Who's Pain is it, anyway?

Yesterday and a good portion of today were spent wah wahing over an earache (turns out to be an ear infection...I'm chalking it up to listening/speaking to too much political stuff) and my annoyingly aching back. Poor me!

And then, as I started paying more attention to Hurricane Paloma and the tiny islands getting whomped as I type, I could shift out of me into the world. What's an ear infection compared to their situation? It helps that a friend gave me some strong ibuprofen too.

(I tried to take a picture of my ear, for comparison's sake...wasn't happening, but here is Paloma, and trust me, it's MUCH bigger than my ear)


Here is going to the doctor on Culebra.

"Doctor, I think I have a mouse in my ear, or a brain aneurysm, which is it? Because something really hurts, am I going to die?"

"You have an ear infection, fairly serious. But there is nothing in your ear canal."

"What? I've never had an ear infection in my whole life!!!"

"Well, that's what one feels like."

So now I know why kids scream when they have ear infections. I wasn't screaming, but I will admit to mewling like a cat with its leg caught in a dog's mouth.

So he writes a prescription for antibiotics and one for pain. I go open the cart before trudging up the hill to the clinic to get it filled. Sitting there, I look to see just what nice drug I'd be getting for pain (how exciting, ibuprofen, the big boys). But the script is made out in another name. A very good friend's name, actually. I hope she doesn't have an ear infection.

Finished with the cart, I go back to the doctor and point out the error. No big deal, he changes it. I take the new script and go see the friend to tell her the story. Another friend is there and asks if I got the antibiotics. I say no, I have to go up to the clinic. She informs me there is no longer a pharmacy at the clinic. So I go BACK to the the doctor (this is not taxing; it's right in the center of town, and about 50 feet from where I was talking) and ask if they will fill the prescription. Yes, but it won't happen until Monday. Apparently they thought I'd be going over to the big island to get it filled. Nope. It was obviously time to have a drink and go home.

The back story is that the pharmacist drowned. So we don't have a pharmacist. I don't know the details, and don't want to know, I'm sure they are very sad; he was a fairly young man and the few times I'd ever dealt with him, very helpful and easy to get along with, and I'm sorry he met such an untimely death.

Will we ever get another pharmacist? Stay tuned!