I have to rant. I'm not exactly sure what has happened in this country.

[LeftyFingerPop]

This is a health care / work ethic rant. Two for the price of one. I'm sure many of you have similar stories and can relate to this. Stuff like this happens to me all the time, and I'm wondering just where everything went wrong.

So I'm in the hospital last week with some serious painful stuff. I'm on IV Fentanyl, which is much more powerful than morphine. Needless to say, much of last week is a blur, but I was discharged without anyone giving me any pain meds, nor did they do a check off sheet that asked me my level of pain. So I come home groggy, and a few hours later I realize I am in trouble pain wise.

In the meantime, my doc calls me and sets up an appointment for this morning to follow-up. I say "OK fine, but what about the pain"? She provides enough pain meds for the weekend.

So, I see the doc this morning, clear headed, find out I need surgery, blah, blah, blah.

She gives me 3 prescriptions, including one narcotic pain med and one non-narcotic pain med.

I bring them to the pharmacy, walk up to the woman, exchange pleasantries, and tell her I have 3 scripts. Then I count them out on the desk...1,2,3. Said I'll be back in an hour.

Here's the goat rope that took place when I returned to pick up the meds.

I walk up to the counter where a technician is loading up some scripts into a bag to be placed on the shelf. No one else is waiting. She says she will be just a minute. I say no problem, and step back to appear like I am not crowding her space. So I'm watching her. And waiting. And waiting. She's taking her time, and I'm starting to hurt. 2 minutes. 5 minutes. I'm thinking "Jesus Christ", but I am being patient. Then, a co-worker comes over, and they start shooting the shit about Billy's soccer game. 8 minutes. 10 minutes. Finally, she asks if she can help me. I give her my name. She brings out 2 prescriptions instead of 3. Then it went downhill fast.

me: There should be 3.
pharmacy woman: There are only 2 here.
me: I see that, but there should be 3.
pw: Why should there be 3?
me: because I brought 3 in to be filled.
pw: when?
me: I'm not sure, an hour or so ago.
pw: how many did you bring in?
me: 3
pw: but there are only 2 here.
me: I know (now I'm starting to laugh a little)
pw: So would you like to pay for these 2?
Me: No, I would like to pay for the 3 I brought in.
pw: you didn't bring 3 in.
me: Yes, I did.
pw: Which one is missing?
me: I told her which one. It was the narcotic pain reliever.
pw: Well, we don't have it.
me: I know, but you must have misplaced it.
pw: Maybe you lost it and didn't give it to us.
me: no, I counted out the prescriptions. You have it somewhere.
pw: let me check with the person you gave them to. She walks back to her, and so do I.
pw #2...looks at me and says "chill out"
me: I laugh and say "I'm plenty chilled"
pw #2: I think I remember you gave me 3
me: yes I did
Now, all the pharmacy techs start running around like their crotches are on fire because they lost a narcotic script.
Me: I just sit down and watch the fun

After 20 minutes, she says, OMG, we found it here, the reason it wasn't filled is because your doctor did not write the maximum daily dose on it.

me: ok. so, what does that mean?

Pharmacist...we tried to call your doctor, but she didn't return the call, so you will have to bring the script back to her to have her write that in.

It was then I burst into a fit of laughter and said...NO...you will just have to keep calling because I'm in some terrible pain, you have kept me waiting because you don't have your act together, and it's not my problem. I then told her that I would let her work on it and stop back later.

So, I'm wondering...what do the old people do? What about the people that don't have all their wits about them? What's so hard about getting a stupid prescription filled? Why do people chat with their co-workers when they should be giving people their meds? Why am I discharged from the hospital with no instructions? WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON?

[Lyric]

1. I feel your pain, but have no answers.

Try being a Medicaid patient who's obviously low-income, and asking for pain medication stronger than an anti-inflammatory for a horribly painful condition (in my case, chronically painful kidney stones that I can't have a lithotripsy for until October). I swear, doctors around here just assume that being a poor person means you're automatically going to go out and sell your pills.

It's seriously fucking infuriating.

[LeftyFingerPop]

2. I feel for you...

and I'm sorry. It's hard enough being sick without having to deal with things like that.

[Lyric]

3. That's America. *sigh*

:hug:

[LeftyFingerPop]

4. ...

:hug: I can relate to the stones....I'm really sorry.

[skygazer]

5. I have no answers for you

The level of incompetence is just stunning.

A few years ago, I took a bad spill from a horse and bruised my right leg from my hip down to my knee. It was a huge mass of black and blue.

Three days later, I came off a different horse (yeah, I never learn) and broke my back.

My buddy drove me to the hospital (there was no sense calling an ambulance - we lived in the middle of nowhere and had I done that, the ambulance still would have been looking for the place) and I sat in the ER waiting room for THREE HOURS before they finally called my name.

Not to get me in to see a doctor, mind you, but to send me to the "fast track" waiting area where I sat for another (no joke) two hours.

When I finally saw a doctor, they ordered x-rays, etc. In all this time, I had not been given a single pain med. When I asked for one, the nurse told me, "Oh, you can't have one if you're driving."

I said, "I'm not driving! I have a broken back!" and demanded something.

Anyway, it was a stable fracture, I didn't need surgery, they put me in a brace and sent me home.

Because of the brace impeding the blood flow (I think), the bruise on my leg swelled up until it was like a huge bag of jelly, wiggly and full of fluid.

So back to the hospital I go where some idiot pretending to be a doctor asks me, "Is it painful?"

