Tuesday, January 14, I saw my primary care physician. One of my concerns was a sinus infection. She prescribed an antibiotic. I am to take one every morning and one every night.
That poses an inconvenience.
The intake procedure at the shelter is not the same now as it was at the time of the posts I will link to. Now, every day when we arrive, we have to divide our belongings into two groups. One — your “carry-on,” as it were — consists of everything one may need overnight, such as hygiene items. The other, everything else, goes into a new, translucent, 30 gal. trash bag — and gets locked up in a closet overnight. Then they wand you to make sure your person and carry-on have no weapons.
To save time at check-in, I have my things pre-sorted. I have a large CVS bag for my carry-on; that includes my notebooks, inhalers, two diapers, and a bottle of acetominophen. That stuff, I will keep with me at all times, at my bunk. Then I have my backpack, which will get locked up overnight. In there I keep my tablet, my cash, my phone, and all my meds. ALL my meds.
At the best shelter east of the Mississippi, theft is rare, but it does happen. I have had my phone stolen before. I have had cash stolen before. I have had meds stolen before.
Related: Giving it all away Related: The pain pills saga
The story of the cash theft is interesting. The rent is $3 per night. One night I had only a $20 bill, and no quick and easy way to get the change into my backpack. I sat down at my bunk and hid the $17 in a bottle of aspirin I carried in my carry-on. Someone saw me. The next morning, it was gone.
As to the antibiotic, I cannot keep a full bottle of ANY medicine in my carry-on. They’ll take it, the pill-poppers. Doesn’t matter what it is; they don’t know; they don’t care. They just want to take a pill and see how it makes them feel.
Back when I had my own place in Barclay, someone stole a bunch of my prostate meds.
So my current practice: I take all my meds in the morning, whether I’m at BK or DD. They’re all in a bag in my backpack; I take them out, take the meds, and put them all back. For a while, what to do to take one cap of the antibiotic every night had me stymied.
Each morning when I take all my meds, I can also set aside the cap of antibiotic to be taken that night. I will put it in some empty jar and put that in my CVS bag. That night, all my meds except for that one cap will be locked up in my backpack. And I can take that one cap.
Comments