[kebsfroggy]

Gee maybe I have been doing this all wrong. First I ask the pdoc can I please get off the designer drug before I end up in the poor house.

To which he says "sure but you will have to probably take 2 a day at least to start until your body adjusts to the new medication. Dumb me, I thought that sounded very intelligent. And of course there was the difference in cost of $30.00 a month. I could eat at Mc Donald's for a whole week on that $30.

So with my new prescription in hand I head for the drug store. I should have been suspicious when the druggiest said "this med only comes in 5, 10 and 15 mg.tablets. Your doctor has written the script for Mg twice a day. We will have to contact your doc."

First voice mail from drug store "there is a problem with your insurance approving the script as written" Second voice mail, "the prescribed med comes in a 30 mg capsule but you can't take 2 of them a day." (My brain now pauses a moment, then to myself I say) why not if that is what the pdoc wrote the script for.

So in total frustration I drive over to the drug store. "What seems to be the problem" I state (Not what I was thinking but I tried to be polite). "Well", says the druggiest, "this med comes in 5,10 and Mg tabs that can be taken more than once a day." "However, the 30 mg capsule cannot be taken more than once a day and that is not what your doctor wants".

"May I please have the script?" "Sure, let us know what the doctor decides" (Yeah, right!) I call my pdoc, "druggist won't fill your script as written." "May I please have my old prescription instead" The Dr's office replies "yes bring in the unfilled script in the morning and will give your the refill of your old script."

So I'm back on my designer drug and feeling much better. Guess I'll have to wait for that week at Mc Donald's for another time in my fight against my depression.

Please explain why these very simple theories of
"less works just as well as twice as much"
and
"most expensive works no better than that which costs less"
are two concepts the insurance companies and medical profession have such difficulty understanding.

kebs

[Perna]

I would have tried for one pill once a day and keep taking a lesser amount of the designer until my body adjusted to the new med?

I had to quit using the drugstore, use my new, small pharmacy at the grocery store they just built; I love the pharmacist, he catches the doctor's idiot mistakes AND fixes them with the doctor both, so it doesn't inconvenience me very much (the doctor was moving office and my last visit with him resulted in all kinds of irregularities and I only caught one of the two major ones before I left :-) But my old drugstore routinely messed up well-written prescriptions, took too long, and made me find and solve their problems.

[Yoda]

You should ask your doc if you can have samples.

[NuckingFutz]

McDonald's is highly overrated. Here are some ideas that may help. Go to the med manufacturer's website and there should be a place on there where you can get assistance so you can afford your meds. I hope this helps. If it does help, take yourself out for a nice meal.

[*freak*]

(((((((((((((Kebsfroggy))))))))))))))))))

[Rohag]

Oh, the temptation to offer a really biting, cynical answer lampooning the medical profession and health care in general...

*Trying to restrain myself...*

Dear Kebsfroggy, here's my take on the specific incident you described: Your p-doc does have a p-doc's knowledge of drugs (though not a pharmacologist's or psychopharmacologist's knowledge), but does not have

• a direct link to your pharmacy's official formulary, nor
• an established procedure to check that formulary as part of his prescription process.

Consequently, your p-doc gave no consideration to the actualities of the way the drug is prepared and offered to you. For their part, the druggies...I mean, the druggists at the store are besieged by all sorts of regulations mandating they fill prescriptions just, just so, giving them little or no leeway to act on their own initiative. The insurance company...well, Heaven help us all...

My p-doc and I are part of an insensate...I mean integrated system with electronic prescribing: the doctor is directly tied into the pharmacy when he writes scripts, so he sees exactly what pills and dosages are available. When he hits "enter," the script is in the hands of the pharmacy and the drugs show up in the mail two-four days later. As long as no one hacks the system or we have a giant electromagnetic pulse hit North America, we're all hunky dory and I can continue to be a minimally functional, flighty, non-contributing member of society.

[SophiaG]

Medical wrangling is frustrating isnt it..

http://www.murphys-laws.com/