If I may suggest, let your doctor know, in detail? If their office has one of those encrypted message portals, might be the easiest way. I've used those many times.
I'm afraid it's a marketing offensive (in both senses of the word) designed to guilt those who have chosen to discontinue a drug into resuming it, despite their adult status, and similarly to create social embarrassment in those (like me) who have amassed an oversupply of one drug and prefer to use it up before resuming orders. He attempted to really dig into my reasons for possessing an oversupply (not your business, mister, this is not an abusable or resellable drug) and made nasty insinuations about noncompliance. At which point I was supposed to break down in shame and order another three bottles just to prove I was compliant and not a Bad Person™. Which is when I went for him with both barrels. He doesn't really think my medical care is substandard; he merely ignores the implications of his pushy behavior (which, as I pointed out to him, are that both I and my doctor are idiots).
My doctor will be interested but has no leverage whatsoever to stop such abusive practices.
This is outrageous to me (in Australia), because it absolutely couldn’t happen here at the moment - no current prescription? No drugs. The idea that someone who isn’t medically qualified could attempt to pressurise you into continuing to buy prescription medicine that you don’t need (in your doctor’s opinion) blows my mind.
This is outrageous to me (in Australia), because it absolutely couldn’t happen here at the moment - no current prescription? No drugs. The idea that someone who isn’t medically qualified could attempt to pressurise you into continuing to buy prescription medicine that you don’t need (in your doctor’s opinion) blows my mind.
Slight clarification: This is a mail order pharmacy, intended for long-term unchanging prescriptions, therefore there are (usually) several refills attached to the original prescription, altogether comprising perhaps a six-month supply--which is sent to me on a regular schedule, say every two months. This man is demanding to know why I have chosen to refrain from receiving the refills that remain in his computer system, AND sending him lots and lots of lovely money therefor. He is not pressuring me to buy prescription drugs without a prescription--rather he is attempting to get me to order extra quantities of things I either already have more than enough of on hand, or else that my doctor has told me to stop using altogether. (The legal prescription is still in force for the moment.)
If a doctor decides I should stop taking a particular drug, the extra refills on the original legal prescription languish in the pharmacy computer system, taking up 0s and 1s in memory, but doing no harm, until their date of expiration approaches and they vanish. It is not necessary for the doctor to call the pharmacy explicitly to rescind a prescription--everyone trusts to the good sense of the patient to do as he or she is told. Except, apparently, this individual. And others in the Lowerarchy beneath him.
I appreciate the work you're doing with your patient during her difficulties with Pharmaceuticals; you're accomplishing much to foil the work of the Enemy. Frustration with bureaucrats of all stripes is one of the best tools we have for bringing our patients to the anger that leads to outbursts of irritation, rudeness to others, and the use of bad language without thought of the consequences.
Be careful, though, that you don't take her too far in that direction; this patient's sense of the absurd is too well developed, and she might sense where you are leading her. Better to cut off the conversation when she starts to make headway, so that she has to wait in the hold queue before starting in again. That frustration is the ideal path to wrath and contempt for others. Don't waste it.
TICTH T and his administration's plans to mess with US social safety net programs--both food programs and Social Security Disability programs. The latter applies to me. I just now read about this (Yahoo), and am having a mild freakout. Working on calming down.
I'll write my Congress critters, but they're likely to already be sensitive to this. (Pelosi, Fenstein, and Harris.)
In other news, LL's doctor has forgotten for the third time in three months to issue him a refill on the vital meds that keep his OCD in check, and as usual, the local pharmacy is having trouble getting her to respond. I'm going to have to knock some heads together. Wormwood, listen to your uncle or yours will be one of them...
Oh for heaven's sake - you've got one pharmacist-type person who wants to give you more medicine than you need, and LL has another who doesn't want to give him enough???
LL has his medicine as of two hours ago, at least for a month more. Apparently the doctor's office pulled their fingers out of their ears and did the shit they were supposed to do, and in a timely manner, glory be. (The local pharmacist has been nothing but helpful--in LL's case, the doctor's office is the culprit.)
I'm still dreading going through this all over again in roughly three weeks.
His dosage is somewhat unstable at the moment, which is probably the reason for the month-by-month. (Though to the best of my knowledge, NOBODY here does prescriptions that last for a year. Six months is the longest I've seen.)
Still, there's no excuse for not renewing the prescription at our last face-to-face visit two weeks ago, nor for having a totally inept office procedure that results in multiple lost faxes from the pharmacy and no other way to contact the doctor--not for us (I'm resigned to that) but for the pharmacist!
