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Every Day is Precious: Pharmacist puts care in health care
By ROB PAYNE
For Williamson A.M.
Traditional medicine gives no hope for my wife Marcy's diagnosis. According to them, there is no known cause, no cure, no treatment that will help. That made it easy for us to not rely on traditional medicine early in our fight: We knew right away the answer would be somewhere else for us. But a few people in the traditional medical community are very untraditional.
Publix prides itself on customer service but, having been in advertising, I thought the service claim was just another something to say but Chad and the rest of the pharmacy staff at our local Publix supermarket prove me wrong.
Chad has done a few things for us that were nice. He has special-ordered some items for us without our paying for it in advance. One weekend, when the doctor couldn't be reached, he forwarded a few pills of a standing prescription that had passed its last renewal. (The doctor renewed the prescription after the fact.)
He has not complained when the doctors have called in prescriptions for Marcy that he filled, then Marcy decided not to take, so we never picked them up.
But he recently did something that could only have been a God thing.
We were running low on a medication that Marcy is using as part of an experimental treatment. The medication is part of a protocol from Pennsylvania that seems to be helping Marcy. We have the prescription for it, but I have been trying to get our health insurance to help cover the costs.
Since it is experimental, they have refused. A grounded optimist, I bought a small quantity of the medication from Pennsylvania to last until the insurance approved it.
When I was almost out, I thought I could just pay for it out of pocket and buy it from any local pharmacy.
It turns out that I could buy it from a local pharmacy, but since no local pharmacy stocked it, I would have to buy a case of it. The case would last us about 3 years.
All hospitals carry the medication, so I thought I would try buying a smaller amount from the hospital.
I was quickly told that it is illegal for a hospital to sell medications to patients outside the hospital.
Chad had helped us with medications before, maybe he had an idea for this. I called the Publix pharmacy but Chad was off that day.
After explaining the situation to the pharmacist on duty, she said she would see what she could do.
Thirty minutes later, Chad called me asking for directions to my house. His staff had called him at home, someone called the hospital, Chad took time off from his time off to go to the hospital, borrowed a bag of this medication from the hospital pharmacy, and was on his way to our house to deliver it. Chad was going more than an extra mile, and he was going it on his own time.
If you know someone in need and you want to do something for them, go an extra mile, do more than expected. Your extra step toward them will encourage them to take two steps toward you.
Every Day Is Precious is a column to remind us to treat everyone we see today as if it could be the last time we see them. It is written by Rob Payne, whose wife, Marcy, was diagnosed with ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease) in August 2000. For more ways to help others, to find more about Marcy, or to receive e-mail updates on her condition, visit www.EveryDayIsPrecious.com. If you have helped someone without being asked, or know of someone who has, share it with others. Send to rob@everydayisprecious.com or to Every Day Is Precious, 2051 Harvington Drive, Franklin, TN 37069.
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