Urine tests for Oxycodone-- HELP!

Hi. I did read the whole thread, and I'm not sure if you talked about this, but is it possible to tell your doctor your concerns about the insurance being taken away? I think that a lot of doctors are understanding about those types of things.

I agree with the above posters--PA Lady, MRSM--that (even though you weren't thinking about actually doing it), that it would be so awful for anyone to try to put drugs in their urine.

FORGOT TO MENTION.. about my insurance being cancelled. I'm on COBRA... that IS NOT forever and with all my medical history and PRE-EXISTING conditions, no other insurance carrier might not take me without paying thousands a month and i'm disabled and unemployed, so YEAH.. i'm a little scared of not having insurance!

Well if you must be literal, I will clarify and that is my mistake. You being the drug police and making accusations, however IS NOT!

Yes, you are right in your calculations... I was using the term "taking 1/4 of that" in general. I did not LITERALLY mean one-fourth.. i was just giving a "guestimate", which obviously was wrong. So let me correct myself for using a paraphrase. Most days, i do not take all 6, some days i do but most i do not. So it does even out, making me have a little left-over..NOWHERE NEAR what you are claiming by me mis-wording the 1/4 part. MY MISTAKE! All I was trying to do was get the point across that most days i'm not taking full amounts thats all. Sorry for the big confusion here but I was just looking for immediate advice and to be short.. not to get a HUGE debate going and getting me more pissed off than what YOU just created!

JD,
I was not implying anything either directly or indirectly about you. Go back and read my post. I also did not say that you specifically were looking for information about how to beat the urine test, although you do express concerns over how to not have it show up on the urine test that you are taking less than prescribed, including asking what time you should take your meds instead to have it show up in your urine in a larger concentration.
Right now, there are a flurry of posts on various pain boards from people trying to figure out how to beat a urine test, asking questions very similar to yours.
If you have all the malabsorption problems that you say you do, then your PM should be well aware of them and any urine testing that he may do should allow for that in his interpretation of the results.
I read the post and your replies, as well as the replies that you recieved. I totally agree with the posters who said that your PM should be told that you aren't finding that you need as many of the pills a day that he allows you so that HE can adjust the dosage he gives you per month .
You said in your explanation to Bionic's calculations that some days you take all 6, when all your other posts said that you do not. Which is it? And some days you do not......so assuming that you aren't taking all 6, 15 days out of the month- that leaves you 90 pills or less extra a month???????? That's still an awful lot of oxycodone to have on hand as "extra" in case your insurance gives out. It is more than enough to taper off , should you run out of insurance money to cover meds. Why you would need more than a couple of weeks, which your PM would tell you is far too much anyway to have left over is beyond me.
I believe that COBRA coverage is ongoing until or unless you fail to make the payments each month, but you would still know that you are not going to have coverage for medications, and have time to start putting other plans into place. Prescription assistance programs cover the cost of medications or provide them free and, medicare, or medicaid cover pre -existing conditions.
I am also disabled so if you are disabled and can't work, have you applied for disability at this point? If not, it may be something for you to look into.
Sandi

I didn't create anything - I just read what you wrote.

Before getting the boot by my last PCP I was on 15 mg morphine IR tablets, 1 every 6 hours for pain. That is exactly how the script was written. So going by that I should have taken 4 every day. I didn't.

Sure some days I did take 4 pills, but other days I took 3, or 2, and every once in a while I would have a really good day and would only need 1 to get through the day. When I was first put on the med my doctor wrote it for 30 pills, or about 1 weeks worth, and then a couple of months later for 60 and then later for 90. When we got to 90 pills I found that those would last me, on average for an entire month, and when he asked me if I needed to go to 120 pills to get through the month I told him no and we ended up having a talk about how I was taking them. At first, especially since I had to fight to get something that helped, I was worried he would get mad at me for "self medicating" but in the end he was actually pleased that I was not taking them any more often than I felt I needed to but since there were days I did need 4 pills he was not going to decrease the amount any.

It may very well be that your PM will understand that you aren't taking all 6 pills daily, but there are others who do not. That's one of the problems in current PM offices , is the variation in what the PM's expect when dosing a patient. If directions say 1 tablet every 4 hours, then that is what the PM office/doctor expects when testing. Other times, even with a prn label, the PM doctor expects that the patient is taking those meds every 4 hours as directed. When the urine testing doesn't reflect that amount, then the patient is kicked out of pain management and mislabled as a drug seeker or seller or whatever. That's one reason that a patient has to be absolutely clear on what the expectations are /directions are from their PM doctor. Otherwise, you can find yourself in a situation that you don't want to find yourself in.
Sandi

Thanks for your explanation PA Lady . I was mistaken with the length of coverage for COBRA. I know that you have had your own struggles with finding insurance . There is a huge difference in COBRA amounts versus the conversion coverage that you explained.
Sandi

Jen,
I really prefer not to do private e-mails. Sometimes just reading the forum is overwhelming enough for me. Of course I'm female and in Pennsylvania (hence my rather boring screen name!). I am in the process of filing for disability, which pains me greatly but no other choice at this point.

The medical coverage on disability is through Medicare. If you have a disability caseworker (not sure if this is how it works because I'm only just beginning the process) you could call them and ask how you get started with Medicare so you hopefully don't have any lapse in coverage. You may also check out in your state and see if you'd be eligible for Medicaid, which is income based, in the interim. Each state has different regulations on Medicaid, which is a combination state/federal program, but Medicare is a federal program based on age or disability. In PA there's also a low income insurance plan called Adult Basic, but there's about a 2 year waiting list! In the meantime it costs about $350, and that's with no prescription coverage.

There are a couple of threads about ways to search for prescription coverage, which I'm in the process of doing. Looking for this kind of information and knowing you have options will help with your anxiety.

Please remember, though, we're all in pain and tired and such, too, so when we read posts and take the time and energy to respond, and then find the information wasn't quite accurate it gets very frustrating. So try to get your anxiety under control if you're going to ask questions like this, and remember we don't have all the answers!

PaLady