I'd Rather It Was Me...and Today It Is

Well...let me start with the 'pharmacy ordeal' from yesterday. I called my daughters' pediatricians office a little before noon to ask them to please call in a prescription for some cough medicine because G cannot stop coughing. She had been up and down all night. They directed me to a voicemail and assured me it would be checked at lunchtime. I left a very polite message. I told them we needed some prescription cough syrup because the Delsym was not cutting it and my poor little girl was not able to get any sleep at night. I asked them to please call me at home and gave them the number. I then made the mistake, even though I knew I was in lockdown and most likely would not go anywhere, I explained if they tried me at home and could not reach me try my cell and gave then that number too. I reminded them to try me at home first and reiterated that I do not have my cell on when I am home. The day drags on, it does that when you are in lockdown, with no call. I call back around 2:45pm...they have been really busy, the receptionist explains. I say I only want a prescription called in, and she says she will talk to the nurse that does that when she gets out of the exam room she is in. I wait...no call. It is now 4:50pm...I call back. The receptionists says they will definetly call soon and not to worry because they don't close till 6pm. Again I wait......by 6:10 I am fuming. On a whim I decide to check my cell phone...WHAT??!! A MESSAGE?? Sure enough there is a message from the doctors office left at 5:51pm!! The nurse says she is going to call in a prescription...she just needs to know what pharmacy but instead of leaving me a number to call her back and let her know what pharmacy. SHE LOOKS UP MY ADDRESS IN THE CHART AND GUESSES AS TO WHICH ONE I USE!!!! AND THE ONE SHE PICKS TO CALL IT IN TO CLOSES AT 6PM!!!! SO she called this pharmacy about 5 minutes before they closed and gave them my daughters prescription order. I call back the doctors office and of course was routed to the after hours nurse on call. Can you guess which nurse it was?? She calls me and ...well here is how the conversation went...

Nurse: Oh I already took care of this..I called in a prescription for Tussin12 suspension.

Me: You called it in to a pharmacy that is 20 miles from me and closed 15 minutes ago. I need you to call it in to MY pharmacy that is 3 miles from me and closes at 10pm.

Nurse: Oh...well I will need to call it in tomorrow morning because we can't have two prescriptions for the same meds called in to two different pharmacies.

Me: I don't care...I need it called in to Walgreens tonight. My daughter has been coughing ALL day and I called you all this morning before lunchtime to ask to have this done. You guessed at the pharmacy location when all you had to do was look in her chart and you would have seen a million other times scripts had been called into Walgreens...only Walgreens. Better yet you could have called me at home like I asked instead of worrying about getting it done in a hurry. But if you don't want to do this now thats ok...I have Dr. *****'s home number and I am sure she will call it in for me.

Nurse: No maam that won't be nessecary..I will call it in to Walgreens and I will just have to remember to call it in to ---(the other drug store)--first thing in the morning.

Me: Thank you very much.

It is now about 6:25. I wait about 30 minutes and call Walgreens to verify the meds were called in. They were there...but the pharmacist was just getting ready to call me because for some reason the insurance is not wanting to cover the prescription cost???!!!! Well I know my insurance is Ok..just used it yesterday.."Oh wait', the pharmacist says..."It appears you had this filled earlier today at another drug store and the insurance company won't authorize the payment twice in a row"...I had no words...I could not believe that within the 9 minutes before they closed this other drug store that I had only been to once in my life two years ago kept all my info and ran the prescription through that fast when they knew they were closing!! Deep breath....I ask the pharmacist, "what is the actual cost of the meds?" She says she has it in the generic form and it's $77.00, (my copay for generic is $20.00)...My pharmacist, bless her, hears my distress and she says here is what we will do. I will partially fill it and you can pay full price for what I give you tonight and then when the other drug store reverses its authorization for payment you can come in and pick up the rest of the prescription and they will reimburse me back down to the $20.00. Well that was nice of her...so at 8pm last night I went and picked up 1/2 the prescription and will go back today..or maybe tomorrow and get the rest.

G did get some sleep last night...she still coughed for about an hour after she fell asleep but then settled down and slept well through the rest of the night. I, on the other hand, now have my wish granted as I awoke at 3am feeling very yucky and a little feverish...Now here I sit all stuffy with a sore throat....bring on the Advil and get ready for 'Lockdown Day 5' !!

Karen