Thursday, March 10, 2022

(10/31) Life Overseas: Expect the Unexpected

10 of 31 - SOLSC 2022


As the day starts I anticipate a slice appearing while I try to renew my prescriptions. It is probably my least favorite regular part of life about living here. I would love to be wrong on this one. I'll be back with an update.

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The good news is that I was only there for three hours, and that included the doctor showing up 1.5 hours late.

Arriving at the final stage, I know to not get too excited. This is often when the pharmacist and I discover the doctor and/or the insurance person didn't do the math correctly and they haven't either prescribed and/or approved the correct amount of at least one of the medications for the days allotted and I have to repeat the previous three steps of the process.

Today, however, the pill count appeared to be correct as I handed the insurance authorization printout to the pharmacy. And then the pharmacist called me over.

Yesterday I had a conversation with two Saudi friends and learned a new word, bahour. Think incense and you are in the ballpark. Unfortunately this next part of the story allowed me to utilize my new vocabulary word.

As I stepped up to the pharmacist's counter, who happened to be at the inside corner of the 'L' configuration that sits in an alcove, I noticed a strong smell - even 
through my N95 mask. Smoke was wafting from behind the post next to her and I quickly backed up as far as I could, though there was a wall behind me and I couldn't get very far. Rapidly pulling a paper out of my bag and fanning the air in front of my face I found myself internally shaking my head at the fact that a pharmacy, inside a hospital, had very odiferous bahour wafting prolifically all over a migraine patient who was there to get more medication to keep her from having migraines.

I'll admit, I was not very polite for the duration of our interaction and I am pretty sure both of us were glad when I scampered out of the hospital, to the 'fresh' air with the remnants of the last dust storm.

8 comments:

  1. Oh, baKHour!! It can be very strong and used at unnecessary time and place!☹️

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  2. This sounds like such an ordeal! You really set the scene for how arduous a process this is. And incense inside a pharmacy - yikes! Glad things didn't last *too* long in there. Thanks for sharing!

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  3. Oh my! Bakhour can be very strong. I had heard that it kills the germs around and repels the mosquitoes and flies. It is used as an air freshener. I tried it once and got the worst migraine that lasted me 2 days.
    I hope you feel better now.

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  4. You paint a very interesting perspective of life in Saudi-land! I cannot imagine why someone would have bahour in a pharmacy! Thanks for sharing the word, though.

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  5. So Bakhour is not good for a person with migraine. Learned something new today. I love it though. Oud is my fav out of the two.

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  6. I never imagined it to be used in a hospital though. Glad you got out of the hospital for some fresh air.

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  7. Love the irony! "...all over a migraine patient who was there to get more medication to keep her from having migraines."
    And my only reaction through this was, ugh! Imagine a pharmacy of all the places!

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  8. Wow, Kristy! The things we take for granted here... I never would have thought that it would be such an ordeal to get prescriptions filled in another country. Amazing that they were burning incense!

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