Janice M Cali
Medication Screw-up
Medications, Whoopie
As mentioned I got home from the hospital a week ago Wednesday, I didn't have two of my medications, they had however been called into the pharmacy I use so they should have been ready when I got home. Well...
One was ready and could be picked up, this was a good and bad thing. This one is an antidepressant that also helps you sleep, or rather, knocks me on my ass within 20 minutes of taking it... I can't explain how much fun that can be. Imagine suddenly feeling like getting up off the couch is an effort almost not worth doing, and that the 50 foot walk to the bed room is a touch too far, especially without help. It is that powerful or rather effective. The second, named Provigil, is a whole other story. It is taken twice a day, once first thing in the morning, and then around noon. It's job is to help you get over the hangover that you have from the Trassadone (?) which it sometimes does, but usually is better at the noon dose than the morning one. Coffee is also recommended to kill the hang over, which does help some.
Well as I said the first one was ready, yippee, the second was too, but here's the hitch. My insurance would pay for Trassadone, but not Provigil. This is not a good thing. My nurse was going to pick up just some of the pills and pay for them, to be reimbursed when the insurance payed for the others, not bad, and I didn't mind until she came back steaming, it seems that 15 pills were going to cost $225.00. Needless to say she said, “NO!” and came back trying to figure out what to do. Well since it was Wednesday, I thought, hey, much as I hat paying $15.00 per pill, I could buy two, for Thursday, which would cover the next day, and the prescription should be approved by Friday, so, I bit the bullet, I called the pharmacy and ordered two, count 'em two, of the $15.00 per pill pills. Betsy went and got them and I was fixed for the next day. No problem.
But on Thursday and Friday they still hadn't been approved, they were still in limbo with the insurance company and Medicare, oh goody, I was thrilled. So I'd have to buy enough to get through the weekend, that, six pills, or $90.00, I'd now spent over $100 for eight pills. This seems excessive to me but hey what do I know, right? And yes, I bought enough to get through Monday, Tuesdy and Wednesday, that is far too much for me to afford, but I manage, somehow.
OK, Friday rolls around, Betsy is here to check on things, and we discover I'm almost out of Valium, no problem, we call in the prescription, and can pick it up Monday, I have enough to last until then. I take 12 mg per day, not all at once or I'd be back on my butt. We order them and then forget about it until Monday. On Monday, Betsy is setting up my medications in my special little try and notices something is missing, but damned if she could figure out what, I look and say, “Valium.” Of course, she'd called it in on Friday, so gets ready to run over and pick up the script, but since Jerry is out getting the mail, and stuff, I just call him and ask him to pick them up. Then for some strange reason, we decide to call the pharmacy and make sure they are ready. They weren't they hadn't been approved, because according to their records I had no refills. Both Betsy and I were sure I had refills but nope, didn't, don't had to get the drug line that my doctor uses to process a request. This means they need all my information, the drug, how many per day, dosage, doctor, etc. This is given and should be ready by Wednesday. Yikes, what do I do now? I take an Atavan instead. But they aren't in my meds box, they're on my nightstand as an emergency dose only. Double damn.
So what does this mean? Well Monday I was fine, no problem, Tuesday, I'm feeling disoriented, dizzy and weak. Having a lot of trouble, even the pain from my fibro is getting worse. OK, Wednesday rolls around and I feel like crap, I have a doctor's appointment, but before I head that way, I get my little pill holder out to put some pain meds in it so I can perhaps function, as I open it, I discover several things, first I discover some pain meds, then some valium, and then some Atavan. That's when I remember the Valiumn problem, I'd forgotten Monday's problems completely, I'd forgotten my need to take something to counter act withdrawal from Valium, so I started into full withdrawal, all the symptoms, each and everyone can be attributed to my lack of valium. I took some as soon as I found it. By the time I get to see my doctor I'm starting to feel more normal, not great but normal. He immediately approves my Valium, it's ready the next morning.
Meanwhile we discuss me options if I can't find a way to get Provigil, one is to go back to the previous med I was taking that unfortunately tends to make me more than a little hyper, I didn't know what was making me so jittery, twitchy, can generally uncomfortable. When it was stopped in the hospital, I immediately felt more normal, less stressed and less antsy. So I didn't want to go back to that one. So, if we can't find another way to get Provigil paid for, and we're going to try the drug company next, we'll try a new one called Seneaquil (or something like that), and see if it helps. Let's hope I don't have to try a new medication because I have such a tendency to have problems with medications, allergic reactions, quit breathing, things like that, you get the idea, not a lot of fun. But if I have to I will. Keep your fingers crossed, I really don't want to try a new drug, really, I don't.
In the hospital, we tried four, not at the same time, but separately, I was allergic to two, could handle two... so you can figure out nervous I am about new drugs.
Well, I'm almost back on track, emotionally, physically, and any way you can think of. I still have some neurological symptoms from the Valium incident, but they should be going away, soon, please.
I'll keep in touch.
Take care and don't miss your prescribed medications, you can get really messed up and even if you don't notice it, others will. So keep on track and you'll do better.
