The joys of doctors and meds
May. 14th, 2023 11:40 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
thewayneReading about conuly having problems getting much needed antibiotics, I decided to share this.
In January I stopped taking a med. The previous October, when I was in Phoenix after my dad passed, I had to bend over backwards to get this particular med: I think there were only two Walgreens in the greater metro area that carried it. Come December, I'm back home and out. And the refill is $150!!!
Call the doc, tell them to put me back on the older stuff, a much older drug that's generic and really inexpensive. And it goes back and forth: the pharmacy fax number is down, we called it in, we have to get insurance approval, we called it in, etc. Yet somehow the pharmacy never got the order.
I had a back stock of an older version of the med that I consumed. And when that was gone, spacing out the final few pills in the vain hope that a refill might come through, I stopped taking it.
It was pure front office/management problems that prevented me from getting this Rx filled.
Tuesday I see the NP at the practice again. I see them every five months or so. And we definitely have something to talk about.
The flavor of doctor: NEUROLOGIST.
I hope I elicited a collective gasp.
I have two neuro problems: essential tremors and occasional migraines in the form of brief spike headaches that are normally very consistently located about an inch above my right ear. Essential tremors can resemble Parkinsonism, involuntary shaking. ET is diagnosed when they eliminate the symptoms of Parkinsons and several other muscle spasm conditions - diagnosis by default. We don't know why you're shaking, therefore you have ET.
I was diagnosed with it about 20 years ago, hard to believe. It wasn't a constant thing except early on, it eventually calmed down and would only come back in spurts. We found a connection - but no explanation - to me being physically ill, it acted as a harbinger to let me know there was an illness looming for me, and it was pretty darn accurate.
The migraines, or spike headaches as I called them, were always brief, no more than about 5 seconds, and had no lingering aftereffects like some people get with bad migraines. I don't remember exactly when they started, but they definitely got worse when I was doing database programming at the blind school.
When the migraines started shifting to different locations around my head, but not changing in duration or intensity, the neurologist put me on an anti-convulsant typically used for epileptics, but at low doses found to be effective at controlling migraines. I was on a very low dose to start, just 25 mg, we slowly increased that to 100 over the course of a few years.
And since I stopped taking the med, I haven't had any problems. An occasional headache, but not a spike migraine. No tremors, either, and that's the weird part as I've definitely had a couple of illnesses, a nasty little GI problem a couple of weeks ago, Covid last week, etc. Zero tremors.
Yes, I absolutely know you're not supposed to discontinue a medication unless you're coordinating with a doctor. And a neurological med that should be all the more important! I didn't do this casually, I really had no choice. And I had already begun stepping down my dose over a couple of weeks - which was already a low dose - and had no problems.
So Tuesday's appointment is going to be quite interesting. The question will be whether I should find a new neurologist who has a better staff to get things done.
conuly having problems getting much needed antibiotics, I decided to share this.In January I stopped taking a med. The previous October, when I was in Phoenix after my dad passed, I had to bend over backwards to get this particular med: I think there were only two Walgreens in the greater metro area that carried it. Come December, I'm back home and out. And the refill is $150!!!
Call the doc, tell them to put me back on the older stuff, a much older drug that's generic and really inexpensive. And it goes back and forth: the pharmacy fax number is down, we called it in, we have to get insurance approval, we called it in, etc. Yet somehow the pharmacy never got the order.
I had a back stock of an older version of the med that I consumed. And when that was gone, spacing out the final few pills in the vain hope that a refill might come through, I stopped taking it.
It was pure front office/management problems that prevented me from getting this Rx filled.
Tuesday I see the NP at the practice again. I see them every five months or so. And we definitely have something to talk about.
The flavor of doctor: NEUROLOGIST.
I hope I elicited a collective gasp.
I have two neuro problems: essential tremors and occasional migraines in the form of brief spike headaches that are normally very consistently located about an inch above my right ear. Essential tremors can resemble Parkinsonism, involuntary shaking. ET is diagnosed when they eliminate the symptoms of Parkinsons and several other muscle spasm conditions - diagnosis by default. We don't know why you're shaking, therefore you have ET.
I was diagnosed with it about 20 years ago, hard to believe. It wasn't a constant thing except early on, it eventually calmed down and would only come back in spurts. We found a connection - but no explanation - to me being physically ill, it acted as a harbinger to let me know there was an illness looming for me, and it was pretty darn accurate.
The migraines, or spike headaches as I called them, were always brief, no more than about 5 seconds, and had no lingering aftereffects like some people get with bad migraines. I don't remember exactly when they started, but they definitely got worse when I was doing database programming at the blind school.
When the migraines started shifting to different locations around my head, but not changing in duration or intensity, the neurologist put me on an anti-convulsant typically used for epileptics, but at low doses found to be effective at controlling migraines. I was on a very low dose to start, just 25 mg, we slowly increased that to 100 over the course of a few years.
And since I stopped taking the med, I haven't had any problems. An occasional headache, but not a spike migraine. No tremors, either, and that's the weird part as I've definitely had a couple of illnesses, a nasty little GI problem a couple of weeks ago, Covid last week, etc. Zero tremors.
Yes, I absolutely know you're not supposed to discontinue a medication unless you're coordinating with a doctor. And a neurological med that should be all the more important! I didn't do this casually, I really had no choice. And I had already begun stepping down my dose over a couple of weeks - which was already a low dose - and had no problems.
So Tuesday's appointment is going to be quite interesting. The question will be whether I should find a new neurologist who has a better staff to get things done.
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Date: 2023-05-15 08:57 am (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2023-05-19 09:29 pm (UTC)This is not the neurologist who did the original diagnosis: that was in Phoenix at Barrow's Neurological, which is a very well-respected practice. That guy said the only way to control the ET was with a central nervous system depressant which would make it hard for me to function day-to-day. It was the second, more local, neuro, who put me on the low dose anti-seizure med and it was quite effective.
no subject
Date: 2023-05-16 12:28 am (UTC)All too often this country just sucks when it comes to medical issues. :o :o :o
Keep us posted about your appointment.
Hugs, Jon