Problems yet again at pharmacy level

Well as most of you know I have had some issues with getting my meds filled for a few months now with the Walgreens secret checklist drama last August then the no ID dilemma and then no pharmacies here being able to order adequate meds the last few months of the fiscal year having met the current years allotted amount of scheduled meds. As you recall in November I finally got a partial fill at Cvs to get my foot in the door so to speak and be put on the ordering list. December ran smoothly,January ran smoothly and then I went to fill Feb 1 and this story is absurdist of all!

The Rph on informed me that the Rph manager had to move stores unexpectedly due to a threat against her life from a customer,likely someone who couldn't get meds filled,anyway that left them without a Rph that could order controlled meds. Cvs policy allows only the manager to do these orders and he was only a replacement rph and technically doesn't work for CVS and had no information about when they would be able to get an order out. Suggested I return next day and speak with the other regular cvs rph. So I did the nexjjt day at 10 am and the pharmacy was closed? Should have opened at 8 and the store manager said that the other Rph called and quit that morning due to the nature of the threat to the Rph manager the previous week therefore that store now had NO Rph only two techs and didn't know when they jjjwere going to get open that day and that in all likelihood it wood be about 3 weeks before they had a Rph manager trained to place a order.

Had no clue what their patients were supposed to do other than try another CVS? They wouldn't even call around for you to try to find which stores carried scheduled meds and many of our pharmacies do not. I rented a car to make the rounds of 17 cvs in the county and it had to be in the county only as you could not go outside the perimeter of the county or they would not fill. Two days 143 miles and not one store had any or carried any and only one offered to try to order it for me. Not one offered to call other cvs stores and ask since they will not tell anyone over the phone.

Finally as I was about to take the car back and give up I pulled in to a small mom&pop kinda place owned by brothers whom were Pakistanis and thankfully my son was with me since I have the hardest time communicating with people of different language accents being deaf.

They took it and called cvs transferring all my meds,said they would stock it for me every month and to not go anywhere else,called my Drs and informed them I would now be a customer in their care and how to reach them if they ever had a problem or question. I was ecstatic to say the least!

That night on the 11 news the topic for the reporter who investigates the consumer watch segments was non other than patients being lied to,sent on wild goose chases,and treated as lepers by pharmacies while trying to fill scheduled meds.

It was well portrayed,they went undercover,they secretly recorded legitimate patients attempting to fill medications for pain. It's a problem that dateline or one of those needs to do a lengthy in-depth look at.

They caught not one but two pharmacies blatantly lie to customers who didn't appear as sick or in need of pain meds as another. It was a true experience and was nothing we didn't already suspect but to see it actually happen was awesome,proving our point that if the rph doesn't think you look like your in pain you likely are getting the runaround.

The situation with the ability to get our pain medications filled if unbelievable. The population in the US is approximately 320 million. Baby Boomers consist of 65 million. Of course there is going to be an increase Dr. Janet Woodcock, director of the agency's Center stated to The New York Times
"These are very difficult tradeoffs that our society. "The reason we approve these drugs is for people in pain. But we can't ignore the epidemic on the other side."

Really... "Tradeoff". So if you a lying in your bed or on the floor in pure hell because of your pain.... this is a OK trade off to keep somebody else from abusing the medications. We wouldn't let our dogs suffer this way... My God... why are we protected drug abuser from themselves by making other people suffer so terribly.

The solution they "think" they have created is sadistic. I have heard (simply rumor from another CVS) that several stores were closed because they issued to many pain killers. I'm in Florida...we are all old. All the pharmacies are going to issue more pain medication than a store in an area with less elderly. They are going to turn all of us old people to search for medication anyway we have to which may easily create a whole new generation (old folk), looking for drug dealers.

My pain management doctor issues the prescription and then the search is on to get it filled. It has become impossible to get medications from CVS or Walgreens in my location. Mom and Pops easier and sometimes you have to move from one to the other. I know that if the day comes that I have to live with my terrible pain because some bureaucrat hasn't aged enough to appreciate how other are suffering, I will end my life. The they can pass a law to try to stop people from doing that.

Don't you just feel like you are committing a crime by merely handing the pharmacist the prescription. Having them look at you like your a drug addict. To be made to fee so indignant. Is this what working hard all your life has come to. Something has to change. But it want because we are unable to March on the Street Corner (we are in pain). We need our Sons and Daughters to step up ... see the light before they get old and get these laws reversed. What is happening is simply inhumane. The is America. Why is this happening? We have the resources to keep everyone comfortable. No one should have to suffer.

I will support any group in any way that I can to bring about a better understanding of the plight of those who are living in hell because of laws restricting their medications.

mulberrytree, actually there are state laws that make it a crime to take anyones life, including your own. I think there may be two states where assisted suicide isn't againt the law, but there are certain requirements. If chronic pain by itself was fatal, we wouldn't be having these problems. The side effects of chronic pain not being treated, like severe falls, may cause death but that is not the primary cause of the death.

Daesin, politicians will always be able to get what they need. They don't have to go to drs offices or go to pharmacys to get meds filled. And the ones that go for them, you can bet your bottom dollar that they don't encounter the wait times and attitudes that every day citizens do.

Very true, CP needs a national face. Someone who's voice will be heard. That's the only way I see anything changing.

however, I still like the image of the politicians in pain.
Yes, I am feeling grumpy today.

my ex Walgreens messed up. they filled 19,000 C2 Rx(s) in 2013 without a valid Rx. DEA showed up at 7am and auditted them and it was bad. so i pulled up to drop my 29/30 day next 30 day cycle MSContin 100mg 2 twice daily for the 6th consecutive year and i was told we cannot help you, "your doc is not in a pain practice", then, "your dose is more than you should have". find out they really were the problem, if they told me the truth i would have felt very bad for them. drove a block away to Riteaid and they filled 12 Rx(s) in 30min. been with them since. they refuse to fill "3-State patients", live in Ohio, drive to Florida to some clinic and get 760 methadone tabs, 900 oxycodone 30mg IR tabs, Numorphan suppositories (oxymorphone), then 2 benzos, Soma, Clonidine and Trazadone, Clonidine patches. perfect back up for running out or sell to the one running out. many Suboxone with the other opioids, no hesitation to fill. come on a give me a break, they came to my State then drive from east coast back to Ohio. Adderall most times in the mix. late lat year, a local beloved Pharmacist who just got his own little buisness, wife, family: was shot point blank because he would not give a thief Oxycontin then thief drove to two pharmacies a at busy hour at gunpoint robbed first for all Percocets and Roxicodone, next one: got the Oxycontin and all Percocets. high speed 60 police car pursuit endangering 1000s till run off intrastate and of course almost flew down hill and hit my pharmacy. how do you plea? NO GUILTY gets frontpage three times, one to tell his story!