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Only the pain pills please

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This is a note that I get paperclipped by my clerks to an Rx on a somehwhat daily basis.  Gee, what other med would this person ever need when he/she is getting vicodin and soma?

For your information (and morbid curiosity), the “other med” was some lisinopril.  A whopping $6 worth of medication and although will not give the “buzz” that the vicodin and soma cocktail will give you, will obviously prolong your meaningless life.

I don’t even know why I put up with crap like this.  However at least this was only blood pressure medications and not antibiotics (or their child’s asthma medication).  If you want to screw yourself over by loading up on pain pills thats fine, however don’t subject your kids to your dependence and problems.

Comments #

Comment by PharmGamerKid on 2008-07-09 09:53:29 -0700 #

This reminds me of when I got cussed out by the patient when I told her that her doctor denied her Vicodin refills.
I heard from someone that Vicodin + soma makes heroin in your body. Is that true?

Comment by Google Account on 2008-07-09 11:57:14 -0700 #

Ever notice that when patients “accidentally” drop their pills down their bathroom sink, it is never Altace or Lipitor but always Oxycontin or Ativan? A colleague of mine and I decided that to improve compliance in North America we would make a combination pill like Caduet, except instead of Lipitor and Norvasc, it would be Lipitor, Norvasc, and Oxycontin. Goodbye metabolic syndrome!

Comment by Google Account on 2008-07-09 14:14:50 -0700 #

It’s gotten to the point where we just give back the prescription if the customer doesn’t want the antibiotics or what have you. We also refuse to do partial fills on controlled meds. Fuckers can’t keep track on their own about how many they have left and it inevitably leads to countless argumentative phone calls……

Comment by Kristen on 2008-07-09 18:50:53 -0700 #

This is when it is fun to work for a big corporation that has a centralized computer system…”What, no insurance??? Want to pay cash?? Let me just type in your sad ass name along with your birthday and see what comes up. Oh what a surprise, I have a state insurance id on file from another store – let me see what happens when I bill them.” The look on their face is priceless when I tell them that according to the state they had oxycontin filled the other day at another pharamacy. Pissed off they ask me for their script back – no problem, hope you don’t mind the note in black sharpie right next to the directions that says this is too soon for another 2 weeks!

Comment by erabbitus on 2008-07-09 18:56:49 -0700 #

TAP, assholes like those people SUCK. I especially enjoy it when they come straight from the emergency department with 3 different Rx’s. One for Vicoden, one for an antibiotic, and one for some other shit they inevitably didn’t really need. Which one do they want? Of course they don’t want all three. Just “the one for pain” even though it’s for 2 day’s worth and the other two meds are just as cheap if not cheaper.
The kicker is that they’re like..20 something years old and perfectly healthy. They just wanna know when they can come pick it up.
Fuckers. What gets to me is that I KNOW they spent the entire day in the emergency room bitching out some poor nurse that they have pain while some kid’s got fuckin meningitis or some 65 year old woman is having an MI. When I see those jerks, I tell them it’s a 2 hour wait even if we’re all standing around without shit to do. As far as I’m concerned, if they can spend 7 hours in the ED, they can wait 2 more. What a bunch of pricks. -e

Comment by Adam on 2008-07-09 19:48:45 -0700 #

Look on the bright side, they’re probably killing their livers with all the APAP in the vicodin. Combined with the fact they aren’t taking their lisinopril, we come to the happy conclusion that they aren’t long for this world.

Comment by Google Account on 2008-07-09 22:19:06 -0700 #

I tell these kind of patients that, if the rx’s are written on the same rx blank, then it’s my policy to call the prescriber to make sure it’s ok to not fill one. Invariably, the doc says “all or nothin” and they fill both. If they have even half a (fried) brain left, they’ll take the lisinopril or amoxicillin or whatever instead of flushing it down the toilet…

Comment by Dr. H on 2008-07-10 03:27:52 -0700 #

These people are idiots. Fine, don’t treat your high blood pressure and die of a heart attack. Or better yet, have a stroke and end up paralyzed in a nursing home–hope you can’t speak well enough to ask for your Vicodin and Soma.
I had a guy who had a huge abscess on his ass that I drained–cultured out as MRSA as I expected. You guessed it–my friendly pharmacist called because he wanted to fill the Vicodin but NOT the doxycycline (fine, let your ass rot off, see if I care). Thankfully, she wouldn’t do it–some of us docs DO love you guys and appreciate what you do.
Of course, I had to try calling him and writing letters to document I told him the risks of not taking the antibiotic or he’d probably sue MY ass if his rotted off–doesn’t matter he’s the dumbass, not me.

Comment by Sorcha on 2008-07-10 06:41:20 -0700 #

Sorry Adam, you’re wrong. We’ll just be footing the bill for their transplants and antirejection pills then (seen it happen).

Comment by Josh on 2008-07-10 08:22:55 -0700 #

As I am on a plethora of medications, it does get a bit confusing to get all 9 of them filled at the proper time (2 Controlled). However, please don’t group us all together, I treat each med the same. I am on a rather high dose of narcotic pain medication. Know what, I can move, function, walk without a cane, and hold a job. I did not ask for this, and admonish those that abuse the system. I can not count the times that doctors’ dismissed me because of my age (23), until they found a the actual condition. Some of us that are on narcotics, do in fact need them, and don’t abuse the system. I read the pharm blogs about every day and only see complaints about abusers. I am sure that every RPh has patients that don’t ask for early refills, are polite and appreciate the service the provide, just as I hope to do. So to the profession; thank you for making my life livable, and pleasant again!

Comment by chemoqueenrph on 2008-07-10 17:40:02 -0700 #

We don’t lump all our patients on controlled substances together. It’s just the squeaky wheels that can get stuck under your skin and leave you pissed off for the rest of the afternoon.
Let’s face it. It would be pretty boring if we posted we had a day where everyone was pleasant. We had no insurance problems. We weren’t out of anything we needed. And we didn’t have to call to clarify or ask for refills on any scripts.
Nobody asked us to wipe their ass today because they are too stoopid or out of their minds to take care of their own affairs.
Wait, does that happen?

Comment by Mom to anyone on 2008-07-10 19:28:08 -0700 #

Yeah, but there are some out there that give you guys/gals a bad name. Love the guy we’ve had for 22 years-he knows his stuff and makes that his customers are treated right. Had a head on car accident and went to a big box pharmacy after the ER(only 24hour one around here), filled vicodin and flexerall(sp). Got them both, went on merry way and 4 days later I noticed that vicodin is 8 pills short(script was for 15-I got 7) and then the other was 27 out of 30. Course I call and get blasted that “she” filled them and it was correct. Since I only take them 1 time per day-and no one else knew where they were or that I had them-seems that they didn’t walk themselves. So she’s suspecting that I am a druggie-far from it. I am letting it go, but it burns my rear that I got shorted-when I never take drugs unless I absolutely have to-I avoid the Dr’s like the plague! So one bad apple who can’t count give us customers a bad taste-especially for box stores.(I work for a physical therapist and in charge of faxing scripts out) That’s why I LOVE my hometown local guy-our box store pharmacies here suck. Never again will I go fill a script there at a big box pharmacy.

Comment by Uncle John on 2008-07-10 22:14:49 -0700 #

It seems I’ve ripped a few things from the playbooks of other folks. I will ALWAYS try to bill there insurance even when they demand otherwise. And as we all know, it was oft-times filled elsewhere. I make that notation on the back of the script and give it back to them.
I’m not sure about other states, but ours maintains a controlled substance database. These fine citizens are eventually made and letters are sent out to all pharmacies and the prescribing physicians.

Comment by http://openid.aol.com/mikells43 on 2008-07-10 22:44:06 -0700 #

lol its funny the “ill pay cash only” the other day someone came in and the doc faxed an rx for 2 percocet 5/325 and 6 valium’s . she paced until she got it. i just happened to be in the pharm then. i used to abuse the system, know all the lines and everything, i see that others use them quite often. i esp like the “i lost my pills down the sink.” or i flushed them.

Comment by Joshua on 2008-07-11 04:34:58 -0700 #

I had a similar experience working at around 11pm on a Sunday night: Patient rolls up to the drive-thru and hands in the prescription. Before I can even look at it, “I ONLY need the VICODIN filled.” So I take a look at the prescription and it’s Vicodin and Penicillin written the previous Thursday at a dentist’s office. Seeing the antibiotic and pain medicine I inform the patient that the pharmacist is going to require both medications to be filled. The immediate response is, “Well, I don’t need the Penicillin. I already had it filled.” Interesting I think to myself. So I pull up the profile and sure enough Penicillin and Percocet were filled on the previous Friday. And guess where this prescription came from…the ER. I inform the pharmacist…I also inform the pharmacist that I noticed the patient is Medicaid and will not be willing to be $7.99 for the Penicillin that will be too early. The Percocet by the way was technically not early, as the ER script was only written for a 2 day supply. The pharmacist agreed that it sucked…but the Vicodin wasn’t early so the pharmacist had me just fill the Vicodin.

Comment by Jen on 2008-07-11 11:56:19 -0700 #

Guess what? I DO suffer from chronic pain. I have for 4 years now.
I am going to my Dr. monday to have my prescription changed from Lortab 7.5, 3 times a day, to Norco 10 4 times a day, because the Lortab wasn’t strong enough and I was worried about all of the APAP I was putting into my system.
The new script will be 14 days before I would normally get my Lortab filled but it’s a new prescription because my last refill of Lortab WAS the last one of it.
And I will get it filled because
A. I need it to control pain, I can’t even sleep if I don’t take my meds.
and
B. the doctor is the main authority on how my pain is managed and what should be prescribed.
So, would you think it was funny if some pharmacist got his kicks by trying to make me wait 14 days in excruciating pain just because I have a higher dosage of hydrocodone but lower of APAP and would be basically bed ridden with 2 young children to take care of, just so they could feel superior or like they ‘caught’ me doing something wrong (which I’m not….)
This blog makes me angry and sad in equal measures as a TRUE chronic pain sufferer.
I’ve also NEVER ever tried to get my meds early BTW. But I will have to when he changes them Monday because I am almost out of the Lortab as I’ve had to take them more and more the past few months to get relief, which is why my dosage is being changed to begin with, and the fact that I’m worried about my liver, that is unless they pharmacist wants to be evil.
I’m nervous about it and afraid I will have to send my kids to my mom’s for 2 weeks because I will hardly be able to walk if the pharmacist wants to be an ass.

Comment by Rph on 2008-07-11 13:16:51 -0700 #

This comment is for Jen. Like someone previously stated, these blogs are to complain about the abusers and or sellers, not legitimate patients in pain. We want your pain controlled just as much as you do. No pharmacist is going to deny your medication because they feel want to be an ass and want you to suffer. If you have established a relationship with you pharmacist and he or she knows your condition, there will be no problem with the switch from Lortab to Norco.

Comment by Jen on 2008-07-11 13:37:02 -0700 #

Rph, I hope that’s the case for me Monday.
I’ve left some mean comments on this blog, they came from frustration mostly, which I apologize for.
I know my anger should be aimed at the people who abuse the system and cause people to have to jump through hoops just to get their meds, not the pharmacists fault.
I have had the same pharmacist for 12 years so hopefully it will be ok. Well, if the insurance doesn’t go ga-ga over my script change and 14 days lapse in pain medicine. Grrr, it just scares me that I’m going to end up in pain for a few weeks and not be able to take care of the kids.
Sorry for sounding off.
P.S. My Dr. also gives me xanax for panic attacks and has for years,but I only take one if I feel like a panic attack is coming on, he has me prescribed to take 3 a day, but I usually take about 3 a week, I’m far from out of those so will have to do the (it would seem) dreaded- “I don’t need my xanax filled, just file it, I only need my pain medication.”

