You Want Me to Eat Where?

Okay - I will admit that I lead a more sheltered life. I reside on ten acres in the country, grow some of my own food, get my meat from dairy farmers (so that I know my food and how it was raised and slaughtered) and other foods at local farmer's markets or coops that have organic, biodynamic choices. 

Friday I had dental surgery that needed to be done by IV anesthesia. Prior to surgery I had talked with the surgeon about the surgery itself but did not think further than that in regards to prescriptions. My thoughts had been focused on the fact that I needed a driver to get me there and bring me home as they would not do the surgery if I drove myself there due to the wear off time of the anesthesia and the shock to the body of the extraction. 

So after surgery I sat in the recovery chair in a  daze while the  staff gave my 17 year old driver instructions and a list of prescriptions. Then I hear this - "Better stop at McDonalds for a shake since you have not eaten anything and will need to take your antibiotics."

EXCUSE ME? You want me to eat where? The first thought through my foggy brain was - but this is supposed to be about health - you just extracted a tooth and you want me to have a fake shake at a place I have picketed? You're joking, right?

I opened my mouth and said a big - NO! We could stop at the coop and get some organic yogurt.

The next stop in my daze was a pharmacy. I don't have a "regular" one (a question I was asked) since I am focused on herbs, homeopathy, Chinese medicine and nutrition for healing. I know sometimes drugs may be necessary - but for the most of my later life I have successfully avoided them. Because I could not walk around we went to a drive through to a place I would not go to if I had had my wits about me. My driver handed the prescriptions over to the drive through window guy and was told that it would be ready in a  half hour. So we went to the coop where my driver went in and bought two little yogurts for me. I was feeling annoyed. If I had been told we would have to go on a treasure hunt after my surgery, I would have packed a cooler. It bothered me to waste these small containers - it is excessive waste. I had home made kefir at home I could have put in a glass jar and kept on ice.

We returned to the pharmacy where they handed my driver a bag with several streamers of paper attached - these were three separate papers on each of the prescriptions and also coupons for the store - each was on there with one or two staples. I was handed the bag and in turn I handed over my credit card - $44.00  

I was dropped home where I put the bag with all all the paper waste on the counter. I sat down and took another dose of arnica (had taken one when we got into the car at the surgeon's). I put in a Netflix disc and rested for a while before having the energy to feed my animals and walk the dogs.

When I opened the bag I realized that I had made a HUGE mistake. I should have talked with the surgeon about prescriptions prior to the surgery. One of the items was a mouth rinse that contained sorbitol, saccarin and artificial colors. It made me shake that I had actually paid for something that I would not under normal conditions allow into my home. By the second pain pill I had a migraine headache and felt as if I had taken a huge dose of speed. I pulled out the giant papers and realized that the pain killer was codeine based. I had told them on my paperwork that codeine with Tylonol gave me these symptoms. I was shocked that they had chosen something in the codeine family to give to me. Again - I felt fuzzy and tired and stupid.

The next morning I called the pharmacy about returning the unopened, still sealed rinse. They told me no - that once I removed it from the property I could not return it. I told her the circumstances and she basically said - too bad. I then asked to bring it for disposal because I did not want to put this in the landfill. She told me to put it in the trash - that that's what they would do.

"Excuse me? You want me to put it in the landfill so that it can filter into our water supply?"

The woman assured me she cared about the environment and that they had no means for drug disposal and told customers to just put it in the trash.

By that point I was fuming - at myself for getting myself into this position, for the druggist who thought she cared about the environment - and for surgical place for assuming any of this would be acceptable. I forget sometimes that the mainstay of the world does eat in places like McDonalds and thinks it is okay. They don't know how the cows are treated who provide the meat for the burgers, or how the chickens are raised, or care about the sugar on the fries or GMO foods consumed or how much paper waste is involved in all the wrapping on the burgers, fries, bags etc.

So the lesson for me is to think through any moment involved in something like this - that investigating the drugs they use for surgery was only the tip of the iceberg. Getting a driver was an issue but still not the whole picture. Since I was not going to be clear, trusting that other people would know my ways is not okay. They were just doing what they normally do. Whether I think it is wrong or not was not the point. I will say that I am going to complain about the pain killers and am bringing them and the rinse to the surgical place to have them dispose of them assuming they have proper drug disposal abilities.

Live and learn.