Random 5 for December 28, 2025 – Hospitals, friends and family, weather, moves

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A rant to start! – This week my brother had a medical emergency that required hospitalization (he is ok now). He was scheduled to be released at 1 p.m. Wednesday, Christmas Eve with prescriptions for heart medications. My grandniece went to pick him up. She called after 3 and the doc hadn’t yet signed off. By the time he was released, the drugstores were closing for the holiday. We were frantically calling to find a drugstore that was open to fill his prescriptions. Even the 24-hour drugstores were closing. We found one that was open until 8 p.m. and my grandniece had the prescriptions transferred. It was jammed. The beloved husband and I were in line (for 45 minutes!) behind a guy who just got released from a hospital 1-1/2 hours away. He drove all this way because drugstores in his area were closed. My question is “why, when you are releasing someone that close to a holiday, don’t hospitals give enough medications to cover until stores reopen?” I’m sure there are all sorts of financial reasons, but my brother needed heart meds and his need was critical.

On the other hand – Friends and family have been helping. My brother is 95 (but a very vibrant, bouncy 95!) so we worry. We all do what we can to create a patchwork of love and care. It does indeed take a village.

As if that wasn’t enough – We had an ice storm. We rarely get them like this. Sleet, freezing rain and very little snow left a coating that is like concrete. You can’t shovel; you must chip. Us old folks aren’t into chipping (unless it involves guacamole dip) so most of the driveways in my development are not cleared. Fortunately, you can drive on it and the roadways are clear. Just a few hours of higher temperatures will help.

The first of the group – Dear friends of ours are moving into a continuous care community tomorrow. They are the first of this friend group to make the move. They are grateful to be done with snowy and icy sidewalks (and I envy them). Their apartment is lovely with a sunroom. It is spacious without having all the unnecessary rooms a normal house has. Best of luck to them. Hopefully the weather will cooperate.

I’m ending with a cartoon and a wish that your week was a lot better than mine!

46 thoughts on “Random 5 for December 28, 2025 – Hospitals, friends and family, weather, moves”

  2. There’s the joke about the Jewish family eating out at a Chinese restaurant on Christmas. (More than a joke actually. It’s a common occurrence.) Most of the pharmacists and workers at my pharmacy look like they might be immigrants from non-Christian lands. I’m sure they can find enough people in most branches who don’t celebrate Christmas so they can stay open. If they’d just care enough to get organized.

    Hurray for coffee and donuts. My grandson, the donut-lover is here, so I’ve had more than my share.

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  3. I don’t understand that – it’s very unfair and couldn’t the hospital have had given the prescription right from there (the hospital), or at least a few pills to tide him over until the 26th? Ridiculous! Yes, the thought of big-time downsizing and no more home maintenance does sound appealing doesn’t it? The weather is frightful. It is 8:30 and we are 57 degrees, dropping 30 degrees by daybreak with a real feel in single digits. Plus we have this wind event of 50-60 mph winds all day Monday. My weather alarm has already gone off, but they’ve been talking about this for days, a few days after our ice storm. At one point this morning, the word “tornado” was being floated for this afternoon due to our balmy weather. I’m so done with Winter and it’s only been Winter for one week.

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  5. Re meds…..that is a real dilemma. Usually the ER dept will give enough medication in pill form to cover the patient until the next day….using a controlled night-cupboard to obtain the meds, which can’t stock everything as there are so many different drugs and doses….but usually not narcotics. But the hospital floors might have a different policy…and if they are set up on the 24 hour unit-dose system, they may not have enough or even be able to access anything once the patient is officially discharged from the computer system. I’m just guessing though, Kate, as our system here is different.

    There is always one 24-hr pharmacy open here in the city, although the wait can be long over the holidays, as they don’t have any extra staff they can call in to help clear the back-log. I worked many a day before Christmas, and hated it every year – there were the true emergencies, (including some hospice discharges who wanted to spent Christmas at home) and then there were thoughtless people who just wanted refills, or forgot, or suddenly wanted a 2 week vacation supply of all their drugs that they needed right away as their flight left in an hour. People would be incredibly rude to the technician, and then be wishing you Merry Christmas. One year I got a 15 drug order fax from a hospital floor, ten minutes before we were closing, for someone who was not even our patient hence the need for drug plan info, and special coverage codes, none of which the doctor had written, because his regular pharmacy was closed etc. I had to refuse it and told the nurse to fax it to the 24hr pharmacy, because head office wouldn’t allow me to keep the store (or the staff) overtime because that costs money. She was mad, but so be it, I didn’t have a choice. So there may be all different factors at play…..but definitely it’s not fair to the patient. PS. I’m so glad I’m retired. Boxing Day was even worse…..the phone would ring constantly so you couldn’t get anything done, all because we were closed one day and people were in a panic.

