Tuesday, April 14, 2009

It's Just so Frustrating

I have to work hard at being a patient person. In some areas I have had more success than others in achieving this goal. One area that I still have absolutely no patience for is needing to do other people's jobs for them. I have my own job to do. Actually since I work both outside the home as well as in it, I have two jobs to do, I shouldn't also need to do the job of someone else.

My eldest daughter has a diagnosis of Attention Deficit Disorder. She is not "hyper," but without her medication she is totally lost in dreamland, lacks age-appropriate social skills, and does not follow directions or understand assignments in class. After several years of counseling, diet alterations, and medication trials, we have finally found a medication that really works for her. The problem with this medication is that it is not readily available in pharmacies. Because of the class of medications that it falls under, I have to go to the pediatricians office every month and sign for it, then take it to the pharmacy. I would love to say that I am so organized that I think about doing this a week or even a few days ahead of time, but I am not. The upside is that the pediatrician's office is on my way to work.

To save myself the hassle of cluttering my already full mind with advanced planning every month, I worked out a system with the pharmacy nearest my house. This is also where I do my grocery shopping and get coffee, so they know me. For the first three months I called to make sure that they would have this prescription in stock (this was a huge organziational feat that took written reminders as well as an alarm on my phone). After that the pharmacist said that they would always have it in stock because they knew that I would be needing it around the same time every month. Apparently it is also expensive, so they don't want to have extras around.

Fast forward to today after six months of success with this pharmacy. My daughter has one more dose of this medication. To top it off, she is taking the Washington Assessment of Student Learning (WASL) test this week. It would be the worst week ever to send her to school unmedicated. I go to my pharmacy, just like I did at this same time last month, and they don't have the medication! They tell me that someone else has the same prescription and they gave it to them. Well that is all fine and dandy, but why didn't they make the new customer wait while they ordered more, why did they have to give them mine? Then the pharmacist tells me that they can order it and it will be in on Friday or Saturday. Let's see, that is two full-testing days unmedicated, I don't think so!

I drive to another pharmacy near my house (and people wonder why stay-at-home moms are never home). This pharmacy didn't have it either and it would be the same two day wait to order the medication. They were, however, nice enough to call pharmacies nearby. This was tremendously courteous and unexpected. I often avoid this pharmacy because it is big and busy and wait times are usually over an hour. After phoning six other pharmacies, this pharmacist finally found one nearby that had one prescription.

This pharmacy happens to be located in the bowls of a large metropolitan hospital. Aside from having to drive to the top of a parking structure and pay to park my car so that my kids and I could run in and grab the last available prescription in Bellevue, this was not a bad last resort. Promisingly, the pharmacist at this hospital pharmacy assured me that they always have this medication in stock because several of their staff members give it to their children. Hmmm....I wonder if I should believe them?

4 comments:

Megs said...

I'm so glad this story had a happy ending Karen ...but HOW FRUSTRATING! How infuriating that the pharmacy gave your medications to someone else! GRRRRR!

i am so pleased you can come to our solstice party and celebrate SUMMER!!!!!! And I am looking forward to seeing you on Friday!

love M

snowflake said...

OMG, so sorry to hear that happened to you and your daughter. I find it unbelievable that they gave your medication to someone else. That is frustrating.
I am glad that you were able to resolve it and hopefully you won't have to deal with that again!

Mommy to Chumsy said...

sorry to hear about this. very frustrating indeed. i would have given that pharmacy a piece of my mind :) can't believe that they can offer it to someone else when you have been going there for so many months. could you get more of the medication as a back-up?

Barb
http://chumsyashley.info

Nonickname said...

Thanks for the support everyone. I would love to keep a back-up of this medication on hand. As it is with the current laws I have to sign for the perscription each month and my insurance only pays for one month at a time.