YUMMY

The cookies were excellent, if I do say so myself. I do need to branch out and try some new and exciting recipes. Once I do, as usual, I will likely return to my favorites. However, once I had a coconut oatmeal cookie from my friend's mother-in-law, I snagged that recipe on the spot! It's now one of my favorites. People either like coconut or hate it - while I don't like a lot of foods, I do love coconut. I also love mushrooms and snails, calamari, and crawfish. Go figure. Just don't make me eat most white foods. Cheese is moldy milk, and yogurt is still alive - no thanks! But a nice snail...a well-turned tentacle...

The Easter festivities with my relatives was out of hand. I tossed in my contribution with a bit of absinthe. A nephew tossed everything else - wooden blocks, toy swords, the dog, babies - everything was flying around. The noise level is always truly beyond my wildest imagination. I swear I can feel it in my bones, like being at a concert. Cowering, I found some nice, soft ham and made a sandwich for myself, and proceeded to eat it in very small bites, trying very hard not to whimper with pain. No sense in ruining someone else's meal. I had a ring of pineapple, too, once I cut it in about ten little pieces. Everything else had cheese on it. The salad, the veggies, the potatoes. I didn't take it personally. I have a niece who also won't eat cheese - we always have nice conversations about how disgusting it is.

Then real life crept back in on Monday. I had a doctor appointment, the kind men don't have to schedule. Was that tactful? I don't mind going - my doctor is incredibly kind and patient. I have never seen two other people in the waiting room. He does not overbook. A very lovable physician.

He listened to my tales of woe regarding his insistence that I reduce my estrogen intake months ago. Somehow it is in my records sounding like I suggested it, almost. Not a chance! He expressed much sympathy regarding my mouth issues (the exposed bone) and understood why I am not taking Fosamax for my bones right now, and agreed to increase my estrogen to help build stong bodies 12 ways. (Or however that old, old commercial used to go!) There are new delivery systems for estrogen I knew nothing about - I am now trying one of them.

He also wrote me for a compound. That is pharmacy talk for forcing a pharmacist to actually "make" something. It's sort of like, for example, dropping a dribble of vanilla into some butter and whipping it up. That would be a compound. I took the script to a special pharmacy to get it filled. I don't know why only some places do it - they all have to learn. These days, the pharmacists can't just do the 5 year program. Now they have to get a PharmD. I think that is 7 years? So, a graduate of a PharmD program is likely at least 25 years old now. My ex graduated at 23, and could have had his PharmD with one further year, but declined. 

The pharmacy had told me to leave the script and return today. 24 hours to mix two things together - I don't want them helping me make cookies. They also told me that my insurance won't pay for it. I didn't like that, since I also heard the word "expensive."

Today I tried online to see if my insurance covers it, but to no avail. I had to use The Phone, alas and alack! I reached a very nice lady who could not spell the name of the compound, but I forgave her because she was so helpful. She said she couldn't find it, but if I could get the name of every single ingredient and even one of them is covered, then the compound is covered. She asked me to put her on hold and call the pharmacy.

How nice is that? Instead, though, I used my cell phone so she could hear me talking to the pharmacy. What was I told? Oh no, only the one ingredient. A clerk, knowing nothing, gave me that information. I decided not to argue the point, since I could anticipate some entertainment potential. I returned to the nice lady, and she told me to get the NDCs on all ingredients when I picked up my script. I thanked her.

Later on, I went to the pharmacy to get my script. It was handed to me, and I explained that I needed the NDCs on all ingredients. So, the clerk said I could have the priviledge of speaking to a pharmacist. Be still, my heart! She dragged a young man out of the back room. Ah, my entertainment potential had just ripened.

This is the sort of man who can make any woman smile, and most men, too. The guy is drop dead gorgeous, knows it, and really doesn't care. He must have a bit of a brain, too, since he has what I assume is 7 years of college - his coat said PharmD on it. I explained that I had called earlier and was told that the compound has one ingredient in it, but obviously not, since it's 2 mg per gram - so obviously it has at least two. He acquiesced nicely, agreed to get me the codes I needed, and semi-apologized for the incorrect information I had been given over the phone. I asked what had happened when they tried to bill my insurance, and he said they didn't. In fact, he said they "couldn't." Not being most people, I informed him gently with a smile of my own that I knew he could, since I had spoken to a nice lady at my insurance company about it. He smiled a little obsequious smile and said, "Well, I mean we "don't.'" Not willing to drop it, I added, "You mean, you won't?" "Exactly."

This smiling, nice, attractive young man, who has people's lives in his hands every time he counts to five, possibly wasn't counting as well as we would like to think in our trust. I smelled an adult beverage on his breath. Pharmacists can count to any number by fives in their heads, in their sleep - it's what they do if they don't have the newer machines that do it for them. There was at least one additional pharmacist there, but even so, I will seek another compounding pharmacy in the area.

I had asked the nurse if I needed to be concerned about this compound transferring to someone else after it's rubbed into my skin. She looked baffled, and told me no one else had ever, in all the years she has been there, asked her that. She had suggested I ask the pharmacist, so I did.

The happy pharmacist confidently told me not to touch any young pregnant females for at least an hour after applying the cream.

I wasn't really planning to, you know? I was planning to wash my hands after applying the cream. He really didn't answer my question, and I suspect he knew it.

So we both smiled.