Dr. Grumpy: "How are your seizures doing?"
Mr. Shakin: "I've had 3 in the last few months."
Dr. Grumpy: "What Depakote dose are you on?"
Mr. Shakin: "I'm not taking anything."
Dr. Grumpy: "What! Why not?"
Mr. Shakin: "I ran out of pills in February."
Dr. Grumpy: "Let me look... In January you called to ask me to mail you a 90 day script, and I did."
Mr. Shakin: "Oh. I never got it. So I ran out."
Dr. Grumpy: "WHAT?!!! How come you didn't tell me? Why didn't you call me to ask for a new script?"
Mr. Shakin: "I didn't know I was supposed to."
Mr. Shakin: "I've had 3 in the last few months."
Dr. Grumpy: "What Depakote dose are you on?"
Mr. Shakin: "I'm not taking anything."
Dr. Grumpy: "What! Why not?"
Mr. Shakin: "I ran out of pills in February."
Dr. Grumpy: "Let me look... In January you called to ask me to mail you a 90 day script, and I did."
Mr. Shakin: "Oh. I never got it. So I ran out."
Dr. Grumpy: "WHAT?!!! How come you didn't tell me? Why didn't you call me to ask for a new script?"
Mr. Shakin: "I didn't know I was supposed to."
Have you pulled all of your hair out yet over these lunatics??? Between epileptics who don't take their meds and AA members who drink, I've gone bald from pulling my hair out this past week, and I'm not even the doctor seeing the patients!
ReplyDeleteSeriously - are all your stories daily happenings or have you stored them up over the years?? You're like a John Davidson or Fran Tarkenton (or maybe Cathy-Lee Crosby..) of the 80's 'Thats Incredible' fame of medical blogs....or do you just live in a very special city??! Your client/patients are unbelievable! (
ReplyDeleteThank you USA for providing smalltown New Zealand a morning giggle over coffee xxx
P.S Perhaps you need to be given one of those silver 'Thats Incredible' jackets they used to give away for freaky stories..! (Do you remember that show - or what is shipped straight overseas to gullible little counties like us here in NZ???)
Bye bye driver's license.
ReplyDeleteAnon- daily. And I don't think I'm special. I think this happens in most doctor's office most days. I just write about it.
ReplyDeleteIf only Mary had shot you when you asked... You wouldn't have had to hear this! Wonder why he thinks you even prescribed the stuff?
ReplyDeleteresponsibility for ones own medication flew out the window a long time ago..right around the same time retail pharmacies offered to become personal secretaries.
ReplyDeleteGood grief!! My 14 yo son is better than that! He nags me about making sure I get his meds refilled any time he runs out. ::rolls eyes:: (and he has bipolar depressive disorder/ADD & Aspergers!
ReplyDeleteThis goes hand in hand with the patients who say, "I don't know the name of the medicine,or what I take it for." Oy.
ReplyDelete@Anon--I remember that show. I loved it!
I'm the old retired nurse. I don't know if I should scream, cry, laugh or just walk away in despair.... when some people tell me that they share their pills with a friend..."Because the way she talks, she has the same problems than I have, the poor girl!"
ReplyDeleteTime to check for any end-of-life instructions, because brain death has obviously occured.
ReplyDeletewv = kalak -> The sound your patients' teeth make when you b****-slap some sense into them? (Hey, I can dream.)
Hopalong Ginsberg
Duh??
ReplyDeleteHow do you stand it! How do you keep your cool?
Haha...probably best not to trust patients with prescriptions. If its called or faxed into a pharmacy at least if they forget to pick it up, the pharmacy will call them when it has sat on the shelf for 10 days to tell them to pick it up or its going back to stock.
ReplyDeleteDr. G.....I don't tell you often enough that I love you madly and thank you for brightening my life.
ReplyDeletePlease don't ever stop.
I loved That's Incredible! What I wouldn't have given for one of those shiny jackets...
ReplyDeleteMy husband went from Depakote to Keppra- no wiggle room with the Keppra (pardon the pun). Miss one dose, maybe two, and it's seizure city! So he is very good about keeping it stocked. We start new insurance with a high deductible in June. I have no idea how we are going to cough up $400 a shot for that scrip until the deductible is met. blech!
@PharmJam - at least one of my doctors now emails my scrips in as a matter of course. I was delighted! Of course, I keep my scrips in one place and turn them into my pharmacy as soon as I'm done at the doctor's office but still...
ReplyDeleteOooooh, verification word is "grate"!! How apropos!
"So you're in the ER today because you had a seizure. You have a known history of seizures, this seizure was the same as all the others, your family was in the room and made sure you didn't hit your head... and you haven't taken your meds in weeks, and now you want me to fix it."
ReplyDeleteRepeat ad infinitum and you've got my last couple of shifts.
referral for a brain transplant time.
ReplyDelete