I’ve always considered myself to be of “passable” intelligence, but I don’t think I’m smart enough to make it in this day and age. Without going into the gruesome details, most of you know of my bout two years ago with ulcerative colitis. The doctor told me that I would probably have to take medication the rest of my life, so I have been. It’s three large capsules three times a day, so it’s not fun, but it is better than the symptoms coming back.

Anyway, a couple of months ago I called into the gastroenterology office to renew my prescription (it’s renewed for a month with 11 refills). They contacted me and said the doctor would only renew it for a month or two and I needed to schedule a recheck colonoscopy. You all probably know that I did that on September 13th and everything went fine. On the discharge instructions it said, among other things, continue the colazal, three capsules three times a day. A week ago last Friday, when my final supply of pills was starting to run out, I called the pharmacy to see if my prescription had been called in. They said it hadn’t, so I called the doctor’s office. When you call, you can’t talk to a human being, so I pushed the “4” button and got the prescription refill recording.

I gave them all the information they asked for but I forgot to give my area code (it’s different than Grand Rapids) and I didn’t have the telephone number of the pharmacy they have called it to for over two years. The recording said to allow them 24 to 48 hours to respond. I worried about that missing information all day long but I didn’t call back. They didn’t call back Friday, Saturday or Sunday. I ran out of pills on Monday and still hadn’t received a call but, to me, that was 24 business hours. Still nothing by Tuesday morning (48 business hours) so I called back and gave them the same information all over again. Someone from their office called me later in the day and said the prescription had been called in to the pharmacy Friday at 5 or 6 PM. I said I had expected them to call and let me know which prompted the response “Oh, we don’t have time for that”. I guess, to them, I should have the time to call the pharmacy several times over that 48 hour period to find out if they got my call, decided to renew the prescription and actually did it.

Our house guest is getting better by the minute, although she had a setback Saturday afternoon with an infection in the incision. When Jean started going through the details of removing the stitches, opening the “outer layer” and squeezing the puss out, I decided it was time for me to go far enough away to not hear anymore. Becky says she still isn’t back to 100% yet (not a realistic expectation) but she’s come a long way from a week ago. She worries about causing us more work, but we’re happy to have her here. It gives Jean someone to talk to who actually listens and I really don’t need to hear the television.

I went to a meeting with the new hospital CEO at the Amway Grand Plaza Hotel in downtown Grand Rapids last Friday. The place is quite elegant and, with the event being sponsored by Spectrum Health, we got complimentary valet parking. Most of the people attending the event were doctors, CEOs of hospitals, and some board members of Spectrum and affiliate hospitals (Rich DeVos, one of the founders of Amway, was there, not to be confused with his son, Dick DeVos who ran for Michigan Governor and lost). Needless to say, they all had money and drove really nice cars. With all the Mercedes, Lexus, Cadillacs and Lincolns in the drive was my 1998 Jeep Cherokee with 182,000 plus miles. When I left in the afternoon, I checked my wallet and, other than a couple of twenties which was way too much for a tip for the kid who brought my car, I had two dollars. At least I didn’t hand him change. I could almost see the wheels turning in his head, thinking “With all these high rollers, I had to get this poor b*#$^%$”.

Just (Going Along With The Flow) Jack