DEMENTIA CARE: PRESCRIPTION OUT OF STOCK.

What happens when something is out of stock? This isn’t always about pills. But it is almost always about prescriptions. When an item isn’t available, I’ll be told when the pharmacy phones to arrange the delivery.
   Or non-delivery.
   I was told an item was out of stock. They’d get a delivery to me some other time. The usual. Happens. When that delivery arrived, there was a receipt stapled to the bag telling me the item was not available.
   The item? A dietary supplement. This is added to milk, to provide a boost. The individual item is a sachet of powdered milkshake mix. And you get seven of those to a box and four boxes to the month if you have to take one milkshake a day.
   Not the case, here. Two a day. Eight boxes a month.
So. The item missing was a bulk delivery of 56 packets of food. This was strawberry powder, added to strawberry milk to create a double strawberry milkshake. By coincidence, the supermarket delivery of strawberry milk vanished into thin air, to be replaced by banana milk.
   Luckily, banana milk is acceptable. Doesn’t go great with strawberry powder. But there was no strawberry powder. So two failed deliveries led to a different food choice that was no choice – just handed out as a replacement.
   And the story was…out of stock. True for the supermarket, which would have quickly replenished stock. Not so true for the pharmacy. Yes, the milkshakes weren’t available. Technically, and only technically, they were out of stock.
   On to the next month, and another prescription. I could order the milkshakes, no problem. But they were gone. When the delivery phone call came through, I was told the entire line of milkshakes had been discontinued.
   I’d need to have a word with the dietician.
   Not as the weekend approached. I saved that one up for the next week. The prescription arrived, minus milkshakes. At least everything else was there. And so, to the phone. The milkshakes were gone. Oh no.
   The dietician would get back to me, to arrange the exact thing as a replacement. And the exact thing turned out to taste better than the earlier exact thing, according to the dietician. They do taste-tests in the office.
   I did a test once, with the frothy milkshake. It was okay. I don’t feel the need to test the new stuff. What to say about that? The new packets are stored horizontally in boxes rather than vertically. What does that mean?
   The box lid was rectangular before. Low. Now the new box has a square lid, and rises high. Luckily, the storage gadget on the kitchen counter still has the right shape of space to accommodate the new boxes.
   So. Nothing drastic. How is the frothy milkshake? Less frothy than the earlier version. More of a strawberry scent when you rip open the top of the sachet. It will do. As I type, I’ve mixed one up…but not handed it out.
   Waiting for the carers to come in and do their bit. Then, as they march out the door to the next place, I’ll see how the milkshake goes down. Literally. From the cup. Luckily, all of this was easy enough to arrange.
   What if it hadn’t been? Sometimes a change requires a walk around all the houses, all the departments, to get the thing done. And that is part of being a carer. Every tiny change can turn into a relentless slog through the mud to another field full of more mud.
   This problem was easy enough to see to a swift conclusion, once identified by the pharmacy. The dietician made sure that I had the essential phone number to call. And I made that call.
   There are harder calls to make. Stores. When calling stores, you are always prepared to call the other number for stores. There are at least two stores. And one of them sounds like the right place to call. But they don’t handle that item. The other place does that sort of work.
   One guy from stores arrived to remove a thing and I asked about another thing. He didn’t deal with that, but he could drop it off at a hospital for me. The system is only as good as its people. It is never better than its people. Often, you see that the people are far better than the system they are part of.
   There’s a third kind of stores-adjacent organisation I had to deal with. Just remembered that. Then there’s the unofficial place for stores. Here. A few times, care team members have asked if I have a spare this or a spare that.
   They know I have spares for almost every contingency. And so they borrow an item. I lend it knowing there’s no way to get it back, as it is consumable. But I act as stores, once in a wee while.
   I had no spares for the milkshakes. There was milk, and that’s the main thing. I do have spare milk. In the spare fridge. This is essential for someone on an all-milk diet. One fridge dies. The other goes on. Milk is split between the fridges.
   Glad I came here to write this blog. It is delivery day for the food. And, writing about milk…I realise I should be more organised in the distribution of the food. Last night I cleared the fridge of milk. Moved it to the other fridge, so the main fridge had space for the new milk coming in.
   Well, damn it, I have moved that milk too early. What if the other fridge broke down during the night? Need to keep a lid on that detail. One fridge has the temperature on a display on the outside. Both fridges contain portable thermometers. So I can check to see if they are okay, first thing in the morning.
   It was a thermometer check inside the old spare fridge that told me the old spare fridge had given up the ghost at some point in the night. The system worked. Luckily, I had milk in both fridges that day. Couldn’t trust the milk in the fridge that failed, of course. So it all went down the sink.
   Don’t know why I cleared one fridge of milk last night. Usually, I wait until the morning of delivery of the new stuff. Routine is routine, until it starts to drift. Well, it’s drifting back on course, now that I’ve written this blog.
   Routine also changes. Without milkshakes on the counter, I just poured regular milk. Made sure to use up that banana milk, so there’d be no awkward clash when the milkshake delivery resumed.
   And so, today, I returned to blender duty. Measure the milk in the drinking cup. There’s a handy scale down the side. Pour the milk into the blender. Add the powder. Shake a bit, just to destroy the large lumps. Blend. Pour some milk into the cup. Pulverise a few pills. Pour the pill powder into the drink. Add the rest of the milk. Pop the lid on and shake around to destroy any powdery pill clumps.
   Store in the fridge, until the carers arrive. This was the usual routine. And it went away. Now it has returned. No, it isn’t rocket science. But it takes a second to get back into the swing of it. I’m not reconstructing a golf game or returning to tennis. Just blending a whole load of stuff and getting ready for later on.
   As the frothy milkshake is now decidedly less frothy, it should be easier to drink. At some point, before, all that was left in the cup was froth. And that became tricky. Now, we’ll see.
   I don’t expect a violent refusal to drink the new flavour. The brand of milk is still the same, after all. And the idea of double strawberry is more appealing than strawberry milk plus the fairly neutral vanilla option that wasn’t appreciated, way back at the start.
   Is this all there is, to flavour? Strawberry? It’s a nice flavour. Banana is acceptable. Orange, on occasion. Vanilla, in the right mood. Chocolate is right out. And if the supermarket is out of stock on strawberry, the chocolate alternative is rejected. I have to hand that stuff back.
   Sure, I could keep it for myself if I felt in the mood. But I have so much coffee to drink, instead. Chocolate with coffee is one thing. Chocolate milk with coffee is definitely not a thing.
   Everything should now be in stock. But, as food is on the way…I am waiting for the delivery update telling me a few things aren’t there. As long as the strawberry milk is there, we are good for another week. If it isn’t there, I turn to the fridge for the spare supply. It would be funny to have the strawberry milkshakes today, but no strawberry milk to add to them. Except…it wouldn’t be funny at all. And that’s why I have a spare fridge.