My friend David has been pestering me to start a blog for, well...a long time. I've finally succumbed. I'm still not entirely sure about this, but since yet another person chimed in last night that I really really need to have a blog, I'm willing to give it a try if only to stop the helpful advice.
I'm leaving for Kenya tomorrow, stuck in my office late tonight finishing up grades for the end of the quarter and various and sundry tasks associated with my research in Central Asia (see depts.washington.edu/caict for a really out-of-date website thin on details, but check back end of June for some real stuff).
Basically, travel is a huge chunk of what I do these days. I've got my routine pretty well down, and good stocks of zithro and hand sanitizer. But I took a break from grading yesterday to go out and make some last minute trip purchases, including some anti-malarial pills. I had a bunch left over from Cambodia last summer, but needed a few more for this trip. So I went to a pharmacy near my office and was about to hand over the scrip, when it occured to me to ask a question. Those of you who aren't in Washington state might not know this, but we're one of the states that lets pharmacists dispense Plan B (aka the morning after pill) without a doctor's prescription. But the ready availability of Plan B is increasingly under fire. So I asked the pharmacist if they dispensed Plan B. He said no, but dodged the question with some ramble about doctor's profile that I couldn't understand. So I stared at him a moment and then gently removed my malarone prescription from his hand. "I'll get this filled somewhere else," I said. And when I found a pharmacy where they said yes, they did dispense Plan B (and did I need some), I said no, I didn't need it, but I didn't want to give my business to someone who was reneging on their professional duty to provide health services.
4 comments:
this blog rocks.
have an inspired time in kenya, beth, and hurry yourself back. don't forget a thing and tell me everything over dinner when you return.
i want all fundamentalists out of my government, out of my bed, and out of my pills. smart move.
oh great....and you blogged about it? now the NSA'll know. World traveler + "anti-family" perscription seeker - you are going to be marked for sure.
oh my! i'm in agreement that this "i'm a pharmacist if i agree with what's prescribed" is very scary. congrats for refusing them in return. i guess that's what everyone should be doing. you may have started a trend!
(we can only hope.) i am fearful that we have come to accept way too many constraints during this administration.
have a wonderful trip.
the mother of david's sig-o
I have just returned to the world of MOO, after a rather long hiatus of 12 years or so ... I looked your name up on the web, since we used to have long, rambling conversations back then. It's been nice to read about your travels ... you got around a lot. I have also started a blog ... not quite developed yet. I chose Maxim Kammerer as my pseudonym (from the novels of the brothers strugatzkij). anyway, talk to you some time!
Good night from Berlin, Germany.
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