Pharmacist vs. Physician.
Ok, here’s the poop.
First of all, it had nothing to do with a medication that is to be taken at night or day or with food or without food. I used that example because I didn’t want to give specifics since your responses might be less partial.
We have started XBoy on ADHD meds.
There. I said it.
You have no idea how we agonized over the decision, including whether or not we should have waited or started it sooner.
We followed a course that led us to making what we now believe was the best choice for him, which started with seeing the pediatrician, a counselor, a psychologist, teachers, and principal and yet another pediatrician. He had counseling. We had counseling. He had testing.
We tried punishments, rewards systems, fish oil. We did not try diet modification as we cannot realistically maintain a particular diet for a child who spends a majority of the day NOT in our home.
And so, we are here. Treating a child with stimulants to help him focus. To help him excel in school work. To help him create and sustain friendships with his peers.
There’s more. So much more…but I myself am drained of energy and motivation and only now, with just a few minutes before I must go to pick up ZGirl from daycare, do I allow myself to elaborate more on why I think pharmacists are a royal pain in my ass.
The second pediatrician we saw specializes in behavioral issues. He examined the reports by the psychologist and LMHP. He talked with XBoy. He talked with me. He did not talk TO us, and for that I was incredibly appreciative. He recommended that XBoy start The Patch (which reminds me of another story I must share with you).
He specifically said to cut the patch in half . When my husband went to pick up the script, the pharmacist specifically said NOT to cut the patch in half; however, she did say it was OK to remove half the backing and apply.
Think about that for a moment and tell me if that makes any bit of sense at all.
When I googled it (of course I did before I did anything else), I realized why the pharmacist may have thought she was giving Mr. DD good info. It’s because she thought the patches still looked like this:
But in fact, they have since altered the design and now they look more like this:
As you can see, the old design was more like a bandaid: adhesive on the outside, med in the middle. You cut that and well, yes, you alter the delivery. The new version is in fact designed so that the med is actually embedded into the adhesive from edge to edge. Cutting the first one in half could actually cause “leeching” (which, again, would then make no sense to only remove half the barrier).
My husband took the side of the pharmacist. I obviously, did not. Now if the doctor did not specifically say we could cut it in half, I would have followed the pharmacist’s instructions. I even mentioned this to our regular pediatrician who said quite bluntly that it’s all a matter of money. 10 – 20mg patches are cheaper than 20 – 10mg patches.
Of course.
Then to top it off? My husband, who then had to return to the pharmacist a couple days later to pick up ZGirl’s script for her ear infection did not ask, nor was reminded, to add flavoring. Therefore, the next day, after I had given one dose to ZGirl, I had returned to the pharmacist to have them add the flavoring, I was told that there was no way for them to calculate how much flavoring to now add since I had already used some.
Me? Not happy. At all.
Seriously. Simple algebra would have solved that problem. Rx mg – %mg = Flvr mg – %mg. Duh.
Speaking of which, do you think that when X-amount of medicine is to be distributed they take into account that a baby will spit out approximately 50% after they’ve fooled you into thinking they swallowed so you move the wash cloth away from their face? Because I’m pretty sure that at least that much has ended up on my face, clothes, carpet and sleepers. And that shit doesn’t wash out.
With bodily fluids leaking from every orifice on ZGirl’s body and my slow decline into my own personal Blue Period, my follow up post regarding the pharmacist vs. physician may be delayed indefinitely. If you don’t hear from me in a while, you can either assume some one is either still sick or I have died, in which case I’m glad we do not have a cat which would probably eat half my face before meandering away in boredom to shit in my shoes.
Punch Drunk 