Apologies for any weird formatting. I’m a lurker with no idea how to post. For context, I live in the USA, asscrack of the planet.
I had a surgical extraction of a broken tooth at an oral surgeon in a town about an hour away from me. It was a little bit brutal, so I was told to load up on the prescribed ibuprofen/acetominophen and start antibiotics that evening after surgery. After the hour drive home, I went to the pharmacy that I had listed in my paperwork. They had no scripts for me since last year. I called the surgeon’s office. The woman on the phone said she saw them in her system, had an hour left in her shift, and would call me if she saw them sent out. I told her not to worry, that the pharmacy would contact me as soon as they received it. I assumed there was no way they’d leave a patient without post-op meds. Well, I was wrong.
They never sent my prescriptions before closing up for the weekend.
The office doesn’t have an emergency number of any kind. Voicemails or text messages can be left for them to check on Monday. What in the world do I do or even say to these incompetent assholes?
I’m managing my pain with my own medication, but it’s expensive, and they sure as hell aren’t antibiotics. I’m broke, if that helps.
My guy/gal/nonbinary pal, it’s the antibiotics you need. I don’t want to terrify you with why because there is a tiny, tiny chance of it happening, but trust me on this. Get those first.
First thing I’d do is call the pharmacy again, explain the situation, and ask if they can contact the doctor directly. This is not likely to work, but sometimes they have communication channels beyond the main office line. Pharmacies can sometimes override a prescription and offer enough of a med to get through the weekend, but not likely if this is a one-time prescription and not something you take regularly.
The only other approach is to try to get a prescription from elsewhere, like a telehealth service or an urgent care clinic, but that will require a consult which might come with a copay depending on your insurance (assuming they cover any part of it at all). You might be able to argue with your insurance that this was not your fault and they should cover it due to the circumstances, but they’ll likely tell you that you should have gone somewhere in network anyways.
And this is all on top of the fact that you need pain medication, which could be interpreted as doctor shopping if you’re not careful. If the original script was placed but not signed off and it shows up in an opioid control database (likely won’t if it’s just extra strength tylenol, but would if it’s percocets), there’s a good chance any other prescriber will say no and tell you that you have to follow up with that office when they reopen.
If you have no meds and the pain is unbearable, then you go to the ER. Depending on insurance, prepare for a high cost. Don’t take an ambulance if you can help it.
Yes the USA is fucked.
The pharmacy has been as stumped as I am because the Rx was never placed, but those are great ideas. Ive been afraid of being labeled as a malingerer iin this process jsut because pain meds are involved. So sad! Thank you for your suggestions and feedback!
Ibuprofen/acetaminophen are not narcotics, they’re prescription doses of over the counter medications (acetaminophen in particular can destroy a liver if overdosed, hence “prescription strength”). Go to the pharmacy, ask the pharmacist what their advice is and what options you have for OTC meds or emergency antibiotics, based on what you were told by the dentist/oral surgeon. Sorry your dentist office sucks U_U
Thank you, Sir! Boy is that the truth. Nothing over the counter was designed to do this amount of heavy lifting! They’re terrible for your liver, kidneys, and are not nice to your stomach. My pharmacy doesn’t want a shred of accountabillity, so I can only consult the pharmacist if I have a prescription to discuss. Womp womp U_U
not if you take more than the reccommended amount/day of NSAIDs, aceto and nsaids are fine. i only ever had side effects from nsaids, from the RX version of it, which is a much higher dose.
Urgent care or the ER, which ever is more affordable. Report that clinic.
Who to report to? I was thinking of going full Karen on their office manager, just on principle. I can’t imagine how this would be for a patient coming out of a more intensive prcedure!!! But that feels like unsheathing a sword to find a limp cod in your hand…
State dental board. https://www.ada.org/resources/careers/licensure/state-dental-boards
Also, malpractice lawyers will often do free consultation.
Get them fuckers.
No wonder healthcare cost in the US is as it is if something benign as this can’t be resolved without involving lawyers.
Exactly. I mean, this is probably just some office worker that made a mistake, but the problem here is that there’s nothing this person could have done except maybe going to the emergency room and then incur fees because of that. If it was a single payer system, it would just be a matter of contacting some urgent care that’s over open 24 hours or something like that, a low-level thing, and then just getting the prescriptions written. Done. No problem, no infection, no complications.
Most importantly, no fucking lawyers.
Terrible mistake to make and shit like that mustn’t happen, especially after a follow up call and a promise to get it sorted.
That office should be covering any additional cost to get the prescription via tele doc or urgent care and apologise to OP. I don’t see malpractice or a need for lawyers to ‘get them’
You can safely stack some types of pain medications because they work in
completelyslightly different ways. Ibuprofen + acetaminophen are much more effective than either one by itself. IMO the combination at maximum dose of each is just as effective as prescription pain medication.Cleveland Clinic: “Both ibuprofen and acetaminophen are pain relievers and fever reducers. They both can reduce inflammation, but they work in slightly different ways and are processed by different parts of the body,” says family medicine physician Amy Bernstein, DO. “It can be safe to take them together if taken as directed.”
Also keep detailed notes. In the unlikely event that significant complications occur due to your surgeon’s incompetence you may need them.
Thank you! I’m alternating between 800mg Ibuprofen and 500mg acetaminophen every 3 hours. Can confirm that it does the trick enough to get a few hours sleep at a time! Detailed notes are a great idea, just in case I do end up having complications without antibiotics. Great thoughts!
Don’t alternate, take them together and take the maximum dose (on the label) of each. It makes a massive difference.
