Monday’s a holiday and I work Tuesday so I’m not gonna be able to get to call my doc and get to the drug store again until at least Wednesday. I have two tabs for Saturday and Sunday. I don’t want to get into the pros and cons of anti-depressants, and I’d actually like to get off the Effexor, but I don’t want to go three days cold turkey. The brain zaps when you withdraw fucking suck. So anyway, will my pharmacist either refill my scrip or hook me up with enough to get me through till Wednesday?
In my experience, you can often get an emergency set of doses of you point out the withdrawal and your issues.
Also, you may be able to get your doctor to call it in Monday, if they’ve been seeing you and you have an appointment coming up.
I’m sorry you’re going through this. This is why I keep a few pills in an emergency location.
My pharmacy calls the doctor when my subscription runs out–usually a week ahead of time. I’m on auto-refill so that’s probably why. I’ve never had to call my doctor for a refill.
Thanks that’s what I was thinking. The docs closed monday and I work Tuesday so the earliest I can get a refill is on Wednesdy. It’s my own fault for waiting till the last minute, but man, those brain zaps really suck. I don’t want to work a thirteen hour shift going through Effexor withdrawal.
That’s cool, I’ll have to ask her about that at my next appointment.
Yeah–it’s very convenient. Good luck.
Since this involves a real world medical issue, lets move it to IMHO (from GQ).
- nods * I’m rather notoriously in the “get off psych meds” camp, but yes that’s what I’ve always heard as well, a gradual taper not cold turkey is the way to go.
Your pharmacist should be well aware of the inadvisability of going abruptly off Effexor, and should be willing to contact your doctor’s office on your behalf to get any necessary approvals.
Doesn’t your doctor have an after-hours call service? You could call them and explain the urgency of the request. The doctor can call in a renewal.
No I tried that. I just got a message with the hours of operation and if it’s an emergency to call 911 lol That’s UPMC for ya! It’s not that big of a deal, and it was totally my fault for not paying attention to my refills, but i’m not looking forward to dealing three days of Effexor withdrawal at work ugh.
Thanks! That makes me feel better
Urgent Care Clinics should be open over the weekend and probably on Monday too. That said, I think the pharmacy will be willing to sell you a few pills to tide you over. (The pharmacy that carries the prescription)
As long as it’s not a controlled substance, my pharmacist has always been willing to give me an emergency bridge of two or three days to get me through a situation like this.
Definitely call the pharmacy first thing. They’ve been on the other end of this a million times.
Thanks guys. Yinz made me feel better lol I’ll update tomorrow after i see the Rx guy. I was kind of stressing out which is one of the reasons I’m on Effexor in the first place lol The brain zaps really fucking suck
Good luck with your med refills. Your reference to UPMC and your proper use of “yinz” tells me that we live in the same place. 
It’s helpful if you don’t use initialisms that nobody knows. Is “UPMC” known to all? I would think not but I can’t be sure. This is actually not Facebook or YouTube.
Edited to add:
If you’re from Pittsburgh I guess you would know. We are not all from Pittsburgh.
(Pharmacist here) If you need a couple doses to get you by, tell the pharmacist, and since this is not a controlled substance that you do need to take every day, s/he should give you enough to get you through until Monday. I did it many times, and had it done to me recently when I ran low myself.
Haha yeah, I’m a yinzer. I’m not in the Burgh…about an hour and a half east, close enough that I use those Pittsburgh-isms by habit. People can say what they want about PA, but Pittsburgh is one of the greatest cities in the country 
I’ve been in the habit of setting out an entire week’s supply of all my pills all at once. That guarantees that I’ll be sure to notice when I’m down to my last week’s supply, so I can always get my refills in plenty of time.
You must not have pets. If I did that my cats would have very low blood pressure! Seriously, I do the same but putting in a case labeled MTWTHFSS, not “setting out”. Or is that what you meant?