The Ingredients Of A Problem

(I’ve been diagnosed with anaemia and ask that the iron supplements I am prescribed don’t contain gelatine, but the first subscription does. The following occurs when I call to see if my second prescription is ready yet.)

Receptionist: “The pharmacist will swap your medicine for one that is suitable if you take in your prescription.”

Me: “Oh, I don’t have the prescription. I filled it, which is how I found out this first one wasn’t suitable.”

Receptionist: “Oh. You shouldn’t have filled it, because that’s waste now.”

Me: “I know, but how could I know it wasn’t suitable until I got the pills and read the ingredients?”

Receptionist: “You should have said when you were in the pharmacy.”

Me: “Yeah. But I would still have had to open the box to read the ingredients, and then they won’t exchange them.”

Receptionist: “No, they won’t. But you could have asked the pharmacist before filling it.”

Me: “I didn’t think I needed to, since when I asked the doctor for the prescription I asked for it to not contain gelatine.”

Receptionist: “Well, if you hadn’t filled it, you could have swapped it for one that was suitable.”

(She calls me back not long after.)

Receptionist: “I just called a pharmacist and he says tablets don’t have gelatine in, only capsules.”

Me: “Yeah, it’s the first tablets I’ve ever seen with gelatine in. Not sure why it’s in there, but it’s listed as an ingredient.”

Receptionist: “No, because there’s no capsule the pharmacist says you can take those.”

Me: *confused* “But I read the ingredients and it says ‘gelatine.'”

Receptionist: *annoyed* “Fine. But you’ll have to wait until the weekend is over to get anything else.”