Just keeping a record here of my distressing journey to safety during my cataract surgery journey.
The hospital has been very helpful, the Patient Experience Specialist, and the Pre-op Nurse have listened to me, and responded in a timely, compassionate, and helpful way. They have responded in writing. I have confidence in them, and we are almost there with the list of medications and substitutions.
This morning I was sent a list of medications that could be used, from the hospital.
I carefully researched each one. The wording on one needed clarification, I am confident that will be properly sorted out. One of the medications is inappropriate for me, because I have vascular issues. It needed to be replaced with a similar drug that is not a fluoroquinolone, and does not contain my allergen. Simple enough request, or so I thought.
I called the surgeon’s office. I got the answering machine, so I left a message with the information about my vascular issue (they have in on record on the sheets I filled in at their office), and the need to change one of the medications I was prescribed by the surgeon. I anticipated it would just be taken care of. I am very foolish that way, at times, and this was one of them.
I received a call from a staff member at the surgeon’s office, who curtly told me that they knew about my allergies, and that the medication was fine. Good lord, the allergy thing was sorted out, at first I couldn’t figure out what she was trying to tell me. I mentioned that I had not called about my anaphylaxis, I had called about the aneurysm and medication. She repeated again that they knew about my allergies, that they were not in the medication.
It is rare for me to say this, as I usually try to be diplomatic, but I did say it, “you are not listening to me, I am not calling about my anaphylaxis”. Again she stated that she had spoken to the surgeon and the medication was fine.
Her tone seemed that of one admonishing a misbehaving child.
I continued to make my request.
She then told me I had to contact my pharmacist, it was the pharmacist who must take care of the issue.
The call was going nowhere, so I agreed to call the pharmacist, it had to be played out AGAIN, we had been here before with the anaphylaxis.
I offered to send an email with the information they needed, no thank you was the answer. Well, I sent an email anyway, attention to the surgeon explaining the issue, what I had requested, and that wondered if my request had been misunderstood. Since their office did not receive the email message about the anaphylaxis, sent from the hospital, I doubt they received my email either. There is no other way to contact the surgeon with information until the day of the surgery.
This office warns you when you call that “abusive” behaviour will not be tolerated, in a confrontational tone. Maybe they wind people up to the point that they get frightened and emotional, then call the patient abusive.
I called the pharmacist. The pharmacist said that this was something the surgeon had to take care of. He recommended I call the surgeon’s office. I agreed with him that is was the surgeon’s responsibility.
I felt caught in the middle of this silly game, once again.
I told the pharmacist that the surgeon’s office insisted that I call the pharmacist, they told me it is his responsibility. So, again unusual for me, as I try to be diplomatic, I said to the pharmacist, “they don’t care what I have to say, they do not listen to me.”
The pharmacist asked me what I wanted him to do. Then he answered himself, and said he could try sending them a fax asking for a new prescription based on the contraindication. And that is what he did, he sent them a fax.
And the surgeon responded immediately by sending a new suitable prescription that ticks all my boxes.
I am calm now, this is my second round caught in the middle between the surgeon’s office and the pharmacy. This time the pharmacy came through for me on the first try, no mistakes were made at the pharmacy.
As I was going through all this, it took hours to slog through the process, remaining calm in my communications, my body went into fight or flight mode. This is an extremely unpleasant physical state. It took hours for my body to return to normal.
So now almost all of the medications are checked, and appropriate, with one that I need some further information about, and one substitution that the pharmacist at the hospital is ordering for my surgery.
The surgeon’s office does not like my pharmacy, this was stated during the first round of misery with the anaphylaxis. The staff member said that other patients have switched from that pharmacy, as a result of the “problems” the surgeon’s office had with the pharmacy.
We have been with this pharmacy for around fifteen years and this is the first time we have every had issues with prescriptions. They did make one mistake, which I caught, during the first round of monkey in the middle between the pharmacy and the surgeon’s office. But so did the surgeon’s office make a mistake. No other doctor has had any issues with this pharmacy.
It feels like the Mad Hatter’s Tea Party.
Worldly
Weather
23°C
Date: 10:00 PM EDT Friday 7 August 2026
Condition: Mist
Pressure: 101.7 kPa
Tendency: Rising
Temperature: 22.6°C
Dew point: 22.6°C
Humidity: 100%
Wind: SW 11 km/h
Humidex: 32
Visibility: 4 km
Quote
“In politics, absurdity is not a handicap.”
Napoleon Bonaparte
1769 – 1821