One of the more frustrating parts of being a special needs parent is dealing with medications. One of the most frustring parts of dealing with medications is getting them filled on time.

Gavin is on an antipsychotic known as Clozapine. Clozapine is the most tightly controled medication in the US.

Clozapine requires bloodwork before each refill and because of Gavin’s recent bouts with Neutrophilia, he can only have seven days worth of pills at a time. He can’t miss more than one dose or he will have to be pulled off the meds. These refills are extremely time sensitive

That means four times a month he needs bloodwork and I need to worry about his refills.

There’s a very specific process that must take place in order to get the refill each week.

Gavin must have his labs drawn. The lab must then fax certified copies of the results to the pharmacy. The pharmacy then faxes the results to the government organization that must approve every single refill. Assuming the labs come back okay, they will authorize the release of another seven days worth of pills.

Unfortunately, we only have control over our part of this. We can’t control whether the lab or pharmacy does what they’re supposed to do.

That means when someone else doesn’t do their job, Gavin doesn’t get his meds.

The only reason this is worth mentioning is because his refills never happen the way they are supposed to and today was no exception.

What typically happens is that the lab never faxes the results to the pharmacy and the pharmacy doesn’t feel it’s their job to follow up.

It’s a nightmare.

I had to deal with this again today and spent way too much time on the phone, trying to resolve something that shouldn’t ever be a problem in the first place.

I swear to God, if I have to go through this again, my brain is simply going to burst.

Hopefully, Gavin’s meds will become available tomorrow and we can make it through another week.