Two pieces of good news from Dr. Bhatt: First, she said Julie's vision has improved; at the very least, she plans to weaken the prescription on the lower portion of her bifocals in a few weeks! She also said we can stop using the eye drops! She thinks they may actually be irritating Julie's eye and causing her to tear up more; that in turn makes her wipe her eye so frequently that the skin underneath her eye is all red and raw. As I mentioned before, Julie hates getting the eye drops, so not having to be the bad guy administering them anymore is a bonus on top of (hopefully) making her eye feel better. Instead, we got a prescription for Augmentin, an augmented form of amoxicillin (Augment-in, get it? It's augmented with something called clavulanate potassium.). She prescribed 250-mg chewable tablets twice a day. Here's where the fun begins. First I went to the crappy little Walgreen's down the street, which I loathe for so many reasons (dirty store, products of incest working the registers, out of stock on everything) but which is so close that I get all our prescriptions there. They didn't have it; the pharmacist called the other Walgreen's, and they didn't have it either. We came home and I called Gary's pharmacy; he wasn't there but another pharmacist said they didn't have it. Then I called three different CVS stores, none of which had it, and two of them said it didn't exist. Finally, the fourth CVS said they had it, so I drove over and got it. Came home, opened it up, and saw that it was just plain old amoxicillin. I called the pharmacist and—oops!—she had given me the wrong drug! I nearly exploded, and she quite rightly got an earful from me. Then she said, "Augmentin doesn't come in 250-mg. chewables," to which I replied, loudly, "Well, that's what I'd heard, and that's why I was so surprised when you told me you had it!" So she called Dr. Bhatt and asked whether it would be OK to switch to 200 mg. instead; apparently Dr. Bhatt said OK. They refunded my money on the first one and waived the copay on this one. I am still smoking mad.
Update 8/14/07: For some reason, this post attracts more spambots than usual, so I'm closing off comments. Feel free to email me if you want to make a (legitimate!) comment to this post.
One suggestion and one I agree whole heartedly.
If you are speaking of the Walgreen's I think you are it was just such an interaction with a 'products of incest working the registers' (oh, and don't I love that line!) along with waiting three hours for my asthma inhaler refill. Slap label on package, ring up. How hard can it be?
I pulled all my scripts and went to Keyes drug in Auburndale. Small, parking, nice. Also I ahve seen (in the future) that on highland Ave in Needham, near the starbucks,across from the train station, is a pharmacy that says they custom make presecriptions.
Happy to hear she is getting better though.
Posted by: jo | February 03, 2005 at 05:31 PM
Our younger daughter is horribly allergic to Augmentin. She puffed up like a balloon when she took it when small. Be watchful.
Posted by: Margaret | February 03, 2005 at 06:29 PM
I also go to Keyes. Wonderful people, can mix compounds (E used to be on amoxicillin/augmentin combo for ear infections). I have heard (through grapevine, not verified) that some pediatricians are no longer using augmentin. Don't know why. I heard this from friend of highly prone to ear infection children (she has 4). Also, you know how I feel about the POI staff at Walgreen's.
Posted by: Nancy | February 04, 2005 at 06:13 AM