Yet another PM scare

Howdie,

Some of you may recall the scary letter I received about 5 weeks ago -- that my urine tested positive for Valium. I had to in writing explain why, under threat of being terminated as a patient. In short, my PCP prescribed it (for muscle tension) under the explicit permission of my PM (which I followed up on).

Well, that got easily resolved. They just never wrote it down, but my PM did remember the event.

Now for the new scare -- on Tuesday, I phoned my pharmacy to refill my scripts, as I was seeing my PM on Wed. (thus, could make just one trip to the pharmacy). When I used their automated system to refill my Ultram ER, the system stated that it could not be filled at this time.

So, I called the pharmacist, who told me that the doctor contacted them and deactivated the prescription! Yikes!

I then worried either (a) they decided to terminate me after all; or (b) they want to make med changes at my appt. the next day.

Well, I was terribly stressed out that evening, and the next morning, when I arrived, I was looking for any sense that something was off. After a routine 10 minute wait, the nurse called me in for a routine urine test and seemed fine. Then after another 10 minutes or so, I was taken to the office where the PM (vs one of his PAs see patients). Thus, I was expecting a serious matter had to be discussed.

Eventually, the PA showed up, not the PM. That was an initial relief, and as we began to talk, everything seemed normal. After a few minutes, I brought up the letter last month, and the PA explained the paperwork snafu. Then, I told her what happened with my pharmacy -- and to my surprise, she said that the office DID NOT call them. Huh? It thus seemed that my pharmacy on their own decided to terminate my script and told me it was the PM!

Well, scripts were written as usual (including a new one for the Ultram ER). I took them to my pharmacy, wondering now if they decided to terminate me as a client. Nope. They took my scripts filled everything (but one, which is suppose to come in today). The pharmacist didn't know why the Ultram script was terminated, except that I had refills left from an earlier Ultram script -- i.e. two were current so they presumably cancelled one -- but I only found out AFTER one of the two expired.



Ridiculous!

Hi Tina,

I've actually been doing quite well. I'd say that my pain levels are about 50% of what they were before moving to the Oxycontin. It does make me sluggish sometimes, and I can feel cruddy the day after taking more than 10mg of BT meds, but it has allowed me to be more active than I've been for years.

As for the book, the manuscript is finished and finished the major editing about a week ago. I've given it to my secretary to read over and do some of the formatting changes needed to comply with the publisher's style guide. Then, I'll read it over once more, probably during the last week of December. That will give me 2 weeks to (hopefully) fix no more than the stray typo.

In the mean time, I've moved on to a new article -- originally due at the end of January, but was asked to present it at a colloquium mid-January as well (and getting a free trip, business class, fancy hotel). It is about 1/2 finishes and pending health, etc.. I hope to have it done within a week.

So, all in all, I'm in very good shape -- all things considered. Tomorrow I see my PCP for general blood work and to get my testosterone checked (not much of a libido) - if I weren't married, I don't think I would care (fewer distractions), but I do need to keep the wife happy