Call me collateral damage

in the war on drugs.

I've commiserated with others about it. I've bespoken my congressperson and state rep about it. But I've never been a victim of it myself, until now.

The screaming and bouncing-off-the-ceiling foot pain is back. My doctor electronically transmitted a prescription for a medication for pain to my pharmacy, so I would be able to function --- with the pain level reduced from 8 or 9 on the scale to 4, I can hobble from chair to bathroom without screaming and involuntary weeping, and I can sleep at night, too.

However, thanks to the War on Drugs, the pharmacist isn't allowed to issue the pills; not until the paper copy of the prescription arrives in the mail. Whenever that is. Of course, says the pharmacist, you can go to the doctor's office, try to get a paper copy yourself, and bring it back to us. But, I did without any pain control on Thursday and wept and screamed all day, so I could take my last precious pill to not scream on the van to the pharmacy, and it was already wearing off. If I was healthy and painfree enough to wander all over town carrying sheets of paper around to make bureaucrats happy, I wouldn't need the oxycod/apap pills and my doctor would not have prescribed the danged things, either.

I do hope the sheet of paper arrives in todays mail. Then I can have the pills first thing Sunday morning, if they let someone else pick them up for me (they did back in October, but who knows now?) If that sheet of paper doesn't arrive today, I'm in for a long horrid weekend, since nobody will get mail on Monday.

I type and weep. In five minutes I have to go get breakfast out of the oven, which means I have to stand up and walk and scream. You know. offering up is less difficult when one can still function.

And, the real twist to all this? Actual sick people in pain who have legitimate prescriptions for medically necessary medicines aren't allowed to access them, but the folk who want various pills for non-medical purposes without prescriptions don't seem to have any trouble finding and obtaining some. This weekend, I'm sorely tempted to wish that I knew the local illegal black-market dealer........

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