A Victim of My Own Stupidity

We took a two week vacation earlier this summer. As a person with a few ailments, I travel with my own personal pharmacy. This requires some planning ahead and balancing insurance rules (meaning you can't get extra ahead of time) and my medical needs.

Before we left I made sure I filled my daily prescription boxes with two weeks worth of meds. I noted a couple that needed refills right when we got back. Most importantly, my prescription pain patches needed a new prescription from my doctor. I made a little note on my calendar for a couple days before our return so that I could get the prescription rolling before we arrived home. This prescription comes from regular mail order (as opposed to specialty mail order) and I need to allow a good ten days from when I ask my doctor until the prescription shows up. These pain patches are a vital part of my medications because they allow me to live at a substantially lower level of pain and do not require me to chase my pain with pills (that I would never remember to take). Memory is not one of my strong suits these days.

I made a little oops. I looked at the reminder on my calendar when it popped up and said to myself  'I don't want to think about that yet' and told myself to remember it when we first got back.... That was so smart.

On Wednesday or Thursday a full five days after we returned, I put on a new weekly pain patch and realized I didn't have any more (crap) and that I needed to get that new prescription (double crap). This is a SEVEN day pain patch. Not a seven plus ten or so day pain patch. I then realized I needed a whole bunch of refills but less urgently.

Next project - get all my precriptions ordered. I get my prescriptions from three sources: local pharmacy, mail order pharmacy, and specialty pharmacy. I put in my orders online for four different doctors on my hospitals app. I thought I noted on each one where they needed to come from.

Then I get a notice from my local pharmacy saying a prescription was delayed. I ignored it for a couple of days. A day or two later I checked and found my 7 day pain patch which needs to come from mail order was ready at the local pharmacy for the low price of $83, instead of the mail order price of $15.

I called back my doctor's office and asked for a corrected prescription from my doctor to go to the mail order pharmacy. That was on a Thursday (over a week after I had put on my last 7 day pain patch.

On Friday I got an email saying the pharmacy had received my prescription and would process it. The following Tuesday I get a message that the pharmacy had a question for my doctor on the prescription and had not heard back from him. I contacted my doctor's office again. Then I heard back from my doctor on Thursday that said they had spoken with my pharmacy and they would mail it out that day (liar, liar, pants on fire).

Saturday AM, I got a message with the USPS tracking number for my prescription shipment. No tracking info yet. Sunday, I found that it was in Philadelphia but on its way to its destination. Monday morning, it had reached Massachusetts but no more information. Finally it showed up in my mail box today. I have been home from vacation for 16 days which means I have been on my 7 day pain patch for a paltry 11 days.

Yes, I have been a bit 'uncomfortable' for the past few days - its been hard to get comfortable or sleep. Yes, I could have requested the new prescription while I was on vacation and put it in as a separate request so it didn't end up at the wrong pharmacy.
Yes, I could have checked my email and saw which prescription was delayed at my local pharmacy and I would have caught the problem earlier.
Yes, I could have checked my email and realized that the mail order pharmacy was waiting on my doctor.

So, yes, I was a victim of my own stupidity. But now I have my new pain patch on and am feeling much better.