When I see the future, I close my eyes

[rolanni]

First, we'll take a look at the past.

In the recent past -- yesterday, in fact -- Steve celebrated the 65th anniversary of his natal day.  Here's a picture of him with a couple of party guests:

Steve (in flowered shirt), Catbus, Totoro.
July 31 2015. Picture by Sharon Lee

In keeping with the Cat Farm's well-earned reputation for housing party animals, we partied hearty.  Some of us, heartier than others:

Trooper

Sprite

Belle

Scrabble

Going a little further into the past, here's a fascinating slide show of the Baltimore that was.  I don't remember all of the places shown, but I do remember an astonishing number of them. There's even a picture of the General Motors Assembly Plant on Broening Highway, in Canton, where my father worked for many, many years, as a spot-welder.  This may be of interest to those who ask where Surebleak "came from."  It came from Baltimore, folks.

Putting our gaze now firmly on the present and near future, I have today received a notification from the people who review our health insurance provider's "formulary" that they will no longer be covering my thyroid medicine -- levothyroxine.  They will be requiring me to accept an alternate -- synthroid.  I think this is the first time in my life I've ever received such a notification from a health insurance company.  On the other hand, I'm fortunate in that I don't take very many medicines, so maybe this is A Thing.

Here's what's funny, though. When I first started with the underachieving thyroid, my doctor prescribed synthroid, which I liked as much as anyone can like a drug they have to take for a chronic medical condition.  Such relationships are, at best, complicated.  But!  The insurance company at the time did the thing that I'm Very Familiar with, that being the notification that they weren't paying for any fancy-schmancy name brand medicines.  The generic would do me -- and all the rest of the people in the network who took thyroid medicine -- just fine.  If I wanted to, I could continue with the name brand medicine, but I would pay full price for it, which I couldn't afford, so it was levothyroxine for me.

. . .which, at the time -- we're talking years ago, here -- I thought didn't work as well.  Pooh-pooh, said the insurance company, generics work just as well -- in some cases, they work better! -- than name brand medicines; stop making a fuss.

(Honestly, I was required by the day-job to attend two presentations about medications given by our then-insurance-company, and the Utter Contempt displayed for name brand medicines was really off-putting.  You'd think name brand medicines were one step below Mrs. Pinkham's Medicinal Compound.  What's with that?)

In addition, this change comes at an. . .interesting time, when we're trying to work out exactly the right dose of thyroid meds I need to function correctly, using levothyroxine, which will no longer be available to me, starting, um, today.  The letter from the formulary counsels me to get with my health care provider and have her write me a prescription for the new drug.  Which. . .OK, though that does raise the issue of cost.  It'll be hard to beat the price I paid for my last refill of levothyroxine, which was $0.

So, all of that.  Time for me to get to work, since I've already done the vacuuming.

On deck today, Author Commentary for the final chapter of Shan and Priscilla Ride Again, and more work on Droi, which will eventually be part of The Gathering Edge.

Why, yes, even in the midst of All This Excitement, we're writing a book.  Because we're just that awesome.

In order to reward the two people who managed to read all the way down to here -- I offer two songs.

The first, which brings you the title of today's blog post, Excellent Birds, Laurie Anderson and Peter Gabriel.  Here's your link.

The second comes from the Irish Rovers, Lily the Pink.  Here's that link.

Comments

[countrygirlxxoo.livejournal.com]

Before you do anything about the medicine, check with the pharmacy and see what the co-pay will be for the synthroid. Where I live (Kentucky), I use Kroger for my pharmacy. (Also, not trying to be a stalker, I checked and you have a Kroger in your town which I found on wikipedia.) I also take levothyroxine and have for years. Kroger has a low-cost generic prescription list where some drugs are $4 for a 30 day supply or $10 for a 90 day supply. Levothyroxine is on that list, so if your co-pay for the synthroid is more than $4 or $10 then stick with the levothyroxine. You can see what else is on the list if you go to www dot Kroger dot com and click the My Prescriptions link below the logo then the $4/$10 Generics link on the left of the page. Hope this helps.

[rolanni.livejournal.com]

Seriously? I don't think I've ever heard of Kroger. I'd be interested in seeing that wikipedia notation, if you have a link.

Wal*Mart -- which, sadly, we do have -- and Hannaford have the same sort of deal, though, so if I want to keep the levothyroxine, I guess I can. Unless Whatever Happened to make the formulary change its mind is going to eventually trickle down to the pharmacies, too.

It would be nice, if there were a tiny bit more information forthcoming from the decision-makers.

[countrygirlxxoo.livejournal.com]

Here's the wiki link that I found your town on. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sharon_Lee_(writer)

I looked again (on Kroger's site this time) and didn't find any evidence of a Kroger near there. I guess that's what I get for not looking deeper than the headings on a google search. LOL Anywho...like you said, Wally World and Hannaford have the same program. It's still a pain in the arse though. I don't like the Walmart pharmacy as well as the Kroger mainly because of the people who work there. The Kroger pharmacists and techs are much nicer than our Wally World staff. And they have a drive-thru window. I love that.

[elgordo303.livejournal.com]

Check with your pharmacy on the price of levothyroxine without insurance coverage... If I remember correctly oat singing like 10 or 12 dollars a month... My plan covers it so I don't rember.. But its really quite inexpensive... (Assuming my memory is good.