In an ideal world, we'd be given three or more months of refills at a time (at least), with the understanding that the dosage would be modified if needed at each visit. That would prevent this sort of panic every three-four weeks. As it is, we can't put it on automatic refill, we can't stock up, and God knows what will happen if either we or the doctor go unreachble for while (surgery, vacation, rescheduled appointment...)
We can't go find another doctor. Shrinks here take a year or more to see new non-critical patients, and if you don't like the one you've got (or have problems with the office!) it'll be at least a year before you get in anywhere else. And that's for a child.
May that shrink lie for ever on Sigmund Freud's couch in Hell, and in never-ending turmoil discover that all his troubles started because he wanted to have sex with his mother, and he saw his father's genitalia as an infant! And may analysts of the most divergent schools vociferously argue with each other about him, and about more causes and further procedures, endlessly, and without aim!
--I had a doctor who was...shall we say...personality-impaired and passive-aggressive...to both clinic staff and (some) patients. Doctor turned down my pharmacy's prescription renewal request *in order to get me to call in, and then be told to schedule an appointment*. Seriously. Mind, doctor didn't tell the pharmacy that was what was going on. I had an interesting convo with a clinic staff member, and found out more about the doctor's behavior.
Another time, I inquired about possible side-effects of a new med. "If I prescribed it, there won't be any side-effects!" (eyeroll) And once, during an appointment, I said/asked something he didn't like. So doctor turned away from me, got busy, and totally ignored me further. So I left. Fortunately, I got out of that doctor's practice.
--Another doctor's office could take weeks to get back to me--or not at all. Doctor felt they couldn't/shouldn't interfere. Eventually, I came into the care of the PAs (physician's assistants) in the office, when the doctor was unavailable for some time. Big improvement. They returned calls *themselves*, possibly on their way home from work. They paid more attention, and listened, and helped. They were better doctors than many MDs. If that's ever an option, maybe look into it.
--I've used the same in-person pharmacy for a long time, and they're almost always very good. They've interceded with doctors' offices for me; and (when possible) give me a partial refill to hold me over until the refill is authorized.
Yikes! I'm feeling guilty now. In all other respects, the shrink is a good one, and I have no way of knowing whether the ongoing problem lies with her or with some faceless minion in the agency where she sees us. I definitely commend the local pharmacist who promised to spot us three days of meds if we couldn't get the office to respond in time. Our next resort was going to be a begging call to our old pediatrician--so glad we didn't have to go that far.
TICTH the labyrinthine procedure for transferring money electronically from a Canadian bank to a British one. I have electronic banking, but to transfer money from my account to my brother's (expenses to do with the sale of my dad's house) entailed faffing about on the computer and then his having to go to a Western Union branch and get the money in cash.
In the end we decided a few trips to a cashline machine would be easier.
Of course, if a certain brainless piglet had thought to bring her cheque-book with her ...
TICTH the labyrinthine procedure for transferring money electronically from a Canadian bank to a British one. I have electronic banking, but to transfer money from my account to my brother's (expenses to do with the sale of my dad's house) entailed faffing about on the computer and then his having to go to a Western Union branch and get the money in cash.
In the end we decided a few trips to a cashline machine would be easier.
Of course, if a certain brainless piglet had thought to bring her cheque-book with her ...
I wonder if it would be feasible to take a sterling cash advance from a Canadian credit card and then transfer it online from a Canadian chequing account to the credit card as quickly as possible to minimise the charges? Moving cash across the Atlantic is unbelievable in these electronic days. Keeping an account in Scotland all these years has been very useful for us. Customers in the UK and anywhere else in Europe can pay me in a couple of minutes of online banking activity, but when I want to move the cash here, I still have to write a cheque and deposit it in the Canadian bank, which then takes several weeks to clear.
Thanks for the suggestion, ST, but I don't have a credit card.
We nearly lost the house we were buying in St. John's because of the glacial pace of banking services. D. had got our British bank to (electronically) transfer the money from the sale of our house in Belfast to his bank in Canada, and wrote a cheque for the deposit on our new house. The cheque bounced, because the Canadian bank said the transfer would take three weeks (!) to clear.
The seller, assuming we weren't serious, then sold the house to someone else, and it was only because the other buyers couldn't get their finances sorted out and had to pull out of the deal that we were able to re-offer and get the British bank to assure the Canadian one that the money was in our account. What a palaver.
We nearly lost the house we were buying in St. John's because of the glacial pace of banking services.
