Grrrrrrr

Let me say upfront that this is simply a rant! If you don't want to read further, I'm okay with that. Really, I'm sure that you don't need my screaming to make your day all sunshine and roses! That being said.......

I have spent a good part of my waking hours so far today trying to straighten out a prescription snafu. I'm sure most of you can relate. Like most of the country, I rely on technology to keep me moving. Literally. Today's frustration is over my arthritis meds. Late last week I realized that I needed a refill on one of my prescriptions. This is easy-peasy for me because the process on my part means telling Hubby I need one. He does the rest by logging into the website and starting the refill process. Our prescriptions must be filled by a mail order pharmacy which, by the way, has recently merged with another mail order pharmacy and is now going by a new name although supposedly, "nothing's changed".

That aside, this prescription has no more refills so my rheumatologist has to issue a new script. Should be easy. They do it all the time. I see my doctor every three months, so that's not part of the equation. Apparently it is an equation that looks something like this: m x r (p ¥ + 57) f x m = p x mr. (By the way, there must not be anyone doing any dividing anymore since there is not key for that on my keyboard. I have no idea what the little y thingy is. I just thought it was cool, so I included it.)

For two days in a row now, Hubby has gotten an email informing him that the order cannot be processed. He called me this morning to share the good news, with a request that I contact my rheumatologist and place it in their hands. Ok. I can do that.

Seems that their office never received the request. Now to log into the pharmacy website and check out what's going on with them. Nope. After another phone call to Hubby I still can't log in. No problem, I just called them. I'm kind of sweating bullets here in anticipation that because I'm covered under Hubby's insurance that they will need to speak to him. (I'm a little over sensitive to that problem because it has happened way too many times over the course of our marriage!) Thankfully, I had the bottle in my hand so I had the RX number. Whew! Dodged that one. They inform me that they have faxed the needed form twice and have not received a response. Wait...the doctor's office said they never got the request. I verify the fax number with them. Yep..it's correct. Deep breath...maybe two or three...or more.

One more plea to the doctor. I'm not quite sure why, but my chart was returned to the maze of the file room after my original call. Since I have part-time residence at their office, they are familiar enough with me to answer my questions without it. The pharmacy told me to ask them to just send them the prescription. Seems easy enough. But no, the pharmacy won't accept the prescription unless it is received on their form and the office doesn't have the form. Here's where the GRRRRRR escalates.

I'm NOT screaming! I am NOT screaming! No, really I'm not. I'm not even sure who I should be screaming at. The pharmacy can't fill the prescription without the script, and my doctor can't authorize it without the correct form. I'm thinking that I can once more blame the government or maybe the guy who invented the fax machine. I have left it in the capable hands of my buddy Jeff, the RN at my rheumatologist's office. I know it will get straightened out, but I'd really like to give a couple of fax machines a swift hard kick to their hard drives!


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