"No," I told her, "but it seems to be full of fluid. Can we drain it?"

"Oh, there's no fluid in there," she tells me, and gives me a prescription for Vicodin (after I just told her it didn't hurt).

My theory is that most of the personnel in hospitals and pharmacies are escaped mental patients. Except that's an insult to mental patients.


edited because I seem to have lost the ability to spell. ~sigh~

Hope you're feeling better.

[LeftyFingerPop]

7. ....

"My theory is that most of the personnel in hospitals and pharmacies are escaped mental patients. Except that's an insult to mental patients". :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

Thanks for the laugh, and thank you for sharing your story. I'm sorry that happened to you...it sounds horrible. I thought that was why they had triage units at the ER...Man, I just don't get it.

[skygazer]

9. This was the county hospital

I'd just moved to California and had been in my job for exactly two months and one day when this happened. So my insurance hadn't kicked in and I had to go to county. Anyone else would have laughed me off the premises.

I was actually fortunate because I was one day past my probationary period at work so they couldn't fire me.

Oh, and I was back on a horse within two weeks. I really am an idiot. :P

[LeftyFingerPop]

12. Hey, you have to live your life...

good for you for not letting an injury stop you. :D

[GirlinContempt]

27. You had to wait?

I thought only commie pinko countries made you wait in hospitals.

[SPKrazy]

6. they suffer often

and the new prescription drug plan put a lot of seniors in plans that they don't understand or that benefit the drug companies or the pharmacies more than the patient.

it's not all hopeless philboy, i'm sorry you had such a shit experience, but there are bright stars out there too I believe.

finding them is harder sometimes.

:pals:

feel better, okay!

[LeftyFingerPop]

8. I'll be better soon SPK...

and perhaps I should not have painted with such a broad brush, but I'll tell you...when this kind of stuff happens, it blows my mind...

Like the kid I had to rattle at the store because he would not ring me out because he was talking to his friend on his cell phone about how "hot this chick thinks I am".

If I did this kind of crap years ago when I was working waiting on people, I would be fired on the spot. :hi:

[SPKrazy]

16. yeah i would have too

paradigm shift dunno where or why :hi:

[Kali]

10. obviously your first mistake (besides needing medical help) was not standing around watching them

what were you thinking?

[LeftyFingerPop]

11. Good point! LOL n/t

[redqueen]

13. *sigh*

I wish I knew... you have my sympathy. My ex lives with chronic pain and could write a frickin book with these kinds of stories.

Our health care system is a (cruel) joke.

[LeftyFingerPop]

14. I wish your ex well...

and yes, the healthcare system is horribly broken and getting worse as we speak.

[redqueen]

15. I was worried your story was going to go the way it has for him

so many times... he gets approval from the doctor, and the prescription is called in... but for some reason the pharmacy tech will decide to not bother filling it because they assume the insurance company won't cover it... so he has to beg them to call the insurance company, and sometimes has to do it himself, in order to get approval to get his medicine. Often he goes without for one reason or another. It's like a recurring nightmare.

[LeftyFingerPop]

19. Nightmare is a good word for it...

hard enough for a healthy person to handle, next to impossible if you are ill.

[The Straight Story]

17. We had this happen to us once for my wife's meds - did not have correct dose

Was something like 50mg when they only sold in 100mg or something like that.

They waited until we got there then told us we had to get a new one from the dr...

[LeftyFingerPop]

18. that sucks...

I'm sorry to hear that. Where I am, you have to bring the script in personally for narcotic meds if they are over a certain quantity...they can't be phoned in.

[B3Nut]

20. The problem? Flakes!

Flakes! Flakes!

They don't do no good
The never be workin'
when they oughta should
They waste your time
They're wasting mine

California's got the most of them
Boy they got a host of them
I swear to God they got the most
At every business on the coast
I swear to God they got the most
At every business on the coast

They got the flakes

They can't fix your brakes
You ask 'em where's my motor
Well it was eaten by snakes
You can stab and shoot and spit
But they won't be fixin' it

They're lying and lazy
They could be driving you crazy
I swear to God they got the most
At every business on the coast
I swear to God they got the most
At every business on the coast

Take it away Bob...

(etc.)

-Frank Zappa
----
Todd in Cheesecurdistan

[Oeditpus Rex]

22. I'm a moron

and this is my wife.

[B3Nut]

25. She's frosting a cake

with a paper knife!

:D

Dammit I miss Frank.

Todd in Cheesecurdistan

[datasuspect]

21. somebody left the gate unlocked at the idiot ranch

[ThomCat]

23. I've changed pharmacies to avoid this kind of incompetence.

I now take all my prescriptions to a small, privately owned pharmacy that only has 2 pharmacists, and one is the owner. They know me, they've spoken to my doctors, and I've never ever had a problem with them.

I'm sorry you're getting hassles. I hope you get the meds, and I hope the surgery goes well.

:hug:
Be well.

[Parche]

24. Dr Dover

I HOPE you have good health insurance
Sounds like you went thru a rough moment in life
I hope you are feeling better this week!! :hi:

I dont have any health insurance yet

[hickman]

26. philboy, I went thru something like this a couple of years ago.

I wasn't as patient as you. It wasn't me in pain, it was my son. When they couldn't find the scrip I told them they better call the Doctor RIGHT NOW. They did, and were very apologetic. I had a kid at home with staples from his sternum to just below his belly button, and in all kind of pain. I never raised my voice, but I asked them, PLEASE, to fix this.

[riona]

28. What do old people do?

They get really crabby. Pain will do that.