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  9. Adopt twins!
    Glad your brother is OK. Oh yeah, hospital discharge is a joke. I should have been released at 10am but it was after 5pm when I walked out. Hubby was the same, hours waiting, and excuse was meds. The pharmacy on site was running late….. 3 hours. Hubby said if they weren’t there in ten minutes, he was leaving anyway.

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  11. I am reading in comments that your brother is on his way to recovery… Great news. I am so happy you have a great network of support in your family. Yes, now you can concentrate on Morgan. I’m sorry but I had to giggle just a bit because that is exactly what I would have said. I was reading it to Jerry and he said to me—that is you! I can send you my meditative breathing exercises🤭 Hopefully all will work out for Morgan. Wasn’t happy to hear she has a cough thing going on.
    I think a donut sounds very good right now! A Boston Cream kinda donut.

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    • Hmmmm….Boston cream….I just came home from my brother’s and he is doing great. He is bouncing around with his walker. The house now has 2 walkers on both floors. Morgan sigh! It’s going to be a long 6 weeks until her appointment. If it gets worse (or I get worse), I’ll take her in on an emergency basis and just cash in my 401(k)!

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  12. Sorry about your brother being ill, but glad he is OK. That is awful about how hard it was to get the meds. I hate ice too. We had 4 inches of snow, thankfully it was light and fluffy. Hope you have a better week.

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    • I much prefer light and fluffy. Fortunately, someone broke up the ice on my brother’s walks but not his parking area. He won’t be going out until Wednesday so hopefully we’ll have some melting by then. As for the meds, I was really angry that they would send him home without anything.

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  14. Love the cartoon.

    Shame on the doctor/hospital for not providing enough meds to last until the 26th. Holidays and illness are NOT perfect together . . . especially when you factor in ice storms, etc.

    I hope your friends are pleased with their new care community.

    Enjoy your coffee . . . and a donut!

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  17. When my husband tore his quadriceps muscle, I had to get a powerful narcotic at night. Only one store within a few cities over carried it and was open 24 hours (and they had a whole vault thing going on). I live in Los Angeles County, too, with dozens of pharmacies within a 10 mile radius of my house and the hospital. It would be nice if one could get all the meds at the hospital.

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    • The hospital used to have a pharmacy that you could use like any commercial one but that wasn’t an option. I don’t know why as I was working on the “finding one open” side of the problem. It would have been wonderful to collect the prescription on the way out.

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  18. That is so frustrating about the medication! It’s a similar thing here in the UK when your medication is up for review. Arranging the appointment to have the review takes days/weeks, by which time you run out! I asked why they didn’t book the review in the diary a year on from starting you on the medication, instead of waiting till you’re low on supplies, and they said, “We don’t have the facilities to book that far ahead”. Sorry, what? You don’t have … a calendar? 😳

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  19. Laughing and crying with you through all this. That is so sad about the medications. I don’t see why all hospitals haven’t built in a 24 hour emergency drug store. I’m sure they would get enough business to make it profitable.
    ((Definitely make that donut a brief member of the family))

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  20. So glad your brother is doing alright – and I TOTALLY agree with you about meds and discharging from hospital WITHOUT a supply. I worked in a hospital for several years (late 70s/early 80s) and things USED to be different back in those days believe me. I think insurance companies have a lot to do with the policies about meds now. We’ve been thinking more and more about moving to a seniors community – it just plain makes sense – and we need to do it before we “have” to so we can continue to enjoy friendships and activities…..Life changes whether we want it to or not! Here’s to a BETTER new year for all of us…..

    Hugs, Pam

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    • Most places allow pets so Teddy could come too! 🙂 The med thing was crazy. I was down to calling friends who take the same drugs to ask for a few pills to carry him over. I had someone lined up with both meds available but fortunately, we got it from the pharmacy before they closed. None of the 24 hour pharmacies were open Christmas Eve so if you get sick then you are SOL

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  21. The hospital springing people without access to necessary meds would make me pretty crazy too. I’m glad you were able to solve it. And yeah, chipping away at the ice wasn’t my favorite. Or my back’s favorite for that matter. But I’m glad it stopped sleeting overnight and they were able to treat the streets before we were up an about. We couldn’t walk the dogs on the sidewalk but the streets were okay.

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