Friday, March 28, 2008

Right behind 'em in line at Walgreens

When old people come to the doctor's office and start to complain about how much their prescription meds cost, I nod sympathetically and say something like, "Wow. That must be really difficult on a fixed income." But, secretly... secretly I'm thinking, "Shoot me. Just fucking shoot me if it ever costs that much just to keep me upright."

And right now, I'm in the process of getting drunk. Really drunk. So that I won't be coherent enough to beg for mercy like a pathetic coward when you go get the gun.

As of today, I am paying ninety dollars a month for my prescription meds. Ninety fucking dollars for three pills. One to keep my vasospastic fingers from turning blue and falling off. One to keep my stomach acid where it belongs. One to deal with my brand new Eustachian tube dysfunction causing allergy.

Ninety dollars to save my fingers, keep my esophagus from disintegrating, and turn off the damn ringing in my ear.

I'll let you know when I'm good and drunk.
And then, you know what to do.

11 comments:

Susanlee said...

That's pretty much the situation I've got too, over $100 for birth control, Prevacid and asthma inhalers. Ugh, and that's with insurance. Cross your fingers and pray for universal health care.

Christine G. said...

drunk is good medicine. i did that last night. it is my anxiety reliever/stress reliever/anti-committing murder on mankind prophylactic drug.

my son takes concerta, it is 40 bucks a month. that's all the prescription medication we have going on in this house. the thing is... i live on a fixed income too. my husband and i are salaried employees. i can work 10 hours more a week, and ain't no more extra money showing up. the whole "fixed income" thing kind of annoys me when the old folks start spouting it. my parents have a "fixed income" with their pensions and social security... but my dad can choose to go to the packey and work a couple hours a day helping move bottles around the recycling center. he can choose not to. he can choose to put it in his pocket or head to vel's and sit there and play keno with it all night, maybe piss it all away or hit for an extra 500 bucks.

i point this out to my mom when she gets on the fixed income thing.

good luck with your falling off fingers, stomach acid and ear anti-poppin' meds.

Shan said...

Ahh yes good ole meddies. Last time I checked mine were over two hundred a month and that was before adding in my husbands latest ongoing prostate woes(and he's only 35!)
Mine is just all that Diabetes business with a pump and all and of course I had to pass down the thyroid failure to my son so back to the pharmacy. I STILL don't think giving the government our money is the answer, they'll just screw it all up. I tried to understand the physicians for healthcare thing you pointed out once but there were some things on that made me raise my eyebrows in disbelief.
What can we do about the pharmaceutical companies and their prices? Everything is so corrupt nowadays. It makes me sad.
] I just don't know WHAT the answer is but none of these presidential candidates make sense to me either. Blech and double blech!
Oh no! Now I'll need something to stop the vomiting. :) Sorry.

Anonymous said...

Oh dear Terroni, you do make me laugh - yes, out loud. I was just thinking along these lines after a weird time a couple of weeks ago when I found myself in an ambulance and spending 8 hours in emergency then getting recalled to my surgery and made to do more tests, when, a fortnight later, I got the bill for the ambulance: $764. Emergency Room: $300. Tests, scans, x-rays and every other stupid thing - another $150. And I have health insurance but it amazingly doesn't cover either ambulance or emergency (something I didn't know). All because apparently my esophagus is playing up too but everyone at the time (including me) thought I was having a heart attack! Quite funny in retrospect except for the bills. As for the meds, I'm on 3 different anti-whatever drugs for my spine and arthritis and now something for that stomach acid too, because of the anti-whatever drugs. That lot costs a cool $265 every 3 weeks or so. And, I'm on a fixed income - my invalidity pension which is not all that much but admittedly twice that of our dole payment. Fortunately, my dad died last year and left me a little bit of pocket change. When that runs out, I'm going to pretend that I live in a third world country where there are not only no meds but no doctors either and when I get sick, I won't need a gun. Not to make light of your tinnitus or blue fingers sweetheart - must be horrible - especially on top of reflux. Trouble is, I don't think that the alcohol is going to help this problem, not unless you're taking it with milk.

Terroni said...

I was actually advised not to drink alcohol (because of the reflux) or caffeine (because of the Raynauds) at all anymore.

There are a handful of Mormons in my class who are dragging their asses through med school without those beverages. But, man...those guys are bitchy.

Anonymous said...

Um, it was just fucking shoot you, right?

Anonymous said...

Terroni - I'm very sorry about the Raynaud's little one. I personally couldn't cope without caffeine. I'd drink too if I could!

Deb Heller said...

Rx costs suck Big Time. I'm drinking to you tonight. Toasting you and your anxious fingers, upset stomach and ear-rings. hee-hee (Any excuse, right?)

Really, I hope that the meds help. What really sucks is when you spend all that fracking money, and the bottom line is that it doesn't help!

Hang in there, girl!

j-dub said...

we'll be known as the generation of anti-darwinism. All these defective genes getting passed on.

katie and I often think we shouldn't have birth children. We're both blind as hell, with asthma and horrendous allergies. We've got damn straight teeth, though. I can only imagine our wheezy, squinty babies with attractive smiles.

Neponset River Bridge Dig said...

why this is an outrage!!! Fuck those drug companies!!!

Maria said...

I spend about 400 dollars a month on scrips since my crappy insurance doesn't cover it.

We need national health care in this country SO badly.