Absolute farce in filling a prescription...

Just spent 9 days in hospital and my stress levels are already through the roof again. Was discharged yesterday evening; I should've been given meds to take home with me, but according to the ward sisters a doctor messed up my discharge records, so there was no record of me being discharged - or whatever, something like that. At any rate, I didn't have my meds given to me but I was told to ring the ward the next morning to get the discharge letter and meds sorted out.

This morning, of course, the nurse on the phone disclaimed all responsibility and all knowledge. So my dad and I went into our nearest town, where none of the pharmacies had the antibiotics and fortisips I needed. Dad phoned hospital upon return, whereupon once again they denied all knowledge, claimed the pharmacy was open for 2 seconds between 11 and 12pm tomorrow but I couldn't use the prescription there anyway, LOL, etc. etc.

So now I'm stuck. Was forced to take my dad's out-of-date prednisolone and there isn't exactly a lot of that left. Got enough fortisips for today, but tomorrow I'm going to be out-of-my-mind hungry. Was not hungry in hospital, but now I am. Also, could I find Build Up soup in any of the pharmacies me and my dad looked in? Could I buggery.

Just feel lost, really.

So sorry for the run around you are getting. I had some issues myself when I was recently discharged from the hospital. Mine was on the better side than yours though, as I was given dupes of lots of my meds.

Hopefully, you will get your meds tomorrow. Hugs!

Wow, sorry to hear about that.

Do you have paperwork that they sent you home with when you were discharged?

How about the nurses supervisor? Or anyone above that.

Is fortisips similar to ensure or boost? Is it a regional thing? Are there over the counter options like ensure or boost that you could buy until it gets straightened out?

You don't have to complain to the nurses about the nurses...I mean there's got to be someone there in some position of authority that you can have help you figure out this mess. You were there. You need meds. You might have to get re-admitted if you don't have your meds. Who would re-admit you?

And I didn't mean paperwork in their system...I meant that I always get sent home with instructions/discharge orders, etc. and am wearing the hospital band with my name and birthdate on it when I leave the hospital. You don't have anything like that you could say "your system doesn't show that I was there, but I have all this instructions that show I do."

My Ensure says that it is lactose free, but I've never had problems with milk, so I don't know.

NCOT, if you and your dad feel up to it, it might be time to stand in the hospital pharmacy, and refuse to budge until somebody helps you. There will always be a doctor on duty who can sign a new prescription if necessary: the question is whether the hospital is prepared to get off its lazy backside and actually motivate itself enough to do something to help you.

It is NOT good enough that they discharged you under these circumstances. It is NOT acceptable that you are left at home without the appropriate medication. In fact, it is dangerous, and worthy of complaint and investigation.

As far as your drinks go, you might like to try Resource: a high energy drink that is often used for sick people, and cancer patients. I believe their clear, fruit drinks have whey in them (annoying, I know), but I seem to remember that their chocolate, and maybe their vanilla, are lactose free.

Here, at least, Resource is more widely available than some of the other drinks, so you may be able to grab one or two of those to tide you over until Monday.

Chicken broth sounds ideal, NCOT.

D'you think you could handle soy or rice or oat milk? Because that could help, too.

Ivy.

Well, starvation is averted at least... for now >_>

I've also got my meds finally. It would appear I was the victim of a double whammy: not only did some doctor erase me from the system, but also the IT system decided to go down at the same time, ever so conveniently. Apparently manual alterations can't be made underneath this relatively new IT system. I couldn't have actually given the faintest remotest toss about the discharge letter, except that it turns out it's essential for getting prescriptions filled after leaving hospital. For example, my GP could prescribe me Fortisip, but he needs a copy of my discharge letter before he can do so. So tomorrow we'll be chasing up that letter ASAP.

The ward sister was clearly very eager to absolve herself of any blame, but aside from that she was rather sweet. She gave me a few more cases of Fortisip. I asked for a few soups as well, which they still didn't have any of, but as a bonus she gave me several Fruits Of the Forest Fortijuices instead. Result! An exciting new taste sensation beckons... >_>

Anyhow, I've enough Fortisips for 3 days, which will hopefully give me enough time to order some more from my GP or a chemist.

