OK, this isn't the biggest deal, and certainly it could be worse, but it
is incredibly annoying in light of the crap I've been dealing with lately
(my 3 yr old son ill with pneumonia, reactive airway disease, and a sinus
infection x 1 month and counting, 4 doctor visits, 2 hospital visits in
that time;  10 days into this illness I diagnose my 6 yr old cat with
renal failure; 3 days ago my 1 year old daughter starts a fever of 102
which is continuing and will require a doctor visit tomorrow...)

At the hospital yesterday the doctor prescribed clindamycin 10 mL TID x 21
days. My husband went to pick up the medicine after the kids were in bed.
He brought it home and put it away. Tonight when I was giving my son his
4th dose I was looking at the label and I noticed we'd only been given a
total of 200 mL (I had assumed improperly that we'd gotten more bottles
than we actually had. We were only given 2 x 100 mL bottles!). I called
the pharmacy and said "Hi, I'm calling about prescription number XXX, it's
labelled to give 2 teaspoons 3 times a day for 3 weeks, but you only gave
us 200 mL." I was met with a long silence. "Hello?" I said. "What?" said
the voice on the phone. I repeated my original statement, minus the "hi."
"You think you need more?" said the voice on the phone. "Of course," I
said. "Are you the pharmacist?" I asked. "No, I'm a student. You want the
pharmacist?" said the voice on the phone. "Well, yes, that would in fact
be why I chose to press 4 to speak to a pharmacist," I answered (I was
sort of annoyed at this point!)

So I was placed on hold and eventually a woman picked up the phone and
said hello. I said "Hi. Did you student explain why I called?" and she
said yes. So I asked "when can I pick up the other 430 mL we need to
finish treating my son? No emergency of course, but we need it relatively
soon if we're using 30 mL a day." She went into this whole song and dance
about how she was going to have to contact the pharmacist who was in the
night before and find out what went wrong (like I care at this point? I
just want my son's medicine) and she'd have to call the insurance company
and make sure they would cover the "extra" amount (which is IMO just plain
wrong) and she'd have to call the prescribing physician to make sure she
prescribed 630 mL instead of 200 mL (huh? it's right there on the script!
can she not read? or did someone throw away the original?). Not having the
patience to stay on the phone without blowing my top, I just told her we'd
be coming in for the remainder Friday afternoon at the latest, and to
please have it ready. She said she'd call me if there was a problem and I
said fine. End of discussion.

It kind of made me long for the days when my mom got all my prescriptions
filled for me at the local pharmacy, and the pharmacist who would go in to
his pharmacy in the middle of the night to get medicine for me and drop it
by our house since it was on the way home for him. Those were the days!

-h.