And I also find this suspicious, as any typical dosage of any hydrocodone script wouldn’t last you two weeks. And nobody would have reasonably put #15 in for a 30 day supply, so he was within reason to give you your script back. Just so you know, when your insurance rejects your claim saying that it’s too soon, it typically tells us when and how many your last fill was for. #15 fourteen days prior wouldn’t have been enough to make him deny your script.
Not calling you a liar, just saying that we are careful but not Nazis about it.
Perhaps you have your timeline confused.
Are addicts really goofy enough to take the 5 scrips by 5 different doctors in to the same pharmacist in the same month?
I’m in a mid-sized city and I probably have at least a half-dozen non-related pharmacy chains within a 10 mile drive.
Oh well. I was born paranoid, but still, I can’t imagine people being THAT goofy.
They don’t expect to catch all of them but they do have to be aware of that some people may try to do this and the pharmacist is supposed to catch it. You forget about small towns that may only have one or two pharmacies. They may not also be aware that most chains like CVS and Wal-Mart have systems that compares subscription fills across the whole chain.
What happens is that my insurance will only pay for Hydrocodone once a month, not matter what quantity, 15 or 120 count. Sucks, but when it came time for my large script, it stated that I already had a hydrocodone fill for the month of October.
My son’s psychiatrist fills out his scedule II prescriptions on self-carboning paper and tapes the under copy directly into my son’s records book. (He may do the same thing for every prescription just to be safe, but I know he does it for the schedule II meds.)
I don’t recall seeing a third copy during the process.
As noted, I do not know whether this is Ohio law or CYA.
You would be surprised. We’ve had people doctor shop, and bring in the same script from 3 diffrent doctors, in less then a month. We’ve even had forgers who have been arrested at our store, and then tried passing a forgery again after she got out of prison.
Not that it helps you now, but … Your insurance company’s PBM’s pharmacists almost certainly have the authority to override that. It’s a matter of complaining loudly enough, long enough, to the right people.
California has three part NCR forms for schedule II drugs. I was given one to pick up for morphine for my mother who was in the end stages of cancer. The doctor filled out wrong the first time and I had to wander around the hospital to get it filled out right.
Every time we got morphine, we had to receive a new prescription form and we had to take it to the pharmacy. Fortunately, we didn’t have to do this too many times. We had some left over, which we flushed down the toilet. I hope the sewer enjoyed it.
Okay, then in that case the RPh must have been under the assumption (given the information on the rejection, i.e. “Too soon until Nov 1st”) that you had enough to last you until the end of the month, which that typically means.
Sorry if it seemed like I was calling you out, just curious about the specifics.
My SOP on all CII scripts is to central search that name and DOB to see if 1) they have multiple profiles, which would be the first indication of a scam (“No, I’ve never been here before, you’ll have to add me as a new customer. Insurance? No, I don’t have any, I’ll be paying cash…”) and 2) to see if they have had another narc filled within the past couple days. Of course, there are ways around these checks but if you have too many profiles at too many pharmacies with too many different DOB’s, things tend to get confusing. Pushers and/or addicts like to keep things simple, I’d imagine.
We typically know who these patients are depending on the size of the pharmacy, and we know who tries to get their controlled meds early. The other thing is that if we have any suspicion about the validity of a script, we can refuse to fill it at any time.
Not that this is relevant to narcotics, but I have had a pharmacist give a terribly hard time to someone who was picking up a prescription refill for me. I’d had a post-surgical deep vein thrombosis and was on anticoagulants (Coumadin) for a while.
Those of you familiar with Coumadin know that it’s very difficult to get the dosage adjusted properly: it can vary with all sorts of factors from diet to level of physical activity, and I was having blood tests every couple of days for a while to make sure I wouldn’t a) end up with another blood clot or b) bleed to death. So my doctor prescribed 1 mg tablets, but the lab would give the test results to my doctor who would then adjust the dosage accordingly - it ranged anywhere from 1 mg to 10 mg a day over the course of my treatment.
However, when my boyfriend went to the pharmacy to refill the prescription (which had been based on the 1 mg/day dosage), they told him it was too soon and to come back in 2 weeks. Who the hell gets addicted to Coumadin? I could have been dead in 2 weeks! It took quite a number of phone calls to straighten it out.
We run into this at my pharmacy occasionally. The problem is that the insurance company thinks it filled a script for a one month supply. So they won’t pay for the refill until the month is over. Technically, the Doctor is suppost to call you in a new script when he/she changes your dosages. Now, for some drugs (like your coumadin) where you change it every day, that can be hard, but that is what your insurance company wants.
