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Oh my God!

I am in shock.

With the rampant drug problems we have in this country, the state government of Ohio has finally done something to resolve a perceived drug problem.

The problem is, the new law passed by the State of Ohio, has nothing to do will the selling of illegal drugs, the use of illegal drugs, or the crimes that result from these two things.

Oh no, in their semi-conscious state of belief that they had to pass some law before the end of the year, they voted that beginning January 1, 2011 it would be against the law to transfer prescriptions between pharmacies more than once a year.

Yup. You heard it here. Once a year folks.

Forget the incentives and discounts you might receive for switching pharmacies.

Forget the fact that you moved and your old pharmacy is 47 miles from where you now live.

Forget that your pharmacy is now open til 7 p.m. and you have three children who only get sick in the middle of the night.

Forget the fact that most pharmacies are electronic and prescriptions are transferred electronically. (shove that up your paperwork hole).

The government, who is the biggest creator of too much paperwork, has created a law because they believe that by transferring pharmacies, you, the patient cause too much paperwork.

The Ohio State Government believes that if a person transfers a prescription too many times they (the patient in this case) will eventually have problems.

Let me see if I can list a few of the problems with medications that don’t involve transferring prescriptions:

1. They cost too damn much and many people can’t afford them.
2. Not everyone has insurance, and some pharmacies simply sell the prescriptions for less.
3. Generics are not always “as good as” the brand name no matter how many times we are told this.
4. Generic medications may differ from one pharmacy to another.
5. It’s not always the drug that gets you, it’s the inert binding ingredients used in the various generic medications that a patient often reacts to.
6. Not every medication that is written is available at every pharmacy. Some medications have to be ordered from somewhere (outer Mongolia I suspect) and may not be available to you for up to a week.
7. YOU, the patient, better know what you can and can not take. You can not rely on the physicians or the pharmacies to keep you from taking medications that you are allergic too or have adverse affects from.
8. The electronic programs pharmacies use have only so many spaces to record your drug allergies. (I speak from experience here. They have no more space for me and my codes.)
9. Those books of papers you get with every prescription are not written in English. The creators of these sheaves of paper have created a new language that can only be printed in 2.0 font, needs a secret spy decoder ring to understand, and is good for nothing but starting fires.
10. You need to know if your meds will interact with each other. Not all meds play well with others.
11. You need to know what you can eat when you take the meds.
12. You need to know what you should not eat when you take the meds.
13. You need to know if you should take your meds with food, or take them without food, or if you should flush them down the toilet, or bury them in a tin can in your back yard.

I would like, just once, to see a law enacted that actually did something about the drug problems patients have. Medications needed are outlawed. To get a drug to market costs so much money that the average patient can’t afford it once it’s available. If a medication adversely affects one in every 497 billion it is often deemed unsafe and may be pulled from the market. Forget the 496,999, 999 patients who were actually being helped.

If I sound a bit perturbed at the wasted time the government of the State of Ohio spent on this ludicrous law, you would be correct. I am a patient. I take 15 prescription medications a day. I think I should be the one who decides where my prescriptions are filled. Thank God I live in Florida.

These thoughts in this article are mine and mine alone though I am sure they are echoed by so many other patients.

From the life and mind of:

Wanda M. Argersinger

© 2010 All Rights Reserved

www.wandaargersinger.com

Wanda Argersinger

A writer, humorist, and motivational speaker, Wanda Argersinger was born with a purse in one hand and lipstick in the other.  She wrote her first story in 2^nd grade using all of her spelling words, which brought the attention to her of the school counselors suggesting she get counseling.  An excerpt from this story:  “…mice who drink too

much and party all night long….”

As Executive Director for The Lupus Support Network, Wanda is an advocate for all Lupus patients, working diligently as a member of the Statewide Coalition for the State of Florida Department of Health Arthritis Prevention and Education Program.  She facilitates support groups in the Florida Panhandle and Southern Alabama and trains new facilitators to educate and counsel patients, plans and researches topics to be discussed at meetings.

As a published author, Wanda has wrote the book currently being used in The Lupus Support Network SLESH (Systemic Lupus Erythematosus Self Help) classes, written and published a number of pamphlets on various aspects of Lupus currently being used for informational purposes at The Lupus Support Network, and My Personal Health Journal, a book sold for a patient’s use in recording and maintaining vital health information.  This book is sold nationwide and all profits go to The Lupus Support Network.  Most recently Wanda has written Y-Mee’s A-B-C Book of Emotiions and created a doll that accompanies the book, which can be purchased from l-bowonline.com or Lulu.com.

She has also been featured in Featured in MD News Magazine, Lupus Now Magazine, Ladies in Business, the Pensacola News Journal, and the Tallahassee Democrat.

As a motivational speaker, and educator in the area of Lupus health, Wanda has been a speaker for the State of Florida Department of Health, Unlocking the Mysteries of Lupus, among numerous other organizations in Florida and South Alabama.

Wanda has been on a number of local radio talk shows with several call-in shows, and guests on many television programs.

Wanda is constantly working and actively involved in the Lupus Research Institutes National Coalition (advocating for Lupus Patients, research funding, and legislative change), as an Associate Member of the American Academy of Rheumatology, a Member of The American Chronic Pain Association, and a Member of the National Fibromyalgia Association, a Member of the National Society of Newspaper columnists, and a member of the National Association of Professional Women.

Wanda has been published in other publications including The Legend, a monthly column entitled “The Write Site,” spotlighting websites that are of interest to writers), Poetic Voices, June 1999, Emerald Coast Review, a short story and poem, and the Gulf Breeze News, as a guest columnist.

Her achievements and awards are numerous.

Currently, Wanda is busy developing her own line of greeting cards along with 2 more books and a board game for patients with Chronic Illness.  This amazing woman, with Lupus SLE herself, is the Energizer Bunny come to life, with no need of any batteries!  She will keep on giving until she falls over from the weight of her purse while wearing a great hot pink lipstick!

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