Vent about medication...

[momof3boys]

Im seriously so frustrated right now, Id like to just scream as loud as I can!

Monday, 12/4 was when my neuro's office faxed over my new prescription for the name brand keppra xr. 8 days later, it still has not gone NO WHERE with the online pharmacy!

We called the online pharmacy to see what was taking so long? Turns out, when my neuro's office sent the fax over, it came back "dark" looking, not being able to read certain parts of the prescription. Since then, they have tried contacting my neuro's office, and no response back. :soap: I spoke with the nurse at my neuro's office on friday! She is the one that told me she faxed over the prescription on monday, but she didnt tell me anything about them trying to contact their office about the prescription being "unreadable". Today, Im sitting here with 3 days left of the name brand on hand. I was told by my insurance company that they could allow the drs to send over a 30 day supply since its taking so long, and the know I wont get the online pharmacy's supply before friday. That they can override the prescription for the 30 day siupply since I need this medication.

The catch is... I need to contact my neuros office to get them to fax a prescription over to my local pharmacy!

We called my neuro's office... and the nurses that do that stuff,,, are in clinic! No in the office! Does that suprise me? HELL NO.

Im sitting here with 3 days and thats it. Its times like this, where I wish drs would respond how they should to their patient's needs. Its not like Im going to sit back and patiently wait another week for these people to get their head on straight! The last thing I want to do is go to the ER.

 

[Nakamova]

Can you drive over to the clinic and block the doors until you get some response? I'm not kidding here -- they need a reminder that this is serious stuff.

 

[momof3boys]

Well unfortunately the neuro's office is in Omaha, Ne and Im in Lincoln Ne. Its about an hour's drive to the office. Its pathetic that they cant respond to the pharmacy. I even let the nurse know on 12/4 that I had held on to only a couple of week's worth of the name brand if something were to go wrong and I needed to go back. So she knew right from the start about only having a limit supply on hand.

The only thing I can do now is wait to hear back from the office. Im so done with these people. How on earth they can ignore a pharmacy about seizure medication, they know I only have so much on hand. Its been 10 days since I first contacted their office about this. Still they dont care. I wish there was a place I can complain about the drs office for how they treat people.

 

[momof3boys]

Well, I got a call from one of the nurses at the neuro office... she said she would contacted united health care about the prescription, so see what it is they cant read on the prescription sent over last week.....

as for the 30 days supply we asked for, that can be faxed over to our local pharmacy, she took the information I gave her for Target, and asked if she would do this tomorrow morning? :ROLL EYES:

Sure, heck why not wait another day right?

I wasnt in the mood to argue with her. I told her as long I get this medication by friday, I just want to make sure I get some on hand til this clears up with the mail order pharmacy! OMG people. i seriously as so done with this office. I mean, how long does it take to call to a pharmacy and get a 30 day supply of medication ordered?

Can you tell they really take their patients "needs" seriously?

 

[CQ:)]

Kristin,
I can't believe how much the neurologists office has been stuffing you around lately.
I sure hope they get your script faxed over to the chemist by the end of the week.
Is there any way you are able to get your GP to get you a script for the Keppra or does your insurance only accept scripts from your neurologist?

Have you had any luck finding another neurologist?

 

[momof3boys]

Well, from the last phone call I got, the neuro's office said they are going to send a 30 day prescription to my local pharmacy here in town this morning, then get the online one figured out. Im just praying this chick does it! I'm going to check in with the pharmacy at noon and if nothing was done, then im going to have to call up the neuros office again! Im praying that doesnt have to take place though!

 

[momof3boys]

I called Target to check if my drs sent over a 30 day prescription for the Keppra XR til the online pharmacy can get the other order completed. Last I knew, they still had not heard from my drs office. The pharmacy said they did recieve it, but again, when they put it into the system, it wouldnt go. So I had to call the insurance, and ask them for the number to give the pharmacy, so they can override it. They said they would give them a call, and asked when I plan to pick it up. I said today after 3pm. Im so hoping and praying it all goes smoothly and there is no trouble getting this.

 

[momof3boys]

This is getting rediculious! Im NEVER going through this mail order pharmacy again! NEVER!

So my dr sends to target a 30 day supply of Keppra XR because the one that my mail order pharmacy is still processing. I only have through friday on hand. I spoke with a insurance rep today, and they gave me a number to give to my pharmacy, so they call that and override the prescription since its taking so damn long to get the mail order one.

Target calls me and says the insurance wont allow it to be overrided because they say the dose is too damn high! WTF? Now Target tells me I need to have my drs call the insurance to tell them its the dose Im taking and it needs to be approved!

Im so sick of this shit! Im sick and tired of dealing with this BS!

 

[jackier]

Hang in there Kristin!
It's just not right what we have to do to get our meds. If it was something non-life saving then it probably wouldn't be so hard.

 

[CathyAnn31]

What a total PITA!

We have express scripts too but luckily I haven't had to use mail order. Hubs works for a major hospital and they let us pick up a 3 month supply at a time.

I hope you get it squared away ASAP Kristin. Don't they realize stress isn't a good thing?

 

[Nakamova]

What a nightmare! Hope you wake up from it soon.

 

[momof3boys]

Thank you everyone.

