Prescription teething troubles have come to dominate my life. I posted a couple of weeks ago about the confusion with prescription foods – how to change your prescription, what your surgery will or won’t, or might not, prescribe, whether you’d know, how long it takes to come in etc etc.
Roll on rolls
At the time I posted we’d had problems with the initial prescription even reaching the dispensary, and I was hoping the foods would be in imminently. The next day *part* of the prescription was in. That was over a fortnight ago and we’re still waiting for the rolls. The pharmacist is chasing the companies that provide the food (it’s either Warburtons or Juvela – I can’t remember after all this time!) but so far nothing.
To add to the drawn out prescription teething troubles, the breads are delivered only on a Wednesday or a Friday. Then there’s the oats: gluten-free oats are available on prescription, but our surgery won’t prescribe them. Not only that, they don’t tell you they don’t prescribe them, so you just miss out. No-one rings or emails to ask if you’d like to change it for something else, your child just misses out on one of their units that month. Actually it’s not a month, it’s every four weeks; this is great as it means Tamsin gets 13 lots a year instead of 12, but it also means the date jumps about every month so I have to keep close track of what’s when. I’ve set a reminder on my phone in time to make any changes.
Working with the dispensary
Next month, or should I say in just over a week as that’s when we’ll need to make changes in time for the four-weekly prescription submission, I’m going to ring the surgery about the changes and get them to tell me there and then whether foods are prescribed. I accept that oats aren’t prescribed, but it’s irksome as gluten-free oats are so expensive in the shops and Tamsin loves them for breakfast with yoghurt and fruit. I swither between feeling grateful that Tamsin gets anything on prescription, irritation with the surgery over their lack of communication and annoyance with the bread company that it’s all taking so long. I keep telling myself it’s just prescription teething troubles and we’ll be fine when it’s all settled down.
The changes we’re likely to make are reining back the pasta – Tamsin’s eaten far less than we expected and far less than she did wheat pasta – and increasing the cereals and crackers, crispbreads and white mix/flour. These last two have proved very useful for general cooking. Things like xantham gum I’ve just bought as although they’re expensive they’ll be a rare purchase so not worth the palaver of a prescription change. There’s more on prescriptions foods in the gluten free samples post.
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