False Economies

I cancelled my gym membership the other day. Even though it was a local gym, inexpensive and not too far from the house, I just could never seem to manage to get there. I went twice, I think, in January, and hadn't been back since. My financial advisor and life coach pointed out to me that this worked out to about $40 per visit. So maybe not so inexpensive.

So today after work I drove around to gyms near the clinic to explore my options. I figure the biggest reason I haven't been going to the gym is that after working a 15 hour overnight shift and driving an hour home, the last thing I want to do is to delay my arrival home. Or to leave the house once I am there. So my hope is that I can make myself do it more easily on that end of the drive.

Of the four options, there is one literally around the corner from the clinic that I liked relatively well. They also offered a 14 day free trial, so I shall be taking them up on it. The only downside is that their steam room is broken and the new ownership apparently doesn't have a firm timeline for getting it repaired. I can schedule a massage appointment there, though, so I'll likely get over it.

A Little Reminder

If you are on any prescription medications, be sure to check them before you pop them in your mouth. Last week I went to my local pharmacy of choice to pick up a prescription refill - my last refill, in fact, which means I need to schedule a checkup. I have been on Requip for the past year to deal with a particularly bad case of restless legs syndrome in conjunction with periodic limb movement disorder. The medication helps both me and David get a better night's sleep.

Anyway, the legs were particularly bad on Sunday, as they often are after an exhausting night at work, but when I went to crack open the new bottle, I found very unfamiliar-looking pills within. I was quickly able to ascertain that instead of 0.5mg Requip, they had filled my prescription with 0.5mg Risperdal, which is a medication most commonly used for bipolar disorder or schizophrenia. This could have been bad. Very bad.

The pharmacist on duty when I took the pills in today was at least properly mortified and promised to get to the bottom of how that error had occurred (two drugs side-by-side on the counter, pharmacy tech not paying attention, pharmacist not checking behind them - that's the likely sequence of events). When the local pharmacy I used to use made a similar, though somewhat less egregious error, I basically got the brush-off ("I wasn't on that day."), which is why I no longer take my business there.

Anyway, the moral of the story is: Always double check your prescriptions. Pharmacy of choice actually has a description of the tablet printed on a tab on the label and on the information sheet they staple to the bag, which would have clued any non-medical types in had they bothered to read it. But how many people actually read all their labels?