Wal Mart Pharmacy changed my plans.

Today, getting my medication was such an incredible bitch. I went to the dermatologist this morning, and had to wake up at 7' to get ready for it because my appointment was at nine. Lovely isn't it? Waking up early on a Friday (I have Fridays off from school).. oh well, better not throw my sleeping routine on a loop this weekend. Getting up at 6 am everyday for my Symbolic reasoning class is hard on its own.

Anyway, yes, the pharmacy. I was there to pick up two prescriptions, one being the professional dermatologist recommended Differin as well as my birth control pills, called Ocella. I talked to the pharmacist to get me Ocella, and he said it'd take an hour, so I figured once the Ocella was in, then the prescription from my dermatologist would of been faxed over by then. I therefore had to kill an hour, and sat on those cold metal pharmacy benches for about fifteen minutes reading a hair magazine before I couldn't stand it anymore...

"Check out a cool new movie... Change in plans, January 8th on Fox... annoying child laugh". I must of heard this about 20+ times in the time that I sat there. There's a little TV in the pharmacy (and a couple other places in the store) that says "You're watching Wal Mart TV" or something, it's basically a place where they advertise. All of the other advertisements were for dissolving laxatives, Atkins bars, and pasta bowls that you just add water too and microwave (I've tried those, they're nifty..) But THIS commercial was by FAR the most annoying. They had this African american kid on the left, wearing a very traditional looking African shirt, and this little asian girl on the right. It's a cute little commercial the first time I saw it, but when it was literally playing every 45 seconds or so on this Wal Mart TV and loud enough that it's impossible to ignore, I had to bail. I walked around the store a bit, and once I came back it had been an hour.

At the 1 hour point, the face stuff wasn't done. I was expecting it to come in BEFORE the birth control, but instead I got the birthcontrol first. I immediately noticed that the brand name wasn't Ocella. It was called Zarah. I read the package to make sure it was birth control, and it was so I didn't really care. I just looked it up though, and apparently some WalGreens are no longer carrying Ocella and switched over to Zarah, so maybe this is what happened to the Wal Mart today. Apparently, there was a lawsuit against Ocella being a defective drug. Apparently it can cause heart attacks or blood clots, as well as horrible mood swings. I'm hoping Zarah does not do this. I will keep you posted. All I know is that right now I have a horrible headache due to the new drug. I should also see what the combination of my anti-depressant, Paxil, and this drug might induce.

A bit on Paxil...
I have been planning to switch over to Welbutrin, as paxil is a very hard drug to break habit from. I've tried before, and always fell back into taking it again because lack of the drug in my system makes the whole world just seem awful. Imagine, not feeling any hope or happiness in you. Imagine that you feel completely worthless.  Imagine wanting to hurt yourself because all hope is lost. That's what it's like coming off Paxil. I've downed my dose to only about 2.5 mg a day! Yes, tiny right? I started out at 20 as a preteen, when I really needed it. I went down to 10 my sophomore year, then down to 5 during my senior year. Today, I cut the 5 mg pill in half. So this small dosage only has minor drowsiness effects anymore. Being on 20 mg, it was almost nearly impossible to get through the day without a nap. I have no real reason to break from it now though and throw my cycle off, as I'm already introducing this new Zarah drug as well as using a skin care product that can potentially pose some effects as well. Ugh.... the problems.

ANYWAY, back to my story. I guess my dermatologist sent the wrong paperwork over to the pharmacy. They send an illegal copy with the word "COPY COPY COPY" all over it, so they can't scan it into their system. So after an hour and a half waiting for the prescription, the pharmacist tells me that he has to manually enter the information into the system and it'd take another 45 minutes. Lord have mercy. I decided to look around so I wouldn't have to hear the god damn "Change of plans" preachy commercial again. I sort of realized what it'd be like working at wal mart. I walked around for awhile, and found a lovely pilates work out video as well as a sit up machine by Golds Gym. They were really nice priced, probably because of all of the New Years resolution purchases. I bought them, then went to the book section to pick out a book to keep me busy. I found "The Care and Keeping of You", an American girl book designed for preteens to learn about their bodies. I remember when my mom got that for me when I was a kid, and I saw the picture of the cartoon girl inserting a tampon and threw it against the wall I was so embarrassed. I was entertained reading it though. I remember being that age and feeling like I couldn't talk to anyone about my body, but I didn't even really talk about it and found out on my own.

So... time passes, and the pharmacist comes out of his office to tell me that my prescription with insurance will cost $130. Wow. My parents would pay for it, but I still owe some money on a different doctors appointment that my dad wanted me to partial pay for to learn responsibility. I bought the face cream with my money from working at Toys R Us, and my Dad said he'd pay the remainder of the other bill and give me $50 for the money I spent on the creme. He's very nice to do so.. I didn't expect it would be this expensive. I do appreciate my parents for having me experience paying for things that I wouldn't of paid for before. I just need a job now though, gotta afford gas to get to and from school.

I originally wanted to get together with Wes today, but because I was at the pharmacy for so long we were unable too. I will probably talk about Wes in later entries. I was so relieved to hang out with someone normal. He is very talented, and I'm impressed by him... like he's one of these over achieving people. But he doesn't take himself too painfully seriously, and smokes a little weed. Nice. : ) He's really respectful too.

I'm going to go to sleep. I took something for my headaches and it's knocking me out.

☆yours,

emily