If It's Not One Thing, It's Another... (WARNING!!!! language laced!)

Yeah, I feel like having a pity party. If you want to join in the "fun", be my guest. But if you feel like telling me I should be thankful and that I should feel blessed or lucky, then go the fuck on to some other page, because honestly, I'm in no mood to hear it.

For one thing, I DO count myself as being lucky AND blessed. I have been given a wonderful gift from someone I'll never have the pleasure of meeting and thanking. That hurts my heart a little, each and every single day.

And yes, I am EXTREMELY thankful to the person and their family for being HEROES and giving me something that was almost completely taken away from me for the rest of my life.

My sight. And even my entire eye.

But I also have a RIGHT to sometimes be angry. I have a right to vent. And if you don't like it, then please spare the both of us, and go on. Today is not a good day for you to try your positivity thing on me. Because right now, I don't see a "silver lining". Most of the time, I do. But today isn't your lucky day.

Nor is it mine.

You see, I very well may have scratched my cornea, thanks to (once again) my own stupidity. But it seems I was able to get it taken care of on my own.

I've been using my steroid drops religiously (for the most part) and my eye seemed to be doing A LOT better. But I did (accidentally, due to being extremely busy and thoughtless) forget to use my drops. At all. All day.

Now, my transplanted eye is giving me fits. It's not in pain. But it is red (mainly on outside side of the eye) and a bit itchy, and burning a little.

Yes, I've been careful to keep up with my drops. And it IS helping. But... I am getting a growth of concern.

So, it seems that once again, I will have to go in, when I honestly cannot afford to, and see if the R-word is back.

Rejection.

Yes, people, a CORNEA (tissue) transplant can and DOES reject, sometimes. If that is the case, then this will be my second bout with it in the last two years (transplant-iversary was 10/29/2011). I'm hoping against hope that in reality, it's my stupid ass allergies affecting it.

Along with my eye being a bit teary, red and itchy/burning, my nose is like a leaky faucet. And it's only happening on the left. Both the nostril and the eye on the left side of my face.

I'm just sick to death of this crap. Why? I knew that I had really no choice, but a transplant. Otherwise, it was lose the entire eyeball. And I knew I was "trading one set of problems for another". But DAMN IT!!! This has become utterly ridiculous.

It seems like EVERY fucking time shit's going good with me and my eye, something JUST HAS TO happen to cause another blow to my self-esteem and to my recovery process.

It's really getting old. And yes, sometimes, I do wish that they would have just taken the whole eye. It would have saved me a lot of trips to the doctor. It would have saved a lot of worry and fraying of my nerves. And it would have saved a lot of money that I really do NOT have for this on-going, life-long after-care.

Now, there is a (at this point, minutely) small chance, that I could be going in to rejection again. And IF I am, then we will once again try to (successfully, like last time) reverse it. BUT!.. There is always that chance, that fear, that it cannot be reversed. Which means another transplant. Another surgery I really cannot afford. Another person's death to save my sight.

How in the end, is ANY of this shit fair? If I'm rejecting and the cornea has to go, I know that I will feel like I let down my donor and their family. That they gave of themselves in vain. I failed, if indeed, I cannot save this cornea. And it will be MY fault. MY doing.

It scares me. Even when my eye IS doing really well. But it scares me even more so in times like this.

One Hot Mama!...I'm Pretty Ticked & Heed My Warning.

If I could, I would have this shooting out of my head..

And have these shooting from my eyes...

Why?

Because, for the now third or fourth time, my local Walgreen's Pharmacist has messed up. It's one thing to miscount the number of pills. It's also one thing to not even fill one of them. Heck, it's even one thing to place your child's medications in the WRONG "filled and ready to go" bins.

But when your "mistake" at reading the prescription goes as far as one, filling it with the WRONG refill number, as well as with the WRONG DOSE, that is when I am DONE.

And that is also when I write to Corporate Office, and to the District Office, and to the Local Store. Yep. Every single level of Walgreen's got a copy of my letter of complaint about this "mix up".

The medications that my child is on are pretty "powerful" and can have some pretty bad side effects if given wrong. The one that was completely dispensed wrong can hurt his Blood Pressure or even his heart.

What SHOULD HAVE BEEN 2 mg. of a dose at 2 refills was ACTUALLY FILLED as 3 mg. dose with 3 refills.

How does someone read a "copy" wrong? When in doubt CALL THE DOCTOR that prescribed the medication, THEN proceed to fill it. It's not rocket science.

Please, my readers, for your safety and for the safety of your family, especially your children, READ LABELS on the medication bottles. Every time. No matter how many times you filled the same medication.

Here is a copy of my letter to all of the branches of Wallgreen's...

To Whom It May Concern,

I'm writing to complain about the (now) third or fourth "accident" in regards to my son's medications being improperly filled.

My nine-year-old is on medications that can have a great impact on his heart and his blood pressure.

His Intuniv was filled COMPLETELY wrong. I was supposed to have 2 mg dose with 2 refills. Instead I received 3 mg dose and 3 refills.

I cannot tell who had filled my son's medications last night, seeing as you do not have your Pharmacists place their names on the prescriptions that they are having to fill. That alone to me, is discouraging. Because I now cannot tell you in fact WHO ACTUALLY filled my child's medications.

At this time I am NOT "taking my business else where", but do know that I will NOT be talking very kindly about your store, and especially not in regards to this branch.

When filling medications, it means that your staff is literally holding their customer's/patient's lives in their hands. Including children.

Thank you,
Melissa C

Trick Or Treating, Religious Convictions and "The Walking Dead"

Good morning post-Halloween, everyone! I hope that those that were able to, had a wonderful time trick-or-treating with their goblins and ghouls. It's one of the two favorite holidays of mine personally. The other being Christmas.