Comment by Dave on 2008-07-11 14:30:55 -0700 #

Come on, you are on Norco for chronic pain?? Why don’t you find a competant pain MD. Most doc’s know jack shite about treating chronic pain (which is why we dispense so much hydro/apap) 1>
Quit treating us pharmacist like uneducated dispensing machines, and
2>get some real treatment for your pain!

Comment by JEFF on 2008-07-11 16:50:32 -0700 #

This is for mom to anyone:
I’m the first to admit that mistakes sometimes happen, but I think that it is very unlikely that the counting error occured at the pharmacy. Before you get upset, let me explain. Pharmacists and technicians count by fives. This means that if there is a counting error it usually is over or under by five or a multiple of five. Many pharmacies have a double count policy on controlled meds (vicodin), so likelyhood of a counting error is even further reduced. Also, I find it hard to believe that the person counting the vicodin didn’t notice that he or she forgot to put OVER HALF of the medication in the vial. It also strikes me as odd that you didn’t notice that OVER HALF of the prescription was missing until 4 days later (after the first day, wouldn’t you notice that you only had 4 or 5 pills left?). Now as I said before, mistakes do happen, but the likelyhood of have two counting errors (that are off by something other than a multiple of 5) on consecutive prescriptions for the same patient are almost nill. So, that being said, I think the most likely senario is that someone got into your Rx’s. Either someone who lives with you or someone visiting you or another family member. I know that you say that nobody knew you had them or where they were, but to think that is just foolish. How many of your friends/co-workers/family/clients knew you were in an accident that required a visit to the emergency room? The equation goes like this car crash + ER = somebody’s got some vicodin. All they would need is a couple seconds to open your purse up while you were in the restroom. What, not in your purse, that’s OK, next time she walks away I’ll look in the top drawer of her desk (and so on and so forth until they are located). Or, how about the teenager looking though mom’s stuff for the vicodin while mom is in the shower. Basically, the only way that you could be sure that someone didn’t pilfer your Rx’s would be if you kept them in your pocket 24/7.

Comment by Midwest Pharmer on 2008-07-11 17:00:36 -0700 #

Sigh….. I’m going to spin kick the next uppity chronic pain patient who comments on here…..

Comment by Josh on 2008-07-11 19:53:19 -0700 #

I just want to say thank you, to all the Pharmacists who are over worked, under-staffed, and hassled by those seeking euphoria. Thank you to those Rph’s who cared about me, and allowed me to move, work and travel. Please don’t let the daily grind get in the way of what you really do. You help people, regardless of their state of mind or condition. Please keep doing what you do. I do love the blog entries where all the scum comes to light, a personality flaw I suppose. If you don’t want to get up for work, on the morrow, think of people like me, that do indeed appreciate the service. Thanks:
Josh, chronic pain, and happily functioning patient.
P.S. DAMN I WANT MY VICODIN THREE DAYS INTO THE SCRIPT!!!!! WHY NOT. ASK THE DOC. ha!

Comment by Jen on 2008-07-12 10:25:50 -0700 #

Dave—
Just out of curiousity, what would YOU prescribe a chronic pain sufferer? I have had (God knows) how many MRI’s, tried (God knows) how many different medications & mixtures of meds and finally found something that works.
I would much prefer to be on Ultram because they seemed to work best, but the doc stopped giving me them because I had a seizure.
I’m not sure what exactly it is I am supposed to do. The Dr. I go to is a really good Dr. and stays in contact with my neurologist (who both practice out of one of the top 10 hospitals in the country).
I’m not sure what it is you think I should do? Tell Dr.s who are among the best in the nation that they don’t know what they’re doing??? 🙁
I’ve had extensive conversations with my pharmacist too btw, who knows my history from when I was 1st pregnant 11 years ago up until today. He agrees that the Dr’s are taking the right route medicine wise. His only concern (as was mine) was the amount of APAP I was receiving from the Lortab and said Norco was the logical step up and to stay awaqy from Oxycodone as long as possible. He also sorted out the constipation problem that can come along with hydrocodone. (Which I was thankful for!!!….)
I also see a chiropractor twice a week to *stretch me out* (that’s what I call it!!…)
I have degenerative bone disease and really don’t know what else to do.
I’m not being sarcastic at all, I would love to know what you think I should do that I’m not doing already.
Midwest Pharmer…spin kick away, this is the internet and an open blog, I would think anyone can comment on here who wants to. Maybe I was wrong, I’m not being uppity though, you don’t know anything about me or my life, I just want to not be in pain every day. That would be great.

Comment by Jen on 2008-07-12 12:03:13 -0700 #

btw Midwest Pharmer, any chronic pain patients who want to speak freely can do so here….
http://pissoffpainpatient.blogspot.com/
if it helps control your rage. I should thank TAP for giving me a reason to make a place to air my own worries/anger/etc.
I’ll still post here too though, don’t worry. 😉

Comment by izzyRed on 2008-07-12 12:27:37 -0700 #

In reply to Dave saying “Come on, you are on Norco for chronic pain?? Why don’t you find a competant pain MD… Quit treating us pharmacist like uneducated dispensing machines, and get some real treatment for your pain!”
In my case, it’s mainly due to the money. I have a private PPO (no state or fed. help here!), and in addition to my premiums going up continuously, so does the price for brand name medications. This SEVERELY limits my choices.
I’m already on about 10 other meds for various “issues”; and things like the Azathioprine (brand name Imuran), even being generic, for whatever reason — my insurance pay about 1% of the cost each month. So just that alone I’m stuck with over a hundred $$ short every month until I die.
For the pain part itself, I take the “dreaded” Norco & Soma, which are both generic and only $10 per month, and lots of OTC Motrin. My point being that so far in my experiences over the last few years, I have tried the long acting ones. BUT, they are insanely expensive for many of us….
I’ve tried Oxycontin, which at that time did have a generic actually, but it made me quit sick. And now I hear that the generic is gone….? If it is that means a month’s supply with the ever-growing-stingy insurance co’s is going to be (for me at least) well over $100/mo.
Same as the Fentanyl patches, made me very sick also, but even so they cost hundreds of dollars.
I am looking currently at maybe Kadian (MS Contin), but it also is over $100 *with* my PPO. And when the Norco/Soma is working well enough for me most of the time, I haven’t found a very good reason to justify spending hundreds of $$ per month versus $20/month for those.
Is there?
I just wanted to put this in perspective for some of you that may not know the cost of these things. The only other generic longer acting one I’ve tried is Methadone, which didn’t help very much. So I go with what works — why on earth would I not?
That’s what I’m having a hard time understanding here. I realize so many of you have something against people taking hydrocodone for long periods, and esp. when combined with Soma.
*BUT* there’s a ton of reasons for that other than saying “you only take that to get high”. Like I said above, #1 -> It works. And after 4+ years on it, I can say without a doubt that I’m not taking it for “fun”. #2 -> It is cheap.
If I’m missing something, seriously guys by all means, tell me. Because I’d be more than happy to go on the “right” path if it’s possible and there’s a good reason to say that what I take right now is the “wrong” path…..I’m not a Dr. or Pharmacist, so I only know what I’ve encountered. If anybody has some ideas, I’m all ears here. And without bias! 🙂
Izzy

Comment by Jen on 2008-07-12 16:02:13 -0700 #

I knew I’d get a chuckle here sooner or later!!
My blog is
http://pissedoffpainpatient.blogspot.com/
pissed off, not piss off….
I’ll admit that did make me laugh. My Lortab must have been kickin’ in eh? (that’s a joke BTW!!)
Darn you pharmacists! 😮

Comment by dorkyrph on 2008-07-12 19:11:18 -0700 #

erabbitus said:
TAP, assholes like those people SUCK. I especially enjoy it when they come straight from the emergency department with 3 different Rx’s. One for Vicoden, one for an antibiotic, and one for some other shit they inevitably didn’t really need. Which one do they want? Of course they don’t want all three. Just “the one for pain” even though it’s for 2 day’s worth and the other two meds are just as cheap if not cheaper.
The kicker is that they’re like..20 something years old and perfectly healthy. They just wanna know when they can come pick it up.
Fuckers. What gets to me is that I KNOW they spent the entire day in the emergency room bitching out some poor nurse that they have pain while some kid’s got fuckin meningitis or some 65 year old woman is having an MI. When I see those jerks, I tell them it’s a 2 hour wait even if we’re all standing around without shit to do. As far as I’m concerned, if they can spend 7 hours in the ED, they can wait 2 more. What a bunch of pricks. -e
——————————————
I understand that people are un pain, and they want the meds NOW – who wouldn’t? No problem, maybe fill the others when you get paid tomorrow, whatever.
So they waited an hour to get seen, then pt. history, vital signs, blood draws, blah blah, then another hour for the verdict from the MD. (Most of us have been there ourselves.)
Just don’t rip me a new one when it takes 20-30 minutes to process you. Besides, our ER has the Allscripts/NuCare “fun-size” vials they dispense to tide them over.
I’m doing the best I can. Believe me, I want to get you home as much as you do.

Comment by dorkyrph on 2008-07-12 20:27:52 -0700 #

Dave said:
Come on, you are on Norco for chronic pain?? Why don’t you find a competant pain MD. Most doc’s know jack shite about treating chronic pain (which is why we dispense so much hydro/apap) 1>
Quit treating us pharmacist like uneducated dispensing machines, and
2>get some real treatment for your pain!
—————————————–
Sure. Carbamazepine, Lidoderm, OxyContin, MS Contin and fentanyl patches are UNACCEPTABLE because they don’t WORK……..

Comment by WI Pharm D on 2008-07-12 20:31:56 -0700 #

This comment is to Jen,
As a pharmacist, I try to remind myself every day that I can’t judge people based on how much pain medication they have to take. I know that pain is very subjective. I would hope that every pharmacist does this, unless they know for a fact that the person is abusing the medication. I am disappointed that you would write and think that your pharmacist of 12 years might be an ass about getting your medication filled. Your pharmacist should be able to see your record and know that this would be an increase dose. Unless you have given your pharmacist a hard time in the past, he/she will most likely do everything possible to make sure that you can get your medication filled.
We are health care professionals and we do care about people. However, we do get yelled at a lot and treated poorly by so many people. So please, thank your pharmacist on Monday and let him/her know how much you appreciate the care!

Comment by OzPharmStudent on 2008-07-14 05:51:43 -0700 #

izzyRed,
If there is a long term pain patient I want to run into you would be it. You are able to write in complete sentences and know something other than the exclamation marks. Your post isn’t full of “you don’t know what it’s like” and “I’m special.” You understand the medication and seem to take an active and productive part in your care.
I have a couple of patients on long term endone (oxycodone 5mg instant release) that are useful parts of the community and are great people to deal with. I always enjoy it when they come into the store.
The problem we in the medical/pharmacy profession lament is the patient on the federal dime with the sores all over their body and the sunglasses (and phone) superglued to their face. They stand their bitching about how we take so long and why they can’t get their meds early for the 3rd time this month. There are many people who use pain meds to treat their pain and remain active human beings. Unfortunately there are a lot of people who abuse them for the hit.
Ben from the land down under
P.S. Socialized health care kicks ass. I always feel sorry for everyone involved when I read this blog and the insurance problems you deal with.

