doctors who can't count (mini rant)

I've always been one of those people who was never bothered, concerned or worried about walking around wafting of menthol,...BenGay or otherwise. I never went out of my way to find topical pain relief that didn't smell of menthol.

Another absolute favourite of mine is the smell of eucalyptus! Love it. I used to buy it fresh and put it in vases around the house, near the bed, in the bathroom,... I dislike perfume and scents, and often react negatively to them, sometimes they're migraine triggers. But those were soothing to me, and frankly I've had too much stuff to take care of with my body to spend energy worrying about what strangers will think if they get a waft of Tiger Balm or whatever the case may be.

My doctor writes Rx's for 14 days, not 15,...(I see her every 2 weeks) but they cannot always get me in within 14 days, it's usually longer...but she won't write for 15. And she has it down to the pill, not one pill over, no "just in case," and if she goes on vacation, the covering docs do not cover my pain meds, even viewing my long history and medical records right in front of them and using the same, single pharmacy exclusively for over 2 years.

And they (docs AND pharmacists) seem to forget about counting day one as the day you fill it (they start counting day one as the next day), and they don't count day 15 or 16 (it goes to "not needing to be filled until the next day)...so it's not uncommon for there to be up to a three day gap.

You're not alone.


Sookie

Oh I know. If it was more then a day I would have pulled out my last script and showed him the fill date. I called it in two days before I ran out he called me day I ran out to pick up the script and put do not fill till the 17. So I was sol for a couple days.

My Dr writes for every 28 days and the law here requires the "do not fill until " if your getting 2 scripts at once to cover 2 months. They both have to be dated for the day he wrote them. Now will RPH fill it every 28 or on the day it says to? Depends mainly on which one's working and whether there are 30 or 31 days in the month. No you cannot leave next months script with them. I have to keep it, hoping nothing should happen to it. Can't drop it off not even 1 day earlier then it's dated.

I can't figure out why the 17 days, that makes no sense. Sorry you have to spend a rough day!

Once my Dr was at a seminar or something and it made my appointment 3 days late I think. He calls to tell me to pick up a script for the 3 day's coverage. Take it to the pharmacy, same one 4 years now, same chain 11. The RPH says " why don't you just wait your regular meds are due Monday, this was like Thursday? Really? I know that! When I say because I don't want to spend 3 days without meds he says but you'll have to pay 2 copays. $1.20. Does he really think that's an issue?

For some reason the US is the only one with opiate phobias.

Hope your day won't be too bad and at least with the smell everyone will leave you alone!

Morgan....is there a specific reason why you have to go every two weeks to the Dr. to get your prescriptions? Maybe I missed that somewhere.....

Is it because you are fairly new to this one Dr. and this is for a trial period?

As Lexi and others have mentioned, hopefully you will get to the point of having to go only every 3 months. This is what I do as well. Thankfully in my state we are allowed to do the Do Not Fill for two months and then I just pick up my other one at the front desk.

Sookie...I'm thinking that your Dr. does the every 15 days as you have just had your surgery recently and they know you are moving so are trying to wean you slowly down? And if you are going to need meds for chronic pain, I hope that you will find a Dr. in NH that will move you to monthly prescriptions.

Back to Morgan....what I would do is go to the Pharmacy, or sometimes you can do this online, but do a print out of the last few months that you have been on these meds and look at the fill dates. Since most states now have the Prescription Monitoring Program.....it could be that the Dr. logged on and if you have been getting any of the meds one or two days in advance at any time then this adds up to where you should have a certain amount still leftover.

As in they count the total amount all this time. For example, if my meds are meant to last for 30 days and I pick up my prescription at day 28 the next month, I would still have two days left at that point going forward. Then if I did day 29 next month, then that is one more day extra......

My Dr. thankfully allows me to fill them at day 28 but I usually go on the 30th most of the time.

So, you can get a printout of your prescriptions and tally up the days and see where you should be at this time and whether he is incorrect. I would think you could take this to him the next visit and work out where he is getting his days compared to yours.

Hope you can get things worked out!

I keep my empty pill bottles so I can tally my days so I know when I filled them. I fill them on the day I run out because they refuse to write it earlier. I just moved here and I fired my last pain management doctor because of him upping my meds after an injection then after me taking two weeks worth of meds in two days he told me he didn't order it and I was sol.

Thankfully my husband heard what the doctor said and we went to my primary doctor and told him what was going on and that I wanted a referral to a new pain doctor. I didn't ask for pain meds just a new doctor and my primary wrote me a script to get me to the new doctor ( he looked at my mri and was like wth is this pain doctor doing because he thought spinal injections would take care of my pain. It's bone on bone at my l5s1).

But I still haven't heard from him (New doctor) I call every couple of days to make sure I stay on top of them for the referrals. I am calling them tomorrow to find out what's going on because it's been 3 weeks and still nothing.

