Home Truths: Accessing my medication

Accessing my medication

I have been self-isolating with my husband, John, for almost five weeks now – we began on 16^th March – my birthday was on the 15^th, I will say no more!

It is quite obvious that we are facing some challenging times, but we are doing our best to find ways of dealing with these. 

On first isolating, my initial panic was how we would be able to get our food - it seems that this was also everyone else’s panic. I also wanted to know how we would we be able to get our medication delivered.  I must admit, also, to having moments of anger, feeling that somehow, we would need to get the army and all the forces involved in delivering for us, and that nothing seemed to be happening to help us. I am pleased to say that I have since calmed down!

A short while ago, John and I ordered our medication online through our surgery, as we have done for many years. For all those years, we have been able to pick up our prescription ourselves from the chemist, authorised by ourselves. 

We ordered our medication at the same time, and sent a message asking if our chemist could deliver my medication and John’s medication together. I rang the chemist and, unfortunately, our village was too far for delivery (3 miles away). However, we have been extraordinarily blessed where we live in that there is a vast array of volunteers in our area who are willing to help out.

In our village, a lovely young woman called Kate volunteered to go shopping for us and, when the chemist could not deliver our medicines, she also picked up our medication.

My husband has since found a website which will deliver medication free – Pharmacy2U – I hope that this will prove useful for some of you reading this.

So, we are very lucky in that respect. Not starving, staying safe!

I found our local volunteer group on Facebook, however, I do realise that not everyone has a computer, such as my neighbour, who is almost 80.  It is really important that these groups make sure they are reaching out to people of all ages so that we can all get support, no matter how much we use technology. They also need to make sure that, whatever someone’s age, they can give or get support via one of these groups without putting ourselves or someone else in any danger.

I am pleased to say that I was able to link up with my 80-year-old neighbour over the phone – it saves having to shout across two gardens!

In my experience, there are volunteers out there who can help you get your medication, you might just have to seek them out. In the meantime, stay safe and look after each other.