I’m on an anxiolytic – an anti-anxiety medication. The Veterans Administration sent me my “refill” the other day. I’m supposed to take 1 tablet FOUR times a day. My 30-day supply consisted of “30 of 30” tablets in “Bottle 1 of 1”. Now, simple math dictates that a 30-day supply of this medication taken as prescribed would add up to 120 tablets per month. I even checked my mental math with a calculator to make sure I wasn’t just having a brainless moment. Evidently, someone else did when they were filling my prescription. So now I have to try to straighten this out with the VA pharmacy somehow without them taking an extra refill off of my remaining refills, and doing so before I run out of my medication.
I could launch into a relentless tirade about VA healthcare right now, but I’m not going to. Why? Well, there are several reasons. For one thing, I’m thankful for the VA. Without VA healthcare, I wouldn’t have any healthcare at all. I have a top-notch primary care physician there whom I wouldn’t trade for the world. I want to give a shout out to Dr. Merrill Stanley, M.D. who works at the Billings VA Outpatient Clinic here in Billings, Montana! Thank you, Sir, for taking such great care of me for over 11 years now! The second reason I’m not going to rip the VA is that I know that there are people involved, and where there are people involved, mistakes do happen. I’ve made plenty of mistakes in my life and pharmacists aren’t immune to this phenomenon. Granted, when you’re dealing with medication, especially controlled substances, you need to have your stuff together, but I understand that a mistake occurred. I simply expect it to be fixed immediately, correctly, and honestly. I need that medication. I don’t need to argue and bicker over who did what wrong. Blame is a wasting disease of one’s time and energy. I need the problem FIXED. I can forgive. I do expect it not to happen again, but that’s another point entirely, and I’ll leave it for another post. Right now, I need my meds.
I sent the pharmacy a secure message about the situation and made my needs and expectations clear. Hopefully I will receive a reply stating that they are sending me the rest of my “refill” and all will be well… I won’t be truly angry unless I have to go over there in person with my prescription bottle, which after four days contains less than three days’ worth of medication for the month, and have to explain to them their error. A personal visit from me is rarely a good thing in the world of medicine, unfortunately…
CLIMBING 4 THE REST OF US 