A Trip To The Pharmacy

You know that I've had questions about the latest prescriptions. Also, that I've gotten answers. Hence, this recent visit.

These guys have no issues with my refusing a particular medication, despite the fact they've gone ahead and filled it for me. I'd assume some of that is their being polite in not recognizing their wasted workload. Oh well. Counting to 90, stuffing it in a bottle, applying a computer-printed label, filing it for retrieval: several people do a teeny bit each.

Turns out the Rx I'm discontinuing has a bit more to its history. Last spring, my refill cost a hair over $60. Late summer, refilling it in Wisconsin - since the nearest pharmacy taking my insurance is across the river - the cost rose to $75 and change. I thought it  might be a state difference. This time, I asked about the price during our discussion, not the cause of discontinuing it, but just for information. I'd kinda thought it might be back to the lower price now I'm back with my home pharmacy. Not so. This time the price climbed to $95!

Not just good riddance, but better riddance.

The new, fancier replacement for the warfarin I'm being switched to after the final OK for the Watchman having sealed off that section in my heart, turns out to be less than double of the price of the other. That meant my entire shopping trip, meds and groceries combined, was only about half what I expected to pay just at the pharmacy window.

Grin.

There is of course the mandatory consult with the pharmacist on all new meds. While I was discussing the purchase part of the visit, I was next to the consultation window. I learned something. (Is it called eavesdropping when you can't help but hear a nearby conversation?) Somebody was picking up some kind of opioid for another person. I've done that. There's a bunch of paperwork. This time however, there was also a question as to whether the person receiving the meds also wanted Narcan. Just in case, you know, of overdose. It's now available at your local pharmacy. The woman doing the pickup had no idea. Seems she's had no idea the last few times she'd made the same pickup either. However, there's a law now requiring the question to be answered by the patient, and a form to be signed. As the customer walked off two of the pharmacy staff discussed the fact that no more opioids would be gotten until that form was signed. Period. It was now the law.

Can I be the fly on the wall for that visit?