medication frustration (and alliteration)

There’s nothing quite like a little drama to spice up one’s life… not to mention make one’s head nearly explode.

Let’s just say the last two days or so have been some of the most stressful and emotionally draining days I’ve had in awhile.

On top of my 12-16 hour days at work, I’ve been dealing with issues related getting my hemophilia medication.

By the way, if you aren’t familiar with hemophilia, here’s a link with a relatively brief synopsis: http://www.medceu.com/tests/hemophilia.htm

In spite of being assured by all parties involved that receiving my medication in Germany shouldn’t pose a problem, it has—and a rather serious problem at that.

With a week’s worth of medication on hand, a fresh shipment sits in the UPS located in Cologne, Germany. Yet the people in customs have refused to give clearance for the package to be allowed into the country. Apparently, bringing any medication into Europe is illegal. Great.

Now, I have dealt with many red-tape headaches regarding my medication throughout my life. The stuff is criminally expensive, so insurance companies hate me and state-funded programs for cover as fast as they can.

I’m like the smelly guy on the subway car to medical coverage agencies. Fortunately, the train is packed enough that someone has to sit next to me at some point, so I do have coverage. OK, enough with this ridiculous analogy (you can tell I’m tired).

Anyways, with all the bureaucratic problems I’ve encountered, few have reached this level. Throw in the language and cultural barriers, and now I’m really cursing the heavens above that I have this blasted disorder.

So I talked to UPS reps, the United States Embassy and NFL Europe people, but came up empty for the last two days. Everyone could tell me that there was a problem and I couldn’t get the package, but nobody could quite seem to tell me why that was or what course of action I could take.

Finally, this afternoon, I talked with the Customs Woman who makes the thumbs-up or thumbs-down call. She seems like a very thumbs-down kind of person. After repeatedly assuring me that she would not allow this package in, I finally communicated to her that I needed to know how I could get a package in. I must have asked her the same question for 10-15 minutes before getting the information I actually needed.

I have to obtain a prescription from a German doctor—no problem since I work for a sports team who has a team doctor—and have a pharmacy here “order” the shipment from my provider in the States. The pharmacy will communicate with Customs Woman and hopefully the matter will be resolved.

I will go into the pharmacy first thing tomorrow (Friday) morning to hopefully get everything set in motion. I’m very desirous that that will come off without a hitch.

I’ll post an update on the situation sometime tomorrow. Hopefully I will have good news to report.