In which trek sings the praises of Dr PreciousMetal

Wednesday, 5:20pm: Arrive at Dr PreciousMetal's office.

5:22pm: Complete "how are you feeling" form.

5:23pm: Go to Exam Room 1.

5:24pm: Slightly low blood pressure, normal pulse and respiration.

5:26pm: Enter Dr PreciousMetal. Spend next twenty minutes developing appropriate asthma and allergy management plan for the next two months.

5:48pm: Leave Exam Room 1.

8:13pm: Search online for health insurance company's three tier drug formulary in order to determine benefit coverage on medications prescribed.

8:17pm: Discover that three of the four medications are in the highest tier. Discover that the other one is not covered at all. Become very angry at insurance company.

8:18pm: Wonder why we bother to pay thousands of dollars a year in insurance premiums in the first place.

8:19pm: Begin to research alternate medication options.

8:47pm: Inform Number Guy that the medical insurance company is evil and of the devil. Number Guy agrees.

9:02pm: Call Dr PreciousMetal's service. Leave message for office to call in morning.

9:03pm: Resolve not to worry about problem until morning.

Thursday, 9:34am: Answer phone. Explain problem to Dr PreciousMetal's receptionist. Receptionist promises to have him return call as soon as possible.

10:28am: Answer phone. Explain problem to Dr PreciousMetal. Inform doctor which medications are on the formulary in lower tiers. Discuss options.

10:32am: Dr PreciousMetal promises to call local pharmacy with new prescriptions and to mail hard copies to send to mail-order pharmacy.

12:06pm: Answer phone. Dr PreciousMetal says that the drug rep for the company manufacturing the prescription eye drops has just left a stack of mail-in rebate forms. He promises to put rebates in the envelope with the prescriptions. Tell Dr PreciousMetal what a good guy he is!

1:54pm: Show up at local pharmacy. Lose confidence in Total Stranger Pharmacist who cannot figure out how to get the register to accept previous patient's five dollar cash payment. TSP insists that the prescriptions are not there.

1:56pm: Inform TSP that I spoke with the doctor twice today and that the prescriptions were called in hours ago. Suggest that he should check the doctors' message line.

1:58pm: Leave pharmacy. To go to school to pick up Neatnik.

1:59pm: At traffic light, verify with Dr PreciousMetal's office that the prescriptions were left on the doctors' message line.

2:03pm: Call pharmacy. Tell TSP that the office did, indeed, leave the prescriptions on the message line. Suggest once more that he check the line. Begin to suspect that he does not know how to check the line and is waiting for the pharmacy tech to return from break so that she can retrieve the messages.

2:11pm: Pick up Neatnik at school.

2:16pm: Run grocery shopping errands.

3:58pm: Arrive home. Unload and put away groceries. Fold laundry. Supervise homework and room cleaning.

4:17pm: Start dinner.

5:02pm: Call pharmacy to verify that prescriptions are were located and are done.

5:24pm: Eat dinner.

6:08pm: Depart for pharmacy.

6:15pm: Pay for prescriptions. Return home.

6:26pm: Blog.

Hooray for Dr PreciousMetal!!! We like him. A lot. He's a really good guy. Very understanding of financial constraints and dealing with health insurance company restrictions.