I told you about how Yirmiyahu now has a special formula that is dairy and soy free.  What I didn’t tell you about is what a pain in the neck it is to buy this, but I’ll tell you now since it’s directly related to what happened on Shabbos.

In order to initially buy this formula, we needed a doctor’s note saying Yirmiyahu couldn’t eat anything else.  But our regular doctor couldn’t give it to us; she said we needed testing by a pediatric allergist.  When I called, I was given an appointment two months later.  In the meantime, he continued having the formula that was clearly causing him to be sick – I explained the situation to the allergist’s secretary and told her it was urgent that he get an appointment right away but she told me there’s no such thing as urgent in their office, everyone waits for the appointment they are given.  In the end, I missed this appointment since it was the day I was flying home from the US, but since he was immediately hospitalized after arriving, the hospital ended up being able to provide us with the necessary paperwork.

So that was the first obstacle overcome.  We  bought his formula and was doing relatively well on it.  However, you need to get a new prescription to buy it every three weeks.  That means you need to stay on top of how much you have and plan ahead. (You would think with all of this tight control that they’re giving it away, but in fact we pay over 800 shekels a month – over $200 – with no reimbursement from the health insurance company.  It’s really frustrating that they act like this is gold and make it so difficult to purchase but there’s no other way to get it here.)  Planning ahead is something I tend to do pretty naturally, but this time despite my efforts it didn’t happen.  I called for an appointment with the pediatrician on Weds. when I still had a full container of formula, but that day they told me they were closing at noon and it was too late for me to come in. The next day Yirmiyahu went to Jerusalem for therapies and we got home after they closed.  Friday she wasn’t there.  So the first appointment I could get was Sunday.

Looking at how much we had left, I realized we might run out before his appointment.  But I had a container of soy formula that our chiropractor muscle tested on him while we were in the US – we went to Target and tested every single formula, and bought the one that tested best. So although I didn’t think this would be as good as what he usually gets, I thought it would be very tolerable.  I hadn’t used it since he had gotten the specialty formula but figured it was a good backup.

I was so, so wrong.  An hour after having six ounces on Shabbos morning, Yirmiyahu began massively throwing up.  Then he had these horrible diapers that are unlike anything I’ve ever seen.  As the day went on – and it wasn’t that many hours – he was looking weak and apathetic.  And I really didn’t know what to do since the answer was to give him his special formula but there’s nowhere to buy this formula except from the health clinic’s pharmacy and only then with a prescription that I didn’t yet have.  That wouldn’t be open until the next day.  It’s not the kind of thing people have around in their kitchen that you can borrow.  He wouldn’t drink the soup I gave him in a bottle, wouldn’t eat any food, and took hours to drink four ounces of juice.

I was getting very, very worried because how he looked reminded me of what happened in the beginning when he got sick in the US, except then it was triggered by a virus and this was an allergic reaction.  Although all the health clinics are closed, we found out that there is an after hours clinic just a five minute walk from my house and I immediately took Yirmiyahu there. This was very strange for me since I had to pay them and give them his insurance card on Shabbos – but we asked how to handle this before I left and I acted according to the rabbinic guidelines I was given.

The doctor there told me to immediately take him to the hospital ER; by this time it was the late afternoon. I wanted to go home before leaving to the hospital to let the kids know what was happening so they wouldn’t be anxious.  When I got back the house was silent – ds14 was with my mother at the hospital in Haifa for all of Shabbos, dd16 was studying with a friend in a different neighborhood for her yahadut matriculation exam, and all of the other kids had left to the park.  I called the ambulance and asked a neighbor to give the kids a message about what happened, but dd12 came running from the park when she saw the ambulance drive by with flashing lights since she realized it must be for Yirmiyahu so I was able to tell her where we were going and not to worry.

We were admitted to the hospital and after a couple of hours, Yirmiyahu was finally given what he needed – this specialty formula.  He still was weak but we were told he had stabilized and could be released the next day.

The next day – this morning – I spent over two hours trying to contact the pharmacy to be sure that they had this formula in stock.  We had ordered it several weeks ago so it should have been there, but I didn’t want Yirmiyahu released until I was positive I would be able to get formula for him. When I finally got the pharmacist on the phone, she told me the order was never placed and there was nothing in stock.  I was so frustrated – why is it so hard to get my baby the formula he needs?!?  I asked her if she could check the closest location that had it, and though at first she told me she was too busy and to call back, I told her that I had been calling for two hours and already called back once since someone else said she was too busy to check if the formula was in stock – and I needed that information right then to determine if he needed to stay in the hospital another day where he would have something to eat.  She checked the computer system and said there might be three cans in a different pharmacy in Karmiel.

I requested the doctor write up the prescription and leave it at the front desk so that I could pick it up later in the day when we got home from the hospital.  When I got there, I was told that it had been entered into the computer.  Using the computerized prescription I was able to buy the three cans in Karmiel and order enough for the rest of the month.

This computerized prescription option is very, very new – and will be extremely helpful and important to us in avoiding a scenario like the one above in the future.  From now on, we’ll be able to request the new prescription by phone every three weeks and since it can be directly entered into the computer, there’s no longer a need for me to pick it up.  It’s still annoying to me to have to get a new prescription so often, but if this had been an option a few days ago (or if I had known it was an option – I’m not sure what day this new policy began- several weeks ago they told us they wouldn’t accept it faxed in, only the original), we wouldn’t have gotten into the situation we did – they could have inputted the prescription the day I called and within an hour I would have bought the formula  and had it in the house, before we came close to running out.

Thankfully, Yirmiyahu is doing much better though he’s still under the weather.  I had been wondering before this if this formula was really worth the money, since he’s still reacting to the corn syrup in it, and it’s aggravating to spend so much on something that still isn’t allergen free for him.  But this has made it really clear that even if it’s not ideal, it’s still really important that he get this.

Avivah