Med hassle history

Med hassle history:

• Left Manor Care in March. Them not writing their DEA number on the pain med prescriptions they wrote delayed pain meds one day. One other med prescription was missing. Prescriptions written as: no refills.


• Visited mom's regular doctor, Dr. Pugatch, a week later in March. No change in any meds. I had the doctor write new prescriptions with several refill capabilities to last until next appointment in June. His nurse had three weeks before meds were needed so plenty of time to get the prescriptions right.


• Prescription refills needed by Monday night.


• Didn't get to pharmacy until 5 pm last Friday. (I know, but time just races by with all to do.)


• Percacet and Oxycodone: prescriptions must be written. No over-the-phone or faxes allowed because these are narcotics. Also no idea on my part about this requirement. And apparently no idea by the doctor/nurse?
  


• Can't switch several prescriptions to suggested equivalent meds which have generics and are cheaper without the doctor writing new prescriptions.


• Monday


• Called doctor 9 am for pain prescriptions and request to switch several other meds.


• Called at 4:50 pm as I had not heard back from doctor. Was told the request was still on his desk to be signed. Decided to come and wait in doctor's waiting room after 5 pm to ensure I got pain prescriptions as soon as the doctor wrote them as the doctor would leave at 5:30 pm and the clinic closed then.


• Was told by nurse the doctor wouldn't change the other meds without mom making an appointment to come in to discuss it. (money making scheme?)


• Delivered the pain med prescriptions to pharmist and got pain meds. Got most other meds.


• Discovered no prescription written by doctor for Crestor.


• Discovered Furosemide (Lasix) prescription written wrong. Wrong dosage, wrong amount each day, wrong number of pills. Wrong! Wrong! Wrong!
  


• Another med written for twice the dosage of pill with instructions to cut each pill in half. Huh? Where did this come from? The pills are triangle shaped with no marks to enable a person to break them in half.
  
  We have no cutting tool for cutting pills, and even if I had one, cutting a triangle pill in half is difficult. Why was the pill shaped like a triangle - to prevent patients from cutting the pill in half and saving money?


• Found our these latest doctor/nurse errors after doctor's office closed for the day (remember I had picked up the pain meds around 5:15 pm, then had to drive across town to hand deliver the pain prescriptions to the pharmacist).


• Found that Medicare drug plans requires patient to pay the first $ no matter total cost of med. I.e. if a one month supply costs $100 and it is a preferred med, patient pays the first $25. If patient only gets a half month supply and the total cost is $50, the patient still pays the first $25.
  


• Tuesday


• Called doctor's office and spoke to nurse about her/doctor's screw ups. She wanted me to make an appointment and have my mother come into the doctor office and bring all mom's meds to discuss what she should be taking. I thought we had done this in March? My answer: NO.


• Went over each one of mom's meds on the phone to ensure the correct prescription.


• Nurse will correct the dosage so I won't have to cut triangle shaped pills in half next time.


• Nurse will check into why the Furosemide prescription is all wrong. In the meantime I will have to cut some of the pills in half to get the correct morning dosage. Oh joy. At least the pills are round with a line in the middle.
  


• Nurse will have doctor write a Crestor prescription.


• Nurse probably knows I am not happy with this situation. I tried to be good as mom just got Dr. Pugatch last year and really likes him. She was afraid I would upset the doctor and get her dropped.
  


• Visited the pain clinic with mom this afternoon for an initial evaluation. Got feedback discouraging use of a number of mom's pain meds and recommendations on other pain meds to use. Great - just refilled some of them. Lyrica = bad. Others not so good. Cymbalta recommended. Will see doctor at pain clinic tomorrow.
  
  Which reminds me... the appointment is very early tomorrow morning and I must go to bed now.