CarolandTigger
Member Since 2015
Couldn't believe what I just went thru! My vet called my Rite Aid with Tigger's new prescription for U-100 syringes, since he's now on Lantus. (he was on Vetsulin/U-40 syringes prior to his DKA). So I go to Rite Aid to pick up the syringes, and they're "BD Tuberculin Syringes"...nothing said "insulin", much less "u-100" so I knew someone had goofed. I called the vet office...they said they had called in for the U-100's. But the Rite Aid pharmacy tech said she distinctly remembered they wanted "BD Tuberculin"...HUH???? So the pharmacist came over to talk to me...he said I couldn't use THOSE syringes, but he opened a box of other syringes he said would be fine. Uh...I didn't see anything on the box that said "U-100"! I said that to him, and told him I had a box of U-40 syringes at home. Now get this...he said "oh, you could use either one, they'll both measure out 2.5 units of insulin". So I said, "no, I believe because the insulin is Lantus, it has to be a U-100 syringe". I couldn't believe this guy was telling me that either syringe would be ok?? So I left, and went back to the vet's pharmacy. They said they had definitely called in U-100 syringes, but they don't sell them there, I would still have to get them at the drugstore..however they did give me a few to tide me over for the next 2 days. They said I absolutely had to use U-100 syringes, and you can't mix them, because they are different concentrations of insulin. Well, I knew this..the vet pharmacy knew this...why was the "pharmacist" at Rite Aid trying to tell me differently? He could have been a tech, not the pharmacist...but they referred to him as the pharmacist, however he didn't have his white coat on, or name tag. I'll go back in the morning to Rite Aid, and discuss this with another pharmacist, and return the box of tuberculin syringes. I just couldn't BELIEVE what I just had to go thru. I've always gotten my own prescriptions at Rite Aid, but now I'm questioning them! Grrrrr!
She asked me why I could't use the Tuberculin syringes! I said "Because I need to use INSULIN syringes"..then I went on to briefly say that U100 and U40 are different concentrations of insulin. She glared at me! I shut up right there..didn't want to argue about it. But then she said that she had specifically talked to a girl at the vet's office (she called her by name) and said that the girl at the vet's said "TB" syringes. After I got out to my car and looked at the box of BD U-100 INSULIN syringes they finally gave me, I think I figured out what the problem probably was. When the vet's office called in the syringes, they probably specified the brand "BD" syringes..and the Rite Aid people heard "TB". I'm assuming this is what caused the mixup. 
