During the holidays it can get a bit busy around a pharmacy as everyone prepares for weekends of travel or for the pharmacy to be closed. A few days before Christmas was a normal pre-holiday rush at the pharmacy when I saw a familiar gentlemen and women come up to the counter. I waited on them as I would any other patient and saw that the 12 prescriptions they were dropping off were for one of my patients that is a real pain in my backside. Every time this patient comes in he is always cursing at the pharmacy staff and yelling about how incompetent we are, even going as far as to yell at us about his "outrageous" copays. The only outrageous thing here is the utter disrespect this man has for people who are trying to help him, including his physician he commonly lets a tirade off about.
I politely tell the man and woman that it would take a little bit to get these prescriptions ready as we were fairly busy. They asked how long and told them to give me about an hour. I hated to tell such polite and courteous people this long of a wait but there was no way it could be done any faster given the amount of prescriptions that needed to be worked on. The couple said that would be fine and they'd go look around the store.
2 hours later....
The couple comes back to the pharmacy counter and asks if the prescriptions that they dropped off were ready. My technician quickly informs them that I am finishing the last one and if they step to the side he'd be with them as soon as they were ready.
To be honest the prescriptions were not done at all. I had gotten tied up on the phone with an insurance company that killed my wait times, even though I was still checking and filling prescriptions while I was on hold or talking to the insurance agent. Nonetheless, I quickly finished checking the medication for the couple, knowing it was very important for them as well as VERY expensive. Add to this the fact that they were so patient despite the fact that it took me twice as long to finish the prescription as I had told them and I truly owed it to them to expedite the process of finishing their prescription.
After I finished the prescriptions and was printing the leaflets, I took note of the relatively high copays. The copays were somewhere in the range of $350. That's roughly a $30 per prescription copay and some of the medications weren't very expensive. The catch was the copay on the medications for the kidney transplant the patient just received (tacrolimus and mycophenolate mofetil) was rather high. I assumed these high copays were correct given the actual retail cost of this medicine was around $4,000 and just told the tech to mention this to the patient. It wasn't like they could really say no or not take this medication for the patient, he needed it to accept his kidney and go about life!
The patient couple was called over and informed of how much their medication was. Immediately the woman looked at her husband and said, "We can't afford this! I don't have this much in my checking account. (Insert real patient name here) only gave us $25 and said that would cover it." The husband responded gruffly then called his credit card company to make sure he had enough credit limit left to charge these medications.
At this point I couldn't help but feel for these people. They were going above and beyond to take care of a patient who I knew full well was a handful. I could only imagine what they were going through and how he was treating them. I quickly walked over to the counter and explained the actual cost of the medication to the women, as well as why the patient needed them.
This is when the water works started...
"I know they're expensive and I know it's not your fault, but it's just we are here from out of town to take care of my brother who just got a kidney transplant. We found out a few days ago that they found a donor for him and that he would be getting this kidney, so we drove up here on a moment's notice and helped take care of him and his house.", she said through what was beginning to be a full on tear-fest. "We have been up here several times over the past year, each time dropping what we were doing to take care of him when he got admitted to the hospital. We just want him to be healthy but all he does is shit on us!" The tears were really coming now.
Knowing how verbally abusive this patient can be I try to calm the woman down, "Well, ma'am I know how he can be. He has given us a tongue lashing or two in our time with him." as I nudge my tech, "However, ma'am you and your husband are doing the right thing. You're trying to help someone and if no one else tells you that, trust me, you're doing the right thing and that's all that counts."
The woman leans over the counter, still sobbing, and hugs me (a little awkwardly as the counter is at least 2-3 feet wide). "Thank you so much! It's just we have cleaned every inch of his house! There was rat turds and trash everywhere! We scrubbed the grout with Ajax and bleached everything! We are constantly funding his healthcare and trying to work with him and he won't even quit smoking! He lied to them and said he stopped but he even still drinks a couple beers every day! Now I'm stuck here thousands of miles from home with my brother who doesn't give a shit, no money and all I want for Christmas is to be able to go home!"
I couldn't stop hugging this poor woman. I was so backed up that I probably wasn't going to leave for at least an hour after my store closed but I couldn't stop. This woman wasn't even my patient but after seeing how a similar situation occurred in my family a few years back, I just couldn't stop hugging her. She needed it. Even if it was from a completely random pharmacist.
She sobbed some more and went on how she doesn't want to lose her brother because he won't follow any of the medical advice and he is even thinking about getting some puppies to make himself feel at home (this is kind of a big no no if someone just got a transplant seeing as how dogs are the cleanest animals). She went on and on for a while even her husband, who was clearly the rock in this relationship, was getting watery eyed as he saw me start to tear up knowing exactly what this family was going through.
After a few more minutes of sitting with this woman on the bench in my waiting area while her husband paid for the prescriptions, I counseled them on what each medication was for, how to take it and gave them a complimentary pill organizer that would help them organize her brother's medications while they were there and hopefully afterwards.
Mind you I was in my lab coat and in full view of other patients who were waiting. Not one of them said anything or even huffed over having to wait a little longer as I worked with this woman and her husband.
After counseling it dawned on me that there was a local kidney center that could help take care of patients like this woman's brother. I looked up the information on my smart phone and put it on the back of my card, that way she or her husband could put it in their wallet to call later and help set up care for her brother. I explained that maybe this could save them from having to come back so much or even at all. This is when the woman blurted out through the slowing tears, "Thank you so much! My brother always says how good you all are here. I just feel like you're an angel that was sent to help us get through this!"
Whoa! I have been called many things as a pharmacist but an angel is NOT one of them!
I jokingly played it off, thanking her and telling her "That's funny you say that because you brother has called me every four letter word in the book before, it must be how he shows love." The woman laughed and hugged me again. Her husband firmly shook my hand with both of his big callused hands and said, "Thank you so much for listening, it really means the world to us."
As they left they took my name and asked for the name of my district manager, as they wanted to call to tell him what I had done for them. I gave it to them (as these calls NEVER happen) and said I appreciated it. The woman replied, "Well we appreciate everything you have done for us. It's the least we can do since you gave us a Christmas miracle."
I was able to help 3 people, maybe more. And all I did was listen...
