Protecting our pain medications...

I have noticed that we have had quite a few postings from H-W members about the loss of their medications or about running out of medications before their next refill was due.   These shortages can have devastating effects on us.   I thought I would be a good idea if we shared ideas and techniques we are using to avoid medication shortages. I do several things.   First, I keep only one week (exactly 7 days) of narcotics in a bottle.   The remainder is locked up in a safe in my closet.   This way, I do not have to worry about losing more than a couple of day of   pills in the bottle if it is accidently lost or someone with sticky fingers takes them   By dividing the medication in 7-day increments, I also know if I am short tablets for that one week.   If I have used more tablets then prescribed, then I have enough lead-time to either call my doctor and notify him of a possible shortage at the end of the month ….   Or….I can adjust the number of tablets I use the next week. It is hard to keep track of meds.   Why is it that there are always extra antibiotic pills in the bottle after a 10 day course?   That never seems to happen with narcotics. What are other members doing to safe guard the medications?  

i dont have this problem, I seem to always to have too many left over by my next appointment, like this month I'll have almost 9 days left over. But I keep a few days at a time in my purse and the rest are locked up in a black fireproof lockbox that weighs alot, then I keep that in my room with my bedroom door locked. The only pain meds I use to run out early with was the fentaynl patches cause they always fell off, so I had to reply a new one cause I felt when they didnt "stick" anymore (I used the mylan brand), even with tape, they wouldnt work very well. I guess this is why I was only on it for a short time. I guess with my suboxone because they have a half life of 37 hours, but they're prescribed for 3 times a day, but I usually only take them 2 times a day because they make me too sleepy cause they build up in your system. But if someone is taking too many, they should talk to their doctor if the meds arnt helping the pain, and if they're stolen even by loved ones, it should be reported asap to the police and doctor. Pills should never be laying around where people can easily grab them like on the kitchen counter or bathroom, they should be hidden at all times.

-hellokitty

I also use a heavy safe that is stored in a cabinet. The combination is safely stored away, (I hope I can find it some day, just kidding). I keep some meds out but even most of my non narcotic meds are also stored away. As many of you know I work with drug addicts who have been clean for at least a year and they didn't just look for narcotics when they were pill shopping. It might not make sense to non addicts but it happens.  

uniquelyme,

suboxone works wonderful for my pain, and yes I was taking methadone before for pain, I find the suboxone to work much better, and I love that it lasts so long. But some people dont find suboxone to work well for their pain but I think it's because as soon as they see that naloxone is in it, they freak out thinking that it will cause withdrawals, when it doesnt. The naloxone doesnt even get absorbed if taken the right way, under the tongue. And you cant build a tolerence to Suboxone which is great, and less is more with this med. I was taking almost 300mg daily of methadone, and 16mg of suboxone works the same, if not better. I use to hate that 8 hours after taking methadone I would start getting very mild withdrawals so I would have to redose, but with suboxone those effects dont happen til 24-48 hours later, even though the pain might return before, but not having those withdrawals are nice. The only drawback is that suboxone is very expensive, almost $7 a pill for the 8mg pills. My insurance covered it for 6 months as long as I was in drug rehab classes even though I wasnt a "drug addict", but it was the only way around to get my insurance to pay for it. At first I was mad, but now I've kinda enjoyed the classes cause I've learned so much and found out that a drug addict is not what I thought, that they are very normal people living very normal lifes and have great jobs, so this has made me want to get a career in helping them, but I wanna work in a inpatient rehab. I know alot of pain specialists doctors are going for suboxone for pain for so many reasons, especially cause it cant be abused, but I will always encourage people to not diss suboxone just cause it's only approved for addiction, it IS a narcotic no matter how you look at it, and buprenorphine, which is the name of the narcotic in suboxone has been used in other countries for just pain control in very small doses and patches, and right now in the united states that are doing trials on the patch just for pain control and not addiction.I hope answered some of what you where wondering about, if not then let me know.
-hellokitty

I use a heavy fire-proof lockbox, that I keep someplace inconspicuous (it depends, depending on where I am living, since I am in college & change dorm rooms often). I keep the key to it with me at all times (it's attached to my college ID, which I have to carry everywhere). I take out only what I need for the next day, the night before. The meds for the coming day go into a pill organizer, which I keep with me. I've been keeping even my non-narcotic meds in there, because I find it easier, plus, when I do live with roommates, or people coming in & out of my room, I prefer that they don't know what I am taking at all. At home, I'm a little more lenient with my meds, since we don't often have company, or anyone foreign in the home & we live in a very tiny town in a rural area. However, lately, I have been thinking about getting another lockbox for here too. But I guess it doesn't matter as much anymore, since we have finally determined that opioids are worthless to me & that I will be off of them within a week or two.

Skeye

Isn't it sad that we have to treat our pain meds like money!!??!!

I have a lock box and the pills I hold are for one day at a time. I have my 1 days worth on me at all times. Then I know when they are gone Thats all I get. So that helps me keep my pill counts in order. I hate having to count my pills to see of I can have another. My pain BT's alot. I'm so busy most the time I forget if I have taken one or not.

The reason I lock mine up is because I have 2 teenagers and a 20 yr old. Teens might expeirment, my 20 yr old is know to do recreational drugs. (sigh) It always in my mind with the two younger one is "What If".

Laurie

I divide mine up and they are stored in different places around the house. Money has been really tight lately and I'm not willing to part with a minimum of $35 for a lockbox. When I have them filled the other 3 weeks are literally in strange places in the house. I have roommates right now that are not the most "upright" citizens, but they pay the bills and they don't bring the police to my house so I can't sqawk too much. sometimes the pills are in other bottles in my bathroom under the sink, and sometimes they're in things like a glasses case. You just never know where I'm gonna put them. The only bad thing is that I have to remember where it is that I put them. lol