Fun

Last February, my arthritis doctor switched me to sulfasalazine. This medication worked generally well until October. He increased the dose from 1 pill twice a day (2 pills total) to 3 pills a day (I could decide whether it was two in the morning and one at night or the other way). He said if I didn’t see improvement by January 1 to increase to 2 pills twice a day (4 pills total). He scheduled a return visit for February.

I followed his instructions. When I saw absolutely no benefits to three pills a day by January 1, I increased my dose to 4 pills a day. It is now the middle of February and I am still suffering through pretty bad bouts of arthritis pain and swelling.

The doctor gave me a new script for the drug so I could get the correct amount. As I had plenty of refills on the existing script, I waited to turn in the medication until January and just got my prescriptions a bit more often during the 3 pills a day dosing. Increasing the dose again in January meant I couldn’t really do that any more—I needed to start getting the correct amount, as I didn’t want to pay the copay on new prescriptions every 15 days. However, I needed to call the insurance company and explain the situation and find out if they would require anything or have any issues. So I continued to get the original script through the end of January while I contacted them and went about my business. (Mistake number 1.)

Once the insurance question was answered, I went to my Sav-On pharmacy a couple of weeks ago. I very patiently explained to the “receptionist” person and then the head pharmacist that I had an existing script for 2 pills a day and my dosage had increased, so I needed to use the new script to update the existing script to 4 pills a day. The first woman didn’t understand what I meant, but the head pharmacist knew exactly what I needed. He described what needed to happen to the girl, and then left her to type his instructions. Unfortunately, it worked out that I had just picked up a prescription a few days earlier, so I didn’t need it refilled at that time; I just needed her to update the script so that, when I refilled it, it would have the correct number of pills. (Mistake number 2).

A little over a week ago, I received an automated call that I needed to pick up my prescription before they cancelled and restocked it. I called immediately. The boy on the phone was denser than a neutron star—no matter how I described the situation to him, he just wasn’t getting it. I spoke to someone else and explained what had happened, what was supposed to happen, and that I didn’t, at that time, need the script filled. This person understood, said she was taking care of it, and all would be right with the world. (Mistake number 3).

This week my prescription got low enough to reorder, so I called the pharmacy, used the automated refill service, and went to pick up my prescription today. They had filled it, but at the previous amounts (2 pills a day total). I explained the entire thing again to the girl working the counter; the same girl who, even though I spelled my last name (I don’t pronounce it to people, I simply spell it), couldn’t find my prescription under “S” on the shelf. Of course, there is no “S” in my name-- anywhere. Idiot.

Nancy, the best counter-worker there, was listening and she came over to help. She knows me by name. She looked up everything in the computer and discovered that the person I spoke with on the phone had simply canceled the new script.

She was smart and capable enough to understand what I needed. She said that she had to cancel the old script and replaced it with the new script. She then had the pharmacist on-call stop what he was doing, verify everything, and put double the remaining amount in the jar so I could pay and leave.

What is frustrating is not that it took so many people to get it right, that I was lied to, or that I had to deal with such stupid people. It is that:

• Each person seemed to get to a point where they understood what I was saying, in agreement with what needed to be done, and then did something—that didn’t help the situation.
• My next arthritis doctor appointment is next week, on Tuesday, and it is very likely the doctor will switch me to a different medication, making all of this moot; the increase in medication has not helped. I have been taking the 4 pills a day for a month and a half and I am in more pain today than I have been for quite some time. It appears this medication just isn’t cutting it for me and we’ll have to try something else.