Just following orders!

It feels so satisfying to say that to someone who you know is wrong but always thinks they’re right.

The person who wrote this story was only trying to get their prescription filled but the pharmacist they had to deal with couldn’t get out of her own way.

Take a look at what happened!

Following the pharmacist’s orders.

“So I’m one of the many folks who are afflicted with chronic pain and multiple different things that require medications at different times. It’s lame, but I’m glad there are things I can do to help myself.

A couple of years ago I moved in with my girlfriend at the time (now wife, woo!) and had to transfer pharmacies. The closest place to our new house was a pretty low-traffic major generic pharmacy, so I figured, cool, that’s easy. I work from home and I can pop in during the daytime and pick up my meds.
Mostly this works out, I need to pick up maybe 3 or 4 prescriptions per month, and it usually goes exactly according to plan with a minimum of fuss.

There was one problem.

Except when it came to my Humira.

For those unaware, Humira is an immunosuppressant that you can use to combat things like psoriasis, but in my case, it was to help lower my immune system that seemed hell bent on ravaging my spine. Very mainstream medication, if you live in the US you’ve likely seen the terrifying ads on a regular basis.

I’d been taking it for years, they have a handy auto-injector pen that makes it virtually painless and easy to take. So I was very confused when I picked up my first prescription from the new pharmacy, and it was a bottle of the medication with a simple syringe provided.

Not a huge deal, I could make it work, but it hurts a heck of a lot more to inject that into my stomach than it does to use the pen, so I asked the pharmacist about it. She had no clue what I was talking about, despite the fact that my rheumatologist’s script clearly said “injector pen” on it.

I tried to tell her what was happening, but she said she was too busy, and if in the future I didn’t get the injector pen, just don’t pay for the script and send it back.

Wouldn’t you know it…?

So a month went by, and I ordered my prescription again, making sure to call in and request over the phone that I have the pen instead of the syringe.

I went and picked up my order (they’re visually identical unless you open them up), and before paying for anything, I open it up and saw that it was the syringe again.

I turned to the tech, and asked him to send it back and reorder the injector pen for me.

The pharmacist came out in a huff immediately, demanding to know why I had opened a product that I didn’t intend to accept.

I told her, that was literally what you (it was the same pharmacist) told me to do last month, you said to check it before accepting, so that’s what I did.

This was a pricey mistake.

She was agog for a moment.

The opened box of Humira was going to cost her pharmacy over $4,000 (the American healthcare system is so stupid).

But she then remembered our conversation (I’m extremely tall, so I stick out, I think), and grumbled and shuffled back to her pill lair.

I now get my Humira prescription from a different pharmacy that’s a good 1 minute drive farther away, but I still use that pharmacy for most of my needs.”

Check out how folks reacted on Reddit.

This person talked about the reality of pharmacy work…

Another person nailed it.

This individual talked about healthcare in general.

Another Reddit user asked a good question.

And this individual summed it up perfectly.

I bet they’ll never make that mistake again!