Déjà Drama

Yesterday Xy’s school informed her that she would be attending a workshop today, rather than teaching, so she had to stay late making plans for a substitute. This morning she felt so poorly she decided to stay home. She almost never takes a sick day. Actually she’s been sick all month, but she keeps working, working, working. Anyway, just before noon she called me at work and said she was feeling so bad she needed to see a doctor, but also feeling too bad to drive. So I rode home. On the way I realized this wasn’t going to work. I had too many obligations with preparing for the Beyond Jena forum tomorrow, including a 2:00 appointment to test the audio-video setup which I absolutely couldn’t miss. When I got home I told Xy she’d have to drive herself. I felt bad, but I was also frustrated because I’ve seen this is a pattern before, too many times. She pushes herself too hard, neglects her health, and finally hits the wall. Usually it’s a cold that she can’t kick, which leads to a sinus infection, which leads to a persistent migraine. In this case I’m convinced she had the same bug that Persephone and I got. We got better; she didn’t. She probably could have shaken it if only she’d taken care of herself. I rode back to work. Xy called her neurologist, described her symptoms to a nurse, who relayed them to the doctor, who wrote a prescription. She had to drive out to Oschner to get the piece of paper. Then she took the paper to Rite-Aid, but they couldn’t fill it. By this time I was home again, so I took the paper to Walgreen’s. Xy hadn’t even looked at it. Turns out it’s for Demerol and some other drug I’d never heard of. They wouldn’t fill it because it’s a controlled substance. I needed Xy’s ID. Also, they needed the doctor’s DEA number, plus the doctor is supposed to write specific dosage instructions and hadn’t. They told me to take the paper back to the doctor. By this point it was so late we gave up. Xy’s got an appointment with her GP tomorrow.