Well, since I spent my morning and afternoon on the phone, going back and fourth between Target Pharmacy, the online pharmacy and my neuro's office, I found out the prescription my neuro's office sent over this morning... which I was told was for a 30 day supply, turned out to be a 7 day supply, but was rejected, becuase for quantity, they put 30 pills... not 28 like I take... 4 pills a day, time 7 days....

so Target said I can have the 7 day supply now that they changed the quantity. But the thing is, the first order the neuro office placed on 12/3 is still pending. They need the drs office to contact them to get the order processed, without the neuro office contacting the pharmacy for the big order, I cant get it. In the meantime, if they did call and have it straightened out, it would still take up to 10 business days once its all worked out. Well, 10 business days is like 2 weeks. the 7 days wont cover that. So instead of calling back my neuro office, which i did leave a voicemail for the nurse again. I called my primary care drs office. I told them what the heck is going on. How all Im needing at this point is a 30 day supply of the Keppra XR to get me by til this big order that was placed on 12/3, which is still pending til my neuro contacts them. The nurse at my primary care drs office couldnt believe it! How in the world could my neuro just shrug this off when I find out I cant take the generic and know I only have a limited supply on hand!?

She said she will run this by my primary care dr, who is also the one that gave me a small amount of ativan in case the seizure came up. which my neuro wouldnt do... so Im praying to god, that it all works out. She said if I dont hear from her, to check with the target pharmacy, and see if its gone through. The only way she would call me back is if the dr wont approve it or something goes wrong. So Im giving it an hour and Im going to check in with my pharmacy to see if they got anything from my primary care dr. I hate all of this back and fourth crap!

I told my mom Im not ever going to use this mail order pharmacy again! Id rather pay the extra money and know I can get it, rather than take weeks to get it, and not have any on hand here! Its too damn stressful!

 

[deeds]

Please!

Dont they know that added stress is simply BAD for us human beings with Seizures? Sometimes I wonder if they take the human being part into account.
We have enough going on don't we.
I have not been on this site for a while. I am sorry to read about the crap you are going through.
Good Luck,
Deedee

 

[momof3boys]

Thank you deedee

I think its crap the way the drs offices these days helps their patients. Im still waiting to hear if the primary care dr can give me a 30 day supply. It wouldnt suprise me a bit if the neuro's office doesnt respond to the online pharmacy about the first prescription they sent out on 12/3.

 

[momof3boys]

Ok... I hope things got all straightened out....

Heard from my drs office... (Neuro) and they said they got a 30 day supply sent over to Target. Target has half of them in, and will get the other half in tomorrow. Which is ok with me. I have through friday on hand. So Im ok with picking them up tomorrow.
I did find a savings card online, where I spend the first $25, and they then pay up to $30 after that. Which then puts me to where Id be paying the same amount, if i went through the mail order pharmacy.

As for the order at the mail order pharmacy, they said I have to wait to get that filled now that the 30 day supply went through, til January 13, 2013. Which is not going to work, since by that time, the 30 days I pick up now, will be gone, and it take two weeks to get. I dont have that two weeks on hand. So Im thinking about just not taking the mail order supply. Instead, I'll see if I can get a coupon printed off each month, which I found online, and get it at my local pharmacy for $25, the same price I was getting it the mail order pharmacy. That way I know I wont have to wait to get it, and I can have the pharmacy call up my dr to get the refills on it. Saves me time and all this stress that comes with going through the mail order pharmacy!

 

[jackier]

Glad you're getting it worked out & getting some medication.
The human element/aspect of things seems to have left the country-maybe it was outsourced like so many of our jobs have been.

 

[SoonToBeMommy]

I agree that doctor's should be more caring of there patients. I still have doctors not listening to me. It really sucks that doctors never seem to care.

 

[Chelsea]

Ahhhh, I'm sorry to hear this Kristin.

It can be extremely difficult to deal with the neuro's office. I had two tonic-clonic seizures, one last Tuesday and one this past Saturday. The neuro wouldn't give me any rescue meds (like Ativan or Klonopin), so I ended up going to the ER with no insurance. [Had taken an antihistamine, later one was a fever.]

I called the next day, and I spoke to the neuro's nurse. She paused uncomfortably, as if to insinuate, "why are you calling again?"

The office seems relatively unconcerned if you/I/all of our pepz have a seizure or not--Often, I wonder where that attitude originates.

As if E isn't enough by itself, right?

I love you, girl, hang in there! ((((HUGS))))

 

[momof3boys]

I see it the same way Chelsea.

Its so heartless to see doctors and nurses these days not having any concern for people with epilepsy. Like I told my husband, its not like we can just skip a dose and nothing will come about with it. My husband has high blood pressure, so he had to take medication for it. He has forgot about taking a pill in the morning. When he does forget, he can feel the affects of it, but like he pointed out to me this past week, its not like he will have a seizure like me, and be out of it for a day or two afterwords.

I just wish more doctors would be more caring and show it. My neuro's office did the same thing to me with ativan this past week. With all the seizures occuring due to the generic, I needed to get back on the brand name, and was having break through seizures for the first five days. When asked if I could get a few ativan on hand incase more seizures come about, they said No because you can get addicted to it! How in the hell can you get addicted to it when only used for break through seizures, that luckly for me, they did stop. But they made it sound like I was taking them on a daily basis. I did call my primary care dr, and she prescribed me some ativan to have on hand. It suprised her to hear my own neuro wouldnt give me even 2 or 3 to have on hand for the time being. Heck she even sent me over a 30 days supply of the keppra xr! Now if only my neuro would have that caring towards us!

You hang in there too hun! Love you too!

 

[deeds]

I am sorry to say this, I know it could be nasty but unless a medical professional knows what it is like to have a seizure, they will never never never know what it feels like. I don't care how many they have witnessed. At the end of the day most of them drive home to their family life. They do not know what it feels like to lose their driver's license, be afraid to take a shower and on and on.......
The literature from the Pharmaceutical companies reads like horror novels that we can't close. Especially the stuff about abrupt withdrawal.
I really hope everyone has a peaceful Happy and Healthy Holiday Season.