Thanks, That's Much Easier

I have allergies. I never had allergies until I moved to the state of Maryland, where apparently allergies are the state past time.

When Benadryl stopped working, along with the myriad of other over the counter (OTC) medications, I asked my doctor who dumped a handful of Zyrtec samples into my bag and told me to let her know how those worked. I took it, it worked, I told her, she wrote me a prescription for it. I got 30 pills (a month’s worth) for a $10 co-pay. When those ran out, I called her and she had another load of them waiting for a mere $10 co-pay.

The other day spring had sprung along with my allergies so I was about to call her up and ask for another prescription when a commercial caught my eye. What’s this? Zyrtec is now OTC. GREAT NEWS, the commercial screamed, NOW ITS EASIER TO GET RELIEF!

Sure, it was such a huge burden to call my doctor and ask for a refill, then shlep over to the pharmacy to pick it up. Thanks money grubbing pharmaceutical company for making my allergy suffering less burdensome by eliminating a phone call. Now I can just walk into the store and get it, thanks.

Um, wait a minute! I checked out the various and sundry bottles of OTC zyrtec. I could pay $6.00 for 3 pills, or I could pay $15.00 for 14 pills, or I could pay $31.00 for 28 pills. You don’t need to be a math genius to figure out that the elimination of a phone call to my doctor is now costing me over $30 for the same amount that I got for $10.

Stupid, greedy pharmaceutical whores! I’m sure I’m paying for the PRETTY packaging as the pills that I bought came in individual little hermetically sealed packets. Why? I don’t know, just shove them all in a stupid bottle and then I only have to wrestle once with opening the lid, peeling off that worthless tinfoil seal, fish the cotton ball out of there and pop one in my mouth. No, now I have to rip the blister pack, which won’t rip right, which means I have to get out the scissors and try to cut around the little pill without cutting the pill and now my blood pressure is so high I’ll probably end up on some other medication that will also go OTC.