I open the door to the pharmacy and ask the man if he's picking up a prescription.
"Yes, I'm here to get a prescription for my wife, Mrs. Serotonin."
Mrs. Serotonin is currently on Wellbutrin, Effexor, and Abilify all at the same time in high doses, all from the same prescriber. I imagine she's great fun at parties.
I go to the will call cabinet and look for a prescription and nothing is there. I look on the counter, then check the order bin to see if something if it is on order for her. The entire time Mr. Serotonin watches me intently as I move all about the pharmacy.
I give up. "Well, I don't have anything for her," I say, as I move to the computer to boot up our fantastic software so I can fill her prescription.
"It would have been called in this morning," he says.
I couldn't stop myself. "Really?!?!?" I said to the guy.
He looks at me, quiet.
"You let me wander all around the pharmacy looking for a prescription that YOU KNOW hasn't even been filled yet?"
He's still quiet. We're caught in a stare off. It lasted maybe ten seconds.
"I'm ok with waiting," he says.
I get the computer going. No e-scripts. I go to the fax. No faxes. I go to the voicemail. There it is, called in around the time we open. The doc didn't let it ring through to the pharmacy, rather she chose to just leave a message.
I listen to the message. She's on a cell phone driving somewhere. ATTENTION DOCTORS DOING THIS ~ STOP DOING THIS. Anyway, she doesn't leave instructions on how to take the medication.
"Really?!?!?" I think to myself.
I go to the counter where Mr. Serotonin is still staring at me. I tell him that a message was left, that I need to call the doctor back because she didn't leave instructions, and that it would be AT LEAST 30 minutes before I get the prescription filled."
"Ok, I'll be back," he says.
I immediately call the doctor, get patched through to the answering service, explain the situation, and leave my number. Within two minutes the doctor called me back. Maybe things are turning around for the day, I thought.
I get the instructions, type and print a label. Maybe ten minutes has passed. I start filling the script. I sense movement in front of the pharmacy. I look up.
It's Mr. Serotonin. "Is it ready yet?"
He's just quiet.
I get the script filled. It's a zero co-pay, so I just bag it and hand it to him. If I open my mouth at this point, I'm likely to say what I'm really thinking and if I repeat what I was thinking here it would likely break the Internet.
Really.
6 comments:
It is obvious he was afraid to go home without the meds or anxious about getting a million cell calls from the Mrs. I always wondered how these people got married in the first place.
Makes you want to know where he works so that you can go there and be a total tool-customer.
If you said 30 minutes, why are you rewarding the behaviour by giving it to him beforhand? Fill it and let it sit there until the 30 minute mark.
The fun in pharmacy is endless. Last week we had a customer who did not like her copay for a drug that had no generic equivalent.She had a meltdown in the pharmacy 15 minutes before closing. She called the corporate hotline and complained that she could not afford the copay.. The DM sent us several emails about what we could have done to avoid the issue. I am retiring this year and plan to never ever set foot in a pharmacy thereafter!
Just fyi, as a bipolar patient, it's not unusual for a psych doc to put a patient on an antidepressant and an antipsychotic (Wellbutrin & Abilify) as a way TX for bipolar. Some even do this without a mood stabilizer now, not sure why. However, it IS kind of unusual for a patient to be on 2 antidepressants & an antipsychotic at the same time, unless you're having Tx-resistant depression and they want to prevent a manic episode...this has happened to me. I've beenjoyed treated as a bipolar I patient for over 20 years and have been on some weird med cocktails.
I know this is a couple years old, but SERIOUSLY???!!!!!????? What in the hell did the DM possibly suggest "we could have done to avoid the issue?!" O.M.G.
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