What happens when you can't get your meds from the pharmacy?

Here's an example of something disturbing, and I am probably not the first person to experience this.

My daughter has a birth defect that affects her endocrine system, and as a result, her production of cortisol is borderline. Since Cortisol helps the body deal with stressors, this has become an issue with the bad flu season. Her fever jumped up to 104.9 and she was unable to fight back, she could easily slip into a coma and have an "adrenal crisis" ... unless we give her these cortisone pills during periods of high stress. In the event that she cannot take the pills orally (vomiting, unconsciousnes...) there is a shot form of the dose that wil help until one can get to the ER..

This prescrip comes from our Ped. Endo in the city, over 300 miles away. He had faxed me the prescrip to have on hand in the event of an issue, but I did not recieve it and neither one of us continued to pursue it, because she hasn't Tested deficient, but we just figured the need was for the stress situations...

So today, after talking to the Endo about the Tamiflu prescribed by our local Pediatrician, and deciding that it was just too risky...we talked about giving her the cortisol for the fever... but then we realized the fax hadn't come so he was going to just call it in locally so I could get it - AND GET HER A DOSE ASAP... by this time she had ben passed out on the couch for 2 hours, holding steady at 103, and just lethargic...

We live in a somewhat remote rural area, but I didn't know HOW REMOTE until tonight... after three calls and forwarding the prescription to different pharmacies, we finally found someone who actually had it in their stock.... otherwise they could get it to us by 2PM tomorrow - I told them "she will be in the hospital by then"

I get to the drug store (the third one), and Medi-CAL won;t pay for the name brand of the pills, only the generic, which they did not have on hand... THANK GOD these pills were only $22, and I will be sedning the receipt to the next in command at the medi-CAL office for reimbursement. THANK GOD I have parents who help me during times like this by giving me some grocery cash here & there. (This is the third week of interrupted work, and I am going under big time)

EDIT - ADD: the shot will still take a couple days to get filled, by then we will just be saving if for the "next" emergency that could come up.

Whew! I just wanted to get that off my chest.
It blows my mind that nobody in town would have this stuff, and that the medi-CAL program doesn't have an override for circumstances when waiting for them to deliver the generic from another location would cause the patient to end up in the hospital...or worse

I am thinking about maybe "stocking up" on this stuff for futures when we can't get to the pharmacy...or worse

The fact is we just never know. Especially when it is our young ones at stake. Peace,Kim

We often have patients come to our ER for med refills because they either don't have a regular doctor and can't get a refill, or it's the weekend/holiday/whatever and they need medicine.

Also people who are travelling through the area and run out of pills of one kind or another or whatever have stopped by the ER for a med refill or Rx. I'd think the hospital would have this medication on hand considering that hospitals deal with all kinds of patient populations and different diseases and disorders, etc.

I wouldn't advise keeping "extra' on hand unless you knew it had a far-reaching expiration date. It would be counterproductive to get extra medicine that goes bad before you need it, unless you were going to rotate your stock each time one set expired. That may be cost prohibitive but then again, so is having your child become comatose because you don't have medicine on hand because of insurance and pharmacy fuck-ups.

I, too, think it's ridiculous for medi-Cal to not have an "emergency override" in their system to pay for emergently needed meds regardless of whether it's brand or generic. I think that insurance companies are greedy assholes anyway--whether private or state run, and I hate that people go without meds because X med doesn't come in generic and insurance will ONLY pay for generic. As a nurse, that pisses me off and is one of the 10,000,000 reasons why I favour a european-flavour health coverage as opposed to a for-profit system.

Health care is a right, not a privelege and profit should not be the deciding factor for health care. If your daughter needs medicine, I think it is criminal that she cannot get it when she needs it. I think it is criminal that you have to pay out of pocket for a medicine that is covered for her condition. I think it's outrageous that were this some other medicine, you may have been out HUNDREDS of dollars instead of $22 (not minimizing the cost at all) if generic wasn't in stock.

I'm sorry this happened to you, and this is one of the billions of reasons why our health un-care system in this country blows ass.

and they actually "close" their pahrmacy on the weekends too! there is ONE place in town that is open weekends, and that was the pharmacy I ended up at tonight...
ya, health care is only part of the problem in my book, the beuracracy is infinately asinine as well. :grr:

Some meds are so rarely ordered that they are not routinely stocked by pharmacies. You could get the pharmacy to put the expiry date of the medication on the label for you, or you could ask them and write it yourself.....you will then know when the tabs expire, and if the Dr gives you refills on the Rx, you can always keep some ahead.....Good luck, glad you found a Pharmacy that had what you required.

Many drugs have been changed only slightly in structure so they can keep the patent going.

If your local pharmacy doesn't have it ask they send it by fast mail (UPS or FEDEX) to you from another town.

Children can't take the same drugs as adults so you have to be aware of that too.

For future use...find a pharmacy who is open at all hours and can help you...even if it is in another city.

Don't stock up on large quantities since some drugs have expirations dates. Find that out before hand from the pharmacist.

Tamiflu didn't seem to help some adults with that Flu (congestion in the lungs and coughing, fever,etc.). Nor did the Flu shots for seniors. I had to wait two days to get a prescription since we had very bad storms. It was not safe to travel even a few blocks. Then my doctor only worked certain days so I could phone him.

I had side effects from HRT (Horse hormone base) and had to have my BHRT (natural plant hormone more similar to the human body) compounded (made up by a pharmacist) in another town nearby. The drug company manufactures both of them but makes more money on the synthetic hormone so it isn't easy to find. I went to four GYNs before it got a prescription for it. They make it up and mail it to me. I am no longer in need of it so it did help my problem.

When they say our health system in this country is broken, they aren't kidding. Years of neglect, de-regulation,and bad management has left us 35th in the world and going lower everyday.

...what might happen to a lot of people if the economy worsens to the point that they can't afford the basic meds that keep folks alive, or if the end of the oil era makes availability of meds questionable. I realize that the elites don't look unkindly on a "thinning of the herd" among us mortals.