Wednesday, October 16, 2013

Drugs

One of the few advantages of being an ex-employee of a pharmaceutical company is that we get their products through our health insurance for free. Alas the few medications I have taken in the past were not in therapeutic areas of our company's interest. However I see they have been still busy buying up companies and spewing out the employees while keeping the products (Steve and I were victims of this). We just received a new list of covered medications. I see that they must have sucked up a company that makes thyroid medications so this will be a potential savings of $120/ year for me assuming I can get my doctor to write a new script.

I took the list to the doctors' yesterday ( I actually just saw a nurse practitioner) and told him to select a cure for me from that list. The preferred drug was not on the list but he chose one that should cure me. I was cautioned that the pharmacy might not have that particular brand and he would append a note for them to give me his first choice if that were the case. I assumed the drug would be ready when I got there but no, I had to wait for 20 minutes. This might not sound like much but I was feeling very badly. And when it was ready, I saw that the appended note to give me the the desired drug was not followed. We could call him to clarify?No, not in the mood to wait around there for a half hour for a new prescription. Then the tech tried to convince me to get a flu shot. Um I have an active case of strep throat. Not a good time.

The Red Devil is one of our company's acquisitions but if a drug is administered in a hospital setting, it is considered a 'treatment', not a drug and therefore we don't get it for free.

I often gave lectures and demonstrations outside of work. I was told not to use the word 'drug' as it has a negative connotation. The blue crystals of Walter White come to mind I guess. Incidentally, the crystals being blue is NOT an  indication of purity. They would be clear or white. Whatever was causing the blue color would be easy to remove. The Red Devil however is intrinsically deep red . No removing that color. Many years ago I was on a project to make analogs of it. Little did I know that it would be pumped through my veins at some point.

I feel much better but I am in isolation which makes me  sad. Steve and Naomi are with the baby. Steve is not coming near the baby in case he is a silent carrier (common with strep). He has some chore to perform around that area so that will keep him out of the house. So I wouldn't go crazy, I went for a bike ride keeping the bike tracker app off as it makes me push myself too much. I felt fine. And it was pretty with the fall colors, big billowy clouds. Two of the cranes were back in the cornfield and a deer slowly crossed in front of me. I will try to run tomorrow (which probably is harder on my cardiovascular system).

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