TAKE YOUR MEDICINE

The good old USA has the best health care in world. I guess there’s some debate about that but it has done okay by me. Just the other day my doctor said if it wasn’t for him I’d probably be a goner. Since he’s a significant part of the health care system (as far as I’m concerned) then the fact that I’m upright and walking is confirmation of that claim to be the “best”. I’m not going to get into a big rant here about the current arguments for and against the reform of the health care system. Anyone who knows me knows where I’ll come down on that particular seesaw. To my way of thinking it doesn’t take a lot of logic or observation of the results of previous governmental programs to see the value of a truly competitive private system. But even good private systems are operated by humans and sometimes errors occur and difficulties arise.

For instance, this past Tuesday I realized a couple of my prescriptions needed to be refilled. In fact one of them had no more refills left so I had to call the doctor’s office to get a new one. When I called the office I was told that I had not scheduled the requisite follow up visit yet and must do that before I could get a new prescription. The reason I had not called for that appointment was pretty obvious. My dietary program had done a little backsliding and I was avoiding the lectures my doctor loves to give disobedient patients. But I needed the pills so I told the girl to set up an appointment and call the prescription into the drug store. She said that wouldn’t be necessary because the doctor had a cancellation (another fearful backslider, I bet) and I could pop in at five o’clock. Rats! So I agreed.

A few hours later I was getting the lecture as the doctor re-checked my blood pressure. Apparently he didn’t believe the dangerously high reading that the nurse had gotten a little earlier. When he confirmed the numbers he ratcheted the lecture up a couple of notches. He also did a few more physical examination items just to make sure I wasn’t going to drop dead on my way to the drugstore. My jokes about him being out of business and working for the government if Obama’s plan got fully implemented didn’t help his mood at all. He said it wouldn’t make much difference as far as my case was concerned because my current path to longevity was heading for a big cliff. I’ve know this doctor for over twenty years so we have that kind of playful banter all the time. Unfortunately this time he wasn’t laughing so much.

Well he jacked up my dosage on the blood pressure medicine, which he had reduced about eighteen months ago, and scheduled me for a follow-up and, for good measure and just to show he could get his revenge, also referred me to the evil colonoscopy guys. As you can imagine, my head was hanging low when I left that place.

So I headed to the drugstore to pick up my prescriptions (or “scrips”as those of us who are frequent drug users say) which were electronically sent there by the doctor. I picked up my little package and went home. When I got home I started to fill up my little day of the week pill dispenser. This sectioned off plastic box is a required accessory for us over-medicated senior citizens. When I opened the bottle of what was supposed to be my new medicine I noticed it was the same pink and white color as the old capsule. At first I thought that was nice because I kind of like that look. But when I looked closely at the bottle I saw that the dosage hadn’t been increased. So I grabbed the bottle and got in the truck and headed back to the store. The dummy that waited on me earlier was still there so I told him my problem and he looked blankly at me, then blankly at his computer screen and then blankly back at me again. He said that the bottle matched what the doctor’s office had sent over. I asked him to call the office and get this squared away. But of course by that time of day the office was closed. So I told him I would go there in the morning and get this settled.

This morning I got to the doctor’s office at opening time and after a brief wait of a half hour was allowed to talk to one of the clerks. She said that the proper prescription had been sent over to the pharmacy. I said they didn’t have it and maybe a phone call would get things handled. She said she would check and she disappeared for about fifteen minutes. She came back and said again that the proper prescription had been sent over and that I should go talk to the pharmacist. If there was any further confusion the pharmacist, who has a secret hot-line to doctors, could call at any time. Once again I drove to the pharmacy.

The dummy from yesterday wasn’t working the counter so I talked to today’s dummy. She wanted to settle the matter by spinning the computer screen around and showing me the electronic renewal they had received from the doctor’s office. Since I didn’t have my more powerful medicine yet my blood pressure was up a bit and I kind of exploded, just a little. The pharmacist (and pretty much everyone in the store) heard my string of expletives and quickly arrived to help. She determined that I was unhappy with the way things were going and called the doctor’s office, got a verbal confirmation of the new prescription and in an amazingly short time had it filled.

Just imagine if I had been a lackadaisical customer. I might have gone on to take the lower dose of ineffective medicine and had a major medical event or worse. But I was a savvy consumer and I’ll probably be around for a good long time, especially now that I’m fully back on the weight loss program. Again!

Have a fine day.