Dang Pharmacist! | Arthritis Information

 

So I get my Arava filled at the supermarket pharmacy. Enbrel comes by Fedex from Caremark. No problem ever with that. This new pharmacist drives me nuts. You know how someone just rubs you the wrong way and you don't know why? Well, I call her on Tuesday and say I need to refill my Arava, I have one left for Wed. "OK", it will be here after 2pm" she says. Well I drive over there, its not there. "Maybe tomorrow it'll come in" she says. I go back Thursday, THREE TIMES, not yet. I now have no pill to take. Insurance makes me refill exactly 30 days apart. I call Friday, "Nope, it's probably in the pm delivery, try back after 12 noon". I go back, now my second day w/no Arava, barely able to walk w/o tears in my eyes, and they have it!!!!!! Do any of you have this problem with not being able to refill earlier so you have some overlapping doses? Honey...I can relate with your situation.  My advise is to give the pharmacy a call and check if your medication is ready for pick up first. I'd change pharmacists. Is there a Walgreens near you ?  They are great!! Well, my prescriptions were always done at the supermarket because when my kids were infants, if they were sick, I always liked to be able to put in my prescriptions and then while I waited I'd shop around for ice creams (if they had sore throats) or cans of soup etc. I hate going to actual drug stores because i always feel that everyone in there is sick Whether or not you go to the pharmacy or supermarket for your refills there are germs! 

I would go with a regular pharmacy too like walgreens or cvs.  I do have a couple of scripts I have to wait for those 30 days on the dot to refill or the insurance doesn't pay for it.  I go to walgreens and never have had a problem with them.  I do go to walmart for my blood pressure pills because I run those thru their generic program.  Otherwise I would have to do those mail order at 50 bucks every 3 months vs. paying 24 bucks every 3 months. 

I use the local Walgreens, which has a drive-thru...best breakthrough of the century (either one!).  No germs, except the ones on the pharmacy tech's hands, and best of all, I don't have to walk to the back of the very large store, wait in a line, and try to have enough energy/lack of pain to get all the way back out to my car.  Walgreen's also let's you order on-line and will send you an e-mail when your Rx is ready.

OK, enough of the commercial.  Some of the other chains have similar services.  I would check it out, because what they are doing to you is ridiculous.

I use the Walmart generic thing for some meds then have to order one for the 3 mos supply through a program my doc set me up in. My mother, sis and bro-in-law use a local family operated pharmacy right here in town for their meds, they like the small town "know your neighbor "atmosphere. I do too but cannot afford the meds there. SO I feel like a number going into walmart for my prescriptions but that is ok. And the walmart is really fast here but their personalities are always welcoming. The head pharmacist seems "grouchy" all the time. GO figure!

jode

Well, I don't know why but pharmisistssss, can be nasty. I got a free one month Boniva card and the walmart guy got really huffy about it (or something), i walked out! Then I went to Ralphs and 3 out of the 4 clerks there are great ....but one was really rude to my husband...so, I don't know why they have this 'attitude'? We are sorta sick, tired, irratated, feeling lousy, grumpy, etc. so maybe it is us? Who knows, Ralphs supermarket is where I go here in the far 'west' and wait for the people I like. sarahI go INSIDE to the Albertsons where I live, because the people at Walmart are idiots (once, the lady REFUSED to give me my script!! AND THEN she told me she didn't have time to DEAL WITH ME!! WTF?! Itch! (I got her butt fired)), and Walgreens, well, they HAVE a drive-thru, but they request you drop off a script the day BEFORE, and they will have it within 24hrs (no earlier). I'm not kidding.

So, I go inside at Albertsons. They know me, they've given me pills to keep me until the Dr called in a script for painkillers, and they don't judge me when I pick up my percocet....or if I need my vicodin early...they will even WAIT to put it in to the insurance if I pick it up early, so I don't have to pay out of pocket. Plus I love the 3 pharmacists and the two techs. They are really nice. One of the pharmacists....I run into him every so often, and if I'm going to my car, he INSISTS on helping me (his daughter is my age, but she lives on the east coast....so he says he helps me because he cannot imagine how I do it, thekids, with all my pain, and because he hopes someone would do the same for his daughter. I want to adopt him!!)

I did fill a script for percocet at Walgreens once. They made me COME IN the store and the pharmacists gave me a LECTURE on how I was going to kill myself if I took more than half at once time because I'm really too thin to take such a heavy-duty drug, and what could POSSIBLY be wrong with me that I need it anyway? Did I have a drug problem?? I'm serious....I filed a HUGE complaint, and refuse to go back. I actually wrote a letter to our local little paper about the whole thing, and it was PUBLISHED!!!

THEN I went to Costco once (since drugs are cheaper there), and got a lecture about my vicodin from THAT pharmacist!!! She said that I needed to be REALLY careful when taking it, as it would probably make me REALLY sleepy, and why did I need that anyway? Tylenol mixed with motrin was a MUCH better painkiller than narcotics!! I looked at her with my "mean Julia" look and said "I have SEVERE joint pain. I can hardly walk....I have had TWO children, have had migraines, and have taken stronger painkillers in the past...I think I will be okay. I don't need a lecture thankyou very much". I almost thought she wasn't going to give them to me!!! (she said I shouldn't take more than 1/2 a pill a day...any  more and I could overdose. WTF?! lol)

It's SO hard to find a good Pharmacist.....I have decided it's worth getting out of the car to get good service....and ALbertsons will match ANY price of ANY pharmacy.....AND they match all the coupons...plus they give them to me too...LOL. So I'm always getting GC from there.     

