Forgetfulness or A funny thing happened on the way to chemo

I’m back. Did you think I just quit blogging? I know I’m way behind, but it’s getting harder to do this. When I started I thought it would be easy to log on each day and jot down a few things about how I was feeling. "Today is a good day. I got out of bed." "Today is a bad day, I can hardly move." But the truth is the chemo is getting harder and I’ve just been too weak and brain dead to think, let alone blog. Mostly this week I've been sitting and sleeping and waiting to feel better. And when I do feel good I want to use what little energy I have doing enjoyable things like being outside planting flowers or even just doing mundane things that make me feel normal. Like laundry. I know, sounds crazy, but the pure normalness of folding clothes makes me feel better. And I don’t have to think at all to fold shirts.

Monday I had my third treatment. But before I tell you about that I want to tell you about the stupid thing I did (or why I love living in a small town reason no. 36). These days there are so many things happening that I have to write everything down just to keep track of everything. Things like doctor appointments, days I have to have shots, chemo days, etc. If I don’t write it down on a calendar I forget.

Last Sunday evening about 8:30 I was going over a checklist in my mind for the next morning’s chemo treatment. That’s when I realized that I completely forgot to have my Emend prescription refilled. This is the med that I take an hour before chemo to prevent nausea. A very important pill, but I didn’t panic. I thought I’d have to have the doc call it in at a Shreveport pharmacy. Then I’d just have to kill an hour after taking it before having the chemo. No problem.

That’s when I remembered this is the med that the pharmacy has to order a day ahead of time. The pharmacies don’t stock it because it’s so expensive. Now I’m kicking myself. I know my pharmacist should have it because he said he’d order it for the next treatment each time I filled it. My doc appointment was for 8:10 a.m., which means I have to leave my house about 6:45. I thought maybe if I was lucky the pharmacy opened early, like around 7, and I could get it just before leaving town. I’d be a little late, but hey, at least I wouldn’t be sick.

This pharmacy also offers online services and durable medical supplies and stuff. So I went on-line to see if I could find the store hours. They didn't have the hours listed, but they did have a 24-hotline number for some of their services. I called that number just to see if they could tell me the store hours. I found myself telling the answering service why I needed to know when the store opened and he very rudely informed me that they didn’t open until 8 o’clock. But just as he was hanging up he said, “But I’ll tell Mr. Causey you called.” A few minutes later Causey called me. This is why I love living here. At 9 o’clock on a Sunday night, in his undershirt, the pharmacist met me at the store and gave me the medicine I needed for the morning. And he was perfectly cheerful about it even though it was my own forgetfulness and my own fault that I didn’t have it. Can you get that kind of service elsewhere? I don't really know, but I do know that here that sort of thing is not extraordinary.