I just got my Albuterol inhaler renewed a couple days ago for my asthma and I got ready to break out a new one and the bag had 3 in it instead of just 2. I look, and they have the quantity as "51" and it's circled. I normally get an inhaler with 200 puffs and I'm supposed to have 2 puffs every 4-6 hours as needed. So, I'm thinking I have 153 puffs instead of 400 possible and I look at the paper and it says I'm supposed to use it every 6 hours (and at the moment I need it every 4, especially at night) no mention of 4 and that this amount is going to last me 45 days instead of 30! Last month they gave me only 1 inhaler instead of 2 and I had to go back and get the second one so now I'm thinking they're way off their rocker and I'm way pissed :-)

So I go back (only half an hour before the pharmacy closes) and tell the clerk I need to talk to the pharmacist so this nice looking pharmacist asked how can he help and I start angrily asking why they're trying to kill me :-) and that my prescription has been changed (from 4-6 to only ever 6 hours) and I only have 150 puffs instead of 400 and it's supposed to last me 45 days instead of 30 and at around 10 puffs a day I only have 15 days worth, not 45 and I'd like to breath on day 16 please!

So, he peels back the label on the box and shows me the box says 17 and 51=3x17. And your point is? And I care about 17 why? He is Pakistani or Sri Lankian or similar so he's patiently telling me this over and over; "See the 17? You have 3 cartons and the 51 is 3 x 17!" So we go back and forth for awhile on how I'm supposed to have 200 not 51 and he finally gets across to me that the box also says 200 puffs, the 17 is number of grams of medicine and he's telling me it's what I always get. I'm still confused with what the 17 and 51 have to do with anything whatsoever but finally a lightbulb goes on in my head and they, for whatever reason, put the total of all the grams of medicine (excuse me, this is puffs of asthma medicine, I can't "measure" it and don't give a squat how many grams is in the cannister!) on each box (instead of that box's individual "17") and nowhere is there anything about puffs unless you peel back the label! But eventually we got me to understand what they'd done and I figured out from something my husband had said about his blood pressure meds that the 3 instead of 2 probably had something to do with the new insurance giving me more so I don't have to come back as often.

So, they can do math okay and the pharmacist was very patient and managed to explain it well so I understood but I have to wonder at their labeling the stuff differently suddenly and in such a way that a college educated person can't figure it out. I've had doctors killing me with medicine before so I'm not terribly trusting of people getting it right but now I just feel like I'm the idiot and got angry too soon. I did give him a hard time about having to peel back their label to read the box. LOL! Why have a label if it doesn't label right and if the box is already labeled sufficiently? If they needed all my stuff on the box they should have put the label on the "back" so I could have looked at the box easily, seen the 200 and not worried about it.