On April 9, 2025 – I decided to change my pharmacy. I been thinking about this for a while, and gave them opportunity to fix their issues. However, I am tired of holding CVS’s hand in them doing their job. I didn’t have the problem until I was moved to CVS after the last Downtown Rite Aid closed. This was a couple of years ago, and I haven’t been at all happy with them. With that said, I am going back to Rite Aid even if I have to take a bus to get there, and a bus back.
It was a bumpy start. I probably should have checked, but I would have assumed that the pharmacy would open at 8AM-9AM. This was not the case. Instead, it didn’t open until 10AM. I got there at about 8:30AM, and rather than sitting and waiting that entire time, I went back to Downtown, and grabbed a coffee to drink. With the purchase of the coffee, I also got my updated SNAP benefits total which changed over today. I then walked back to to bus stop to go back to Oakland, and went to the local Subway there. I had a meatball sandwich, and then used the lavatory. I walked into the pharmacy at 9:40, and sat and waited for 20 minutes.
When the pharmacy opened, I informed them that I wan’t to transfer my pharmacy to there, and they needed my old pharmacy. With that in mind, I pulled up my old pharmacy, and provided them with the information they needed. I then received a contact card, and walked back to the bus stop to get back into Downtown. Once in Downtown, I walked home, and was relieved that the hard work was done.
After arriving home, I had to send a message to the anesthesiologist and let them know of the new pharmacy. This is a requirement of the doctor that they always have the most recent change in pharmacy. I will still make sure they got the new pharmacy when I see them later this month.
The reason why I waited until April 9 is I wanted to get the last pain medicine filled. This was done on April 5, and from then to the 9th was just me building myself up to go to Oakland. This will definitely be a challenge with my agoraphobia, and ankle pain, but something that needs to be done. The medicine won’t just come to me just as groceries won’t just come to me, and just like my doctors won’t come to me. I will suspect that I may have to go 2 times a month with the exception of my medicine that I can get every 3 months which obviously doesn’t count in my monthly collection. My pain medicine is definitely something that has to be done monthly, and same with my eyedrops.
All in all, I hope I made the better decision. When I was with Rite Aid, I had a couple of hiccups in the initial stages as they had to order my pain medicine, but they eventually realized that this was a lifetime acquisition. Soon enough, they will always make sure they can fill my prescriptions. I have a week overlay of medicine, so if it needs to take a few days, I am OK with that.