Well, I’ve been sick the past two weeks. I’ve been coughing and all that other nasty stuff that comes with it. This past weekend, I wasn’t even able to get out of the house. I pretty much stayed in my room and just coughed my lungs out. Oh what great fun it was?!

Anyways, given the fact that I picked the High-Value PPO for my medical when I came in to work at the Bay last April ’05 (and the fact that I haven’t gotten sick till now), my primary physician is in LA. So, after calling Alameda Hospital for the past two days and emailing them to help me find a doctor that can do a check up on me, Dr. Mom (and sidekick, my aunt) bugged me and told me to just call in to our family doctor’s clinic.

Funny thing though, my mom called the clinic first to setup some kind of appointment with the admin personels to get the doctor free for a bit in order to talk to me. But thats not it yet, my mom told the admin lady that since I’m over here, he (the doctor) should just listen to me cough “over the phone” so he can prescribe me some medicine. Moms… moms…

Meanwhile, I got some prescription—believe it or not. The clinic then faxed the order over to the Rite-Aid across the street from work so I can easily just pick it up. After fifteen minutes or so, I finally got the drug for $85. Damn, I hate getting sick—you feel like crap and get robbed at the same time.

So, fast forward to about a couple of minutes ago… remembering what the pharmacist told me about the dosage of each prescription, I decided to just take everything at night before going to bed. Then, the moment of truth came. After taking out the stuff from the paper bag, I thought to myself: “this better be worth $85, and not get me sick for another year or so.” Taking one teaspoon of the cough syrup and a tablet of some allergy stuff (seems it’s a seasonal thing), I finally got to the last item; which was for Bronchitis (I guess).

Carefully trying to open the package, I saw the following:

The quantity on the receipt and brochure states that there should be 5 pills. One pill per day. But damn, WTF?!?! This ain’t 5.

Wowsers. Haven’t gone running for days; coughing my lungs out; had to pay $85 to get well; and now this. Damn. Ai Dios Mio!

That being that, I just have to write about it and share it. Just remember to check your prescriptions when you leave the pharmacy so you don’t run into things like this. I never thought it was possible for such an oversight from the pharmacist. They usually do double-checks/triple-checks so they give you the right stuff.

I’m going to try and wake up really early to go to the pharmacy and do something about this situation. Sucks ass. Damn. This is so messed up.

Update: 4/22, 9:05am
I just called Rite-Aid and explained to them in the most comprehensible way possible my situation. They told me to just go bring the package so they can exchange it. I think that there can be some legal action taken, but there was no harm done. We’re all human right? We all make mistakes. But crap, this experience just does some weird stuff to your psyche. It probably made me a bit more paranoid now, ordering from a pharmacy that is.