Comment by Jen on 2008-07-14 19:54:57 -0700 #

WI Pharm D…I thought about this blog and the comments etc today when my pharmacist was filling my new prescription after i’d left the dr’s office in tears because my Dr. was having a bad day (or something) and spent a good 20 minutes scolding me like a child because I was in an abusive relationship and more or less said to me ‘if you’d have gotten out of it sooner you’d have had far less fractured bones at the time but you didn’t so your pain will just get worse the older you get, that’s life sometimes.’ In a very cold way too. Which then ensued into a long conversation I’m sure none of you care about reading so I won’t type out everything that was said between the Dr. and myself.
I know it sounds like I’m a wuss for crying when my Dr. kept going on and on about it but I was having a bad day too.
My phamacist filled my meds then came out and sat and talked with me for a while and told me not to let it bother me and that we all make mistakes and gave me the info (he knows I know it all by now, side effects etc, but does it anyway just incase…)
He made me feel a LOT better and, like I said, I did think about this place and I thanked him for being so kind to me over the years. He gave me a hug and said ‘that’s what I’m here for hon.’
When we were talking he did get pissed off about how the Dr. had spoken to me and said he had no right and started talking about finding a new doc (even offered to help me find one.) Said ‘I have your records from the past 12 years and not ONCE have you ever tried to get your medicine early, been rude to me or any of the techs etc. and went on to say that the next time the4 Dr. did something like that he was going to call him personally and tell him there was no need and tell him about my pharm records etc. He is right, I do need to find a new Dr.
I said before but will say it again, I emailed him the link to this blog a few days ago ( I guess it means you have an OK relationship with your pharmacist when you email each other from time to time, he send tons of fwds. lol…)
What I said to him today was long overdue and I do appreciate it being brought to my attention that they need to hear they’re appreciated too sometimes. I feel embarrassed tonight for not doing it before now.

Comment by Jen on 2008-07-14 20:41:13 -0700 #

dorkyrph said:
Dave said:
Come on, you are on Norco for chronic pain?? Why don’t you find a competant pain MD. Most doc’s know jack shite about treating chronic pain (which is why we dispense so much hydro/apap) 1>
Quit treating us pharmacist like uneducated dispensing machines, and
2>get some real treatment for your pain!
—————————————–
Sure. Carbamazepine, Lidoderm, OxyContin, MS Contin and fentanyl patches are UNACCEPTABLE because they don’t WORK……..
_____________
dorkyrph are you being sarcastic or do they work?
And what’s wrong with Norco if it works Dave?
It’s all confusing, and I ask this because I really want to know. Obvously I am not a Dr. or pharmacist so the more I know the better off I am. Maybe I should just go to medical school and treat myself!
P.S. I have been told to stay away from OXY ANYTHING, which I have done. But I’m not sure why. :S
If mint-flavored tic-tacs were found out to be the best med for chronic pain I would take them and just be happy not to be in pain 99% of the time. I don’t care if my meds are narcotics or not as long as they work.
When I 1st started reading and posting here I admit I was hostile and on the offensive, but the more I read the more I do learn (even if some of you are rude and mean sometimes lol…)
I am learning something here, which I’m grateful for. I guess I need to pound it in my head that it’s MY body and I know when IT hurts and what works for ME and what doesn’t. And take my Dr. off the pedestal just because he’s the Dr. and I’m not. He may be the Dr. but it’s my body right?
I’m also learning quite fast that some pharmacists (even though a lot, here at least, have a mean streak lol…) most likely know more about what’s best for me, or at least know how to point me in the right direction, than my own Dr. does. Hmm.

Comment by Dave on 2008-07-15 11:52:06 -0700 #

Jen..
dorkyrph had my sentiments exactly..Norco is not exactly high on the list of stuff to use for CHRONIC pain.. I am sorry if i seemed a bit snarky, must have seen too many dopers that day..ha ha..Part of the problem with non controlled release meds is that even when you take them round the clock, you get a trought in the blood levels..it is during the trough where problems occur. Your dorsal horn (where pain impulses pass) will sensitise during the drop and pain will often come back more sharply..
The optimal regimen for a chronic pain sufferer would be a long acting med…(Oxycontin, Ultram ER, etc)augmented with a shorter acting pain med for breakthrough pain..
Listen, I am just a lightweight when it comes to understanding pain, you should talk to a few of the real pain specialists in my area..(the ones that actually study pain impulses, not the ones with rubber stamps rx’s for 120 Hydro/APAP, Soma, etc)
Good luck with your treatment, and remember..pain is a part of life..It helps to ensure the continuation of the species!

Comment by PharmacistMike on 2008-07-15 12:59:52 -0700 #

I actually broke 2 bones in my foot last week. Limping around I haven’t been in much pain but the ER doc did give me a script for vicodin. After giving my x-rays to my brother-in-law, an orthopedic surgeon, he suggested I get the script filled and walk as much as possible.
As a pharmacist I can just imagine the look on the pharmacists face as to why I waited 7 days to get the vicodin filled.

Comment by tech_grl_in_red on 2008-07-15 15:54:03 -0700 #

i hate all these damn drug seeking junkies!!!! we generally dont get a whole lot of ppl refusing their amoxil but 90% of our rxs are controlled anyways! i hate them all they piss me off to no end when they come in 3 times in a day to keep getting stuff for members of their familt that all live in the same effing house! that probably put all their shit in bowl and go ball to the wall! i wish those so called pain seekers would shut the hell up because its all crap! fake garbage! i hate them all i wish they would just take their vicodin/soma/xanax combo and pull a heath ledger!

Comment by karrirx on 2008-07-15 19:42:37 -0700 #

To Jen:
I’m glad that you got the see the “real” side of a pharmacist. We (well,most of us!) DO really care about your well being. If you have a good relationship with your pharmacist, we are usually more than willing to help a patient. That is why I went into pharmacy. At my last job, I had EXCELLENT customers. We were all very close and I would do anything to help them.
However, at my new job….you just get “hardened” when all you do is fill the soma/xanax/lortab for the people that go to the local “Candy Man” every 2 weeks to get their meds. I would bet that 99% of them don’t have any real problems. Another thing that turns you off is when you get one of the infamous scripts along with their state MEDICAID card. So yeah, it’s hard to feel “sorry” for these people’s “pain” when they’re taking money out of your pockets and then making money by (more thn likely) selling the medications.
I have had many patients with chronic pain. I see them with their canes..barely able to walk in the store. And yeah, I feel for them. And also, I don’t see what the big deal is with treating chronic pain with Norco/Soma. If it works, it works. If you’re not abusing it and not taking it more then is prescribed, I don’t see the problem.

Comment by Soren Faust on 2008-07-16 12:33:21 -0700 #

It seems to me that being a pharmacist is very much like being part of any other customer service profession. You work in an industry that is going to attract its share of losers, psychic vampires, deadbeats, and other wise unsavory characters. Bartenders, waiters, and others who deal with the public know the routine

Comment by EE on 2008-07-16 16:03:42 -0700 #

I love it when people tell their life stories and all that shit via comment.
Guess what people, NO ONE cares!
This is an anonymous blog. The shit you say isn’t going to sway the way anyone thinks!

Comment by BlueTech on 2008-07-16 21:31:53 -0700 #

I remember a doctor who specialized in oral surgery…he’d prescribe a boat of drugs as a finisher. He’d call in Keflex, cleocin, dexamethasone, and hand the patient a written script for percocet and vistaril. The patient had to come in and if he wanted the percocet, he had to pay for EVERYTHING. Once a patient insisted on the percs only, and we called the doc, who said: “no, he needs to pick up everything…and give him some cipro too, because it’s expensive.” That guy fuckin rocks.

Comment by Dave on 2008-07-16 22:22:13 -0700 #

“We don’t lump all our patients on controlled substances together.”
B U L L S H I T.
I am NOT a chronic pain patient, I am a practicing physician and I am absolutely sick and tired of idiot pharmacists having a bad day calling me to tell me what I fucked up on my scripts. If I wrote a particular treatment prescription I did it for a reason. Please don’t argue with me as you attempt to be so many amateur physicians. I realize that you went to 5 years of school to learn pharmacology, and I respect that. What I can NOT stand is that fact that none of you seem to respect that I and my colleagues went to school for 10-12 years and, whether you want to hear it or admit it, know a fuck of a lot more about medicine and pharmacology, and more importantly how they interact and will effect OUR patients than most of the arrogant, self absorbed, insecure pharmacists that call to tell me I can’t prescribe A with B. Shut up and fill the fucking scripts unless you are damn sure there is a mistake. As I get at least two dozen calls a day between “corrective” calls about my prescribing and suspicions about my patients that I prescribe anything stronger than Ibuprofen, it gets ridiculous.
Pharm D? THAT is a fucking joke!

Comment by Heather on 2008-07-17 05:01:57 -0700 #

P.S. Socialized health care kicks ass.
Until you hit 55 and start getting denied routine treatments, but I suppose you don’t care about that because as a health professional you’re not subject to the rationing normal people are. *spit*

Comment by Fxguy on 2008-07-17 07:05:27 -0700 #

So what I am sitting here wondering is if these people are in such pain, and knowing a little something about kinetics tells me that even if I give you the tab now it is still going to be an hour before the effects kick in, why dont the emergency rooms give a shot of something for the pain so they dont have to run straight to the pharmacy? Or how about changing the law and letting the Emergency Room give out the pain meds!?!?!? Maybe then someone will keep track of how much they actually dispense and will cut back when they are paying like $20 per pill!!!
I wonder why sometimes we have a database of narcotic or controlled users if we do nothing with it!! What good is just collecting data? I have yet to see any investigations or arrests or anything come of it. Whats worse is my employer wont even link to the database on our site at work, so I have to look up patients on my private cell phone to connect to the web site to see if this patient has gotten anything filled at another pharmacy.
When are we going to get a national database!?!?!?? Come on! How much intelligence does it take to realize what a good thing this would be for everyone involved? I see posts from doctors who are all like “I dont want to compromise my patients privacy” and think screw you! If we had a national database we would be able to stop these abusers and really help out the ones who are not abusing! Think of how helpful it would be if you could log in as a physician and see Dr Joe prescribed Zocor for your patient 2 weeks ago that your patient forgot to tell you about. Do these doctors really think the patients remember everything they are on or tell them the truth all the time?!?
Anyways, I am starting the national database movement right here on Angry Pharmacist. If you are interested in signing a petition for a national RX database please send me an email to [email protected] and I’ll let you know as soon as the website for the petition is up. BTW the website will be at nationalrxdatabase.com
Sorry for the long post first post and needed to vent!
P.S. Is it bad that now I have to deal with telemarketers at work?>??? Get a call from Astra-Zenica yesterday about formulary changes regarding symbicort. The girl is totally a hired actor reading from a script and when I ask what the copay will be for my patients she proceeds to tell me uh uh uh we dont know, but it will be tier 2 or something like that!
One last plug Would doctors on here find a site that helps you look up a patients copay for a medication be helpful?
Thanks all! Keep fighting!
Tim PharmD
AKA The Fxguy

Comment by veggiecat55 on 2008-07-18 20:49:38 -0700 #

Hey TAP…Im a tech for a coporate piggie chain store…and I just want to tell you…you are awesome…and everything you say is what most of us think. I havent laughed so hard. Its validating a bit to hear your rants…because I live it. I dont even know where to begin on comments. This entry though sticks out, makes me also think of how the control or narc rx is always the only one that “gets stolen”, “gets lost”…or my favorite “it fell in the toilet”. WHY on earth would someone take thier Ambien over the toilet??? With the seat conveniently open?? We also get people who try and fill early so much, they like to try and play the call every day until I get a new person on the phone and say “so and so said it was ok if I pay cash”. Yeah, little do they know ,we know the silly lame tricks and we are on it. Stupid morons. OMG!

Comment by rph3664 on 2008-07-20 20:22:06 -0700 #

One of my technicians caught her dog eating her Evista. Really. Little pooch chewed off the end of the bottle and was gobbling them.
The poison control center said he would be okay, and he was.

