Santa Clara Drug

[cjsmith]

Who would ship off a bottle of an injectable medication and not include any needles? (Don't bother answering.)

It was weird enough last month, when I got a 30-day supply with 25 needles. They had to break open a ten-pack to avoid giving me 30 needles, so it was deliberate. I figured it wasn't worth the hassle to ask for the other five, especially at their shipping prices, so I reused five needles once each. That's not as awful as it sounds, but I'd still prefer not to do it. Now I guess I'm supposed to snort this liquid, or perhaps use it as a suppository. Or maybe they figure by now I have a permanent little hole bored in my skin and I can just pour it in. Twenty-five needles must be the industry standard for "number required for the average patient to bore a permanent little hole in the skin for all future medicine doses."

Thank goodness my cat is diabetic. (That's kind of a weird sentence, isn't it?) I'll use some of hers.

Sheesh.

Comments

[ladycelia.livejournal.com]

Probably some stupid law.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Probably. :-P When I get Duchess' insulin refills, they at least ask if I need needles.

[recordersmith.livejournal.com]

When we were going through all the IVF stuff, needles were sold separately but they always asked how many we'd need when we did the order.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Ditto with the insulin. (Actually, they just ask "do you need another box yet?" with that one.)

[recordersmith.livejournal.com]

Oh. also, the number of needles you'll need depends on the dosage you're currently on. Bigger individual dose=fewer needles so there probably isnt a standard.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

It's not as if the pharmacy doesn't know the dose, though. It's right there on the prescription. :-)

[recordersmith.livejournal.com]

This is true. Tho with the IVF meds, my dosage tended to change almost daily as they ramped it up when my ovaries laughed at the drugs and declined to respond.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

I'll just go with "the person making this shipment was clueless". Heck, they have not only the dose and the number of times per day I'm supposed to take it, but they have my phone number AND my doctor's phone number... Ah well. It's not the first time a clueless person at a pharmacy has made my life slightly less convenient! *cue hysterical laughter*

ObSimpsons

[psi-star-psi.livejournal.com]

"...and yet if I were to have them killed, I would be the one to go to jail."

Re: ObSimpsons

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Exactly.

[composerjk.livejournal.com]

Call the pharmacy and ask about having them ship you some more needles. If this is a specialty pharmacy just for the injectables (and other special meds), they'll often just include the supplies (e.g., needles, alcohol swabs, sharps container, etc.) as part of the medicine cost.

In the meanwhile, I likely have some new syringes around: 27 1/2 gauge 1/2 cc and 1 cc. Let me know if you want to have some.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

I strongly doubt they'll ship needles separately without charging me shipping, so I think I'll just stay with using the cat's needles. Thank you for the offer, though! If you ever need any 30ga 0.3cc on short notice, I've got loads of them.

[composerjk.livejournal.com]

Actually, they just might. Do they currently charge you shipping for your medication? I was mentioning that option because I've done it before with a pharmacy that used to mail me my injections and they shipped it without charge. It can't hurt to call them to ask and also ask if there'd be any charges (declining, if so).

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Yeah, they do charge for shipping - it's refrigerated, so they FedEx it. I suppose it's worth a quick phone call.

[edit: er, the medicine itself is refrigerated. They probably wouldn't FedEx needles by themselves. Or maybe they would. I have no clue!]

[composerjk.livejournal.com]

My pharmacy did send them separately, maybe even via FedEx. But, then, they also didn't charge extra for shipping of the meds. It was part of the medicine cost and not pulled out separately.

Anyways, it was just a suggestion from my past experience.

Thanks for the offer of the 0.3cc syringes. So far, all my drugs seem to have been at 1cc doses. And I have way too many 0.5cc ones from when I believe they sent the wrong size.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Yeah, cats don't get 1cc doses very often. ;-) Last month I got 0.5cc syringes with my own meds, but at Duchess' dosages, I wouldn't be able to do it accurately with anything but these 0.3s. I think these syringes are the smallest ones made. They're certainly the smallest I've seen!

[hitchhiker.livejournal.com]

bet it's more insane war-on-drugs crap

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Eh, who knows? Because last month was weird too and because it changed from last month to this month, I'm just betting stupidity. But then, that's my default bet with both pharmacies and government.