I'm almost out of Welchol and my prescript
ion has expired, so I called my Dr's office yesterday to get it refilled, and after playing phone tag back and forth with them today, it turns out that the group my doctor belongs to won't let her refill my yearly prescript
ion without coming in to see her.
I'm not sick. There's nothing wrong with me, other than I need my Welchol (which I've been on successfully for 4.5 years) renewed so I won't have daily diarrhea. Such a small thing, one slip of paper renewing my prescription for a year. Wouldn't take the doctor a minute to write it out and another couple of minutes for someone in the office to fax or call it in to the pharmacy.
$75 and change for that. That's with all applicable discounts (it's $115 before discounting). Which really sucks because I'm laid off, have no insurance, have no job prospects (I was in commercial real estate, after all), and the prescription is $80 something to get filled. (My unemployment is $249/wk here.) Oh, and 'tis the season to shop for Christmas.
Argh. It's so aggrevating to know excatly what you need and to not be able to get it. I mean, it's not like I'm trying to get opiate pain meds. I can just see me on some street corner in the bad part of town, "I need some Welchol, man." "What?" "Welchol, Welchol! It's cholesterol medicine. Can you get me any or not? I've got to have it! Wait... I need to go up here to McDonald's to the bathroom. I'll be back in a few."
I'm going to try the Minute Clinic at Walgreen's tomorrow and see if it's within their scope to write this kind of prescription. If so, then it's only $25 to see the NP there. I can stomach that in return for a year's prescription.
Man, I'm longing for the days when it was 30 pounds to see a doctor in Ireland, and that included any bloodwork done. I about fell out in the floor when they told me that. Makes me long for national healthcare.
If anyone has any ideas for getting this prescription refilled on the cheap, I'm all ears. I already take calcium and watch what I eat, and it's still not enough to control the D. Although, I've been trying to lose some weight; I lost quite a bit when I was sick with my GB. Maybe I shouldn't try and get my prescription refilled and I should lose the weight through a combination of D and not eating so I don't have D. Road trips would be difficult, though.