Rx Refills

Ever since my accident I have had trouble getting medication refilled on a timely basis. If I had a prescription filled on the 10th, they would always tell me to wait until the 10th of the next month, even when there were 31 days in the month. They would tell me to refill prescriptions on Sundays, when they were closed, etc. I ended up changing to a new office location and found that %99 of all of the problems were due to a single Dr. that was refusing to sign the refills and I didn't have many problems after that. This was my previous Dr.

I am now w/a new Dr. and I have had many problems with him but when it comes to refilling my pain medication, I am always worried. Since I had so much trouble before, I am always obsessing about when to call and usually wait until the last possible day to call it in. This even sometimes results in problems due to me having to scramble to a city 45minutes away (one way) and trying to get there before 5:00pm on a workday.

So today I have no patches left and I called it in around 1:00pm (because they go to lunch at 12:30pm and I know that I only have to leave a message). I explained that the pharmacy only had 9 out of the 10 patches last time and that I also had a problem where one fell off getting out of the car and became stuck to the pavement. When I peeled it off the parking lot, most of the gel stayed on the pavement. I was quite angry. I always have trouble getting these to stick and since it has been 90 degrees here all week, they come off all the more easier. All I could think of is trying to explain this to the Dr. and them not believing me. I obsessed about this and even had nightmares about it.

So today I called and said "I need to refill my patches and I only had 9 to begin with but I had one fall off and become unusable". Now I have gone to great lengths to get these patches to work after they fall off. I have gone as far as going 2 days without any medication so I would not look like a drug addict (some of you may know I have a label I am trying to fight off because of a bad misunderstanding w/my previous Dr.). But today I decided I couldn't take it going half the weekend unmedicated and I called it in.

They called back after lunch and left me a message saying, "hey we filled it and you can come pick it up". No request for a specific explanation of what happened or anything. I was very relieved. Now, I have gone 6 months with these people and never came in early so I don't know if that is it or what. I am just simply happy I don't have to spend half of Saturday and all of Sunday and then half of Monday in severe pain and WD (well, with these patches wearing off after 48 hours I will still be in bad shape on Saturday evening and Sunday during the day but I am getting so used to that, it's sad). I still have many problems and really need a new Dr. but my weekend went from severely hellish to slightly hellish and that, at least, is something to be happy about. It really is sad though that I have to be super-excited about only being in bad pain and quite sick for ONLY 36 hours this weekend!! It's amazing the types of things that get you excited when you are in this much pain.

Well, I have done what I always do and veered all over the place. I figured I would share the good news and also ask if many of you have had as big a problem as I have with getting refills on pain medication when you are even due for it. Anyone else have this problem? Is it just worse in MI than other states?


Skrape

Dear Skrape,

   

     That is alot to go through just to refil your medicine.   Im afraid I dont know much about the refil procedures. Mr Ron usually takes care of all that stuff. Sometimes he has to wait for medacine to be shipped in.. thou I dont get impression that has anything to do with the doctors.

 

*huggs*

dani 

My pharmacy is closed saturday and sundays. If my script is scheduled to run out saturday, sunday or monday I can fill it friday. If it runs out on tuesday I pick it up on Monday. For my insurance I only get 180 pills a month so if I have procedures done during that month they write scripts for every two weeks. Thats when I have the problem. If they overlap any to go over the 180 I have to wait until the day the script says I will be out. Kinda confusing. But normally when I get the 30 day supply it works like clockwork.

From now on with you new pharmacy it should go smoothly.

Regarding the patches coming off. I would do as my dad did for years. There is an adhesive tape you can get at the pharmacy supply store that hospitals use in a white and purple box. It comes on a roll that you cut the large peices off. They WILL stay on. He also did a study on a new adhesive 2 years ago that worked. Did it ever go into effect?

Laurie

PS if you can't get them to stay I would talk to your doctor so you don't lose anymore! on the pavement.

Skrape,
Tegaderm ( made by 3 M) comes in several sizes ( 4 inches x 4 3/4 inches- will cover the 100 mcg gel patches by Sandoz. I know that because those are the ones that I used when using the Sandoz brand of fentanyl patches. I buy it in the bigger covers like they use on iv's in the hospital and the smaller ones for the Mylan brand patches ( 2 3/8 x 2 3/4). As I said, I buy mine off ebay. Nexcare also makes them and you can buy their version in most mom and pop type pharmacies or medical supply places. If they do not have them, they can order them for you.
Duragesic was the company that was giving out the tegaderm covers for the patches, but only if you were purchasing the brand patches, not the Sandoz patches which are the same thing.
Try looking on ebay. I bought boxes of 100 tegaderm covers for 20.00. I have never heard of using the tegaderm and it not sticking. That is exactly what it is made for , for situations where typical adhesives don't work, to hold something in place, without tearing someone's skin apart.

Hi Skrape,

I've been on fentanyl patches for the past two months. I use the Watson brand & I have rarely had any trouble with them sticking. One time, I put one on & didn't like the position, so I peeled it off & restuck it somewhere else! It didn't seem sticky anymore, but with a little tape, and a little pressure, I had no problem with it lasting. Maybe I don't sweat as much as you do, but I've definitely been through many high temperatures & heavy sweating situations & I had no problems. The only time they ever start to come off is if I put them too close to an area that constantly rubs against something. Unfortunately, the patches didn't do anything for me, so I'm currently coming off of them, but other than that (which was somewhat expected to begin with), I can't complain. I can't comment about the 48 vs 72 hrs, as I never once felt anything effects, good or bad, from the patches, so if I didn't see them on me, I wouldn't know I was wearing them. It might not be that you doc won't allow you to wear these patches for only 48 hrs, though, it may have to do with your insurance company. I know that my insurance company would only allow me to get 15 patches of the 50's, despite the fact that I wore up to four of them at once (for 72 hrs). We (the pharmacy, my doc, and I) fought with them, but they wouldn't budge. It made figuring out how to get refills (every 2-3 wks) a little interesting, but in the end things worked out, because they would usually take the script a little early. Is there any other medication that your doctor can switch you to so that you don't have to go through all these problems?

Skeye