Comment by Mom to anyone on 2008-07-22 08:54:28 -0700 #

This is response to Jeff-
I can see how you could relate the mix ups to the scenarios you’ve laid out. But none of that applies. I am not working again until Aug. 28th-none of my co-workers no I’ve had a accident nor have I been at work(I now drive a school bus-used to work for a PT). My meds were in a sock itself hidden at the back of the drawer where no one but me had access to them-we’ve had no company over since we’ve had the accident. My teens don’t even know I am on meds right now other than my ones to control the type 2. Sorry, but the pharmacist at the big box story never even ASKED me my name when I called back about the missing pills. She just YELLED at me and said she filled them. Gee-in a store the size of that one and the amount of patients that get things filled there-how did she know who I even was without giving her my name( I called on my cell so call ID wouldn’t work there)? This is why I stick to my hometown guy-he knows everything there is about me and my meds. I only went to the box store after the car accident because it’s the only 24 hour one here. One time was enough to convince me never to darken their doors again. They give you guys who are doing a good job a bad name. I hope I never have to get vicodin again in my life!

Comment by Jen on 2008-07-23 05:12:37 -0700 #

rph3664…oops, glad the pooch was ok!…
veggiecat55, i know its hard to believe but people DO make mistakes sometimes…i had my sink full of dishwater not long ago and had just taken a pill and (silly me) just left the bottle sitting there with the lid off and was gonna put them away after id finished the dishes, i knocked them in the water by mistake and had just gotten them filled the day before (it was a bottle of omeprazole) so had to run and get them refilled AGAIN, they didnt give me any problem…now that also,a must have jinxed myself here by saying id never had to get my pain meds early :p..because i left my pain medication at our beach house last summer (its 250 miles away) and wasnt going back for 3 weeks, i told my pharmacist that if he couldnt refill them id run back down and get them…he said nah no porblem, just wait until *this date* to come get your next refill, called my dr (whos right across the street and got his ok so my insurance would pay for the early refill) and filled them.
*mom* i will ALWAYS stick to my local *mom & pop* pharmacy, there have been a couple of times i have had to wait a few days because they were out or needed to order something etc…but in the big scheme thats a REALLY small price to pay when you get to have a pharmacist who knows you by name and takes care of you…i never use walmart or cvs or any of those sort of places…its just not worth the hassle when i have a pharmacist who seems to care about my health genuinely and that i trust and vice versa. 🙂
p.s. hes a dr, i never knew that until the other day when we were chatting, im not sure what the difference is in a normal pharmacist and one thats a Dr. of pharmacology.

Comment by JEFF on 2008-07-31 14:00:51 -0700 #

In response to mom to anyone:
You were treated rudely, and that’s unacceptable. You say that none of the scenarios that I came up with apply. Aren’t you forgetting the family member, or friend, or friend of a family member scenario. You said that your teens didn’t know that you were on meds other than the ones you take for type 2. Do they know that you were in a car accident? Do they know that you made a trip to the emergency room because of said accident? If they know, I guarantee that their friends know. Like I said before they don’t have to know that you got a prescription. All they need to know is CAR ACCIDENT + ER = PAIN PILLS. So one of your kids or one of their friends could have easily figured it out. The fact that you stated “My meds were in a sock itself hidden at the back of the drawer where no one but me had access to them” also concerns me. Why would you hide them unless you didn’t trust someone in the house? Further, if you are the only one who has access to the drawer, there is no reason to hide your meds in a sock that’s in the back of said drawer. I would be willing to bet my right thumb that someone who lives in your home or one of their friends snatched a few of your vicodin. You are just having a hard time realizing it because no one ever wants to believe that their kids (or their kids’ friends) or their grandkids took their drugs.
So, here’s the scenario… Teenage son/daughter at home with mom a day or so after the accident. Mom decides she needs some groceries/cigarettes/whatever. Teen stays home while mom heads to store. Teen, being a teen, knows exactly where the hard liquor, mom’s vibrator, dad’s playboys, and mom’s pills all are located. Teen is trying to decide which stash to get into when he/she remembers that mom took a trip to the ER a couple days ago. Teen thinks to his/herself “mom’s metformin didn’t do anything for me when I tried one last month, but I wonder if she got any new prescriptions from the ER?” Teen checks all mom’s usual hiding spots until she gets to the sock at the back of the drawer. Teen looks at vials. Teen sees a label that says “Hydrocodone/Apap” and doesn’t think much of it until further down the label he/she reads “generic for Vicodin.” The teen has heard of Vicodin before so he/she dumps half of it out into their pocket. The teen looks at the other new vial and reads “Cyclobenzaprine” as well as “generic for Flexeril.” The teen has never hear of these before, but decides to take 2 or 3 from the vial to sample later…

Comment by tech_grl_in_red on 2008-08-01 15:12:44 -0700 #

to jeff-
wow you are very creative!!! the sad thing about it is that its probably a true story! “mom” may not be poppin the vico-dans but somebody surely was! i know in my pharmacy its policy to double count things of that nature and if i have a discrepency i count again and if the third times not a charm i have my rph count that would be 4 counts im sure the bottle was correct when it left the pharmacy. that leads me to a question: who picked up said rxs? if it was a third party they probably swiped them before they got home…. open your eyes mom ur kids an undercover junkie!

Comment by Mom to anyone on 2008-08-08 18:43:59 -0700 #

First off I’ll say again. This pharmacist at CVS is the one that miscounted. She had too much going on that night-there were no techs on because they were all out on break. There were quite a few people waiting for their prescriptions and one person doing it all. Since we stopped there on the way home from the accident and the ER, I was the only one that had the prescriptions. I gave my hubby his and I took mine-his and her bags. I hid mine away in a sock-no one knew I had them-hubby had a 30 day supply-I was supposed to have 15-I got 7-so he had plenty and didn’t need my small amount. My 10 year old sure didn’t pop them. And the other two were in FL at their Grandmothers when we had the accident. Adds up that pharmacist made a mistake. Simple. I hope to hell NEVER to take them again-if pharmacists automatically label you as a druggie-I’ll refuse it when a Dr prescribes it. Never mind some a-hole ruined OUR summer with injuries and now a surgery. I’ll deal with pain before I’ll be judged again. And me-who rarely takes a advil too. And you want to know why the public has a dim view at times of the box stores-it’s why I stick with the guy who a local who’s been in business for 20+ years and knows that I’ve never had anything but a antibiotic. Guess you live where everyone’s a druggie and no one can ever make a mistake. I still say she was hiding something-since she had no way of knowing who I was on a cell phone calling. I never identified MYSELF. Sounds like she’s the one with the problem.

Comment by Mom to anyone on 2008-08-10 16:48:04 -0700 #

What really bugs me is that first off-one child is a whopping 10-so nope it’s not that one-the other said kids where at sleepaway camp when the accident occurred. I hid them because of the dangers of all you’ve pointed out-I don’t trust anyone that comes into my home and I don’t have a locked box for my meds-which will be remedied here now. But being that no one came over at all to see us after the accident-I have to believe that the mix up was at the pharmacy because of the lack of techs on-because it was break time and the pharmacist was too damned busy picking up the slack-it’s a CVS-to me that says volumes to because all of ours around here suck big ones-but we had to use this one because it was a 24hour one. Maybe your used to dealing with people with drug problems, I’ve know a few in my life. But believe me-I KNOW exactly how many pills I always have for any medication-that’s why this one threw me off. For the pharmacist to accuse me when I called on a cell and no WAY for her to know who I was when I called-for her to rip me a new one-just a little off for me. Guess what-some of us are honest and have kids that damned well know better NOT to take anyone else’s meds-I have never spared the rod in my house! Not everyone is a pill popping junkie-not every kid will filch off Mom because they have it. Simple answer in my book-the pharmacy made a mistake because she was overloaded that night and couldn’t own up to her mistake. It’s people like her that give the good pharmacists the grief. My guy I’ve used for 20+ years never ever has questioned my meds-I only use my type 2 ones-never-ever have I had this one before. I know now to refuse viocodin if I EVER get a script for it again-I’ll suffer first because I won’t be labeled a junkie by a pharmacist. With attitudes that everyone’s got a drug problem-it’s no wonder I don’t trust anyone in the medical profession. Bad enough I had a a-hole ruin my summer, my spouses summer, none of us can work and I face surgery because of a bad driver. Then I look like a pill popping Mama because of injuries. So-thanks for the eyeopener. I won’t be filling that type med ever again.

Comment by anonymous on 2008-08-12 10:28:09 -0700 #

wow, all these pharmacists should be ashamed of themselves calling people with med problems and people coming out of surgery or something taking meds instructed by the doctor assholes who should die. I don’t personally care for how pain killers make me ill so I don’t deal with them, but holy hell, if I ever landed in the emergency and had to take something, fuck you for making me feel bad for doing what the doctor says-go back to school and become something worth it like a doctor-a pharmacist is just someone who is too lazy to go all the way

Comment by knm18 on 2008-08-15 03:21:02 -0700 #

Hello everyone, I am a 26 year old addict who not to long ago was battling with my addiction to opiates. After reading the comments on here I have mixed emotions. I would first like to say I have been clean and have not taken a pain pill for over 120 days. It will be 5 months on 9-8-08. I was the patient that did all these things you have all mentioned on here and when I read the comments you make I am not upset at all. You are right, infact at least for me I was so guilty all the time while I was using because I knew it wasnt right, that I always assumed you were thinking that about me anyway. I just didnt really care at the time because I didnt really care about much of anything except getting the drug in my system. I would get so mad at the pharmacist when they didnt buy my story or for any other reason I didnt get my RX. Today I am so thankful for that very reason I used to get mad. By being cautious and paying attention to red flags and little things that dont add up dont necessarily mean you dont care about people and want to make their life hell. It shows you do care and dont want them to make their life hell. Thanks to a pharmacist who finally caught me in my little game I am alive and clean today. If I hadnt got caught I would have continued my secret addict life and I KNOW it would have killed me. That pharmacist was able to bring my issue to the attention of those that could offer me the help I needed. However the part of the commenting that does hurt is that even though I am an addict and I have done some horrible, unthinkable things, I am still a human being. I will give you the fact that while using my behavior was more that of an animal. I hunted for survival or at least what I thought I needed to survive. But see I did not ask for that to happen to me, infact everyday I hated myself, my life and the fact that a substance had controll over it. If I could have easily quit I would have, its not that easy. My point is that even though I did horrible things, I am not a horrible person. I was the cheerleader that got good grades and never did a drug in my life. That changed when I was prescribed vicodin for kidney stones… that was the beginning of the end for me. The end of the life of the girl I once was with morals, honesty,, ect… I am that girl I once was again today. Not all your piece of shit customers are hopeless… so instead of HATING them and wishing death upon them ( because believe me if they are anything like I was they are not to far from it) why dont you try exactly the opposite of what your doing now. Getting mad, being short and rude, making them wait on purpose and then still being pissed off about it when you get home( pissed off enough to write hateful blogs) try reaching out to them, they need help, they are in over there head and dont know what to do..most of them want to get caught just so the secrets out and they can get out of that vicous cycle they call their life. Hey maybe you will even be happy when you go home from work instead of pissed off because you will leave work with that feeling of I may have saved a life today. Trust me it happens I am LIVING proof… thanks to some stranger that unexpectadly interfered with my life who just happened to be a pharmacist..

Comment by rph3664 on 2008-08-16 11:37:21 -0700 #

http://www.craigslist.org/about/best/sfo/301345524.html
Here’s another perspective.

