The Plea

He could have fudged it. He could have saved face by saying, “I’m vacationing here in The Valley, and I left my meds at home... Can you help me?”

... a plea I’m more than used to hearing in our little tourist town...

But he did not.

He looked a little shamefaced and a little tired as he made his confession to me in the ‘consultation’ area.

“I left my girlfriend.” he said, “I left all my things behind, including my medications... I take...” at which point he listed several meds commonly used to treat high blood pressure and ‘adult onset’ diabetes.

“I’ve been without them for a few days,” he continued, as I pictured half-empty pill vials scattered across some irate lady’s lawn, “and I’m beginning to feel funny. My eyeballs feel like they’re swelling. At the very least I need my high blood pressure medication.”

I could have started by trying to convince him that high blood pressure did NOT make one’s eyeballs swell, but instead I said, “You need ALL of your medications. In fact, if I had your conditions and was given a choice between taking the diabetes med and the high blood pressure med, I’d take the diabetes pill... Now, at what pharmacy do you normally get your prescriptions filled?”

“I don’t want you to fill my prescriptions. I only want a few pills. If you could just call the Rite Aid in Saco, ask them what I take, and sell me a few pills... I’m going to be home by tomorrow...” I assumed ‘home’ as in ‘hometown,’ not back with his girlfriend, “... and I just need a few doses to get me through till then...”

Things don’t work that way. It’s not that easy, of course.

There was an easy way out for me, though. I took it by saying, “Why don’t you just go to the nearest Rite Aid? There’s one just a mile or so from here, and they could easily find your records in their computer system...”

Problem solved. For me at least.
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