If your boyfriend entered the pharmacy I work at with that problem, I would have told him he can ever wait the 2 weeks, have the Doctor call in a new script, or pay cash. Since Coumadin isn’t controlled, we don’t really care if you want to pick it up early.
Can’t they though. My wife worked in a one man pharmacy years ago. The was a woman who came in every day for a bottle of codeine-turpenhydrate (sp?) cough medicine. By law, one a day was the limit. A prescriction wasn’t needed but you had to sign a register to make sure one a day was all you were getting. The pharmacist discovered that she was also getting a bottle from the other pharmacy in town and refused to sell her any more.
More specifically, if you can get your pharmacist or doctor to call your insurance company they can override it. Or you could just pay for it yourself. 15 generic Vicodin should cost less than $10.
I’m on day seven of being clean of hydro. Had a breakdown last week due to the jones and ended up in the hospital. It was tough. I’m also in the midst of a major depression because taking the hydro for almost two years led me to believe I didn’t need my anti-depressants any longer.
From what I’ve read from diggle, I’m hoping he’s (?) not following my route. Detox from painkillers is hard. I was taking waaay too many and getting them online from several different websites. All told, I think I was taking over 300 pills a month. I’m now pretty deeply in debt, my husband doesn’t trust me and I really have no energy or motivation to speak of. I’m so angry at the unethical practices of these online “doctors” who are no doubt making money hand over fist by feeding people’s sicknesses. Major shame on them.
What I don’t understand though, and I’d be interested in other’s experiences - is why I got wired off the hydro? Just about everyone else who’s had an opinion has told me that the med made them drowsy. Not me. It made me go-go-go. I liked that, a lot. Now I’m wondering if there are any legitimate vitamins or supplements that will provide just a hint of energy for me. I’ve two small kids and want to be involved with them, right now I don’t know if I can do it. Any thoughts?
Euphoria is one of the listed side effects of hydrocodone (I assume that’s what you mean by hydro). These effects are said to be increased when you combine them with alcohol. Your lack of energy could be caused by the withdrawal symptoms, your depression, or some other medical condition. Or it could be the fact that you have two munchkins running you ragged.
IANADoctor of course, but I would really urge you to find a good doctor to help you come off the hydrocodone and figure this out. It also concerns me that you are still looking for a chemical solution to your problems. Taking an antidepressant to correct an imbalance is one thing, but if a vitamin or supplement will be a strictly temporary solution and you’ll be back where you started. Have you thought about about NarcAnon?
Actual endogenous depression is next to impossible to diagnose while a person is on mood-altering drugs like opiates. Only once a person is off such drugs for at least a few months is it possible to meaningfully diagnose primary mood disorders, rather than mood disorders secondary to substance abuse effects.
Otherwise, RSSchen, been there and done that. It sucks. The only way that worked for me was forced abstinence of all mood-altering drugs (alcohol, opiates, etc) in a treatment setting under the supervision of an addictionist (physician specializing in chemical dependency), coupled with intense mutual-help group attendance (the likes of AA, NA, etc).
I’d urge you to find such a doc yourself, or at the very least get to NA or similar groups.
I still go to meetings, and I’ve been clean and sober over since 1990.
Just a quick hijack to say how unbelievably impressed I am with QtM’s honesty and willingness to use his own experiences as a force for good. You are an asset to this board, sir.
In case it’s been a while since you’ve heard it, Qadgop.
I’m on day seven of being clean of hydro. Had a breakdown last week due to the jones and ended up in the hospital. It was tough. I’m also in the midst of a major depression because taking the hydro for almost two years led me to believe I didn’t need my anti-depressants any longer.
From what I’ve read from diggle, I’m hoping he’s (?) not following my route. Detox from painkillers is hard. I was taking waaay too many and getting them online from several different websites. All told, I think I was taking over 300 pills a month. I’m now pretty deeply in debt, my husband doesn’t trust me and I really have no energy or motivation to speak of. I’m so angry at the unethical practices of these online “doctors” who are no doubt making money hand over fist by
[quoTE]
I have detoxed off painkillers three times. Every single time it was extremely uncomfortable, but not deadly. Last time I ended up in the hospital because I had a panic attack and it freaked me out and got my heart up to about 175 bpm. After about four days the sickness goes away, but it takes about a month to start to feel normal.
I always go back to the narcotics because it’s the only thing to help me with my pain, I’ve tried everything else and nothing works except hydrocodone. Oxycodone makes me too sleepy, too. Anyways, best of luck to ya !
