As you may know a few years ago I was diagnosed with thyroid cancer. Cancer is a scary thing, but as cancers go, most types of thyroid cancer are relatively easy to treat. I had my thyroid gland removed, went an a challenging diet (it’s remarkably difficult to avoid eating iodine), drank a mildly radioactive cocktail and have since been taking a thyroid hormone replacement medication. My prognosis is normal. Before moving to the city, I went to my doctor for a final followup and got a prescription for my meds to last a few months. Duane-Reade, the omnipresent NYC pharmacy, refused to fill the Rx because I had a faxed copy rather than the original, so I wandered up the street to an independently owned place where they had no problem filling the script.

Due to a set of bureaucratic foibles, my health insurance at my new job doesn’t kick in until the 20th of this month but I’m nearly out of meds. This means I either need to pay a doctor out of pocket to get a prescription written or go without my meds for a couple of weeks. The latter isn’t an option and the former would be pretty expensive. So, I went over to my independent pharmacist with my and asked if he could give me two weeks worth of tablets to bide me over the next two weeks until I can get my insurance to cover the doctors appointment and the pills. He said no problem. What do you think Duane-Reade would have said?

I should note I’m not naming the pharmacy because I’m not sure what the law says on these matters. I should also note my meds are cheap and generic and have no value on a black market, so there is little reason for the pharmacist to be suspicious.

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 6th, 2006 at 9:36 am and is filed under Personal, Local. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.