The Little Things

It's funny the how the little triumphs of our life change when we are living with Lupus. As of today, I am one medication less. One of my medications was up for refill but had none left. It was originally prescribed by my Primary Care Physician when I was in the hospital to help treat my extremely low blood count. When I was discharged he made it very clear that he did not want to see me for anything related to my Lupus and he was turning me over to more the skilled hands of a Rheumatologist for all things Lupus-related. I was only to see him for colds, broken bones, etc. His office called me yesterday telling me that they could not authorize the refill for the pharmacy without me coming in to see him. Yeah, right. I'm supposed to waste my $20 copay and 2 hours of my time to go see him for something he wants nothing to do with. I'm not even sure that he gets a copy of all my labwork. I politely declined and told my PCP's office assistant that I was seeing the Rheumatologist today and that I would have him fill the prescription. She didn't like that. She explained that my PCP had originally prescribed the medication and he would need to be the one to authorize the refill. Territory issues, maybe? Again, I politely declined, told her I would call back if my Rheumatologist was unable to fill the prescription and hung up. Well, Dr. F didn't refill the prescription. Instead, he told me that since blood counts were back to normal I no longer needed it. That means one less little pill in my AM box!! I am so excited! I can't wait until Friday which is the first morning I will only be choking down 4 pills instead of 5. Why does this feel like such an amazing victory??

Oh, the little things...

Until next time. Take care of you,
Nicky

Postscript to this post: The PCP's office called again to schedule an appointment. I politely explained to a different office assistant that I had seen my Rheumatologist this morning and everything had been taken care of so there was no need for me to come in. Her response? "Um... OK. Um... let me see if the doctor has any other questions for you." Then my PCP gets on the phone explaining that since he hadn't seen me in over about 4 months I needed to come in because he likes to keep on top of things. WHAT!!! You saw me less than 3 months ago when I was in the hospital AND you told me not to come see you unless it was something not Lupus related. I haven't had any issues that WEREN'T Lupus related. My Rheumatologist and Nephrologist are taking great care of me including solving the prescription issue so why do I need to waste my time and money to come see you? Yeah, um, no. Not happening.