Wow, I drop off my scripts at the drive thru at walgreens and pick them up in an hour!!

Pharmacists are only supposed to ask you if you have any questions about your meds.  Not lecture you about them.  There is only one tech at my walgreens neither one of us can stand.  Danny says next time he gets her when he picks up my scripts he is going to ask for her supervisor and complain.  She must of made him mad lol.  I do like the online and phone refill options with walgreens too.  One of the techs has saved us a huge amount of money by not running my syringes thru my insurance.  Instead of 11 bucks a month for needles...I pay a buck lol. 

Walmart...eh...gotta give them a couple of hours to fill my blood pressure meds refills.  But hey...I will deal with that considering the money I save in the long run. 

Well, part of the problem with my pharmacist is, she's new and she doesn't speak English very well. I'm not prejudiced, but I can't ask her a simple question about my meds. For example, my dr. started me out on 1/2 the dose of Arava (10mg). I'm fine on that so he sees no need to increase it right now. Well, after missing it for two days and being in pain, I asked her would it be alright to take 2 pills (20mg.) just once to get caught up. She had NO CLUE what I was asking. She just kept saying "Ah ah um dun no". She's Chinese. I know NO Chinese. Spanish I probably could have fudged my way through a little! Needless to say, I just took the one 10mg pill. I guess that leaves me one leftover at the end of the 4 weeks for an overlap!Where I live we have a 24 hour nurse hotline where you can phone a nurse
and ask medical questions. I've phoned a few times and never had to wait.
It's a service offered because it saves the system money. People sometimes
don't have to go to emergency or the a walk-in clinic or their doctors
because they get information and home treatment from the hotline. You can
also phone and ask questions about your medications.I can relate to some of this! I use Medco--mail in.  You can order on-line once you mail in the script.  However with the Humira, you order it and then they call you to set up a date for it to be delivered.  They are not allowed to ask Soc. Sec #s anymore so everyone uses your birthdate.  I swear during the phone call they ask your date of birth, address, etc at least three times.  I always says what it is, the second time, I state it is the same as I stated before, I haven't moved in the last minute.  The third time I am growling at them.  They ask if you have any questions for the pharmacist but if you ask to talk with them--they are very unpleasant--like you are bothering them.  My allergy meds come from CVS--they just fill it, you can call in the refill via phone and set up a time to have it ready.  They do very good--but the person who hands you the refill is a high school person.  I also find I have to watch what the RA doctor writes.  I ran out of folic acid and looked at the bottle, well he wrote it for the wrong amount.  Luckly that can be purchased OTC and I had some on hand.  I see him Tuesday so I worked out the math for the more man so he can write me a correct prescription.  Now that rx will either hve to be faxed in or mailed to Medco and they will mail it back to me---a good week or so.

Midge, I'm sorry you've had so much trouble!  Like Liz, when I drop off a script at the Walgreen's drive-thru, it's usually ready in an hour unless there's a problem.

When I switched from the mtx to the Arava, they said the Arava wasn't ready because they had to call my doctor.  I explained to the tech (who then explained to the pharmacist) that I was switching to the Arava, not taking both (yeah, why don't I just leave my liver on the ground here for cars to run over), and they gave me the prescription within minutes.  It was a minor annoyance, but at least they're paying attention and trying to protect me.

I cannot believe that any pharmacist would lecture someone about painkillers that had been prescribed for them!  That is insanity and needs to be reported to whatever board governs pharmacists.  The only time I got so much as a weird look was a couple of years ago when I picked up my Vicodin from CVS and my regular tech was making some jokes with me and I joked back that he didn't need to bag the precription, I would just eat them in the car.  Guess he didn't think it was funny.Hey Innerglow, that's funny! Once my sister went to the Pharmacy to pickup condoms (yes - she's married) and the pharmacist, after ringing her up said "Would you like a bag with that?". My sister was like "Umm YEAAH!"

I also call my pharmacist about medication questions before I call the dr.s office. They are always very helpful about my medications and being a small store they actually have time to talk to me.

Walmart is horrible in my opinion as far as service goes. Any store that is really busy is not going to give you that one on one service that I feel is so important when we live with a chronic illness. That's ok for folks that only occationally get medication prescribed. But for folks that are on routine maintenance medication and some really strong things need to have people they can count on for help.

 

Honey, this is not right. Pharmacies borrow from other pharmacies all the
time. Also, she should have offered to have it transferred to a pharmacy
where you could have picked it up so that it does not throw you off
schedule. This would be the last time i would use this pharmacy. It is so
important for us to be able to communicate with staff. I am not pregidice
either but I get very frustrated if I cannot understand what is being said to
me.

I'm spoiled because the hospital I work at has a pharmacy right inside

I used to use mail order for my Enbrel and Mtx, they had a hard time getting my Rx's right, so I'm glad to switch to another pharmacy.

Phats

My Enbrel comes mail order (I'm still not sure how that was ever set up) but the Arava and Relafen are from the pharmacy. I may switch. I don't think it'd make a difference there though for the next person who gets messed up, ya know? The pharmacist is new, she's only been there since November or so. The one before was great. She'd always call the house to see how we were; if my son had an earache or something. Honey, you need to have a few doses as backup in case this ever happens again.  Don't wait 30 days, after about 20, call and tell them you need an emergency refill because you accidentally spilled 10 pills down the sink.  If this doesn't happen too often, I think they will have to honor your request. After all, we are sometimes kinda clumsy what with our stiff joints and all, right? I don't have much sympathy for the drug or insurance companies that make our lives more miserable with their "rules".   Just my opinion, do what you think best.   Pat
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