A car pulls in the drive-thru. The lady hands in a prescription for Adderall that she said we were supposed to have in stock because the other store called us at 5PM to make sure we had it. It was 10:55PM when she showed up at my pharmacy....
The tech hands me the prescription. I told him to give it back to her and explain that we cannot fill it because it is from a podiatrist (foot doctor). She was pissed off. My tech laughed as he walked out the door to go home....."I think she is coming in....have a good night..."
She stomped her way back to the pharmacy wielding her cell phone like a gladiator. She proceeds to call the other store (pharmacy not 24 hours but the store is) and tears the assistant manager (who has absolutely nothing to do with prescriptions) a new asshole while glaring at me like I am a child to be dismissed. I am not amused.
After yelling at him for 10 minutes she wants me to fill the prescription so I tell her again that it is illegal for a foot doctor to write a prescription for a class two (highly controlled because of its addictive properties) psychiatric medication. I had to break it down 5th grade cuz she was obviously not a bright crayon in any box.
She yells and wants my manager so I explain that the pharmacy manager will be in Monday morning and that the store manager has nothing to do with prescriptions. She still wants him so I page. I explain the situation and she starts to yell. I am helping other customers while she throws a tantrum. The other customers are laughing and for that I envy them because I am already in trouble for getting in a shouting match with another douche-bag because he pushed me too far. (I can't even blog about that one because it is a board of pharmacy investigation in progress. If we can't bow down and lick your feet then try to get us fired. I hate douche bags...)
Anyway, all the other customers are long gone and still she yells so I have to give her a verbal bitch-slap. "Mam, what you are not understanding is that this prescription is illegal. I do not care if the other pharmacy is willing to break the law for you but I will not." So she starts yelling at me to look in her profile and see that she has been on this for years. I tell her no because that has nothing to do with this prescription.
Then she throws her foot up on the counter to show me her walking cast and bandaged toes. I again reiterate: no psyche drugs from a foot doc. So she screams about how she had to get a ride over here and she can't walk (she sure stomped her mangled foot back to the pharmacy faster than I even walk from the front of the store to the pharmacy so she isn't hurting that bad she is just being a drama queen because our society has adopted the "if they scream they can have it policy" which is total bullshit when it comes to pharmacy law). I again reiterate: no psyche drugs from a foot doc.
Then she gives a sob story about how she cannot get to her doctor to get an Adderall prescription so this doctor talked to him about writing it for her. (Bullshit...he just wrote that prescription to get that crazy bitch out of his office as I have found many docs have done in the past, even had a few tell me that if I was not comfortable with it not to fill it because they did not care either way... That just proves that docs put up with as much or more bullshit than we do. We all know that most patients lie to their docs anyway out of some doggy desire to appear obedient and not be told that they need a diet and exercise regimen...but I digress)
We are at the point in the scream-fest where I toy with the idea of hitting the magic shiny red candy like button that summons ye ol' swat team. Wouldn't that be a glorious sight to behold......twenty of police's finest armed to the teeth, covered in helmets and body armor, pointing assault rifles at this crazy bitch and scaring the bejesus out of her.....I smile a little inside because that mental picture calms me and instills a little bit of joy...
I finally tell her that her doc that she sees for psychiatric meds can write the prescription and mail it to her. She screams at me that that is illegal. I laugh at her and the manager tells her it is time to go or we will have her escorted from the store.
Damn the pharmacist to hell that sent that one to me. I HATE it when a pharmacist does not have the balls to tell a patient that we either cannot fill it because it is illegal or because their have been fakes out of that office. The only good thing is that the crazy bitch will be stomping to that pharmacy to tear that pharmacist and the pharmacy manager both new assholes.
Seriously, honesty is the best policy. This includes situations where you know the patient is going to scream or threaten to find you when you get off work. Don't just tell them you don't have it in stock. That message has even been sent down from the corporate office several times in the past and makes me want to contact the regional supervisor but I won't because I know the crazy bitch will do that for me.
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6 comments:
OOoh I wish you had pressed the shiny red button. The image made me smile too. What a lunatic.
Wow. You are awesome.
I used to work in a clinic pharmacy, as in, no front store, just the OTC and RX products. This old woman comes in, driving a motorized wheelchair, and hands me (the lucky technician of the day) a 9"x12" envelope with prescriptions in it. They are xeroxed C-IIs...five of them. Of course we can't take them, so we tell her she needs to get the real ones from her doctor. SHe says those are the real ones. Unfortunately, her physician also faxed them over (nice try, doc), because they expect that if we get the fax, we'll fill it and take the "original" when the patient gets there. Nope. Not this pharmacy. She proceeds to give me this 18-minute bitch'n'rant (I timed it) about how she's on medicaid (So is everyone else in town...literally) and she needs these and she cant walk (Yeah, but you can run people over with that thing), etc etc. She ends with "I'm gonna go drive into the street and let a bud hit me!" By this time, we had already called the cops, because everyone else in the store, patient and staff alike, were totally freaked out, even that one guy who bitches at us that the Generic endocet doesnt work. Unfortunately, the police didn't show up till 2 minutes after she left.
We didn't hear any reports of wheelchair-meets-bus accidents. Damn.
Working in a pharmacy sure brings you in contact with a lot of ODD people. I have been a tech for over 16 years and one of the most laughable things I have seen is a woman bring a bottle of 180 Lortab to be refilled. She had just had the script filled the day before. When she handed me the bottle i noticed that there was something in it. I told her it would be a few minutes ( She didn't care, she was FLYIN"""") I opened the the bottle and there was a baggie of pot inside of it!. I walked over to the pharmacist and ask him " UH is this what I think this is?" He busted out laughing and said yes. We call the cops but couldn't get the story out without laughing. I had to tell the lady that our order had not come in yet and it woule be a little while before we could fill it. I also asked her if what was in the bottle belonged to her and she said YES! Would you believe that woman waited until the police showed up an hour later. Then she still had the nerve to ask if she was going to get her Rx filled!!!!!
One Friday night, I was working as the only tech in our in-super market pharmacy...which happened to be next to a bar (YAY!). An obviously drunk man come up to the counter and askes me "HEY! you got any Percocets back there??" 'Not for you!" I said. "Well then how do you like this?!" he says back to me and then proceeds to strip off all of his clothes. "Now you're definatly not getting any..." I said!
That woman made even the hydrocodone/carisoprodol drug seekers seem tame.
I suppose that's because they're only Schedule III (or in the case of carisprodol, Schedule IV here in Texas) compared to the Schedule II you dealt with.
Looks like she needs a different sort of psychiatric medication than an amphetamine salt...
WOW! I am so glad I didn't become a pharmacist. I was an A student in all of the pre-req classes, but then was advised that being a pharmacist is like serving fast food. I got out with a 4 yr degree and make a lot in software engineering. No crazy people off of the streets, no insurance hassles, etc. Only craziness is I work 60 hours a week, but can do about 15-20 hours of that from home. Whew, I did something right in my life.
I just found your blog and do enjoy reading it. I am fascinated by the science, etc. but it's my hobby, so it's interesting in that regard. I do hope the majority of the patients are reasonable.
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