Pharmacy visits between snow storms

I didn't get any prescriptions filled Friday on my visit to the BMT clinic because the pharmacy was closed and Dr. Tricot had left the Hospital early last Tuesday so I could not get the thalidomide prescription re-filled that day. I was told that I could come back this week either on Monday or Tuesday for the thalidomide, but we had a snowstorm that started late Saturday and continued all day Sunday and on into the morning on Monday. I didn't try to remove the snow until after the snow had stopped and did not even think about going to the pharmacy until this morning. Before going I tried calling to make sure the prescription for thalidomide had been filled and finally got a call-back from Elaine, nurse who handles paper work for thalidomide, assuring me that the drug was ready for me to pick up and I had to do it today otherwise she would have to get it authorized all over again. So we went to the hospital and Emma waited in the car while I went to the pharmacy only to find that "ready for pickup" means quite different things to nurses and to pharmacists. Not only was it not ready for pickup, they couldn't even find the prescription and when they finally found it I was told I had to call an 888 number for a survey before they could fill it.


The survey, conducted on behalf of Celgene Corp. maker of the drug, consists of 3 questions that can be answered yes or no or don't know. I had taken the survey twice this year and three times last year and had not anticipated taking it today because it had been less than a month since I had last taken it, but I learned that if it had been more than a week since taking the survey I would have to do it again and also learned that the pharmacy would call the 888 number to confirm that I had taken the survey. I always answer no to all 3 questions and don't know what would happen if one, or more, of the answere were yes or don't know, but suspect that the drug would not be dispensed. The questions are: 1) have you shared with or given the drug to anyone else, 2) have you sold the drug to anyone, and 3), in the case of men, have you had unprotected sex with any female of child-bearing age.


The Christmas tree cutting expedition last Friday was more exhaustiung than I had expected. I let Eric drive my pickup and I rode with Nancy and Mike and we went far enough on a snow packed road beyond the road closed sign to find a place where harvestable trees were almost on a level with the road, but we were walking in almost knee deep snow and had to cut the trees off at the top of the snow rather than within 6 inches of the ground as the instructions on harvesting said. Mike did most of the work of tying 2 trees on top of the pickup, which first had to be pulled out of the gully that Eric had backed it into. It wouldn't have been in a gully except the front wheel drive didn't work. I drove the pickup the last few miles and then we had to untie them and put Nancy and Mike's tree inside the back of the pickup and take it and Mike home. That evening I was so tired that my entire body was trembling and this continued until sometime during the night. We haven't brought the tree inside yet because it got covered with snow during the recent storm but the weather is supposed to warm and we will bring it in soon.