Today's quarantine adventure

[sigmaleph]

In previous instalments, I complained that my estrogen supply was limited and that was a problem given the whole not being able to get a prescription from my doctor situation. Yesterday night I got an email from my health insurance provider that, as an exception during quarantine, doctors can email scripts and pharmacies will accept them.

So. I steeled myself for the task of communicating with another human being, sent an email to my endocrinologist asking for a new script, they emailed me one back, and I decided to Step Outside for the first time since quarantine started. There's a pharmacy half a block from my home, so it was not a long trip.

Upon waiting a little in a very well-spaced line, I told my pharmacist I had an emailed script and offered to WhatsApp him the image (conveniently, their number is written in various signs on the side of the building and I added them as contact while waiting in line). After doing obscure things out of sight for a while (we were outside the building, they'd set up a little window and desk thing for talking to customers), he told me they needed a printed version of the script. I told him I didn't have a printer (not entirely accurate. I have a printer that doesn't work, for reasons that I suspect are simply running out of ink, but either way I can't exactly go buy more when all non-essential services are closed). He explained that he'd tried to transfer the image from WhatsApp to his computer for printing, but he kept getting issues with Gmail*. I said I could just email him the script, he agreed, and a little bit later I now have estrogen.

Honestly the fact that we still work in a system that requires moving pieces of paper around for drug prescriptions is kind of... bad. Would be nice if the current need for hey-let's-not-do-that would prompt a change in the system, but I doubt it.

Fun fact: if I run out of cypro, my only method for getting more has so far required that I show up in person to my health insurance's offices and have them arrange a delivery to a pharmacy that works with the specific company providing the drugs, which is a limited selection. I suppose I can try to get creative there too, but...

*the email address he gave was not Gmail, so what I gather is that the only email address he has set up on his phone is the one for his google account (because android phone), and he did not know how to use WhatsApp web so he needed to use email to move the file from phone to computer for printing purposes. I could have offered tech support on the matter but that is probably a bad idea under the circumstances, so I'm glad we worked out some method. I think I could have figured out some way eventually to get a printed version, but damn does quarantine limit your options.