Comment by thatsmylunchable on 2008-08-18 23:43:04 -0700 #

I have to say I have sat down to this site and want to say that one thing that I think is it doesn’t matter what a pharmacist thinks he should fill the script if its being paid for thats his job his job IT”S not to judge or put his opinion in to place making things difficult. He wasn’t the patient and he wasn’t the doctor so if they abuse them then none of his brain cell should be waisted in the situation and the other thing is maybe people have the antibiotic at home and don’t need anything but the pain meds I know I have a shit ton of antibiotics right in my cupboard!! OH and by the way I am not on pain meds and I was injured in a doctor during one of the 5 delivery’s I’ve give along being in other situations where I was injured so I need them some time I can’t even get up from my legs and back refusing to move

Comment by http://openid.aol.com/eyzonla on 2008-08-20 16:39:15 -0700 #

To thatsmylunchtable:
What do you mean that it doesn’t matter what the pharmacist thinks? That the pharmacist should just fill the prescription since that’s what he’s getting paid for. So when the pharmacist continually “just fills the prescription since that’s what he’s paid to do”, and the patient just happens to overdose or get’s liver damage,etc then what? Who do you think the DEA and the board of pharmacy looks at and holds responsible? The pharmacist and/or the doctor of course- not the patient!!! They don’t do anything to the patient except give him a little slap on the wrist or bs warning. However, they hold US-the people with the licences responsible, come to our stores or offices, demand to look through our files, and possilbly revoke our licenses (because we’re supposed to know better). Then I have to go in front of the pharmacy board and the DEA and try to defend myself to why I was just “doing my job and just filling the prescriptions”. Give me a break !! Look at Wyonna Rider, Courtney Love, Elvis, Heath Ledger, etc. – one of the first things they say if you listen closely is that they are reviewing the pharmacy and doctor’s files. By the way it is actually a federal law for a pharmacist to knowingly furnish an addict with narcotic prescriptions. Of course we know everyone is not an addict. The people/addicts that we are referring to have a definate history of constant abuse.

Comment by Google Account on 2008-08-23 08:26:25 -0700 #

The following scenarios are real. What NOT to do if you’re trying to bust a drug-seeker with a fake script:
Scenario 1. Someone brings in a fake prescription. After they leave, you call the doctor and verify that this is a fake prescription. You call the police and they tell you to notify them and stall the customer when they come in to pick it up. You wait�they show up. Here’s a tip�tell your employees that when the customer walks into the store NOT TO STARE AT HIM LIKE HE HAS THE PLAGUE!! Your behavior gives you away. That’s how I never got arrested at the scene. I would walk in and everyone would stare at me and whisper. So, I left the store.
Scenario 2: When the patient calls you to see if their prescription is ready, DO NOT ASK “What exact time will you be here?” RED FLAG. Under normal circumstances, you wouldn’t care what time we picked it up. If you ask, we know that the police will be there to meet us, and we won’t show up. We’ll be arrested somewhere else and you won’t get to see it.
Scenario 3: Don’t tell us over the phone that we shouldn’t use the drive-thru. We know it is easier for you to arrest us in the store, so when you tell us “uuuhhhh, just come in, something is wrong with our drive-thru”, we know you are lying, and you won’t get to see us get arrested because we won’t show up. Another thing about this that will backfire is when we do show up and the supposedly broke drive-thru is full of customers.
Scenario 4: For the purpose of this story we’ll call our prescription forger �Sally Smith�. If you work in a big chain, you have lots of customers. We know this. You cannot possibly know them all by name immediately. So, let says “Sally Smith” walks into your Walgreen’s at 11:00am with a fake prescription for Xanax. She gives it to you and leaves. You call and verify that it is indeed a fake prescription. You alert all of your employees that when Sally Smith comes back in they are to call the police. You and your employees anxiously await Sally’s arrival. “Did Sally show up yet?” “Watch for Sally to some in!” Well, Sally has been at this for awhile and before showing up, she decides to call you and see how you react on the phone, most often zealous pharmacists give themselves away when trying to get someone arrested. Its 3:00pm. Sally calls “Hello, my name is Sally Smith. Is my Xanax prescription ready yet?” Pharmacist immediately responds with “um, YES! It is ready!” She knows that you know what she’s up to because you immediately knew who she was. What you should say is “Sally who? Oh, hold on, let me check the computer. What’s your date of birth? When did you drop it off? Oh, yes, Sally, yea that’s ready for you.” Much more believable.
Scenario 5: Someone comes in with a prescription that you suspect is xeroxed. In my state, not all controlled drugs have to be on special prescription pad, so you can get away with certain controlled drugs on a regular pad. Anyway, you think its copied or something. The customer gives you the prescription and leaves the counter, but walks around the store pretending to be shopping. If you, as the pharmacist, are going to hold the prescription up in the air under a light like its evidence from a murder scene to see if it is copied, here is a tip, go somewhere where the customer cannot see you do this!!!!!!
Scenario 6: If someone comes in late at night to fill a controlled substance, right before closing time, there is a reason. We know you cannot get a hold of the doctor at that hour and you just want to go home so more than likely you will just fill the prescription. Most of you know that this is the case. You decide you will not fill it until you can call tomorrow and verify it. Just tell us that. One lady told me that the other pharmacist left for the day and accidentally took the keys to the controlled substance cabinet so she couldn’t fill it until he came in the next day. YEA RIGHT!!!!! A pharmacist leaves at 6:00pm and takes the keys to the controlled substance cabinet and just calls and says “Ooops, I don’t feel like coming all the way back there. Just don’t fill any controlled substances until tomorrow.” Just tell us! You want to verify it!
By the way, I do not do this anymore. I got caught and went to prison. I know it was wrong and do not blame anyone but myself for my addiction. I deserved to get in trouble and being incarcerated saved my life and liver. It wasn’t fun, but I am clean now and will never do that again. I really feel like an ass. I got away with it for a long time, but that didn’t do me any good. When I got caught they found out about all of the previous ones. I had multiple cases against me. I do feel remorse for my actions. You, as pharmacists, have every right to hate me, though I hope you don’t!

Comment by john stamos on 2008-10-07 00:11:37 -0700 #

You people are fucking bitch ass losers that have nothing better to do then sit in here and talk shit about us? I saw this website and thought maybe I can get guidence on how to get off of them. First of all, were these meds manufactured on the street? no, manufactured by you mother fuckers. i was in a near fatal car accident 2 years ago and was told to take these pain meds for 3 months. i have an addicted personality handed down to me by my mom. my doctor didnt say a damn thing about them being addictive. now i struggle everyday. im 22 yrs old with a pain pill addiction, imagine that. for you people to say, “hey, look on the bright side, they wont be around long”.. yeah, cuz the pain pills you perscribed. ive sat in the e.r. for 7 hours before just to get pain pills, ive gone to the pharmacy with 3 perscriptions and only filled the pain pills. yep. but maybe you all need to take some fucking pain meds so you dont have to sit in a fucking chatroom and bitch about people with real addictions handed to us by our trusting physicians. you can all suck my fucking dick, im gonna go take a pain pill! thanks doc!

Comment by An Addict on 2008-11-05 16:37:02 -0800 #

TO JOHN STAMOS-
Hope you come back and read my response. The comment above yours is one that I did. I’m not a pharmacist, no, I am an addict. 19 months clean. The first 12 months of this clean time was done in a State Penitentiary. Yea, I went to prison for prescription fraud and it sucked.
You cannot blame pharmacists for your addiction. Yea, some on this site are angry, but you cannot blame them for your addiction. It may have started with a doctor, but now that you know you are addicted you have to do something about it. I was taking 60 pills a day. No exaggeration. I thought I would die without them. It sure felt that way. I know what you are going through, but you have to be strong and start weaning yourself NOW. Don’t stop cold turkey, do it slowly. Trust me, your addiction will only get worse. It took prison for me to get clean. When I was in that cell, going through withdrawal, oh how I wished I had just taken care of this on my own without having to get locked up. You are only 22, you have your whole life ahead of you and spending it being addicted to pills is only going to destroy your future. I know some people are here say some pretty mean things, they are mad because they have to deal with addicts a lot. But don’t let that stop you from getting help. You CAN get over this addiction, but do not blame others for it. There are plenty of people who are on pills who do not get addicted. There are doctors out there who hand drugs out like its halloween candy, but in the end, you have to stop yourself. In the end, it is YOU that is responsible.
Good luck.

Comment by brad on 2008-11-10 16:18:11 -0800 #

hi there! first i would like to say that i absolutely love this blog! my sister is a RPh and i hear the same stories from her all too frequently. i too am angered by those who abuse the medical system and are only out to catch a buzz. i am 27 years old and have several medical conditions, one of which causes chronic pain and am taking multiple medications, two of which are controlled substancs, temgesic and soma. i have a very good realtionship with my pharmacist, i have been using her pharmacy for about three years and i actual consider her a friend. she is well aware of my medical conditions and is an integral part of my medical care. i never attempt to fill anything early, except a day early at most, simply because my work/school schedule does not always afford me the luxury of getting to the pharmacy on time. unfortunately, there was a time when she went on vacation and another pharmacist came to fill in and lectured me about the number of medications i take and that “someone my age does not need to be on pain medication”. i found this not only insulting but somewhat funny as i am prety sure that my medical conditions are listed in my file there on the computer. i know my sister works crazy hours as i am sure you do as well and i have a great deal of respect for the work you do. i understand that dealing with the same bs everyday can wear you down but sometimes it would be nice to just be given a little respect and to not be treated like someone who is abusing/addicted to medications. yeah, its not the most fun having chronic pain, but its not going away and i just have to make the best of it.

Comment by mike tunnell on 2009-01-10 21:46:40 -0800 #

hey fuck you. you think just because you have an education, you are better than your customers. If it wasn’t for these people, you would have to get a real job(fucking pussy) get a real job and we will see you standing right behind these other people crying because you are hurting. Make me wait 2 hours and I’d be behind that counter beating your ass!!!!!!you ungrateful college punk. Shut your fucking cry baby mouth and do your god damn job.

Comment by brett on 2009-02-21 09:39:44 -0800 #

I work in retail and we can spot them a mile away. We also don’t hesitate to call the ER/doc and ask if they are aware that they are seeing 4 different doctors and we don’t bat an eye. It’s obvious the ones who are ABUSING. Short days supplies and numerous docs.
Which leads to the other side of the coin…the ones who use narcotics to control chronic pain. They take their meds as directed and never ask for early refills, but 9 times out of 10 they are addicted as well. What starts out as pain control can very well turn into addiction….

Comment by Alexandra Lynch on 2009-05-29 19:38:27 -0700 #

Yes, I don’t want to “need” anything I take long-term. I mean, it makes my life better, and I can actually do some things instead of nothing, but I don’t die without the Synthroid. I take holidays on occasion, when the budget gets tight.

Periodically I do a night without the Ambien, just to see if the weird sleep phase thing has fixed itself. So far, it hasn’t, and I hate to have sleeping issues next to my husband when he’s got to work the next day.

And I don’t take nearly as much tramadol as what’s prescribed. When the crushed foot objects to life or my period comes in, though, it does work effectively, much more so than the Ibuprofen. Pretty much my rule is when I start pacing, it’s bad enough to take the Tramadol. We found out by accident that tramadol + skelaxin will shut down the menstrual cramps. True, it leaves me puddled in a chair, but that’s infinitely nicer than the whole sweating and shitting that happens for thirty-six hours otherwise.

It is just immensely embarassing to have all these meds on file, but they do make me able to have fun cleaning the house and cooking for us and let me focus enough that I can work on the books I edit, so I suppose I have to take them. I just don’t have to need them.

Comment by Anonymous on 2009-09-19 22:22:02 -0700 #

Wait a minute. Are you people licensed professionals? If you are, you people are more pathethic than the people abusing pain killers. Any educated professional knows that these addicted people are sick people and need help. However, if there are people like the one’s who posted these thugish judgements about addicted drug abusers are more sick than the people abusing the drugs. Go back to school and re-educate yourself because you people need more education about addictions.

