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Irritable Bowel Syndrome
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Posted 9/28/2008 6:16 PM (GMT 0)
Tomorrow I need to call my doc to get my prescription renewed for my Belladonna. But I'm not sure if I should really take them anymore or not. I just realized that I take them so little that I am still working on the same bottle of pills I had refilled last year. As in I had it renewed last September and I now need new pills because they have expired. Out of the original 90 pills I have 38 of them left. If there is an OTC med that works like my pills do now( just need pain since I can handle the D) I'm not sure that getting it renewed is a good idea. Or even if she can call it in and I only get 30 pills per refill. I just feel like I'm wasting pills. I still have days where I sometimes take 2 because it's rather bad but sometimes I go almost a month before I take them again. In the beginning I was taking them maybe once or twice a day because I really needed them but I've tapered off on how many I need. Can I ask her to just give me 30 pills per refill instead of 90 or does it have to be one month's worth at the prescribed dose? I can take up to 3 daily if I need to.
Posted 9/28/2008 7:12 PM (GMT 0)
What has expired the pills or the prescription? Pills seldom expire in a year so if you are reading what is on the label and it says expiration is exactly one year from the date you filled it it is a bogus expiration date. Some pharmacies just put a one year date on it automatically and pay no attention to the actual date on the bottle they took them out of. Even the dates on the original bottle mean very little but they have to put some date on them. Pills don't really go bad but they can lose their potency. The only pill I have ever heard of that you should really throw away is aspirin if it smells like vinegar and that is not dangerous just won't work well. If in doubt call the pharmacy but if the dates are one year apart then just don't worry about it and use them up.
Posted 9/28/2008 7:14 PM (GMT 0)
I agree with Canyon... I think the expiration date of the prescription is what you're seeing. Usually docs give you 1 year to fill your prescription (or refill). No worries if you still have plenty of pills left and don't need to get it refilled within that time frame. It just means that when you run out of pills you'll need another prescription.
Posted 9/28/2008 7:33 PM (GMT 0)
Thanks guys. I'll wait till I'm out of pills( at the rate I'm going I have almost a year's worth left) then bug the doc about it. But yeah the date on the bottle is a year after I last got it filled. I do have to go see her sometime before then though so I'll just bug her next time I see her. Before when I thought that the date was the expiration date, I just didn't want to waste pills. I feel like I've done that so much since I've been diagnosed. I've tried so many things that haven't worked and had to either find them new homes or dispose of them properly( fiber pills, vitamins, Paxil, Librax and lord knows what else) that I guess I'm just tired of seeing perfectly good stuff get tossed.
Posted 9/28/2008 7:38 PM (GMT 0)
Oh, Lady Frog, if only you knew how many pills and potions I have wasted in the past four years...holy moly. I feel bad too but figure at least I'm learning what DOESN'T work for me.
Posted 9/28/2008 9:22 PM (GMT 0)
Sarita, the one day my mom went into her medicine cabinet and a full container( the big size too) of calcium chews had mysteriously appeared. She wasn't complaining but she does now ask that if I am going to try something new to get the brand that she takes.
Posted 10/1/2008 4:19 AM (GMT 0)
To be clear. The pharmacy is using that as the expiration date. It is the lazy pharmacists way and frankly I think it should be illegal because many people see that date and just throw the pills out when in fact the manufacturer probably has a date many years after that. Even the manufacturer's date is not written in stone but they do have to put something on their bottle. I find the smaller pharmarcys tend to do this one year thing. I get most mine from Walgreens and they put the date that was on the bottle that they took them out of. It is true though that with the exception of certain drugs the prescription expires in one year. For the others which are considered "controlled" the prescription expires in 6 months where I live, like sleeping pills, pain relievers and things like Xanax.
Posted 10/3/2008 2:33 AM (GMT 0)
Lady Frog,
If you have insurance, you might be better off getting 90 on one co-pay. If you don't use them, oh well, but if you suddenly need them, you'll have them.
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