{"id":6046,"date":"2020-08-20T13:51:30","date_gmt":"2020-08-20T20:51:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/calirose.com\/wackyworld\/?p=6046"},"modified":"2020-11-11T16:36:09","modified_gmt":"2020-11-12T00:36:09","slug":"goodbye-privacy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/calirose.com\/wackyworld\/goodbye-privacy\/","title":{"rendered":"GOODBYE PRIVACY"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m squirming slightly in the wobbly patient chair as my doctor peruses my electronic chart on her computer. There\u2019s a lot to scroll through and, of all things, she lands on this: \u201cYou are due for your tetanus shot. It\u2019s been ten years.” My doctor is brilliant, beautiful and I know immediately when she is approaching my room because of the familiar clickity-clickity<\/em>\u00a0of her high heels. She is also Russian and maybe it\u2019s just me, but when she delivers a pronouncement of any kind in that take-no-prisoners accent<\/em>, I sit up straight and usually say \u201cokay.\u201d<\/p>\n

Well the good news is that I can finally play with the rusty nails I keep in a Ziplock under the planting soil on our balcony. Kidding of course, but when I was a kid, I had an outsized fear of getting \u201clockjaw,\u201d as we called it in our family. I also loved to talk. And talk and talk.<\/em> My parents may have hoped for a jaw-freeze now and then, just for a little peace and quiet. But one time I remember touching a rusty something<\/em> and for days afterwards furiously checking the mirror for signs of trouble. I worked my jaw up and down, back and forth like a puppeteer pulling the strings on her marionette.<\/p>\n

My doctor tells me I need to go to my local pharmacy for the shot.<\/p>\n

Huh? \u201cWhy can\u2019t I get it here?\u201d<\/p>\n

“Because your insurance won\u2019t pay for it. \u00a0But the shot is free If you go to your pharmacy.”<\/p>\n

\"\"First of all, I\u2019m trying to picture how they<\/em> give shots at my mini-size Save-On, er<\/em>, CVS, during a pandemic. And who THEY<\/em> are. And where\u00a0<\/em>do they do it? Is there a secret treatment cubicle in the back, next to the break room? A hastily erected tent in the alley behind the store? \u00a0It\u2019s interesting how our expectations eventually go poof<\/em> when they smash into reality.<\/p>\n

I call CVS on the phone, connect with a living, breathing pharmacist and ask him if I need to make an appointment and what are the nurse\u2019s\u00a0<\/em>hours? Apparently I have blinked and missed the big changes in the medical dispensing business these days and my query gives him a good yuk-yuk<\/em>. He tells me to come in anytime and the pharmacist, him, will administer the shot.\u00a0Well okay then. I guess he took the \u201cinjection workshop,\u201d practiced on oranges, himself and his fellow non-nurses, in order to get the official certificate that says: \u201cI Can Do This.\u201d<\/p>\n

So a few days ago I appear at CVS, just as the pharmacy is opening. I know this pharmacist. He is a sweet guy and I watch him from afar as he prepares the paperwork and snatches the vial of vaccine from a nearby fridge. \u00a0I\u2019m also looking around for where this thing<\/em> is going to happen. And I\u2019ve got nothin\u2019\u2026 Is he going to walk me down a people-free aisle and do it? There\u2019s no one in feminine hygiene right now. I don’t see anyone loitering by the crutches and canes.<\/p>\n

Then, with one hand, the pharmacist pushes open the swinging gate that separates us from his den of drugs. In his other hand he’s toting a plastic basket. I see a roll of paper towels, Lysol, gloves, lots of paperwork, a vial and the syringe. Where is he going? That\u2019s when I notice, right in front of me<\/em>, a tall four panel screen that is folded into a neat square box. So THIS is what privacy looks like at CVS. He opens one panel to reveal a lone chair in the middle and instructs me to SIT. The puzzle pieces are coming together, I realize this is the same prime real estate where they had the do-it-yourself blood pressure machine in those halcyon days before the pandemic.<\/p>\n

\"\"I\u2019m wondering now how Mr. Pharmacist is going to cram himself into the teeny box too. Well he\u2019s not. He can\u2019t. Now he\u2019s kneeling on the floor next to my right foot, gathering up the crudit\u00e9s for the vaccine banquet. He tells me this shot will protect me from tetanus AND diphtheria AND pertussis. That’s a lot of cluck for the insurance company’s buck. He seems genuinely delighted about this as he prepares the shot.<\/p>\n

