It's Never Easy, Is it??

You wouldn't think it would be that big of a deal, yet once again a simple task has turned into a comedy (or maybe a tragedy) of errors.

There's no doubt it's part of the "fun" of moving across the country, and it's also part of the fun of getting older and less healthy.

Oh, haven't I mentioned what I wanted to accomplish that's become such a hassle?   All I needed to do was renew a prescription for one of my meds.

The source of the problem - A small, white pill

Lisinopril.  I take it (among other meds) to control (or at least hold at bay) my resistant high blood pressure, which is ironic really, because accomplishing this renewal has certainly not done my blood pressure any good!

I had previously renewed it with no trouble but then came the infamous "you have no refills left" situation, and here I am, not seeing my NEW, Floridian doctor until a week from today, and taking the last pill I have tonight.

Naturally I phoned in the renewal to my local drug store several days ago because I didn't want to run out.  A few days later they let me know they had to contact my doctor to approve the renewal so I gave them the Californian doctor's phone number, fax number and all of that and trustingly (what a dope!) left it in their hands.  Yesterday when I checked on it they told me they hadn't heard back from the doctor via the fax they sent so I sent a fax over to the doctor in California begging them to comply.  In checking with them this morning they weren't sure they even received my fax!  Great!  Okay, so I verbally explained my dilemma and they ASSURED me that they had faxed over the approval to the pharmacy.

With hope springing eternally in my heart I phoned the drug store.  Nope, they never received anything.  "Well," suggested I, "can you possibly phone the doctor's office and have them verbally okay the med?"  "No," they said.  "We're not allowed to do that."  Okay, I'm back on the phone with the doctor's office asking if THEY can phone the drug store.  Nope - they don't have long distance on their phone lines so that's impossible.  Okay, let's see if I can conference the two together!

After several frustrating minutes with the phones going haywire Al was finally able to connect Points A & B and we got the doctor's office talking to the pharmacy.  Well, you didn't think it was going to be THAT easy, did you?  It seems that the drug store can only accept the verbal authorization if the doctor calls them directly.  How would they be able to tell?  You got me!  Anyway, I explained that the doctor's office in California didn't have long distance and we had more or less reached an impasse when the wonderfully helpful gal at the doctor's office offered to phone the prescription in to a Californian location of the drug store chain so that they could transfer it over to the local store.  Brilliant!  We disconnected the conference call but not before the drug store told me they'd need to know which location the prescription was phoned in to.

Okay, I can do that.  Once more I phoned the doctor's office and interestingly enough, the gal there had the phone number of the pharmacy they'd contacted but not the name of the town it was in!!
Well, I'm a decent enough detective so I went onto the drug store's website and figured out the mystery.  Figuring the pharmacy was either gonna love me or hate me by the time all this gets resolved I called them once again and gave them the store number and the town they're in.  They promised to contact that store so they could transfer the prescription here, and then phone me when it was finally ready for me to pick up.  The store's only about a mile from here and here I sit writing this to you, still breathlessly awaiting their call.  I've also asked them to call me if they have any trouble at all with this process... Oh, my friends, this has been SO MUCH fun!!!!!