In the name of convenience (so called) we have ensured that the least qualified, least intelligent and least capable of an original thought have become the quicksand in which our daily lives have become mired.
While the average Joe or Jane can site several real life examples of institutionalized behavior from their daily routine, we feel as if we are helpless before this onslaught. Unfortunately, we may be correct.
With the Paxil crisis now extending beyond fourteen days I had to take my anxiety by the horn and make the drive to my psychiatrist so at least two of the involved parties were capable of instant communication in the vane hopes that this might make some small iota of a difference.
It did not of course.
Before the words were even out of my mouth the office staff has a months supply of the Paroxetine prepared, bagged and in my trembling hands. Upon further exchange of information the staff has spoken with my pharmacist on the 4th of November supplying her with a prescription request for the Paroxetine since the Paxil CR was still not available.
In medical terms the biggest difference between Paxil CR and Paroxetine is the controlled release and name brand of Paxil. The formula is almost identical. So my psychiatrist and his staff were shocked to say the least when they found out that the insurance company needed pre approval to dispense there by clogging pipes backing up my prescription.
Basically we had a long line of communication that could fail at any moment. I was in the office talking to the staff, who in turn were on the phone with the pharmacist, who was relaying her conversation with the blue binder-quoting drone on the other end.
It only gets better.
The question returned to rather or not Paxil CR 37.5 was near to being available. The pharmacist said no that it was still back ordered. She did have Paxil CR 25 though. Easy as pie or so we thought. Instead of two 37.5 pills a day he would just prescribe three 25 pills. For any logically minded person it makes complete sense. Regardless of the amount of pills it comes out to the 75mg per day I am approved for.
Foolish mortals that we are we made all of the wrong assumptions. It made sense to me, the office staff and the pharmacist but the insurance company was obviously using a different playbook.
According to the binder toting drone the answer was a big fat no. I was beginning to believe that David Spade was at the insurance company in his Capital One mode. His mantra like response was basically the patient is approved for two 37.5mg pills per day. If we give him 25mg pills he will only be approved for one per day. That was it. No matter the question he refused to be budged from this point.
In a rare show of courage by someone standing before a slow moving glacier the pharmacist kept attempting to discern some form of movement. She explained the math, the logic, the illogic, the quantum logic, and the paradoxic, in a sign sure sign of battle fatigue she even attempted to explain the US tax code. The drone and his blue book were impervious to all attacks in defeat the pharmacist surrendered and at least for today settling for a tainted victory was all we could hope for.
I have medicine now that while not being the best of all possible solutions it will at the very least return me to the land of the luke warm. And I know that the logjam was not the fault of my doctor, his staff or the pharmacy. The mantle of blame falls squarely on the newly devolved near sighted bureaucrat.
