Why now?

A Humble Man, A Pharmacy, and Inspiration

I know it is a bad idea, but I am my husband’s primary care doctor.

More on why that is later. For now, let me just say it has something to do with him being a man and me being a control freak with an irrational fear of something terrible happening to him. It works for us.

For more than two years, he has been on a medication that has genuinely changed his life. The medication is expensive and requires a prior authorization every year. It is annoying, but we have never had a problem. His most recent approval came through just a few months ago.

This week, when he went to our local pharmacy to pick it up, he was surprised to hear the technician say, “It needs another prior auth.”

Let me pause for a moment to tell you something important about my husband. He is the humblest and most low-key person you will ever meet. This is true even though he is extraordinarily brilliant and deeply compassionate. What pediatrician is not? He is also unbelievably multi-talented. He recently built me an outdoor kitchen while working full time and relearning calculus. Despite all of that, he is not someone who pulls the “doctor card.” Ever.

So he calmly mentioned that the prior authorization had already been completed.

He was met with annoyance. He was told to come back because they would need to contact the doctor. That doctor, of course, was me.

Meanwhile, I already knew everything that was happening. Unlike the average patient, my husband and I eat dinner together. My office had already repeated the entire prior authorization. It was done. Completed. Filed. Approved. There was nothing left to do.

A few days later, he went back to try again.

The attitude was the same. The message was the same. And then came the part that truly gets to me. He was told that the doctor had still not completed the prior authorization.

The technician glanced at her screen and said, “Oh… Dr. Christine Meyer?” Then she added, “We have so many problems with that office. They never do what they say they are going to do. We have called them so many times.”

I wish I had been there to witness what happened next.

My gentle, easygoing, quietly brilliant husband finally stood up straight and said:

“Take it easy. We are all on the same team. I know for a fact that the authorization was done. And by the way, that is my wife you are speaking about, so I am asking that you be a little more respectful. She and her team work very hard to take care of things like this. She is not perfect, but this prior authorization is done.”

That moment is the reason I am writing now.

It is not because of the technician or the misinformation or the eye-rolling or the assumptions, even though all of that is infuriating.

I am writing because if this is how hard it is for the spouse of a physician to get a basic medication, I cannot imagine what it is like for the average patient.

I am writing because my team is made up of smart and dedicated human beings who work tirelessly to do the invisible labor that keeps patients functioning. They are blamed again and again for the failures of a system they did not create.

I am writing because women in midlife are lost in a sea of misinformation. Because clinicians are burning out. Because leaders are overwhelmed. Because healthcare has become increasingly hostile for the people who depend on it and for the people working inside it.

I am writing because we need to tell the truth about what is happening.

And because stories like this one are not exceptions. They are daily life.

Here is what you will find here in the weeks ahead: stories from inside primary care, lessons from building and leading a medical practice, clarity about midlife and menopause, practical perspectives on value-based care, reflections on advocacy, mistakes I have made, lessons I have learned, and the moments that show what healthcare really looks like.

If you care about medicine, leadership, women’s health, or the human experience behind all of it, I am glad you are here.

This is why now. Let’s get started.