Praise then darkness, and creation unfinished

I skipped using the "flutter valve" to clear gunk out of my lungs Sunday morning and evening, and Monday morning; I think that's the longest I've skipped since I started using it. Before this, I skipped a few mornings to avoid coughing too much while at the neurologist or dentist's office, then used the device after dinner on those days.

rysmiel asked me in email whether I'm satisfied with the degree to which it is helping overall, and I think so, but it's hard to be sure. I was coughing enough during the day Monday that I used my albuterol inhaler twice, by itself rather than as part of the Mucinex-inhaler-flutter valve process, which is suggestive but not a lot of data.

My current plan is to skip the mornings while traveling to and at Scintillation next month, and likely skip the evenings as well, rather than sit up annoyingly late until I have stopped coughing again, which I would much rather be sitting or standing for rather than lying down.

My doctor sent in a prescription for a steroid inhaler ten days ago. CVS said it was in process, then just...didn't do anything.

On Friday, a week after they said they were processing it, their automatic system had no record of that, but said they could fill it as a "refill," and that it would be ready yesterday morning. Yesterday that had changed to 6 pm. today. So I called again this morning. After at least an hour total on-hold time in the last few days, I got to talk to an actual human, who said that they don't have it, and are unable to order it, but the system thinks there might be a couple of boxes at a store in Dorchester. Or he could contact my doctor about prescribing a higher-dose inhaler. The store in Dorchester doesn't have it either, but at least connected me to a human in the pharmacy quickly.

So I walked around the corner to an unrelated pharmacy, and asked if they could get it for me. They said yes, so I took a business card, went home, and called my doctor's office again. If this pharmacy can't supply it either, I will ask Carmen what she thinks we should do. I've been sending my prescriptions to CVS because that pharmacy is open seven days a week, rather than six, but that only works if they actually do their job of filling prescriptions.

Also, by the time I got off the phone with CVS, the medication had vanished from my MyChart records, completely. I wanted to confirm the prescription name and dosage I'd written down earlier, and there was nothing there. Fortunately, my doctor's office is well organized, and sent the prescription within fifteen minutes, even though my regular nurse practitioner doesn't work on Mondays.