So the prescription for my cholesterol medication ran out and I requested a new one from my cardiologist, but when I picked it up I happened to notice that the instructions had changed.

Instead of taking one tablet daily, I was now instructed to chop the tablet in two and take only half a pill each day.

Huh?

And why didn’t he tell me about the change?

So I fired off an email. If I was only supposed to take 10 mg, why not prescribe 10 mg tablets? The 20 mg tablets aren’t scored for chopping, which makes cutting them in half difficult.

My email message was promptly answered by a nurse in my doctor’s office. She didn’t know why the instructions had changed but I was still supposed to take 20 mg daily, not cut them in half.

I thanked her, but I pointed out that as far as Rite Aid and the health plan were concerned, I now had a 60 day supply. It said so right on the label. (Actually I was wrong about that; it wasn’t on the label, it was in the Rite Aid app, but the point was still the same.) At the end of 30 days, if I went in for a refill, they would refuse, saying that I still had 30 days to go. At least that’s been my experience. They are very fussy about when they will refill a prescription.

No problem, she replied. She’ll send a new prescription to Rite Aid.

So—happy ending?

But how does this happen? And if I hadn’t looked at the instructions on the new label, I wouldn’t even have known until I was refused a refill in 30 days. My confidence in my cardiologist, and doctors in general, has taken a bit of a hit.

Odd that this happened just as a new season of Curb Your Enthusiasm gets underway. I can picture this happening to Larry David…