A follow up on my drug experience yesterday

I don't think anything is going to change anytime soon with the pharmacy. This young man is not a pharmacist, nor is he even a trained pharmacy assistant.

Let me describe the process, and you have to remember this is a pain clinic (I guess they help manage pain - I've been there a year, and the pain in my back just moves around).

After you see the doctor, you then go out the door of the waiting room and go to the next door with a red carpet in front. If you go to the third door, you will find yourself in the waiting room for the procedure - whichever you are there for, i.e. injections in various body parts.

After you walk into that middle door, there is a partial counter with a young man sitting there surrounded by small paper bags that contain your medications - that were filled in the main pharmacy that is 50 miles away. There is a courier that delivers them each day.

You once were able to just walk in and give your name to get the drugs, but now you have to show your next appointments card. This is where I have to diverse from the story. Because some pain clinics are just fronts for distributing drugs illicitly, there have been a lot of changes. Some drug dealers would "hire" the homeless to go to these pain clinics to get the drugs. So mine will regularly drug test. I personally think there are still some that get through. I saw one yesterday that I would swear on the Bible was a homeless person sent for drugs. But to go on with the post.

Once you give him your appointment card, he will give you the bag with your drugs in it. Now there are about four times I could have (or even he could) have caught the mistake. The first when he looked at the appointment card. I know what happened - he saw he card, and like I do sometime, just took it as being an appointment card. He should have noticed the name - but ... I should have caught it when he called my card in for approval. He didn't. When he was calling and gave the wrong name, I should have snapped - I thought it was, perhaps, the pharmacist.

There is a big problem with prescription drug abuse. I do not think we are alone in this. I think it is almost everywhere. There is no law covering how pain clinics work, but they are expected to do whatever has to be done to control the abuse. At one point, a "Pain Clinic" was a cover for illegal drugs. You walked in, a "doctor examined" you. He then prescribed hydrocodone, or any of these drugs, and the "patient" walked out. That was it. They were a real joke.

Back to the little guy. He doesn't really have any real contact with making up the drugs - he just has to pay attention to the name on the bag (a little closer please). When I went back, he apologized profusely. Perhaps he thought if I were really upset and went to Dr S, he would get fired. I really wasn't upset about this mistake. I just feel there could be a better way. Each time I go in, there is some woman (why couldn't it be a man - just once), who has a problem with something, and she won't go away! Then the line forms and it is a circus once again.

After going in yesterday at 3:30, I think I may just leave for a while and come back. There was no problem at all - no women with a problem clogging the works!

Peace be with you.