I am so DONE with this whole thing. Every time I get a step closer to getting what I need, someone else can’t do their job. I just don’t understand!
This morning I got a message through the portal from the EP’s PA (the person I originally sent a message to, but got messages from random nurses instead) saying she would talk with the doctor about it. I immediately sent a message saying I’d already spoken with the doctor and was just waiting on the prescription to actually be called in. This afternoon I got a message from her saying the prescription had been sent! Success! And just in time, as I’m supposed to start taking it tonight.
I even checked in my pharmacy app and saw that it had the prescription and it was set as “in process.” Awesome. But at 4:30 they still hadn’t moved out of “in process” and I worried that maybe my local pharmacy doesn’t have it in stock and wouldn’t have it ready today. So I called and after what felt like forever on hold asked the pharmacist if they had it in stock. They did not. He looked it up and it said that another branch not too far away had it in stock and I should call them. Me. Call them. Why he couldn’t call himself, I don’t know, but I guess it wasn’t his problem.
So I called the other branch. The pharmacist looked it up and said they did have it in stock, but he was confused by the way the prescription was written. It was requesting the 80 mg dosage, but the instructions said to give 70 mg. He said “But it only comes in 60 or 80.” He wanted more clarification from the doctor before dispensing. He sent a fax and told me I might want to call if I wanted to expedite things. Again, I had to make the call.
Next I called the doctor’s office and explained what was going on to the receptionist. She sent me over to the nurse. I explained to the nurse. And she laughed. She said “You can’t get 70 out of 60.” This is an injection. If it were a pill, it might be a bit more difficult, but with an injection you don’t have to inject all of the dose. Because the dosing is by weight, I need 70. So, knowing it only comes in 60 or 80, they prescribed the 80, knowing I could “waste” 10 mg and inject 70. I told her the pharmacist said he needed clarification. She said she would call him and as she hung up I could hear her laughing. I’m pretty sure she turned to the others in the office to tell about this idiot pharmacist that doesn’t understand how injections work.
I’ve taken this injection before. It’s been 7 years, but I’ve done it. I’d forgotten about the “waste” part or I probably could have straightened things out with this guy, but you expect a pharmacist to know these things. You expect the expert to be able to do what they were trained to do.
Wait. Hold up. I just got a call from the doctor’s office. Apparently the problem was not with the pharmacist not knowing how injections work (Thank goodness! I was a bit worried!). She said that the brand they carry does not have the markings, so there is no way of knowing how much to waste. So now they are going to go with the 60 mg. This could have been so much easier if the pharmacist had just picked up the phone instead of having me do it.
Hopefully this means that I will soon get a notice that I will have medication to pick up. I may have to drive a little farther than usual, but at least it will be done and I won’t have to ping pong my way through phone calls just to get one thing accomplished.
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