Got the prednisolone (any difference between that and prednisone?), too. It's a fast taper: reduce by 5mg every 3 days. The pharmacist wanted to know if I was going down to zero or tapering to a low amount; realised I didn't have a clue so I'll have to phone a doc to find out.

@ivy - I had chicken broth for lunch and quite tasty it was too :p ... Got enough chicken/veg to make one more batch, then I'm going to try an Asian-inspired version I saw in a magazine supplement today. It's got ginger, star anise, etc. and looks good.

The only thing is, I wish I knew how many calories chicken broth has and what its nutritional composition is. I'm not concerned about too many calories: for the first time I'm actually trying to cram them in. I'm also presuming that chicken broth is pretty nutritious, but that's just it: it's a presumption, which annoys me. I want to actually know :-/

Re soy/oat/rice milk. Funnily enough, I thought of that for the first time yesterday. I don't like soy milk at all, but I'm gonna give the oat and rice (and maybe almond if suitable...) milk a try. Luckily our main supermarket shop is tomorrow and the supermarket we go to does have those alternative milks.

Re Nestle Resource. Had a dig around and gently wept inwardly when I saw the price: no wonder the NHS hang onto their Fortisips like gold dust! They're about that expensive. Not just the Fortisips, but the Resources, Ensures, etc. You're talking £10 for 4 small bottles @300 calories each. Or £10 just for 1200 calories. There's got to be more cost effective ways than that of getting in the required calories.

Finally, one other idea I have is to buy some Horlicks or Ovaltine, but the type you make up with water not milk. They're fortified with nutrients and are about 100 calories a cup.

... Phew. Another long post. You are probably sleeping as I type this, Ivy, given the time of day. Hope you are comfortably off in the land of the nod :p

Thanks for the suggestion! I can't get jello custard mix here, but it looks pretty similar to Birds custard powder, which I can get from anywhere. Egg yolks would make it tastier/more like real custard I imagine, although am a tad worried that would stretch the 'liquid' part of liquid diet a bit.

The beef broth sounds nice; my only beef (as it were >_>) with broth is that it's so unfilling. I had 3-4 bowls of my chicken broth today and, honestly, it didn't seem to register with my stomach at all. I was bone, starving, elementally hungry at around dinnertime and must have consumed near enough 1000 liquid calories. Thank god my stomach did actually register them, 'cos that was a scary kind of hunger.

Anyhow, thanks. I am slowly recovering, I think :p ... Tbh, I was surprised at how weak I was when I came out of hospital. I had gone from being able to bound up the stairs to finding I had to walk slowly up them. That's a bit better than it was, but I still am far from bounding up them.

pps. You can also buy a tasteless powder called Polycose. Shove it on your food and in your drinks for an extra kilojoule boost.

@ivy - had no idea about boiled rice liquid; I'll try to look that up. We do have a microwave, although we tend to roast or boil veggies rather than microwave them.

@zanne - think it's a full liquid diet... well, put it this way, milk was never forbidden and I was drinking non-clear soups in the hospital.

I might look for lactose-free ice cream tomorrow. Jello jigglers looks a bit like jelly, and I can make that... <_<. Can certainly get hold of gelatin as well.

Getting marrow bones might not be possible; I would have to ask the supermarket butcher... :-/

Anyhow, thanks, the pair of you :p

I'll look up miso tomorrow. Have heard of it but don't think I've had it.

Have a blender, yeah :p

'kay, I'll look into getting some polycose/maxijul tomorrow, if I can...

I am worried about calories actually. For the first few days in hospital I was having 300-400 calories a day 'cos nobody could deal with the fact I wasn't eating regular hospital food. Finally a couple of the food servers cottoned on and gave me regular fortisips and soups after that. It was stressful and ever since then I've been determined to get in 2000+ calories a day, to give my guts enough nutrients to *hopefully* begin healing.

Aaaah! Well. Cook veg (carrots are nice) in chicken stock / broth until they are soft. Throw in blender. Puree until smooth.

= liquid soup. Much more filling and nutritious than plain broth.

Do try not to worry too much about calories. It won't help much, at this stage. I'd suggest just doing your best, with the foods you can tolerate.

How long until you see the dietitian?