This was only Bill’s second surgery in his entire life, the first being in 1958 when he (as so many other children back in those days did) had his tonsils removed. And to add insult to injury, not only was the surgery a month out, it wasn’t scheduled until 3:00 pm, pretty much an entire day without eating and nothing to drink since mid-morning. But he’s handling the whole thing like a trooper… after all with the 2 big losses he’s already suffered this year (his sister and his job) the loss of his gallbladder seems like a piece of cake.
He made it thru surgery just fine. He was very groggy and wanted to go home, they finally let us leave about 8:00pm. We got him home and tucked away in bed, that was when the fun really began, getting a prescription filled at that time of night!
I wish someone could please explain to us the complete job description of a pharmacist. To me it seems as if the most time consuming thing of the whole process would be to decipher the highly educated doctors handwriting, but I apparently am wrong on this assumption. I stopped by the Rite-Aid closest to our house on the way home, hoping that I could just run in, drop the scripts off, get Bill home and in bed, go back and pick up the drugs; I was wrong. Granted we had not had a prescription filled at this drug store before so when I dropped them off I had to give them our information; address, insurance card, allergies; I get all of this and the attendant said it would be close to an hour before they would be ready for pickup (did I mention that I was close to being the only person in the entire store?) to which I replied, no problem, I want to get my husband home and in bed, that I would be back.
Once I returned the store our scripts were NOT ready...now I have to deal with the pharmacist (apparently her assistant had left for the day), she asked me for the address, insurance card, allergies to which I explained that I had given all that information to her assistant, she then asked me, where did she put them??? I wanted to say, HELLO??? don't work here you'll do, but I didn't. She finally found the insurance card and I gave her all of the other information again. She then tells me it will take about 20 minutes!
The pills are already made all she had to do was count out 30 pills put them in bottles print a label and slap it on the bottle and let me go home, all of which I'm pretty sure could be accomplished in half that amount of time. Can anyone explain what I am missing in the whole process here? Finally got the pills, finally got home, drug the patient up for the night and fixed myself a stiff drink!
LESSONS LEARNED:
- Whether it's Wal-Mart or Rite-Aid, there is no such thing as a quick fill for a new prescription
- A new appreciation of our prescriptions by mail plan (too bad it's only for refills or 90 day supplies)
- Gallbladders are now removed with a laparoscope
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