Anna Dooley, endometriosis: Young woman with a rare and painful condition reveals how she was left humiliated at a pharmacy when she went to pick up her medication
A young woman has told the humiliating moment a pharmacist suggested she was a ‘junkie’ as she picked up a prescription for painkillers.
Anna Dooley, 30, decided to go to a local business to have her prescriptions stored and processed after moving away from her regular pharmacist – a decision that would lead to an unfortunate confrontation.
After suffering from endometriosis for fifteen years, a condition that causes tissue similar to the uterine lining to grow outside the uterus, Mrs Dooley is often in pain and requires strong painkillers to live a normal life.
Ms. Dooley describes the feeling as if barbed wire is wrapped around your stomach.
While filling her prescription, Ms. Dooley claims she was embarrassed by the pharmacy owner in front of other customers.
“Not even a ‘hello how are you’ to a whole group of people, just ‘be careful you don’t overdose’,” she said 7Life.
After explaining her diagnosis to the pharmacist and having recently been hospitalized for the condition, the pharmacist continued his reasoning.
“He says, ‘I have to legally give you this… it’s free in case you overdose,’” the man told Ms. Dooley as he handed her a spray bottle of naloxone.
Naloxone is a drug provided free by the government to people who use higher-intensity painkillers to reverse or reduce the effects of opioids.
‘I told him, ‘I have endometriosis,’ but he didn’t want to hear me talk.
“He started by talking over me and talking about an overdose like it was a joke.”
She said she was alarmed by the ease with which the pharmacist made light of the addiction and his behavior in general.
He even recommended that she watch the Netflix series “Painkiller,” which focuses on the opioid crisis in the United States.
A woman suffering from endometriosis, Anna Dooley (pictured), claims she was made to feel like a ‘junkie’ by a pharmacist as she picked up painkillers
Ms. Dooley (left) was told by the pharmacist to watch the Netflix series “Painkiller,” which focuses on the opioid crisis in the United States
She said her experience with the pharmacist would have been much worse if she had been addicted, “how dare you just announce this to everyone?”
“He made me feel ashamed for wanting help,” Ms. Dooley said.
‘I ended up agreeing with everything he said because I was so shocked and wanted to get out of the situation quickly.
“I just don’t understand why he couldn’t treat me like a human being and stop embarrassing me in front of everyone.”