Now mind you, any notions of privacy I once cherished have been relegated to a dusty heap behind Fantasyland. A woman stops dead in her tracks, social distancing be damned, and asks if this is a Covid test. The next shopper has questions too, as well as a third. Others are glancing over their shoulders as they pass by. And he hasn\u2019t even given me the injection yet. For someone who is accustomed to this shot business<\/em> happening behind closed doors or, at the very least, behind sliding curtains, it\u2019s kind of a shock…<\/p>\n

And a wake-up call that things are changing, that bodies are bodies, that I don\u2019t want to pay for this shot so I go to CVS. That we are all doing the best we can as the challenges pile on and it\u2019s a good idea to go with the flow<\/em>. Sure there\u2019s a time to \u201cpush back.\u201d There’s a time to “keep your powder dry.” \u00a0And there\u2019s a time to \u201cback off.\u201d Here\u2019s what I do? I plop myself in front of the computer and write something funny in a blog. Then I have a cookie.<\/p>\n

Finally, it’s shot time<\/em>. When I really want to know about medication side effects and nefarious drug interactions, I ask a pharmacist. This guy answers all my pesky questions as he competently administers the vaccine. It hurts, but just a little. He applies a Band-Aid; massages the injection site and releases me back into the wild.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s been a couple days and I feel fine and at least for the next ten years I won\u2019t have any lock-jaw flashbacks when I touch a rusty nail. No dithering<\/em> about diphtheria. No wah-wahing<\/em> over whooping cough.<\/p>\n

Perspective is everything. People are muddling through, suffering, afraid, depressed, dying from Covid. Getting a shot at CVS in full view of morning shoppers? \u00a0What a puny problem to have. \u00a0It doesn’t even register a mini-quake<\/em> on the Richter scale. \u00a0At the same time, I\u2019m dreading what\u2019s going to happen next. In my world, in OUR world. But in spite of all that, each moment of each day is rich with possibility and fresh opportunity to embrace the messy business of being human. Pulling back the curtains, even a little, is probably a good thing for all of us.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m squirming slightly in the wobbly patient chair as my doctor peruses my electronic chart on her computer. There\u2019s a lot to scroll through and, of all things, she lands on this: \u201cYou are due for your tetanus shot. It\u2019s been ten years.” My doctor is brilliant, beautiful and I know immediately when she is approaching my room because of the familiar clickity-clickity\u00a0of her high heels. She is also Russian and maybe it\u2019s just me, but when she delivers a … Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":6480,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","kt_blocks_editor_width":"","_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[209,210],"class_list":["post-6046","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blogentry","tag-getting-shots-at-pharmacy","tag-patient-privacy"],"taxonomy_info":{"category":[{"value":2,"label":"blog entry"}],"post_tag":[{"value":209,"label":"Getting shots at pharmacy"},{"value":210,"label":"patient privacy"}]},"featured_image_src_large":["https:\/\/calirose.com\/wackyworld\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/CVS-sq.jpg",383,383,false],"author_info":{"display_name":"Cali Rose","author_link":"https:\/\/calirose.com\/wackyworld\/author\/crbauthor\/"},"comment_info":16,"category_info":[{"term_id":2,"name":"blog entry","slug":"blogentry","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":2,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":139,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":2,"category_count":139,"category_description":"","cat_name":"blog entry","category_nicename":"blogentry","category_parent":0}],"tag_info":[{"term_id":209,"name":"Getting shots at pharmacy","slug":"getting-shots-at-pharmacy","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":209,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":1,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":210,"name":"patient privacy","slug":"patient-privacy","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":210,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":1,"filter":"raw"}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/calirose.com\/wackyworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6046","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/calirose.com\/wackyworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/calirose.com\/wackyworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calirose.com\/wackyworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calirose.com\/wackyworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6046"}],"version-history":[{"count":26,"href":"https:\/\/calirose.com\/wackyworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6046\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6078,"href":"https:\/\/calirose.com\/wackyworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6046\/revisions\/6078"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calirose.com\/wackyworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6480"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/calirose.com\/wackyworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6046"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calirose.com\/wackyworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6046"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calirose.com\/wackyworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6046"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}