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April 2002 This morning I headed to the CVS near school to fill my prescription for an antibiotic I need for a small infection. As it turns out it was the first time I had ever filled a prescription anywhere but my home pharmacy (with mother presiding). Go figure, 25,000 pills and never once filled anywhere but good old Costco Pharmacy (yes, we buy our pills wholesaleÖ). Anyway I drop off the prescription and hand over my insurance card. The lady looked at it like it was foreign (which I guess it was, being from New York and standing in New England). After she finally OK'd my insurance she got to work on the prescription. Estimated wait time was 10 minutes, so I did a little shopping for shampoo and razors in the meantime. Two of life's greatest necessities. Fast-forward ten minutes. My order is ready and I am at the counter signing off on it. I decide to ask the pharmacist about this drug-du-jour, since I've always been taught to ask, just in case. Ethel (straight out of ìI Love Lucyî) comes shuffling over and leans over the counter, towering about 10 feet above me. Hereís how it went: Seth: "Hi, I wanted to double check with you this drug and any reactions I might have to the other stuff I take." Ethel (that's not her real name): "OK whatchya got?" Seth: "I take Celebrex for my arthritis, Carafate for my tummy, Prilosec to prevent my ulcers, Lanoxin for my heart, and Zyrtec for my allergies." Then there was a long processing pause when Ethel finally responded: "Holy SH*T kid. Jesus that's a lot of stuff ya got there." Which pretty much made my day. Like I needed this lady telling me what I don't already know and what I'm not reminded of every single day. "Now you can add this antibiotic to the list, this is the least of your problems", she concluded. I never felt so badly so quickly. I think the weekend was so good because it was just really distracting. We were always around one another doing all kinds of things that we ordinarily don’t do during the week. We had fun and we didn’t plan ahead. No schedules to keep, just parties to attend and lots of fun to go around. And that could explain why it was such a great holiday weekend. They should only be so good…so relaxing, so much fun, and so relatively pain-free. All I wanted was my mom. This past weekend was a lot of fun. I went to Montreal with Nina. It was sort of a run-away-before-finals type of trip. Hard to believe that after 20 years, I convinced my parents to let me go on a weekend vacation with a girlfriendÖto another country no less. Am I that good or are they getting that cool? I'd like to think I'm that slick, but then again they have other things going on right now, and dealing with my trips to Canada isn't high on their list. Speaking of list, how I feel has been officially knocked back into the number one slot. Even though it was a great trip and I had a blast sightseeing, practicing my French (which at this point is about as good as my Hebrew), and spending quality time with Nina, I felt really crummy. I have been feeling worse and worse for the last two weeks or so, and have been taking what seems like an endless string of pills. My hips are really sore, I wake up feeling like I went 10 rounds with Mike Tyson again, and the day gets longer and longer. My energy isn't there anymore and it's starting to take a toll on me again. It's like I had a 3 month vacation ñ since December ñ where I didn't have to worry about anything, and how I felt didn't cross my mind because even though I still hurt, compared to how it used to be I felt great. Now it's the ìhow I used to beî again, and that really is sucky. I guess I'll do my parents a favor and keep them out of it this time. It's not like they can do anything to help. Nobody can. I have to just buckle up and get ready for another rocky ride, hopefully one ending with the way I've been feeling in the last couple weeks. I tried not to let how I felt get in the way with what I saw and how I got to explore Canada for the first time. What an amazing place. A quieter, cleaner, friendlier Boston. There was one point when we were standing on the corner of two streets in ìVieux Montrealî (Old Montreal), holding a map and trying to locate where we were. All of a sudden a red car that said ìMontreal Bureau of Tourismî comes screeching up to the corner to give directions. I turned to Nina and said, ìdid you see what just happened? We were lost and 5 seconds later a car pulled up with a guy in it to give directionsî. It was amazing. Regardless of the way I felt this weekend, it was good to have such great company. |
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 Creaky Board
 Feature Feedback
 Seth's Diary - April 2002
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| Author | Topic: Seth's Diary - April 2002 |
| CJ Feature Staff |
posted 04-09-2002 21:13 ET (US) 
This article is for responses to Seth's April 2002 entries to his diary. http://www.creakyjoints.com/sethsdiary/200204.shtml |
| disender |
posted 04-10-2002 09:40 ET (US)
**When I'm spiteful, I'm angry, and I say things I don't really mean. Things that are totally untypical of disender. This is in no way representative of me, but a posessed boiling PMS-ing me** I f'n hate when people say that to me!!! Especially old hags that are the "appropriate" age to have the condition that I've been burdened with. Ya know, the ones featured on the celebrex pamphlets; the ones who sit next to you at the rhuematoligists office and comment (quite sincerely, actually) "Oh, you poor thing. At your age?" Doesn't it drive you nuts?? "No, not at my age, lady, I'm at the doctors office because it's fun! These braces I wear on my joints are the latest fashion trend!" And how dare a pharmacists say that about your medicines! That's like having a Nike retailer coming over to your house and saying "Wow, you sure do buy a lot of shoes!" Again....I apologize....I'm just bitter.... |
| courts |
posted 04-14-2002 12:35 ET (US)
geez! if that story didn't ring true to all of us who have had to give anyone a list of our meds..... my list is up to around 7 meds and three supplements. but i thought i'd share another difficult situation that just happened to me this week. maybe someone will get a kick out of it. i had to visit a med school on friday for info session, tour, interviews, and lunch with students. now med school interviews are known for throwing crazy things at you and expecting a quick and sensible response. many of the questions are about ethicsor different situations in your own life. so my interviewer seemed to be looking for something in particular. he asked what i do outside of academics. then he asked what hobbies i have. then he asked what special talents i have. at that point, i'm starting to feel off guard because he is asking the same question repeatedly but if i give the same answers repeatedly, it will sound like i don't do anything (weird how that works, isn't it?). and then he throws into the mix 'and what do you do for physical activity?' and i froze. i didn't think it was a fair question. granted, no one in this entire application process is aware of my disease and that is completely intentional, but i still don't think it's fair. you don't ask homeless people how they decorate their houses and you don't ask bald people what they do with their hair and you don't ask 70 year old ladies in 21 year old bodies what they do for physical activity. and shouldn't there be some sort of level of acceptable questioning for these things? shouldn't the interviewer be told ahead of time to stay away from issues that may single out particular racial- or economic- or health- related backgrounds? of course not. there is respect for all the visible minorities, for the different colored skin, for the accented voice, but not for those with invisible diseases. after the fact i realized i could have lied to the man about the jogging i do every other day and the pick-up games i find at the gym, but it's not really in my nature. so instead i'm telling you =) courts |
| alyssathegreat |
posted 04-17-2002 18:04 ET (US)
COURTS: totally agree! i think your interview situation was messed up.. and borderline illegal. DISENDER & SETH: i know we all have our moments of funk (or i have multiple), but i just wanted to remind ya'll, as i'm sure you know, even tho people say thoughtless or insensitive things, for the most part, they have good intentions. I believe people generally do not mean harm by their statements. And, even when they do (I got in a fight with a guy in the parking lot about parking in handicapped.. He called me a B***** and everything. very exciting). I just use my wit-which kills about a minute- and humor to throw them off. I told the guy in the parking lot to give me his home phone and address and I would send him my medical info. I think he thought I was serious for a min. Fortunately for him, he figured out reality. If he had slipped and provided info, he would've got a good toilet papering just for being so dum. ANYWAze, i'm convinced patience to educate the random folks who make these comments goes a long way and is part of my reason for having my disease. |
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