Full disclosure: I am friends with the owners of Medsavers Pharmacy. However, they did not ask me to write this blog post. The opinions expressed are entirely mine.

One of the problems of chronic illness is the cost of prescription drugs that are needed. Drug costs keep rising, and insurance companies are becoming more stubborn about not paying for drugs that patients need. A study by AARP reports, "In 2013, retail prices for 227 widely used brand name prescription drugs increased by 12.9 percent." The study also notes, "Brand name drug prices increased more than eight times faster than general inflation in 2013 (12.9 percent versus 1.5 percent)." Other drugs increased as much as 113% over eight years. Yet in 2013,the cost of living increase for Social Security payments was only 1.5%; in some recent years it was 0%. 

I have most of my drugs compounded. This means that the pharmacy takes the drug powder which they obtain from the manufacturer and put it in gelatin capsules in the correct doses for me. If filler is needed, they use probiotics. It means there are no food colorings, no dyes, no artificial flavorings, and no gluten in the pills. For me, it's the difference between tolerating most drugs and not tolerating them. It also allows us to create non-standard doses that aren't usually available. For example, I take between 7mg and 9 mg of one drug four times a day. It's only available in 10 mg, 25 mg, 50 mg, and 75 mg dosing in the standard pills. For me, the 10 mg would be too much. Because I need my drugs compounded, I am limited to using compounding pharamcies. The one I normally use is also a regular pharmacy, and I usually get any prescriptions the rest of my family needs there as well. It's a small local business with only two stores, and I appreciate that the staff there recognizes me.

One of my sons has been facing health problems for the past six months. We finally got a true diagnosis, and he's begun treatement, involving flower essences, herbs and Western drugs. One of the drugs was no issue; my son's prescription insurance through his father covered it with no problem. The second drug the insurance company refuses to cover at a rate that the pharamcies can afford because it's less than the pharmacy's costs. They end up having to sell it at a loss, so many of them refuse to dispense it. I asked the pharmacy what it would cost if we paid out of pocket, and I was told $450 for the 30 days supply we needed. Eeks. 

At that point, I called Medsavers Pharmacy. Medsavers does not accept insurance, and they only stock generic drugs. These two things allow them to sell drugs at a lower cost than most pharmacies. If a patient needs a prescription drug, then Medsavers will order it but the patient must obtain a prescription for the entire bottle. When we had older dogs with health problems (including congestive heart failure and Cushing's disease), we actually got a large percentage of their drugs at Medsavers because it was so much cheaper than buying them through a vet. 

The woman who answered the phone at Medsavers was pleasant and let me know that they didn't carry that particular dose of this drug, so we would need to get a prescription for the entire bottle from our doctor. The total cost for the entire bottle which would last my son a month? $62.42. That's versus the $450 I got quoted at my compounding pharmacy. So I got the doctor to write the prescription as needed asking him to respect the almost $400 difference between the two pharmacies. Because the doctor is very sensitive to patient's financial issues, he had no problem doing so. I've known many friends with prescription insurance who've used Medsavers for some of their prescriptions because it was cheaper to pay out of pocket at Medsavers than to pay a copay at another pharmacy. That's essentially what we did here. 

Medsavers Pharmacy advertises themselves as specializing in helping uninsured customers. They are centrally located in Austin, and they will ship wherever it is legal to do so. I think Medsavers is a fabulous example of a business which works to help those in need yet at the same time is a financially profitable business for the owners. It is possible to help others without engaging in extortion, though our health industry would like us to believe otherwise.


© 2015 Elizabeth Galen, Ph.D., Green Heart Guidance, LLC

Earlier in my life, I was part of a beagle rescue group in Austin. I loved fostering dogs, and at some time in the future, I hope to be able to return to fostering. Right now, though, it’s not an option for me for many reasons. However, I do what I can to support animal rescue in other ways. I have my Amazon Smile set up to benefit Dogtoberfest Austin (which in turn supports local dog rescue groups). I donate to local shelters when I have extra funds. Most importantly to this post, I will donate my metaphysical services to those doing animal rescue when I have availability in my schedule. At times it can be helpful to have insight into rescue pets especially when it’s hard to figure out their needs since the animals can’t communicate verbally with us.

Recently two women in a group I’m part of rescued a stray cat. The cat was a cutie, one whom I wanted to snuggle up with the moment I saw his picture. One of the women was debating adopting him herself, but she was concerned about how the cat would get along with her cat as well as the potential medical expenses he would have. They knew that the cat had a broken leg which needed to be reset to heal properly. Beyond that, they had little information on the cat’s origins or needs.

The first thing I heard as I tuned in to higher powers was, “There’s more wrong.” I then saw a series of symbols that were confusing and which I had a hard time translating. What I learned after I gave the healing message to the woman who requested it was that these initial symbols likely represented her parents. There were parallels between her parents and this cat that I couldn’t understand at the time. This is something I would not likely have figured out as I didn’t have the details about her parents to make that connection; I also didn’t expect that connection in a message about the cat.

