My pulmonary disease is believed by some to be a precursor to
something called carcinoids, which are
Sandostatin
is a bit tricky to mix, and must be delivered as an intramuscular injection,
which taxes the talents of most of us mere mortals who lack medical training.
Sandostatin is not something you can just pick up at your
local pharmacy. I have this set up through CVS Caremark, their specialty
pharmacy. So every three months I arrange for the next shipment. The drug must
be kept chilled, so it is sent for overnight delivery in a little Styrofoam®
(just cannot get away from that Styrofoam®) ice chest. I arrange the
date for delivery when I call to order the refill so I know when it is coming,
and I usually call Caremark on the morning of delivery to obtain the UPS tracking
number so I can keep an eye on it.
I had arranged a few weeks ago to have my Sandostatin
delivered today because I am due for the injection later this week. But to be
honest, I completely forgot, even though it is in fact on my calendar.
Meanwhile, Barry had placed an order on-line for some chairs
for our patio. We have a nice patio dinette set we bought years ago. The table
looks pretty good but the chairs are in dire need of replacement; we have
already disposed of two of them. He found a good substitute on Amazon and they
are to be delivered tomorrow.
We wanted to delay that delivery date because we are going
to a concert tomorrow evening and I did not want to risk a late delivery which
would lead to four large boxes sitting outside our house. I went on the UPS
website and found I needed to set up an account on the site in order to
do that. So I dutifully set up an account, noted that it had one item,
admittedly did not read it carefully, and, assuming it was the chairs, I
changed the scheduled delivery to Friday.
I am not sure anymore what exactly made me realize I had
gotten this dreadfully wrong, but at some point mid-morning I found out that what
I had actually delayed was not the chairs but the Sandostatin. This could not be! For one thing, my injection is scheduled for Thursday, and for another, there
is no way that little chest and blue ice will keep it cold for that many days. The
word “panic” would be a gross understatement. “Hysteria” or perhaps “total
meltdown” comes closer.
Barry was in his office at Mt. Sinai, planning to be in and
out all day for various meetings. So I had to tackle this myself. To make a
very long story short, after literally hours of stress and a lot of pleading
during many phone calls, some of which were made on the verge of tears, I
managed to circumvent the instructions to deliver on Friday. In fact, when this
all happened, the Sandostatin was already in
the truck* at the local distribution center in the Bronx, about 20-30
minutes from here, scheduled to be delivered today. Had I not called, it would have been returned to the center for Friday delivery.
Two years ago, I could barely remember anything for more
than a few seconds. Little by little I have improved, and things like cooking
require fewer stops to read the same thing over and over again. Now I think the
trouble is that, in my heart, I am the pre-brain-tumor Rebecca, but in reality,
I am not and likely never will be. I have to keep reminding myself so I can
avoid causing anyone, including myself, any more stress than life already has.
Love,
Rebecca
*I had to chuckle as I wrote this. I originally had written “on the truck,” and then I remembered the
late George Carlin routine about airlines, so I went to YouTube and I found
this. Warning: it is George Carlin, so the language is a bit raunchy, but it is
also hilarious.
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