Comment by Lea on 2009-10-09 07:03:32 -0700 #

brett said…

“Which leads to the other side of the coin…the ones who use narcotics to control chronic pain. They take their meds as directed and never ask for early refills, but 9 times out of 10 they are addicted as well. What starts out as pain control can very well turn into addiction….”

Oh really… don’t you know that there is a difference between addiction and physical dependence? Let me explain it to you. An addict takes pills because the pills get them high. Someone who uses them for pain control uses them so that they can actually function. In the process, their body will get used to the medicine. No one can avoid that, not even YOU. So once they become physically dependent on it, yes, they are dependent. They would need to be weaned off of the meds if they wanted to quit. This is NOT the same thing as addiction.

Comment by Sid on 2010-01-20 11:58:57 -0800 #

Eventhough i do admire this site very much it concers me to see certain things on here. I have never understood why these pharmacist care so much on what you have filled. Eventhough yes a person should get all of the perscriptions filled there is no reason to turn them down if they just want one thing or another filled. See cuz what you all dont understand is that most “junkies aka pill poppers ” dont have any money. so what if they need there perscriptions but cant afford to get them all filled.Then they have to wait. Also who are you to say what goes into there body. And why do you care so much. its just like when a junkie goes to get needles for his herion, he has some asshole behind the pharmacy counter say no! i need to see a insulin card or “Do you get your insulin filled her?” never understood that. Your probably saying to yourself there just doing there jobs, but there not! They are just judging you. What there really doing is causing a junkie to share or use a dirty needle.We all know that that is bad news. WHY MAKE THERE LIVES MORE DIFFICULT? There already living in hell by being a slave to opiates.

Comment by bcmigal on 2010-01-22 23:41:57 -0800 #

Sid….pharmacists must fill your prescriptions in accordance with state and federal law…….that is why we “care” you have filled….

Comment by piss off pharm on 2010-01-23 16:28:10 -0800 #

get off your fucking power trip yopu stupid assholes, your all jus mad cuase you were too stupid to be a real doctor, and unless you are a doc you have no right to tell somone they cant get there meds,
who the fuck do u people think you are? its becuase of people like you the shit is on the streets, and i know some off you stupid ass pharmicist have pocketed somones pills before rather for you are one of your stupid freinds. faggit mother fuckers

Comment by satchmo on 2010-01-24 21:01:01 -0800 #

“There already living in hell by being a slave to opiates”

Sounds like a personal problem

Comment by JustAsAngryTech on 2010-01-25 21:37:23 -0800 #

U r jsut jelus becuz we kan spel annd u cant u stoopiddoodyhed

Comment by JT on 2010-01-27 16:38:00 -0800 #

I went to CVS to have my Xanax refilled. I take 1mg in the morning and 1 mg in the evening as prescribed by my doctor. The medicine was refilled on a Saturday and I went in to pick it up on the following Monday. When I got home, I went to put the medicine in my pill box – it is for a month supply (30 days). I got to the last day and did not have the last two pills. Instead of having a 30 day supply totaling 60 pills, I only had 58. Yes, I counted over and over and still came to 58.

Now, I called the pharmacy right away and spoke with the pharmacist. I informed her of this and I must say that she was very brief and to the point with me. I understand that this place gets crazy busy and sometimes the person behind the counter is doing so much at one time. So she told me that she would check her counts and call me back. I appreciated that and I thought to myself that it is very possible that they are very busy and that was why she was short with me. She called back about an hour and 45 minutes later and told me that her counts were correct. I did not pursue the matter any further. I did tell her that this was a first and asked her what I could do to prevent this from ever happening again. I inquired if they would re-count them in front of me when I come to pick them up again and she said that they could not do that but that I could count them myself there at the counter. I was confused and thinking…how could I count them if there is a line or not enough room at the counter, etc. I asked her how would I count them at the counter. She replied that I could count them into my hand. Seriously. So, knowing there was nothing I could do (I’ve read quite a bit about these scenarios on different sites) and that it is her word against mine…I thanked her for counting her supply and wished her a good day.

Now, I will have to go one day without my medicine. I can do that. I do not want to do that, but I will have to. My question is this: Where are those two pills that were not in my bottle? I live alone. I picked them up from CVS on Monday around 9AM, went home, sat the stapled bag on the counter…washed my hands, then went to set up my month-long pill container. No one was in my kitchen in this little amount of time. While there is no way to prove this being as I do not have counts, I do know that I am right here. I know that I only received 58 instead of 60.

So, after reading all of these posts and having a problem for the first time myself, what am I supposed to do and think? Should I count medicine when I receive it and not worry about what people think? Will that not make a pharmacist or clerk suspicious? Should I trust that this was a one time mistake? Should I go to a different pharmacy? What should I think and do? And furthermore, where are those two pills?

Thank you.

Comment by J Stoker on 2010-02-15 21:59:34 -0800 #

Why work in a pharmacy if you are going to be a judgemental asshole who deciede that you know more than the doctors prescribing the meds – you know nothing your job is to fill the prescription and shut up and do the job if you dont like it get another job – you know nothing about the customers who come in for your \professional\ services and you sound like idiots as you condemn them for having a life you dont understand – for those who like to poke fun or pass judgement – you suck and you are not needed in the pharmacy – maybe you should get a job as a waiter or work at mcdonalds or something where you can judge every single customer that comes through at the same unprofessional level you are used to working with – in other words – you suck

Comment by J Stoker on 2010-02-15 22:02:07 -0800 #

very good

Comment by J Stoker on 2010-02-15 22:04:12 -0800 #

sounds like you have a personal problem yourself – you’re a slave to blissful ignorance though it doesnt keep you from running off your BS mouth

Comment by J Stoker on 2010-02-15 22:08:48 -0800 #

Angry Fascist Tech – the most compelling argument you can come up with is attacking his spelling skills – ooh you’re a bright one – here is some advice – society does not need you working behind the counter because you are a creep – get another job – one that you are suited for – perhaps flipping burgers at mcdonalds

Comment by J Stoker on 2010-02-15 22:11:00 -0800 #

dear arrogant brett – you just suck – nothing much more to say than that – you need some pills to help you not suck so much

Comment by J Stoker on 2010-02-15 22:12:42 -0800 #

pharmacists have no business to rant – they need to just shut up and do their job or else find a different one. Its that simple.

Comment by bcmigal on 2010-02-16 00:28:59 -0800 #

Stoker…first, go get a life and second, go blog somewhere else

Comment by bcmigal on 2010-02-16 00:36:29 -0800 #

what’s a \somones\ and where can I get one?

Comment by PharmerJ on 2010-02-16 03:37:08 -0800 #

J Stoker,

First of all, believe it or not most pharmacists know more about drugs than doctors. Doctors get one semester of pharmacology while pharmacists get at least 4 years. I am a retail pharmacist who on a daily basis corrects doctors’s mistakes. Case in point, the other day I had a prescription for Valtrex, 4 times daily. I wasn’t familiar with this dosing so I called the doctor and he told me that he couldn’t remember the dosing and he didn’t look it up. I told him the proper dosing and it was changed. Don’t get me wrong, I have met some extremely intelligent doctors, but unless they are a specialist or they use certain medications all of the time their drug knowledge is lacking at best and dangerous at worst. TAP may be over-the-top sometimes but he is just venting. I’m sure there are aspects of your job that you don’t like. Don’t you vent to people about them? How would you like it if the person you were venting to told you to “shut up and do your job?” I am a pharmacist and it is my job to keep patients safe and informed, and if I want to rant/vent, guess what? It’s mine and everyone’s right. To be honest with you, the biggest problem with our healthcare system is that entirely too many people get their healthcare for “free.” It’s not just people that can’t afford it, it’s people that don’t want to pay because uncle sam is footing the bill. When yopur kid needs tylenol for a fever, you have to pay for it, however, these people make uncle sam pony up the dough and addd another couple of hundred bucks for the ER visit as well for that same fever. Do you see anything wrong with this picture? I sure as hell do and so do most pharmacists across the USA. Hopefully, this gives you a better idea as to why we say what we say and do what we do. Thank you.

Comment by PharmerJ on 2010-02-16 03:50:31 -0800 #

Piss off pharm,

First off, fuck you! I became a pharmacist to help other people safely take their medications. Pharmacists are not people who are too stupid to be real doctors, ok? I chose this profession because unlike a doctor, I get weekends off, I don’t have to worry about being on-call, the malpractice insurance is a lot less, etc. Who wants the stress? I love my job, except when I have to put up with stupid assholes like you. While it’s true that some pharmacists, doctors, nurses, etc. have drug problems not all do. I can personally say that I have never stolen a paper clip let alone a pill from the pharmacy I work for. You want to know why? Because I have better things to do with my time than look for my next high. There is more to life than doing drugs. Fact of the matter is I hate the fact that we have oxycodone/oxycontin in our pharmacies. It’s these drugs that apparently give drug addicts the right to put a gun in my face and ask for them. To all those people, fuck you and get a real job. What makes you think you have the right to threaten my life? Other countries don’t even carry these drugs in the retail setting, They are reserved for hospital use only. And yes, I do have the right to tell them they can’t get their meds because they are controlled substances. Guess who controls their dispensing? It’s not doctors, fucktard!

Comment by PharmerJ on 2010-02-16 04:00:27 -0800 #

The reason pharmacists “care” about what patients puts in their bodies is its our job to care. Also, we can be held liable in court if we knowingly dispense harful medications to known junkies if they were to overdose. Oh, and Sid, tell me this, Do you think that a junkie is going to be responsible and discard his used needle in a sharps container? Nope, it’ll probably end up on your kids playground (true story, btw). If their lives are hell, they need to seek treatment. While I have sympathy for their addiction problem they are the ones that chose to start and I cant’ with a good conscience feed that addiction. It is wrong!!!

Comment by satchmo on 2010-02-16 04:36:45 -0800 #

J Stoker, you have quite the potty mouth. \Suck\ tends to be your preferred word. It wouldn’t happen to correspond with what you do to make a living, would it?

Comment by YeahOK on 2010-03-16 17:08:40 -0700 #

LOLz at all the pharmacists on here, it sounds like if you took some vicoden yourself your day might go better. I saw a few comments on how hydrocodone shouldn’t be used for chronic pain, well in my case i don’t have much of a choice and it sucks. I take hydrocodone 10mg 3per, tramadol 50mg 2 per, nuerontin 300 mg, 3 per, klonopin 1 mg 3 perday, and temezepam 30 mg 1 per night. And I’m still in pain for a large majority of the day. I realize that I’m not going to be pain free 100 percent of the time, but about 50 percent of the time would be nice.

I do need surgery, per 3 different opinions. I am only 25 years old however I have 4 herniated discs, L2/L3, L3/L4, L4/L5, and L5/S1….I also have two cervical discs in my neck that are out of place im wanting to think c5/c6 and c6/c7…..and as of last week I had been having leg pains for over a few months, i had attributed this to my back pain because this goes hand in hand, but when i felt of my left tendon beside the knee, it was about three times the size of the one on the right knee. Went to the chiro, had an mri, expensive with no insurnace and found out that i have a torn gastronemic, severe tendonitis, a torn hamstring, and nueropathic nerve damage. How did all of this happen?? The back problems started at an early age of about 17, but i only had two herniated discs then. My family doc at the time decided to prescribe me 180 count Lortab 10 right off the bat. He simply felt of my back, said it felt like a pinched nerve and wrote me an RX and went on his way and gave me 5 or 6 refills, the maximum whatever it is/was back in 2002.