I am frustrated because I went from being told that my back pain is in my head and treated like a hypochondriac to come here and be treated like I am a drug seeker. My old pain doctor never opened my file because he injected right into my L4-L5 which has annular tearing dessication and bulging. I told him that when he told me where he was injecting and he said no I didn't... My spine doctor told me that injections wouldn't work I need surgery to repair me. But the surgery wouldn't take away all the pain at best I could expect is maybe 50% pain reduction. So since I sit at an 8/9 I would be at a 4/5 which is still horrid. And that's only if I am lucky.

The fusion is to pretty much stop the chance of me being paralyzed from a fall. (No disc and if I land wrong it could pince the nerves and leave me in a wheel chair)
So yeah huge headache and I am sick of my pain doctors treating me like a faker. I want a doctor to look at me and see it's real and I need the help. That I am really injured and I need the medications to actually help me live. They don't give me a high they barely touch my pain. (Perc 5s) I was functioning when I was put on 10s every 6 hours. I wanted to be out and about on that dosage. But I am a drug addict seeker for asking for a higher dose. Just ugh.

Morgan

Sorry I am doing this from my phone right now. Out at a flea market that is more like an episode of hoarders than a market.
I will try to put in extra spaces between paragraphs but my phone doesn't show what the paragraph spacing is. Let me edit it so you guys can read it. Sorry

My age also doesn't help because they assume that I must be drug hunting. At 24 years old I should not be up for major spinal surgery. Because of my age my prior pa thought I was just being a cry baby and sent me to a chiropractor, back manipulations, and physical therapy before she did any imaging. Because of that I now have to have a fusion. It was medical malpractice that screwed up my back. If I had the imaging done I would have never been sent to the manipulations and chiropractor and my herniated disc would have (theoretically) healed.

So I am currently in the process of a malpractice suit against my old care in Washington. The army didn't feel I deserved a real doctor. No matter where I went I had to see my pa for a follow up and she was convinced it was in my head. Handed me pamphlets on back pain being muscle issues and connected to depression...

I asked my pa for over a year for an mri and x rays. She refused saying it was just in my head from depression ect that I was hurting. Since I didn't have anything actual happen to my back that I can't be injured. So she sent me to a physical therapist which left me laid up for days, a chiropractor/back manipulations which left me laid up for weeks and refused to believe that I was having any radiating pain ect from my spine.

She refused to do any imaging even when requested from other doctors. I went to the emergency room minimum twice a month for the same complaint because I couldn't handle the pain any more. Well the army er handed me valium and referred me back to her for follow up.

She told me to stop exaggerating and sent me back to pt and back manipulations. Thus causing more pain worse quality of life and sending me back to the er. Start circle over. Because she failed to treat and sent me straight into back manipulations with out imaging street I told her about the radiating pain down both legs (stared out as my right leg then both after a couple more back manipulations)

I talked to my lawyer and he says that is malpractice. That as soon as I brought up radiating pain that is going down my leg and then both legs that should have been cause for imaging. Instead she ignored it and kept insisting it was all muscle and caused from depression, weight gain blah blah blah.

Because of her refusal to send me to imaging for my back I am now further injured and we'll live with this the rest of my life. My spine doctor told me if I hadn't had the back manipulations/chiropractic adjustments I would still have a disc but instead she threw me into aggressive treatment that shouldn't have been used.

Emergency room visits. I have all the posters upon release saying that they recommend mri imaging thankfully. I have the records upon admission saying I an having radiating pain and they recommend an mri. My pa was the one who refused it all. The army doctors won't do it unless the pa orders it so even though I had multiple doctors saying to do so she refused to do it because she was my primary care provider and she didn't feel I needed it. She was a bleeping physicians assistant not a real doctor. She shouldn't have that kind of power anyway

The NP at my Dr. office is great. She explained my MRI to me. I pretty much already new what everything meant by research but they way she described the arthritis in the facet joints. She said that there is no way to prevent it, it happens to everyone eventually and that it's just affecting me earlier than it should. (there were other things also) but I just thought that was so sweet of her to say that. Like don't be embarrassed to be in pain, its OK, it happens, kind of thing.

I also have the "do not fill until... date on my scripts, but that's just because I see her every two months and she just gives me all of my scripts at the appointment.

This month, she didn't put a fill date on my percocet because I had really bad flair up and was short by 2 days (had her permission before hand). The pharmacy filled it with no issues. My insurance will pay up to 4 or 5 days early also. But I've also been with this pharmacy for two years and I also do a lot of my grocery shopping there too.

Angeleyes13, if the rx is a Schedule II no refills are allowed and they aren't suppose to give you partial fills. If the pharmacy isn't up on computers they can probably get away with it. Schedule III rxs can have refills and partial fills. It's Federal Law.