Well that was "fun"

I just had a really truly awful weekend, but I did learn a few things from it. Unfortunately it is kind of a long story.

The last time I went to my pain management doctor, I got a prescription for the painkiller I have been on for a few months now. It is kind of expensive and I still had about 2 weeks worth, so I sent the new prescription into the mail order delivery service that my pharmaceutical insurance coverage runs. Their delivery is fast and the co-pay is lower, so I figured that was a smart move. Boy was I wrong.

I got an email from them saying there was a delay in processing it. I still had about 5 days of meds left, so I called and asked what the issue was. The person I talked to didn't know, but said I could either get a filler prescription from my doctor in the meantime or I could transfer the prescription to a local pharmacy. I chose the filler prescription. So, I got another week's worth of painkiller called into a local pharmacy by my doctor and figured things would be fine.

Well, the next week was coming to an end, and I had no further communication from the mail order service. I only had a day's supply left, so I called and inquired how to transfer the prescription. The person I spoke with said that they just needed the pharmacy to call and confirmed that the prescription was available to be transferred. I called the pharmacy and they took the request and went to make the call. Everything sounded fine.

That was on a Friday. The pharmacy called and left a message later that day, but I was unable to get back to them until Saturday morning. Apparently when they called the mail order service they were informed that the prescription was not available to be transferred. I was told twice that it was! I called the mail order service (and tried not to lose my temper) and was informed that they didn't like the number of pills prescribed and that they were unable to contact my doctor, so they revoked the prescription (!!!!!) and sent it back to my doctor. It was gone. There was nothing I could do.

So, remember how this is Saturday? I called the emergency line for my doctor and was told they would not contact the doctor for prescription matters only. I needed to be in pain. I guess I can understand that, since this is a pain management doctor. Most of his patients are on opiates and probably beg for more all the time. However, I had been told specifically not to stop taking the Ryzolt suddenly because there can be nasty withdrawal effects.

All day Sunday I experienced those nasty withdrawal effects. Whee.

I do always try to find a silver lining, and I decided it would be verifying whether the pain was bad enough to warrant continuing the meds. I hate taking pills and always seek to stop as soon as possible. Unfortunately the answer is yes, I still need them.

So I learned that once your prescription leaves your hands to a mail order pharmacy you are taking an awful risk that you will ever actually see that filled. I also learned that you can never assume things are fine. You always have to press and find out exactly what the hold-up is. If I had pressed the first time I called, I would have been able to just get a new prescription instead of a week's worth. Finally, I learned that withdrawal sucks and I will definitely go through the trouble of stepping the Ryzolt down for the three days prior to the surgery, as was recommended.

Sigh. 16 days to go.