{"id":6911,"date":"2023-04-12T21:27:11","date_gmt":"2023-04-12T21:27:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/?p=6911"},"modified":"2023-04-12T21:33:47","modified_gmt":"2023-04-12T21:33:47","slug":"my-monthly-request-so-far-only-a-slight-snafu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/my-monthly-request-so-far-only-a-slight-snafu\/","title":{"rendered":"My Monthly Request: So Far, Only a Slight SNAFU"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/im-not-as-crazy-as-you-think-i-moose\/#taking\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/brendans-island.com\/blogsource\/20210525ff\/20210806-lobotomy-icepick-329.jpg?w=640&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"Illustration of 'icepick' lobotomy, from Dr. Walter Freenan II's 'Psychosurgery in the Treatment of Mental Disorders and Intractable Pain.' (1950)\" align=\"right\"><\/a>The good news is that this week&#8217;s SNAFU doesn&#8217;t happen nearly as often as it might. And I live in an era where folks like me have options that simply were not available in my youth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The not-so-good news is that I&#8217;m not perfectly perfect in every way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Nobody currently living here on Firebase Earth is, actually; but I&#8217;m a tad more positively off both the 50th percentile and society&#8217;s fluctuating notion of perfection than many. And that&#8217;s another topic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I talked about this last December, so the quick and easy way to review what&#8217;s wrong with me is repeating the list:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>ADHD: Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, inattentive type<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>ASD: Autism spectrum disorder<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Cluster A personality disorder<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>GAD: Generalized anxiety disorder<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>PDD: Persistent depressive disorder<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>PTSD: Post traumatic stress disorder<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>It&#8217;s not a complete list, and the point is that I&#8217;ve got problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Now, back to good news. Some of those alphabet soup disorders are easier to manage when I take my medications. Less difficult, at any rate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And that brings me to the current SNAFU.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>One of my meds is methylphenidate. It&#8217;s a Schedule II controlled substance, so every month I have to get authorization for the prescription.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><a name=\"concerns\"><\/a>Concerns, the Controlled Substances Act of 1971, and Me<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/ritalin-the-2020-summer-olympics-and-me\/#priorities\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/brendans-island.com\/blogsource\/20160505ff\/20160502-ReeferMadnessPoster-165.jpg?w=640&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"'Reefer Madness' (1936, released 1938-1939) theatrical release poster. (1972)\" align=\"right\"><\/a>I remember the circumstances and paranoia that led to the Controlled Substances Act of 1971.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I think some of the concerns were legitimate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But I experience frustration when I am &#8220;protected&#8221; from medication which I need. I&#8217;d better explain that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Again, methylphenidate is a Schedule II controlled substance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As such, each month I must submit a request to a regional health care authority which processes the request and eventually sends it to the doctor who authorizes that month&#8217;s prescription.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/im-not-as-crazy-as-you-think-i-moose\/#im\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/brendans-island.com\/blogsource\/20210525ff\/20210610-DSC09053-Methylphenid-329.JPG?w=640&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"My methylphenidate prescription, with one day left. (June 10, 2021)\" align=\"right\"><\/a>Some months, the process goes smoothly. This month it didn&#8217;t. The fault is partly mine: I submitted my request when there was only a week&#8217;s supply left.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I checked with the pharmacy earlier this week, and again today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>My first request may or may not have disappeared into the ether. Another may or may not be getting put through the mangle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And, with hopes that the regional authority&#8217;s staff will not be offended, I said &#8216;okay&#8217; when the pharmacy said they&#8217;d submit another request.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When I realized that something was going wrong, again, I cut my daily dose in half. It&#8217;s not my preference, since I actually need the stuff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But after experiencing withdrawal a few times, when sorting out the mess took weeks, I&#8217;ve learned to exercise a certain degree of caution.<sup><a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/my-monthly-request-so-far-only-a-slight-snafu\/#1\">1<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It&#8217;d be nice if there was some way to track my monthly request for permission to keep using my brain, but that&#8217;s not how these things work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So I&#8217;ll keep doing what I can, accept those aspects of reality that I can&#8217;t control: and see if I can use this month&#8217;s SNAFU as an opportunity to practice patience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Re-reading this post, I&#8217;d say I could use the practice. &#x1f609;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Now, before getting back to working on this week&#8217;s post, the usual links:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/exoplanets-air-and-the-marshmallow-planet\/\">Exoplanets, Air, and the Marshmallow Planet<\/a>&#8221; (December 10, 2022 )\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/exoplanets-air-and-the-marshmallow-planet\/#now\">And Now for Something Completely Different<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/this-week-sunshine-blue-skies-and-an-echocardiogram\/\">This Week: Sunshine, Blue Skies and an Echocardiogram<\/a>&#8221; (July 16, 2022)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/im-not-as-crazy-as-you-think-i-moose\/\">I&#8217;m Not as Crazy as You Think I Moose!<\/a>&#8221; (April 9, 2022)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/ritalin-the-2020-summer-olympics-and-me\/\">Ritalin, the 2020 Summer Olympics, and Me<\/a>&#8221; (August 7, 2021)\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/ritalin-the-2020-summer-olympics-and-me\/#lobotomies\">Lobotomies, Cure-Alls and Making Sense<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/ritalin-the-2020-summer-olympics-and-me\/#getting\">Getting and Staying Healthy: Within Reason<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/firebase-earth\/\">Firebase Earth<\/a>&#8221; (September 3, 2017)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-text-color has-black-color has-alpha-channel-opacity has-black-background-color has-background is-style-wide\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p><sup><a name=\"1\"><\/a>1<\/sup> Part, but not all, of my life:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Wikipedia\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Controlled_Substances_Act\">Controlled Substances Act<\/a>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Controlled_Substances_Act#Schedule_II_drugs\">Schedule II drugs<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Drug_withdrawal\">Drug withdrawal<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Methylphenidate\">Methylphenidate<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The good news is that this week&#8217;s SNAFU doesn&#8217;t happen nearly as often as it might. And I live in an era where folks like me have options that simply were not available in my youth. The not-so-good news is &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/my-monthly-request-so-far-only-a-slight-snafu\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"One of my meds is a controlled substance, so each month I need to ask permission to get the prescription. This month my request may have been lost. Again.","jetpack_seo_html_title":"My Monthly Request: So Far, Only a Slight SNAFU","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[192],"tags":[29,85],"class_list":["post-6911","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-journal","tag-medicine","tag-mental-health"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7Dwtw-1Nt","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6911","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6911"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6911\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6912,"href":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6911\/revisions\/6912"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6911"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6911"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6911"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}