And yet the banking markets can respond in milliseconds - meaning there was a fuss when a recent Bank of England announcement was released eight seconds early! http://tiny.cc/hmcbiz
Thirty years ago when I was doing conveyancing the quickest way to move money (within the U.K.) was to get our bank to issue a bankers’ draft which could be collected from the nearest convenient branch. We would then walk it round to the nearest branch of their bank for payment in, and it would be treated immediately as cleared funds. It was cheaper, quicker and more reliable than what was in those days called telegraphic transfer.
If you're planning on dying, and your Will is more complicated than "give it all to the cats' home", and your surviving partner is liable to end up in a home, in the name of God and all his Holy Angels appoint a bloody solicitor as an executor unless you have a relative you really hate and, like the gods, seek to destroy them but first drive them mad.
I'm sorry, but I'm indulging in further condemnation.
The b****** who, on hearing his soon-to-be-ex-wife was going to buy my house threw a hissy fit and did something to block the purchase, can rot in the lowest, hottest part of Hell as far as I'm concerned.
If you're planning on dying, and your Will is more complicated than "give it all to the cats' home", and your surviving partner is liable to end up in a home, in the name of God and all his Holy Angels appoint a bloody solicitor as an executor unless you have a relative you really hate and, like the gods, seek to destroy them but first drive them mad.
My future trustee is a partner in a well-known law firm. And I'm doing as much as I can to make life easier for him. (For example, I'll prepay for my cremation and related hoohah next week.)
It does indeed behove us to think of, and prepare for, these things. My Old Dad, although he knew he was dying, left it until the last minute (well, the last two weeks) to make a Will.
Even when he did, it was a home-made affair, drawn up by a friend, but, fortunately, was (a) legal, and (b) simple (everything left to My Old Mum!).
For some reason that made me think of Piglet (in Winnie-the-Pooh), who had the misguided belief that his grandfather was called "Trespassers William" - always abbreviated to "Will", of course.
Comments
But Trainophiles - really! The correct term is Ferroequinologists.
I'm afraid it's a marketing offensive (in both senses of the word) designed to guilt those who have chosen to discontinue a drug into resuming it, despite their adult status, and similarly to create social embarrassment in those (like me) who have amassed an oversupply of one drug and prefer to use it up before resuming orders. He attempted to really dig into my reasons for possessing an oversupply (not your business, mister, this is not an abusable or resellable drug) and made nasty insinuations about noncompliance. At which point I was supposed to break down in shame and order another three bottles just to prove I was compliant and not a Bad Person™. Which is when I went for him with both barrels. He doesn't really think my medical care is substandard; he merely ignores the implications of his pushy behavior (which, as I pointed out to him, are that both I and my doctor are idiots).
My doctor will be interested but has no leverage whatsoever to stop such abusive practices.
Heaven help us.
Slight clarification: This is a mail order pharmacy, intended for long-term unchanging prescriptions, therefore there are (usually) several refills attached to the original prescription, altogether comprising perhaps a six-month supply--which is sent to me on a regular schedule, say every two months. This man is demanding to know why I have chosen to refrain from receiving the refills that remain in his computer system, AND sending him lots and lots of lovely money therefor. He is not pressuring me to buy prescription drugs without a prescription--rather he is attempting to get me to order extra quantities of things I either already have more than enough of on hand, or else that my doctor has told me to stop using altogether. (The legal prescription is still in force for the moment.)
If a doctor decides I should stop taking a particular drug, the extra refills on the original legal prescription languish in the pharmacy computer system, taking up 0s and 1s in memory, but doing no harm, until their date of expiration approaches and they vanish. It is not necessary for the doctor to call the pharmacy explicitly to rescind a prescription--everyone trusts to the good sense of the patient to do as he or she is told. Except, apparently, this individual. And others in the Lowerarchy beneath him.
I appreciate the work you're doing with your patient during her difficulties with Pharmaceuticals; you're accomplishing much to foil the work of the Enemy. Frustration with bureaucrats of all stripes is one of the best tools we have for bringing our patients to the anger that leads to outbursts of irritation, rudeness to others, and the use of bad language without thought of the consequences.
Be careful, though, that you don't take her too far in that direction; this patient's sense of the absurd is too well developed, and she might sense where you are leading her. Better to cut off the conversation when she starts to make headway, so that she has to wait in the hold queue before starting in again. That frustration is the ideal path to wrath and contempt for others. Don't waste it.
Your affectionate uncle,
SCREWTAPE
(:notworthy:)
I'll write my Congress critters, but they're likely to already be sensitive to this. (Pelosi, Fenstein, and Harris.)
