Sending medication to the US by courier.

Factual Questions
1

My mom and dad are on a trip to the US and won’t be back for a few weeks. Mom – bless her lousy memory – has ‘misplaced’ her medication, which is entirely necessary for her survival. She is good until next Thursday when she’ll run out of it, and doctors in a hospital in the US told her they can’t do much because she’s taking a whole array of medicines and they don’t know the active ingredients in the one she’s taking.

Anyways, I bought her a couple of weeks worth of pills and planned to send it by courier Monday morning, but my aunt called me today and said that I can’t send medicine without a prescription. My parents live about 350 Km from me, and so is my mom’s doctor, no time to see him, but I could have a friend-of-the-family doctor write one, he was my mom’s doctor some time ago. He is out of town today and will be back tomorrow evening, which means that I have even shorter time to send her pills… she could run out of them by Thursday.

Anyways, is this ABSOLUTELY necessary? Will the FDA hold on to my mom’s pills? Has anyone ever sent/received medication by courier?

2

Sorry, I don’t have any experience with couriers, but…

Hanh???

[jaw drops in amazement]

When I, a mere housewife and non-health-professional, can most likely sit here and Google up the active ingredients in your mom’s meds in about 10 seconds, you’re telling me that doctors…in a hospital… can’t find this information?

Uh huh. :rolleyes:

I’m hearing a HUGE brush-off here. I’m hearing, “Go away you strange foreign persons, your father was a hamster and your mother smelt of elderberries…” I’m hearing, “Go away, I’m too busy to figure out what it is you want…” I’m hearing, “Go away, you aren’t covered by any health insurance program I’ve ever heard of, and I don’t feel like figuring out how we could make this work so as to get you your meds…”

Ahem.

MG? Tell your folks:

American doctors have a nifty tome called the Physicians Desk Reference, or “The PDR” for short. It lists drugs. It’s a standard piece of equipment on every doctor’s desk, like his stethoscope and his prescription pad. Tell those very very busy doctors to look up your Mom’s drugs in that.

And ask them huccome a housewife in Illinois knows about the “The PDR” and they don’t.

They’ve got an online lookup, too, if the very very busy doctor’s PDR is busy holding up the couch in his waiting room.

http://www.pdrhealth.com/

Sheesh. :rolleyes:

And, if the PDR for some reason doesn’t have your Mom’s Mystery Medicine, tell them they now have this thing called a “telephone”, which no doubt one of their secretaries can help them use to call her doctor at home and find out what she’s taking.

They also have things called “fax”, and “e-mail”, and “IM”, but if “telephones” are too hard for them, probably “faxing” and “e-mailing” and “IM’ing” would make their heads explode.

And…

…when presumably she will be putting in an appearance at their hospital’s emergency room? :rolleyes:

sorry, hon, if I upset you :frowning:

Anyway. You might point this out to them. Preventive care is supposed to be the watchword here nowadays, which means getting Mom her meds before she keels over in the middle of Wal-Mart and has to be carted off by paramedics.

3

I wouldn’t know if they trully meant it. My mom has is a catalogue of age-related diseases and takes god-knows how many pills a day, they could be scared to mess up the delicate balance of man-made chemicals she is taking. She bought traveller’s health insurance, but I don’t know how those work anyways.

I finally found out the active ingredient in the pills she’s taking (read it on the box) and she plans to show up at the hospital again should she run out of pills before the new ones reach her. I don’t know, I would expect a doctor to be a bit more dilligent, specially since apparently this stuff is vital for her survival.

Should things get UTTERLY ugly I think I would just deliver it myself and put the cost on her tab :wink:

4

Please clarify. I’m guessing you must be in Canada or Mexico, and want to send your Mom who is currently in the US her medicine? Unless these needed medicines are controlled substances with high potential for abuse, if you send them in the original bottle from the pharmacist to your parents, with a note “urgent medical supplies” or such, they should clear US customs no problems.

US customs doesn’t care much about any medication that isn’t a drug of abuse. I know offshore pharmacies that I can order anything from. Unless it is a controlled substance, customs won’t bat an eye and assume I have a legit need for it. Customs really cares little about the FDA. The theoretical possibilty of someone smuggling heart medications into the US just ain’t on their radar. I say if this medication is needed for your mother’s survival, send it ASAP. Ignore that aunt. Odds are 99% plus what you send will just slide by customs. Odds are they won’t even notice the package.

5

Dominican Rep. actually.

6

I give you a star on your forehead for figuring this out. I’ve got a pdr.net password protected account to get the latest prescribing info on any drug. When it comes to foreigners from strange lands like Canada or Mexico, they just don’t count unless they have a big wad of cash.

7

I have no idea how health providers in the US work, but my parents don’t want free medication, it’s just that they can’t buy it over the counter. They need a prescription, which my mom doesn’t have because she took 3 weeks worth of medication with her, which she then proceeded to loose.

8

Lose
:smack:

9

One of those damn pesky island nations, eh? :smack: Just send your mom her medicines NOW. Of course there is a remote possibility that customs will care. When it comes to life and death situations, I have found playing the odds is a good strategy.

10

Can’t you fax the prescription to her, wherever she is in the US? Then she could take that to a US pharmacy and get it filled. She might have some explaining to do, but telling them that she’s on vacation here and lost her meds should be enough. Especially if they are age-related medications, and not any controlled substance.

11

Ramifications.

http://www.customs.gov/xp/cgov/travel/alerts/medication_drugs.xml

Assuming that Mom’s meds are DR meds, they might qualify as “weirdo suspicious foreign drugs”, and be confiscated from a courier.

If it was me, I’d put a bug up the butt of those American doctors. Your best bet is to have Mom’s DR doctor contact the American doctors. There are ways to get Mom her meds; they just have to want to, bad enough. Mostly it’s the prospect of the paperwork that’s giving them a headache; you need to get through to some actual Human Being (write down the name of whoever you’re talking to), who will take it upon him/herself to see that this thing gets done.

If she keels over at Wal-Mart and ends up in the ER, it’ll make your head spin how fast they’ll manage to find some of her Mystery Medicine down in their very own hospital pharmacy.