Talk About Freaking Out - Meltdown in Aisle 5

I had a major meltdown at Walmart yesterday, and it all could have been avoided if my doctor's office were just more thorough. I'm in social work. Every day I have moments where I could just do the "minimum" to try to help a consumer and it would be professionally acceptable that I did just that, the minimum expected of me to prove I did what that consumer needed me to do, but there is typically more that could be done to help. I am the type of person who will go that extra mile. I'll take that extra step, both because it makes me feel good that I did everything I could, even if it ultimately doesn't solve the problem, and because I have learned that it will probably save me time and trouble in the future. We call it "running the rabbit". Well, my RE's office needs to learn how to run the goddamned rabbit!

When AF arrives each month, I call my RE's offfice that day and they order my Femara (Letrozole) from my pharmacy and tell me what day they want me to start taking it. It's always CD 3. I called Friday to report AF's arrival, knowing I would need to start my Femara on Monday. I had to leave a message. They close at noon on Fridays. When I didn't hear back by 10:45am I called Walmart pharmacy and asked them to send a refill request to my dr. Then, I called and left ANOTHER voicemail for the nurse telling her I had a refill request sent over. I never heard from anyone. 

Yesterday (Monday) I called as SOON as the RE's office opened and had to leave ANOTHER MESSAGE and I called the pharmacy - still waiting on the RE's response. I have the cell# of the CTI (glorified nurse) at my RE's office. I text her. She texts back that she'll call me in a minute. TWO HOURS later she calls. She says she will make sure my meds are filled when I get off work at 4. I show up to the Walmart pharmacy at 4:30 and they tell me they are STILL waiting on a reply from the doctor. 

I LOST MY SHIT!! I called the RE's office forgetting they close at 4 and got a busy signal. I text the CTI. NO RESPONSE. I call the CTI - voicemail. I call the RE again and finally get his answering service. That poor woman who answered the phone got the crying, frantic, lunatic version of me that only happens during car accidents - and when 9/11 happened. After an hour of pacing around Walmart the RE calls me, gets the phone number for the pharmacy, and says he'll call personally.

 I calm down a little (I had been crying). I dig a Kleenex from my purse and go do a little grocery shopping. I detest Walmart but the pharmacy is open late and is USUALLY fast. At 5:20 I call over to the pharmacy when I am almost ready to check out with my groceries. My RE had called about half an hour before so surely they'll have my meds soon. They tell me they still haven't heard from him. I flip shit again so the girl says she'll check the voicemail. Sure enough. He went to voicemail and had left a messsge. They tell me it will be ready in an HOUR. The whole time I am talking to them the line is breaking up, cracking/popping, and I can hear my voice echoing back at me. 

As I'm paying for my groceries the nurse texts me and says she tried faxing the refill request several times and it wouldn't go thru so she called and left a message to have it refilled. I am inclined to believe her because I worked in doctor's offices my whole life before now and that happened a lot. I called the pharmacy around 6:30 and the meds were ready so I drove back across town. The meds were there. I asked if I could get their fax # so I could verify my RE has the right one. The tech refuses. I explain I used to be a med tech and I'm not going to give it out. I just want to call the RE to see if it matches what they have. She refuses again. I asked to speak to the pharmacist, who gave me her card with the fax # on it, and I told her I appreciate their patience with me because I'm a hormonal mess, but explained the RE's office claims to have had a terrible time reaching them for this refill. She was very understanding. I gave the tech a nasty look and left. 

I bawled the whole way home. If I had missed my meds because of that, it would be ANOTHER month before we could try again. When you've been waiting 10 YEARS this kind of thing is simply NOT acceptable! Had the nurse or the RE actually spoken to a HUMAN BEING instead of leaving messages and sending faxes this wouldn't have happened. If the RE's office would answer the damn phone instead of making me play phone tag, this wouldn't happen. This isn't the first time I've had an issue with this sort of thing, stuff slipping through the cracks. It's maddening, and with all the hormones and dealing with AF and work and LIFE while trying to navigate all this - well, I lost my mind for a couple of hours. I don't know how to handle it when the people I am trusting with my LIFE (in essence) seem to regard these little mishaps as inconsequential, like it's no big deal.