Bad Medicine

Sorry, this post is a rant and a grumble.  I decided to publish it tonight so it won't be at the top of my blog for long. Memory Monday will be back on Monday and hopefully by Tuesday I will have my "where the heck have I been" update. 

I have been adjusting to the new me, me, me.  Medications, home blood pressure checks, daily weigh-ins to monitor fluid retention, appointments, tests, blah blah blah. The exercise program, counting steps, throwing in cataract surgery so we could add eye drops. 

SO - the cardiologist put me on several new to me medications that started in smaller doses and were smaller mg. Whatever that is. Then he increased to twice a day, then gave me a prescription for a larger mg that I have to cut in half and take twice a day.  I think we are eventually going to do a whole pill a day. This is the background story. 

Like all people of a certain age, I sit down on Sunday night and put all my pills for the week in my new and improved extra large pill box.  I was almost out of one of the medications and put in an on-line renew request to my drugstore.  I got an email message that my insurance would not pay to renew the prescription yet.  They stated they would contact the doctor. 

I figured out this was because he had not changed the instructions when telling me to double the dose. I decided I would leave my own message for the doctor in the automated system. I stopped at the pharmacy and they said they hadn't heard back but that possibly I would be able refill it and just pay cash if it came to that. 

No one from the pharmacy or insurance company or doctor's office would contact me. Then I got an automated message that I had a prescription ready to pick up.  When I got there I had a new precription of the drug to pick up with a $3 co-pay.  I had the renewal of the prescription with a cash price of $35. And I had a renewal of the prescription at a lower doseage with a $3 co-pay.  I did get both of the larger mg bottles of the same thing since I wanted back up bills for next time this happens.  

I just wonder if this was something I could sell on the street instead of heart medicine, woud they would just issue me three bottles of the same thing? It just seems wrong.  

Meanwhile my drug plan is calling me three times a day telling me I can save $6 a month if I put all my medications into refills by mail. Since the prescriptions and doseage keep changing this does not appeal to me but that is not an option in their automated system. 

Today I had a Chest CT scan.  I got a call Monday to schedule it. I said - ooookay.  She read me a long list of instructions and I made some scratch pad notes assuming I would get an email or something.  I didn't. And I forgot to even ask what doctor ordered it.  

She told me I had to quit eating 12 hours or more prior, no caffiene or even DECAF coffee for 24 hours prior to the test, I can't remember what else.  I did not get an email.  I went to the hospital website that charts appointments.  It did not list what doctor ordered it and when I clicked "instructions" all it said was "please arrive 15 minutes in advance". I googled generic instructions for a CT scan and followed those.

Luckily it was a ct scan without dye (and I think what she read to me on the phone was the instructions with dye.)  I did abstain from food and decaf coffee, but I am not sure I had to.  I did not wear undergarments so that I did not have to change into a gown.  And the radiologist person was able to tell me that the test was ordered by the pulmonologist.   

I just feel like no one tells me anything. Was this because of my pulmonary tests in February? Because I haven't had a follow-up appointment yet. 

Anyway  - blah, blah, blah.  I'm over it. 

Now I have it out of my system. Thank you for listening.