

We’ve been pursuing an idiotic ‘War on Drugs’ in this country for as many years as I’ve been alive. A war that can’t be won, and that has done no one any good. Because of that, I can understand what we went through yesterday.

The drug we needed is a very powerful opiate, one that has been the cause of much manufactured outrage in the press and by politicians. Given that, it makes sense that Walgreen’s wouldn’t keep very much of it on hand. That Safeway would keep it locked up as if in a vault. These corporations don’t need hassles from a far too powerful government or its drug warriors.

But where does that leave the legitimately sick person who needs the medication?

P.S. (For this one there is a wonderful P.S.) Very late last night my wife received an automated text message from Walgreen’s. It said that they had her medication now, and asked that she reply with ‘Yes’ if she would like the prescription filled, or ‘No’ if she did not.

Given that ‘Go Fuck Yourself’ wasn’t an option, we didn’t reply.