...I'll get me asbestos jacket.
LL has his medicine as of two hours ago, at least for a month more. Apparently the doctor's office pulled their fingers out of their ears and did the shit they were supposed to do, and in a timely manner, glory be. (The local pharmacist has been nothing but helpful--in LL's case, the doctor's office is the culprit.)
I'm still dreading going through this all over again in roughly three weeks.
Still, there's no excuse for not renewing the prescription at our last face-to-face visit two weeks ago, nor for having a totally inept office procedure that results in multiple lost faxes from the pharmacy and no other way to contact the doctor--not for us (I'm resigned to that) but for the pharmacist!
In an ideal world, we'd be given three or more months of refills at a time (at least), with the understanding that the dosage would be modified if needed at each visit. That would prevent this sort of panic every three-four weeks. As it is, we can't put it on automatic refill, we can't stock up, and God knows what will happen if either we or the doctor go unreachble for while (surgery, vacation, rescheduled appointment...)
We can't go find another doctor. Shrinks here take a year or more to see new non-critical patients, and if you don't like the one you've got (or have problems with the office!) it'll be at least a year before you get in anywhere else. And that's for a child.
I am so grateful both my G.P and pharmacist are so competent, accessible and friendly and, thanks to government subsidies, inexpensive.
--I'm glad your kid finally got the meds.
--I had a doctor who was...shall we say...personality-impaired and passive-aggressive...to both clinic staff and (some) patients. Doctor turned down my pharmacy's prescription renewal request *in order to get me to call in, and then be told to schedule an appointment*. Seriously. Mind, doctor didn't tell the pharmacy that was what was going on. I had an interesting convo with a clinic staff member, and found out more about the doctor's behavior.
Another time, I inquired about possible side-effects of a new med. "If I prescribed it, there won't be any side-effects!" (eyeroll) And once, during an appointment, I said/asked something he didn't like. So doctor turned away from me, got busy, and totally ignored me further. So I left. Fortunately, I got out of that doctor's practice.
--Another doctor's office could take weeks to get back to me--or not at all. Doctor felt they couldn't/shouldn't interfere. Eventually, I came into the care of the PAs (physician's assistants) in the office, when the doctor was unavailable for some time. Big improvement. They returned calls *themselves*, possibly on their way home from work. They paid more attention, and listened, and helped. They were better doctors than many MDs. If that's ever an option, maybe look into it.
--I've used the same in-person pharmacy for a long time, and they're almost always very good. They've interceded with doctors' offices for me; and (when possible) give me a partial refill to hold me over until the refill is authorized.
Also, totally agree with Penny S. Fry the lot of them.
In the end we decided a few trips to a cashline machine would be easier.
Of course, if a certain brainless piglet had thought to bring her cheque-book with her ...
I wonder if it would be feasible to take a sterling cash advance from a Canadian credit card and then transfer it online from a Canadian chequing account to the credit card as quickly as possible to minimise the charges? Moving cash across the Atlantic is unbelievable in these electronic days. Keeping an account in Scotland all these years has been very useful for us. Customers in the UK and anywhere else in Europe can pay me in a couple of minutes of online banking activity, but when I want to move the cash here, I still have to write a cheque and deposit it in the Canadian bank, which then takes several weeks to clear.
We nearly lost the house we were buying in St. John's because of the glacial pace of banking services. D. had got our British bank to (electronically) transfer the money from the sale of our house in Belfast to his bank in Canada, and wrote a cheque for the deposit on our new house. The cheque bounced, because the Canadian bank said the transfer would take three weeks (!) to clear.
The seller, assuming we weren't serious, then sold the house to someone else, and it was only because the other buyers couldn't get their finances sorted out and had to pull out of the deal that we were able to re-offer and get the British bank to assure the Canadian one that the money was in our account. What a palaver.
The b****** who, on hearing his soon-to-be-ex-wife was going to buy my house threw a hissy fit and did something to block the purchase, can rot in the lowest, hottest part of Hell as far as I'm concerned.
TBF - the deceased thought it was simple. Events following her death made it less so.
I may have to miss church tomorrow, and we are to have A Procession Of The Kings (sic), which we have Not Done Before...
If I live, I shall report further...
Even when he did, it was a home-made affair, drawn up by a friend, but, fortunately, was (a) legal, and (b) simple (everything left to My Old Mum!).
Still caused us all a bit of a fret, though.
I'll get my nightcap and bedsocks ...