Let me first tell you that I had no idea about addiction and opiates when I was 17, I was not a drug addict and I was very good student who finished in the top 10 in their class, scored a 29 on my ACT, and received a scholarship. I could answer any question involving school work, but again I had no idea about pain killers and the addictive nature of them at this age and to be honest did not know that 180 10mg Hydrocodone was a lot at the time, I didn’t even know what it was.

Whenever I got the prescription, just taking one of these pills put me in a good moood. I wasn’t expecting that as I had never done drugs before and didn’t know at the time people got high all the time off of drugs like these. I was prescribed to take 6 a day and so I did so. Even if i thought that was too many, the doctor sure seemed to think I needed that many. After taking 6 pills a day because for just a couple of months, I started to get to where I would no longer feel the effects of the pills, and I’m thinking what the hell is going on, they worked great in the beginning, now they aren’t doing anything. So I decided to take two at once instead of one, what the heck do you know, they work again and i feel better. Ultimately, without even knowing it, i was addicted to these little fuckers. By that time though, being so young i didn’t want to admit that i had a problem and I thought I was justified in taking these because i had legit pain.

To me its just crazy that any doctor would write out any 17 year old student 180 hydrocone pills a month with 6 refills, it wasn’t then because I didn’t know any better but now being through hell and back I was the one that was naive, not my doctor. He continued writing me the hydrocodone for nearly 4 years until I had had enough. I was taking upwards of 30 pills a day, and I hated it.

I got so bad that i did scam the pharmacies. I just want to let you guys know how, maybe there are ruses that you do not know about.

  1. My insurance only covered 120 pills a month. I had to pay for the other 60 in cash. However, the computer would not fill both prescriptions (even though it was the same one) on the same date because it was the same drug so I was informed by the pharm. that I could either fill them the next day, or two weeks from then, whenever I needed them. Whenever I went back in to fill the rx for 60, the pharm told me that he could always just give me 120 pills every 20 days because my insurance would cover that and 120 every 20 is the same as 180 per 30 days. He did tell me that if I wanted to do this that I needed to let them know so I wouldn’t receive my other 60. This was at a big chain pharm. 24 hours open, so there were many pharms.

So the first month that I ran out, on the 20th day I call the pharmacy and tell them I had a precription to be refilled for 120 hydrocodone that was a 20 day supply. They fill it. 10 days later I go in and get my 60 and pay cash. Every month I did this, I would get 120 every 20 days and I would get 60 pills every ten days. By the time I was down to the last refill on my 60 it had only been like 3 months on a 6 month supply. Thats when one of the pharms finally caught it and said that myself and they could get in a lot of trouble for dispensing this much medication and that she couldn’t give me anymore refill this for about 60 days. Obviously, I didn’t give up, I called my doctor and explained to him that the pharmacist would not refill my medication but i did tell him that i had been taking too many, but i was still in pain.

My doctor called the pharmacist as i told the pharm he would, and she had already told me that it was still her decision in the end. When I went back in, the pharm. looked really frustrated. She had an evil look to say the least. I asked her if my doctor had called and she said “yes, he did call but I can’t say I’m very happy with the situation.” I asked her why and she told me that even after explaining to the doctor how much I had gone through meds wise, he was still “insistent” that I needed my meds and that he had “no problem whatsoever” with me getting my hydrocodone filled that day and was adamant that it be done.

I had just switched insurance companies and it just so happened that this insurance company did cover the full RX of 180 pills. I was in total disbelief when the pharm told me this and that she told me my doctor had wrote me out a whole new rx with 6 more refills. She said that while she didn’t have to fill them, she was going to because the doctor was pretty persistant about it.

Not only did I get my 60, she told me that it was a whole new prescription and that they were wiping the slate clean because “myself” and the pharms who gave me 420 hydrcodone every 40 days could get in serious trouble for this and even though I was the one who had called them in, they still filled the medication early everytime and it was on the same prescription so there really wasn’t much to say other than the fact that they screwed up and weren’t paying attentnion and were just shelling out pills to me, granit i was calling them in, but did they really have to fill them??? Do the pharms not look this stuff up, it was so obvious in my mind yet they had no clue what was going on. The whole “insurance will only pay for 120” had them completely off track with me telling them I was getting 120 every 20 days and would still call in my 60 every ten days.

The pharm told me she was going to wipe my slate clean and we were going to start over, she actually gave me a full RX for 180 pills that day but made sure to tell me not to come in not even one day early, not until the 31st day.

Of course I ran out early, and of course I was going to try and get them filled early…..at the time I was living 4 hours away from my family doc and family working at UPS and had just decided to move back home because it wasn’t working out. The last day i was there I went in and got my prescription refilled by a diff pharm about 3 days early.

When I got back home, I went to my docs office and told him that I had moved home and that I had already transferred my RX once so I couldn’t transfer it a second time (wasn’t true, but I knew the laws on transferring a RX) and that I needed a new prescription. He was fine with this and wrote me out a new one with another 6 months. I then took it to the pharmacy located wihtin the docs office and I didn’t think they had my new insurance on file and I told them I’d be paying cash. However, the pharm tech was a little bit more intelligent then the other ones and she looked up and told me I had insurance and that I had just gotten a RX for 180 filled 7 days earlier and I would have to wait another 23 days.

They had my green RX slip and I knew the young girl that worked up front at the register, and i stuck my hand out to get the RX slip and she gave it back to me, it did however have a BIG RED “C” stamped on it on the bottom right hand corner, I assumed this meant “cancelled” i dont know.

I really wanted to get these filled so I went to a different pharmacy where I had been before and had always paid cash. The price of 180 of these at the other pharm was about 89.99 dollars, however I knew this pharm was a lot cheaper because i had gotten them there before, they were only 59.99, so I gave the RX slip to the pharm and told the pharm that i had just gotten back from the other pharmacy and that they filled my rx but i had no idea it was almost 90 and that I knew i could get it cheaper here. He had no problem with this, even with the big stamped “C” in red and some writing at the top with the other pharmacies name on it, he still filled the medication. All the while at the other pharmacy they had already entered the same prescription from the same RX slip into their computer and told me to pick it up in 23 days.

After 23 days, I was really reluctant to do so, but I was in dire need so I called to see if I could get them filled and they said yes. I was leary at first but then got brave and went in, and they gave me the prescription. So basically I was getting 2 prescriptioins of 180 hydrocones, 360 total, per month and i had 6 refills with this. It’s not like i was doctor shopping, i didn’t forge a prescription, i was just able to use the same prescription twice from the same doctor. This eventually led me to taking so many I had to enter a methadone program for my addiction and to help control my pain as well. I was on methadone for 5 years and quit cold turkey last october. By this time, my other family doc had been stripped of his narc license, go figure, so i had to find a new doc.

I told my new doc that i had a prior history of abuse, was on methadone for 5 years as he knew this and was prescribing me klonopin and temezepam for the last year i was on methadone, a big no no in the medicine field to mix methadone and benzo’s, not to mention two different benzo’s. After being off the methadone for 2 months my pain again became uncontrollable. The new doc started me off on 90 7.5 mg. pills along with tramadol 50mg and neurontin as well, he tried the neurontin first but it just didn’t do much so he added the hydrocodone and tramadol. Last month he increased me to 3 10mg a month per my request. I have been seeing him for over a year and I have to go in every monnth, just my last visit he finally stepped me up to where I only have to see him once every other mnonth now because he knows I have no insurance but it was important for him to see me every month to make sure everything was going okay.

The meds i take now seem to help but i still have quite a bit of pain. The methadone actually helped the pain more than anything, but how could 100mg of methadone not help anyone’s pain. The lortab is just so short acting that it just doesn’t do much and I have no idea what to do. I want something to help with my pain to where I can atleast have 2 or 3 good days out of the week but he told me that he can’t write me anything stronger than the hydrocodone right now. I will have to say he is a great doc, well actually he is a nurse pract. so that explains why he can’t write me anything more than a CIII.

Would I just be better off going to a pain management doctor??????

Comment by sms on 2010-04-26 16:17:19 -0700 #

why dont doctors just write for pain pill that u can’t abuse ..im on opana 20 mg er and it dont make you high at all … and it take the pain away much better then lortabs toooooooo

Comment by blit on 2011-01-12 16:51:51 -0800 #

I can see where the pharm techs and pharmacists could make some people angry. I want to say this first before I get to my thought about the pharm techs. I’ve seen just about every trick in the book from an abuser. I don’t like it, but there’s a fine line to be walked. Policies are important..with no exceptions. Having said that, there are always exceptions because you do develop relationships and you have to be reasonable. One policy is there are to be no narcotics prescribed on Friday for any reason. However, it is not reasonable to let a 78 year old woman suffer all weekend with a bad hip..and we all know she’s having surgery in 10 days.. That’s not reasonable. So I do understand where some of the pharmacists and techs are coming from. But if I knew that one of you bottle fillers made my patient wait on purpose because you are getting off on your power, you would be brought to the attention of several boards. My question is..if you are so angry with the seekers and abusers and you’ve had it with other aspects of the job, why the hell are you doing it.
Am I to believe you had no idea just what you
were getting into when you graduated and
started work. Spare me.. My answer to you “angry” people is do something else if you feel
like a pusher. How do think I feel. There’s
always a lawsuit waiting to happen and a
problem patient I have to “dance” with.. And I
have to get blasted by pharmacists? No, no..see
I don’t. I had those calls from you guys..and
some of the attitude that drips out of the phone
when I have to explain for the 14th time that,
yes, I’m aware of the Tylenol in that dose. Listen, when treating visceral pain short term for whatever, I take into account the age of the patient, the health of the patient and I am aware. I’ve given as much as 30mgs of Hydrocodone in 10/500 tablets and told the patient to take as many as 4 Advil all with food. I’ve gotten calls about that from no-it-all pharmacists…”are you not concerned about blowing out his or her liver?” …..NO, and leave it alone. As you can tell, I’m not too friendly with certain types of pharmacists. I used to be worse until I got married. My wife reminded me that everyone is working for the same goal..to get the patient healthy. You need to remember not everyone’s an abuser..I know you can tell most but even then..show a bit of compassion.

Comment by theangrypharmacist on 2011-01-12 18:34:37 -0800 #

You’d be the first one to throw us under the bus if something you prescribed killed the patient and we brought it to your attention and you just dismissed us and ‘left it alone’.

Im sorry, but even your holy “sure its okay, just do it” word doesn’t absolve us from just as much legal responsibility as you when the shit hits the fan.

You say to not treat everyone as an abuser, yet you have a blanket rule of no narcotics on a friday? Am I the only one who sees the irony in that?

Comment by blit on 2011-01-14 02:43:16 -0800 #

Maybe you didn’t read the part where I mentioned that some individuals require that policy to be overlooked. I read some of these entries and it smacks of so much anger and sarcasm that it make sad that when a patient leaves my care, they then have to subject themselves to pharmacist or, more likely techs, who have forgotten why all of us do this job. If you are a pharmacist then you should have learned to express compassion. How many site do you see where we blog about how much we hate this “guy” or that “girl?” it cheapens what you do and who you are. To read some of the adolescent rambling. My long-winded point was do your job, do it as well as you know how..and stop standing in the corner with Skippy and Boner making fun of your customers. An ounce of maturity would be nice in your profession. And I don’t know of anyone who would “throw you under the bus” if the dosage was too aggressive. Surely you are aware of the enormous insurance I/we carry. I understand all to well the issues you discuss. I’ll leave it there..I think we nay have to agree to disagree.

