Tesco Pharmacy Fluconazole and ME/CFS Ignorance

TESCO Pharmacy- FLUCONAZOLE-
Guaranteed Discrimination if you have ME/CFS are gay or disabled-Tesco Policy ‘Steals’ Benefit By Refusal To Sell More Than One Pack At A Time.
No Wonder People Buy Medicines Off The Net If They Can.

Why does the British government bother to put medications ‘off prescription’ such as FLUCONAZOLE (DIFLUCAN). If the pharmacists like the Tesco one on 28th Feb 2007 act like ignorant little Hitlers, and actually make them harder to obtain. We are doing them & ourselves a bloody favour by NOT going to a GP for a ‘free’ prescription.

At the best of times, venturing into a supermarket is very stressful if like me , you have ME/CFS. The noise, the lights, the illogical layouts, the relocation of items, and the chaos of people moving in all directions when you are trying to cope with it.

My TESCO is too far with no transport, too expensive on the bus £1.50 one way to justify one shopping basket full. (The small town Sainsbury is even worse) So about once or if I’m lucky twice a year I get a friend or a family member to take me in a car allowing me to do a big ‘emergency stock’ type of shop. In case the banking system or the DWP fuck up my money. Or I get ‘flu & can’t get out to shop.

So I asked my family member, while I fought the aisles, to go to the pharmacy for me….and buy me a supply of their own brand (1/3rd price of DIFLUCAN) FLUCONAZOLE- one to take before I restart natural supplements, a spare and two to put in the medicine cabinet-after all you never know when I may have a woman over for vigorous sex- a known hazard for gay women !!

So I wrote down the ‘speech’ for her to deliver to the TESCO Pharmacist. “ ….People with ME/CFS…..low immune system…..candida in the gut controversy that GP’s dismiss……if you take natural supplements, if you can’t afford the £17 for YEAST RAIDERS every month without fail, it works best to completely blitz your body first before you go back to supplements……….” THE TESCO PHARMACIST FLATLY REFUSED TO SELL MORE THAN ONE CAPSULE. Was is ignorance of ME/CFS ? If so then that is disgusting. Was it a God complex….you know, bit of power for someone too thick to do medicine…Was it the assumption that the sick or ‘disabled’ don’t /mustn’t have sex…Was it blatant discrimination……I THINK YES, YES, YES & YES….what else have I to go on ?

In fact the one GP -on This Morning- that I have heard accept the Candida thing…..recommends that the best dose to treat it in the gut is in fact ONE CAPSULE OF FLUCONAZOLE EACH WEEK FOR FOUR WEEKS, THEN CONTINUE WITH HERBAL SUPPLEMENTS/ PROBIOTICS……..

Stolen benefit ? How do I justify that statement…..well, if we can’t get a proper supply from a supermarket at under £5 a capsule, compared with the cost of branded DIFLUCAN at over £12. Then I’ll have to either struggle each time on the bus, putting it up to £8 each…a huge effort when you have ME/CFS….I want to use my energy to give me some quality of life - not waste it on that. Or traipse around a few Independents at £12 each.

Funny really that they are only too happy to sell you dozens of bags of crisps, no questions asked….that are sure to shorten your life, but get very precious if you want to improve it ! About time ME Association, Action for ME & Patricia Hewitt at the Department of ‘Health’ started kicking a few doors down with ignorant, discriminatory pharmacists.

People with diabetes, HIV/AIDS, cancer get repeat prescriptions for fluconazole avoiding the hassle, humiliation & inquisition……..but yet again, having ME/CFS we are treated like shit…..just another day in paradise !