I also felt like one of the symbols was indicating that the cat had a secondary parasitic infection. As I read down a list of common parasitic infections in cats, I was able to pinpoint that the infection was likely some kind of protozoan infection. This is not unusual: we dealt with multiple worms and parasites in our two dogs over the 13 years they lived with us. Both were rescues and came with a few extra critters we hadn’t expected.

As I continued through the message, I kept getting hit by what I would call “cancer vibes.” I don’t like that sensation, and I don’t want to be passing on potentially life-threatening information to clients if I am not absolutely certain of what I’m being told from the other side. I knew for many years before it happened that one of my dogs would die from cancer (and thymus cancer eventually led to his death), so I know what it’s like to live with that kind of information. In this healing message, I was being told that this cat would eventually face cancer. The estimate I got was many years down the road, but as I’ve said before, time estimates are often not accurate when it comes to information from the other side. I wasn’t happy about having to pass this information on to the client, but I was certain I needed to.

The other bit of relevant information that I received was that this stray cat and the potential adopter’s cat would get along well, but I had a huge amount of concern that the stray might pass on something to the adopter’s cat. This is a risk all animal foster parents take, and it’s why most of them keep their own pets fully vaccinated. Rescues often bring disease with them due to the neglect they’ve undergone in their previous living situations. The fact that I was getting this warning wasn’t too unusual in my mind.

I passed on the information to the woman involved in the cat’s rescue. She meditated on it and decided that the best decision for her and her cat was not to adopt the stray. Instead, she surrendered him to the local animal shelter for them to help him. A few days later, she got back to me with information I hadn’t expected: The stray cat had feline leukemia virus, a virus that eventually causes cancer in cats. It also weakens the immune system and leaves cats prone to secondary infections such as parasites. It’s spread by close contact with other cats with the virus; her cat would have been at risk had the stray joined their home.

It’s always amazing for me to get feedback from clients once they’ve understood what the message I received is actually about. In this case, I wish that I had been wrong about what I had seen. However, the good news is that the stray cat was able to get into a sanctuary for cats with major health issues. He will live out his remaining time loved and cared for.

© 2015 Elizabeth Galen, Ph.D., Green Heart Guidance, LLC

I recently was dealing with a customer service person who was inadvertently teaching me some lessons on patience.  As I told her that the option she was presenting me with was not a good one, she told me, “You don’t have a choice.”  In that regard, she was wrong, and her narrow-minded view was blocking her ability to see my other options.  We almost always have choices.  They may not be great choices, but we have choices.  It just depends on how we frame our vision as to whether or not we can see the choices available to us.

I live in a county which is ruled by one political party which happens to be the party I oppose.  In the 13 years I’ve lived here, there has only been one elected official at any level of government who came from the party I support; she was voted out again after only two years in office.  Often when I go to the polls, there is only one person from the dominant party running for an elected office.  There are no other choices on the ballot.  However, even in this case there are options.  I could have surveyed the candidates for office long before the ballot was formed and seen the lack of opponent, and I could have run for that political office.  That’s not something I want to do, but it is a choice.  I also could have found someone else to run for office, or I could have donated more funds to my political party of choice to encourage someone else to run for office.  Finally, there’s the option I usually take:  Even if there’s only one choice on the ballot, I refuse to vote for that person.  It’s not a great option, but leaving it blank is the way I register my displeasure rather than voting for a person whose beliefs I don’t support.*  

There are other times where all the available choices are downright awful.  We all are going to die: That is one of those few things for which there are no options.  In the case of a pet dying, we sometimes do have option about how that death happens, though.  One of my dogs was diagnosed with cancer of the thymus gland at age 13.  Because he also had Cushing’s Disease, steroids were not good options.  We could have done surgery, but chances were that it was too late for him, and the surgery would have only increased his pain but not lengthened his lifespan.  So we accepted that his death was imminent.  Four weeks after we began noticing a horrid cough and three weeks after diagnosis, he had some sort of stroke or seizure, and the next day he lost the majority of use of his back legs.  Without the ability to walk, dogs have lost almost everything.  At that point, we chose to have him euthanized.  We already knew he was dying and that his time was limited; we merely were shortening his suffering.  It was still an awful choice to make, but we made the decision we felt would be best for him.

We almost always have choices.  They may not be good choices, but they are choices.  Sometimes choosing the lesser of two evils is the best we can do.  However, whenever we are feeling stuck, we should examine the situation carefully; talking to a friend, coach, or therapist can often help in this type of situation because others can sometimes see choices that we are being blind to.  From there, we can make the best choice available.

© 2014 Green Heart Guidance


*In the last election, the option of not voting for a solitary candidate was taken away, and there were 13 winners declared before the elections even happened on my electronic ballot.  Time to remove that from my list of choices!