Comment by blit on 2011-01-14 02:57:19 -0800 #

I’m sorry for the add on here, but I must make this one comment. I know.. I know kidney stones.. I get it.. I could tell a million stories. I had a patient come in with what was obviously a very small bruise on his thigh, but he had hit himself in that one spot to the point where he broke off a clot and he died within two days..it’s sad, I know..he was 19. The rhetoric is just a bit harsh.

Comment by Matthew on 2011-03-23 00:05:47 -0700 #

really? Really? REALLY? First of all let me start off by saying that the people who bring their prescriptions to your pharmacy are customers and not patients. You are not doctors no matter how much smarter you think you are than the druggy in the lobby at the end of the day he’s a customer of yours and not a patient. If your job is to fill prescriptions then do your *****\* job and fill the prescription that after 12 years and hundreds of thousands of dollars in schooling have afforded me the responsibility to write. If I’m willing to stake my license on someone’s pain then your ass needs to be willing to fill it. Stop wasting my time calling up my office because you think you’ve “read” one of your customers. I’m not a pill pusher and can handle the brevity of any decision I make regarding my profession. I don’t need you double checking my work and then bitching about my findings later. I’ve one colleague who was investigated last year because some pharmacist who thought she was smarter than she was spent more time being a judgmental ass than doing her actual job. So seriously, coming from someone who actually took the time and spent the money to earn the degree……… SHUT THE **LL UP, fill the prescription I wrote, stop making my patients feel like junkies, and pull your head out of your asses.

Comment by letsrant on 2011-03-23 10:35:18 -0700 #

Matthew, dude! make sure you leave your full name and DEA number on this site so when we receive your scripts from the “customers” we can tell them to go back to you to get the samples since we low life are not worthy of filling your fucking scripts. fuck off man. just because you spent 12 years and lots of dough doesn’t mean you know all the shit about precribing meds. and without us being your safeguards, you’ll be sure as hell harming some of the “customers” you so lovingly care for. tell me, how many of you dickheads write for “warfarin prn” or “seroquel for sleep” or “neurotin 100mg prn pain”. do you even see the problems with these? when you do, we’ll talk. until then, shut the fuck up. BTW, i agree with blit. just do your job, do it well, cooperate or at least tolerate and be polite. don’t fuck with us and we won’t fuck with you. and dude, you never told us the outcome of your friend’s investigation. hm…

Comment by EZ2LUV on 2011-05-14 09:20:04 -0700 #

OMG… I cannot believe these comments…. First of all I trust my doctor, and the meds he writes…. Sorry, but most pharmacist are \wanna be doc’s…. There are ppl in the world that actually take several different kinds of meds a day, but that DOES not make them dope heads….
It does not feel good as a customer to come in to get a script filled and be looked at like you are a abuser when you are just getting your monthly supply of meds…. If your wife/ husband gives you a list to go to Walmart (imagine it is a list set in stone), and the cashier doesn’t want to sell you the items on the list how would you feel??? Maybe the cashier could call your wife/ husband and tell he /she what is better for you at your house…. Afterall she sells groceries everyday…. Truth is if you want to be a doc GO BACK TO SCHOOL, but do not question the doctors intelligence…. No disrespect to all pharmacist, but the ones on here are mad at the world….

Comment by PharmIntern on 2011-05-15 14:28:42 -0700 #

Drugs and groceries are not equivalent for comparison.

If you don’t work in the profession, you don’t know what it’s like, and therefore have no room to bitch.

I always giggle whenever I get called a wannabe doc, because it’s always from people who don’t know what the fuck they’re talking about at all.

I’ll take your advice and not question the intelligence of the doctor the next time I see a script come through for Vicodin ES 5/500, or amio + warfarin.

Comment by common sense pharmacist on 2011-10-15 08:41:09 -0700 #

Shame on you, erabbitus. Until you have walked a mile in these customers’ shoes, you don’t know them well enough to make an educated guess about who they really are and what their situation entails. Let me tell you something about karma kid, you will get back whatever you give out and then some. You really ought to further educate yourself and brush up on your skills a little more.

Comment by elaine on 2011-11-02 16:36:51 -0700 #

gee annonymous, enough said. no balls, shut your mouth already

Comment by geddy on 2011-12-17 19:52:31 -0800 #

Fucking pharmacists think they know everything its our money we can spend it on what we want this isnt russia you cant tell us what to buy.

Comment by militaryindustrialcomplex on 2012-01-13 04:50:12 -0800 #

Damn, if I can conclude anything from reading this, pharmacists (who are posting in here) are extremely immature when writing on blogs. Most of you express your emotions like 13 year olds bitching on a social networking site. Seriously, grow up, every profession has shit to deal with. Now theres nothing wrong with ranting, I do it like its my job, but at least do it with some sense of maturity and rational thought. You may be mad about abusers and what not, but they’re abusers bc drugs like pain killers are highly addictive, so don’t generalize millions of people and call them “assholes” “jerks” and “fuckers” as some of you put so kindly. I can’t believe half of you are pharmacists, you seem very uneducated and heartless. You probably picked the profession bc of the lucrative benefits vs amount of schooling. I myself know a lot of pharmacists, i went to school with a lot of them at Purdue and I must say they’re nothing like the ones posting in here, the ones posting in here with all that anger should be ashamed of themselves. And for the doctors and pharms fighting with each other, seriously, you are suppose to be working together, not against one another. Next time look before you leap and maybe you won’t come off as degenerates.

Comment by Arkan on 2012-02-03 11:24:32 -0800 #

I agree with anonymous what a bunch of Assholes to jugde sick people like that!! shame on you!!

Comment by Arkan on 2012-02-03 11:33:09 -0800 #

You are NOT a DR! At least NOT one that studied the same medicine as I. I am here to treat the patients, I have been in the practice for over 20 years Kid. I have seen and done most things that people can’t even tell me about anymore… My patients and I have a very close relationship as I cure them of every day life! It isn’t as easy for them to deal with everyday life anymore due to the fact “THINGS HAVE CHANGED & THEY CAN’T FIND A WAY TO DEAL WITH IT”! So before you forget about why you choose this perfetion, ASK YOURSELF….HOW CAN I HELP THIS PERSON? & WHAT DIRECTION CAN I HELP HIM GO INTO BUT FIRST IT STARTS WITH TRUST & HONESTY…. NOT A SMILE AND GO F YOUR SELF ATTITUDE!! APOLLO SOLECKI.MD. I am here to help all my patients Old and New… HEY KIDS HAVE A HEART AND LISTEN TO EM… THEY HAVE PAIN … THEY REALY DO!!! THANKS FOR YOUR 5 MIN IT TOOK YOU TO READ THIS!!! ; )

Comment by sean on 2012-02-05 18:47:40 -0800 #

Speaking as someone who wound up addicted to opiates for about a year and a half I agree. I know its easy to think of these people as nothing more than losers and users. But you cant imagine how hard it is to dig your self out of that routine of addiction once you get there. I have never been addicted to any thing else in my life, but there was something about the opiates that just hooked me after the first time. Ive read that hydrocodone is now the most prescribed drug in the country, and that the about of people reaching out for help to addiction to opiates has risen over 300 percent since the late 90’s. I went to my doctor one day after i had enough of the ups and downs, always thinking about getting more pills, and spending almost all of my money on buying the drug off the street. I was put on suboxone and have been clean for about 2 weeks now. I know you pharmacist put up with some shit you really shouldnt have to, and i know its easy to get pissed off at these people. But try to put your self in there shoes for a moment. Being an addict and not being able to get what your body makes you feel like it needs is nightmarish, it changes you completely.

Comment by jon do on 2012-04-26 14:01:20 -0700 #

People on this forum are fucking assholes

Comment by leelee on 2012-05-05 16:41:31 -0700 #

This is just a site for venting.Nothing posted here should be taken personal. I work in a pharmacy and we do not feel that way about ever doc. I see scripts everyday that are written in error. So we do sometimes have to call and question scripts.Imagine if we did not and we just filled the scripts as is. we could be responsible for killing someone. What if you they were giving you a dose that is triple what it should be? and the result is, you have a stroke? would you have wanted us to question it then?

Comment by Mike R on 2012-05-31 19:42:42 -0700 #

it’s amazing here! the pharm.d’s here can give 100% accurate diagnosis’s with just a glance hell they don’t even half to see your lower half in the drive thru. they know meds they don’t know conditions. at least the ones here don’t. i tell them mine, crps (complex regional pain syndrome) aka rsa. so he filled 1/3 of my meds and said didnt have the other 2/3 but they’d call. they didnt and when i went there they said sorry sold out. i took script to another Rx and was told I had already received my 30 day supply. that little bastard put script 1/2 as my full 30 day supplyy of meds cause he thought i was on too much. now i can’t fill anywhere and looking for a resolution. Isn’t that unethical? I told him I would be calling corp WG and he said “it’s my discretion” and to go for it. my dr is calling him in the morning to try and resolve this. anyone know what to do? i have bad stenosis with hern discs and few other spine problems, nerve damage and of course the crps (if you don’t look it up, then look up Mcgill’s pain scale) thx for any help for recourse, i don’t care about the withdrawls it’s the pain on top of them thats so bad even tho they suck too. I feel jaded.

Comment by keepin it real on 2012-07-26 13:50:04 -0700 #

your a complete dumb ass. Your the problem. Your job is to verify and fill, if you see a forgery call it in, not to judge. Im 31 and good looking mo fo with a super high paying job, oh wait, i’m also about to start dental school. Oh no, I get oxycodone 30mg ir for my neck (bad Wreck) i must be the biggest peice of shit on earth, I take pain pills. Just so you know, they help greatly, but i do get higher than giraffe pussy. I do appreciate you taking time out of your day to get off facebook and fill my prescription since i do pay your mammy cunting salary. You need to be careful what you ask for because a good % of your customers are on narcotics and you and me know how much mark up they have. Your problem is with the insurance copanies short paying your ass.

So when you pay your RENT on your 2 bedroom apartment please remeber how many pain pills you had to fill to pay that. Many pharmacies decided not to stock pain meds, yours could do the same, but you like that money to much.

Comment by D.C. NREMT-P, FP-C on 2012-07-29 21:50:08 -0700 #

I’ve never seen such unprofessionalism. You should ALL know that you represent your WHOLE profession to the average person reading this ‘blog.’ When one complains, it should be done in private. I have also seen drug seekers. I don’t feel the need to curse or wish people dead, even after working 24 hours. I am amazed that such educated people would publically behave in this manner.

Comment by Daniel on 2013-05-13 22:26:31 -0700 #

i completely agreee with anonymous. You so called professionals are a group of biased ignorant uniformed retards as in mongoloids. so you all should either go and reducate yourselves or go fuck yourself and realize that kharma is a bitch like you . you or a loved one now will surely suffer some severe debilitating disease,wether it be addiction or cancer or ms or any nasty painful family destroying job losing disease . you youself are probably a overweieght soon to be diabetic annd wwhen you lose your sight and you suffer kidney failure and have your kankles cut offf I will laughing knowing that i was once like you and ingnorant ahithead but now ive opened my eyes and realized that the world is filled with all different types of people and the majority that you in whatever profession your in see daily dont judje lest ye be judjed by those more powerfull and grand and be punished for your ignorance by kharma wich can be cruel at the very least . Open your narrow mind before you yourself are a piece of shit as you would say about those who are suffering from problems, that your limited intellectual capacity allows you to understand and if your a pharmacist or an even lower tech you are just as fucked up and capable of ruining lives as the people you serve daily .Your so called brilliant pharmacy workers have poisened several people and almost caused 4 out of the 12 patients that I personally know to lose thier lives by giving them the wrong medicine so basically im telling you to shut up your are not perfect no one is and if you think you are you need to seek some psychological help and if I knew thatr you would be my patient i would refuse to help you even after taking the hippocratic oath hope you understand Elaine