For most of my area here in Central Virginia (Lynchburg area), the children were able to Trick-Or-Treat on actual Halloween night. But there were a few areas that decided to either hold the holiday tradition on Saturday night, or wait until tonight (Monday) for them to go candy hunting due to Halloween falling on a Sunday this year.

Speaking of Trick-Or-Treating on an alternate night other than Halloween, I had become accustomed to the fact for a while when I had lived in Nevada "back in the day" of my late teens and early twenties. Nevada Day falls on Halloween. And so, being that there are many more tourists in town and also other big celebrations, along with parades, the state usually had them TOTing on the night before Halloween.

This year though, I had found out, thanks to my father that the children of (at least) their area were able to go candy collecting on the actual Halloween this year.

It should be this way everywhere. Personally, I do not see where a separate state or town should have ANY right to tell me and my kids that we cannot Trick-Or-Treat on Halloween if it falls on a Sunday. In other words, you are disgracing God by celebrating an "evil, Pagan ritualistic" holiday on the Lord's Day. And to a SMALL amount of people, it's not "right", so they want the date changed.

If YOUR Christian faith makes you feel convicted to not pass out goodies or let YOUR children Trick-r-Treat, then so be it. Do something more faith based or just keep your light off for the night and be a shut-in. But why ruin the evening for everyone else in your area by boo-hooing to City/County Counsel and force them to change for YOUR benefit of YOUR religious beliefs?

Whatever happened to "Separation of Church and State"? Does that not also apply to holidays where what may not be right for you, may just be okay with others around you? Personally, I think it is rather childish to cry foul over a freaking holiday. Just remember, Christmas is coming. And I can bet you, the ones that are "Jesus Freaks" to the fullest extent are gonna bitch to high heaven if a SMALL percentage of non-believers make a stink over the fact that religious symbols in a department store selling Christmas items.

You cannot have your cake and eat it too, people! Halloween, just like Christmas and Easter should be celebrated by the majority ON THE GIVEN DAY that it was intended to be celebrated. So what if it fell on a Sunday? Do you honestly think that God will think more of you for STILL celebrating that Pagan Holiday on any other day than Sunday? Wrong is still wrong when participating in "evil things" on ANY day of the week. Remember that.

Now, on to the next thing, seeing as I killed two birds with one stone. I feel like I'm on a roll today.

Let's talk about the new show on AMC (American Movie Classics channel). It's called "The Walking Dead". A deputy is shot and is in a coma for a chunk of time. When he wakes up, his world is completely different. In fact, deadly different. As in the walking dead different.

In the opening scene, a little girl is slowly walking as the deputy (post-hospital stint) sees her feet from under a vehicle, wearing bunny slippers. Her back is to him and when she turns around, you can see the severe bite mark on her face. She runs at him, hungry for flesh. He shoots her right in between the eyes and of course kills her for the final time.

As the show's premier episode kept on going, we got the back story of three (alive) characters and also we were able to view some pretty gruesome scenes of half or mostly eaten victims, including fellow zombies. Let's just say that all in all, NOTHING was really left to the imagination with this episode. Including the deputy's horse being torn apart and eaten by a hoard of ravishingly hungry walking poke-alongs.

As gruesome and grotesque as this show is, and knowing that it WILL GET much more graphic as the series moves along in it's rookie season, I personally do not feel that "The Walking Dead" should be on a channel such as American Movie Classics channel (AMC). It does not "fit" with the theme and feel of the channel its self. I see this show as more for the likes of HBO or Showtime. Mainly due to the show's EXTREMELY graphic nature.

"The Walking Dead" is most certainly not a television show for the faint of heart, nor for the squeamish of stomach. Some scenes even grossed ME out pretty bad. That's saying A LOT for me, if you know my taste in horror and thriller films.

So be warned my friends. If you cannot handle lots of blood, guts and gore, then I highly recommend that you do NOT watch "The Walking Dead".

Walgreens Drugs should have been named "Failgreens".

At this point in time, I have nothing good to say about this company. At least not where my local store is concerned. While the staff IS friendly, they have a major problem with CORRECTLY filling drug prescriptions for ONE client.

No one should have to (after this evening) make THREE trips to the pharmacy to pick up my child's medications. Why? Because I got only ONE of three to be filled (along with his sister's one).

Then, I had to go get the ones left behind (that are NORMALLY bagged together), only to get 5 freaking pills from a 30-day supply refill. Because apparently (without my knowledge) they were running low.

Even this evening when I pick up, I can only have a total of 20 from the 30 I'm supposed to have.

The person(s) filling my son's medications 'accidentally' placed the ones I was missing in the WRONG pick-up bin as well. I found this out yesterday evening when I noticed the 'mistake' and called them about it.

I'm glad that what he takes are not drugs he needs to live (like Insulin or Anti-Rejection meds)..He missed a dose last night. If he was on the latter that I mentioned, that COULD POTENTIALLY kill or seriously injure someone because they were not able to have access to their medication!

The employees also need to only have ONE person filling for ONE client when there are multiple scrips for that one person. I mainly blame THAT as the reason for this whole entire debacle even taking place.

Yes, they are human. Yes, people make mistakes. But when you work in ANY area of the health care system, being it as a CNA, a Medical Doctor, or a Pharmacist, there really isn't much, or even any period, room for error. Especially when it comes to the health, well-being and overall LIVES that you are taking care of.

I've learned a VALUABLE lesson, especially after today. BEFORE you even pull out of the parking lot, pull the medications OUT of the bag(s), read them and make sure you have all the pills accounted for on the label(s) and ensure that you have ALL of your medicines you were to have filled that day in your hands.