Modern medications

I take 6 prescription medications for a total of 13 pills every day.  My workmen's compensation insurance pays 100% of the cost of medication.  I phone in a refill and pick it up the next day with a signature at my local Rite-Aid.  

Rite-Aid actually has fantastic customer service for a medical products vendor.  It is not that the pharmacists are chatty-friendly, they just get things done in an extremely efficient way.  One short call or vmail to order 6 meds and then give them a two days to refill expired prescriptions with my doctor and to a day to get whatever meds that they might be short of from a supply warehouse.

I would love to go every 90 days, but my WC insurance only pays for 30 days at a time. Still the system works very well for me.  I have been getting meds at the same Rite-Aid for eleven years.  Thank you Rite-Aid people for your awesome consumer friendly customer service.

I am prone to bladder and skin infections (cellulitus).  I take a generic sulfa drug antibiotic called Bactrim to keep the cellulitis in check.  The infection starts in my toes and works its way up my leg.  The symptoms are hot red skin, fever/chills and phantom pain spasms. 

When I first got cellulitis and did not know what it was, my fear of an unknown health problem freaked-me out with a good sized sense of fear and abandonment.  The first three times I got cellulitis, I checked into the ER and was put on inpatient IV anti-biotics for a 2+ days.

Taking the Bactrim every day counts down on the cellulitis frequency to slow flare-ups every year or two.  My experience with cellulitis has lead to a much lower fear level. 

This evening I was feeling phantom pain and light fever/chills.  I took one fair stronger penicillin-type anti-biotic called Cipro and went to bed.  A couple hours sleep, more fever/chills and now I feel better.  Not okay, but a tolerable level of discomfort.  I will finish this post, take another Cipro and go back to bed.

That is incredibly more preferable that going to the ER and staying in the hospital for 3 days. 

Since I am not bleeding to death or likely to die in the next few minutes, I am about the last person treated in the ER—which means I have to wait for hours while is considerably discomfort.  I understand the triage theory and would want to be treated ASAP if I was bleeding out in the ER, but it still sucks to have to wait for help.

Coumadin is a anti-coagulant that I take to prevent more blood clots in the future.  I have had a blood clot in my left thigh for almost 30 years.  Aspirin is also a moderate anti-coagulant.  Thus, I can't take aspirin for minor pain.   If things get really painful, I could take a narcotic pain reliever such as Vicodin.  That knocks the pain down considerably.   There is comfort in knowing that I could treat the pain if it gets worse.  I did not take Vicodin tonight.

I wrote more, but MS Word crashed and lost a couple of paragraphs.  Thank god I only lost a couple of paragraphs.  I love modern technology!

PS: At 11 PM on the 26th, I am almost back to feeling normal.  I was a little fried from the ride.
PPS:  I know I am building a more resistant bug with my antibiotic (ab) use.  It works for me now.