Hi everyone:

Boy, I had an adventure which I'm glad is OVER while getting a refill on my meds this month....  :-(

It all starts on Friday afternoon.  I hurriedly rush down to the clinic where I'm currently assigned to get my monthly refill of Phenobarbital for my Epilepsy, only to get there too late as the Pharmacy was closed and the clinic was closing down as well.  I was told to go to the Walk-In Clinic at the masin hospital to see what they can do.

Knowing there was NO WAY I'd get down there in time and still get the prescription I needed BEFORE the Pharmacy closed on Friday, I chose to hold off and go down there the next day (which was yesterday) instead.

Well.....I get down there in plenty of time, but GUESS WHAT....

By the time they get through with me and hand me my prescription and after waiting OVER AN HOUR (I had arrived at about 4:15 p.m. since I'm not a morning person and I figured the Pharmacy at the main hospital would be open till 7 p.m.) and by the time I had approached the Pharmacy window - THEY WERE CLOSED!!!!

I knew I had no choice but to go to an outside Pharmacy.  I had several choices (one of which the staff at the Walk-In Clinic kept recommending, but the people who go there are too seedy [It was good ol' King Sloppie's, Bill]), so I chose to go to one of the three pharfmacies which were close to me.  Guess what happens NEXT....

I get down there and IT TOO WAS CLOSED [This was the Walgreens on 1st & Broadway, Bill].  I tried the one at the grocery store where I normally shop (and where I feel SAFE) since I needed to get some other things from there anyway, only to find that IT TOO WAS CLOSED!!!

Now, at THIS point, I'm thinking "What is this - National Pharmacists Day or something??".  I asked myself this because it seems as though virtually ALL the pharmacies close at or around 6 p.m. on Saturdays regardless of their weekday operating hours.

Tired as he**, I then ask the store clerk to call a taxi for me since I didn't feel confident nor comfortable with catching the bus home (especially given my physical condition and considering the health condition I was in at the time).

$3.00 and a cab ride later, I'm back at home DREADING the thought of having to spend YET ANOTHER night without my meds and REALLY pushing the limit.

Today, I left by taxi around 9:30 a.m. (I didn't even bother with going to sleep out of concern that I might have a seizure shortly after waking up today if I didn't have one sooner).  I went back to the hospital to get my new prescription filled thinking THIS should be a piece of cake.  this cost me YET ANOTHER $3.00 in cab fare.

NOT SO!!!!  In fact, it was ANYTHING *but* a piece of cake.  

The staff there tells me that they DO NOT HAVE THE REQUIRED AMOUNT OF PILLS!!!!  Mind you, this is a pharmacy INSIDE A BIG HOSPITAL that was telling me this.

Suffice to say, they gave me what amounted to an option and a half.  The option was to take it ot an outside pharmacy [Think King Sloppie's again Bill] and the "half" was to go back to the Walk-In Clinic to see if they could somehow modify the prescription whereas the pbharmacy *could* fill it.  Not liking the option, I chose the "half".

I spoke to the doctor at the window of the Walk-In Clinic and HE went to the pharmacy and was given the same LAME A** excuse.  Only THIS time, the pharmacy staff rubbed it in EVEN FURTHER by giving me the song and dance about it being the weekend and that supplies aren't what they normally would be and that no order would be processed until tomorrow (Monday), yada, yada, yada....

I eventually left in disgust saying this was TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE AND INEXCUSABLE (and I do plan to bring this up when I speak with the state-sponsored insurace carrier too!).  I took YET ANOTHER cab to the aforfementioned Walgreens, knowing that the outside pharmacies MUST have meds in stock in order to stay in business.  This cost me YET ANOTHER $3.00 (Can ya tell I had cabbies who didn't beat around the bush for the sake of profit??  :-)).   

Anyhow, I get inside Walgreens and approach the pharmacist there (she was kind, sweet and cute too, but we'll leave that for another story :-)).  Needless to say, it was like a BIG MONKEY had been removed from my back when she said that it would only take about 5 to 10 minutes.  It actually took a bit longer, but she had other customers and was the only one there.  Plus she had to enter me into the store's computer, so I won't get too picky here as what I got from her in just two minutes was a FAR CRY from what took me nearly TWO DAYS to accomplish at the SO-CALLED "pharmacy" at the hospital itself.  

Anyhow, while she was filling my prescription, I went for the bottled water section and got me something to eat as I needed to take a dose of Pheno almost quite literally as soon as I got it (my last dose was late Thursday/early Friday morning [as in the wee hours]).

Lessons learned from this experience.....

1).  Have my file and chart transferred to the clinic next to the main hospital (which I can see from my window).  I've already put in a request for this, though I'll follow-up tomorrow in case they don't return my call by then.

2).  USE OUTSIDE PHARMACIES!!!  As I said before, I have THREE of 'em within a relatively easy bike ride (and I'm already in the Walgreens system as of today), so the main hospital just lost me as a pharmacutical customer :-)).  And given the tip I got from the perplexed doctor at the Walk-In Clinic, I won't have to worry about copay as long as I have my state-spinsored insurance carrier card, which I always have on my person at all times anyway.

Long and short of it....I am SO glad this WEEKEND FROM HELL is almost over.  I'll still have to contend with next month, but hopefully (barring DISASTER), my records *should* be transferred and I should've met with my new doctor by then.  But since I'll be taking my prescriptions to outside pharmacies as opposed to the JOKE of a "pharmacy" that's in-house, this shouldn't really be THAT big of a deal.  *knocking on wood and crossing fingers*.

Anyways....I hope you guys enjoy laughing and chuckling about this (I mean this in a friendly way) because up until I started typing this, *I* wasn't as I'm sure many of you can understand.  :-)   BTW..."Bill" is the one friend who can possibly imagine what I went through because while he doesn't have E or CP, he once lived not very far away from the hospital I speak of.  He now lives in Philly.  :-)

Having said all that...Cheers for now everyone  :-)

Patrick C ook
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Denver, Colorado
http://home.talkcity.com/MinivanAve/patrick32/