So what did you get?

I got all the new prescriptions filled and luckily they all come in generic form. I got 5 filled and it was $40 even. The most expensive one was the oxycontin at 20mg per dose and up to 2X a day as needed. I no longer have to worry about the effects of acetaminophen on the liver and kidneys! I took one as my back was bugging me and it is kicking my ass right now. It is time released which I like, that means I can take one in the morning and evening rather then having to remember when I took the last one. In fact all the new meds are like that, no more of the take this one every 4 hours and that one every 6 etc... It got to be I had to keep a journal of what I took and when so I could avoid an accidental OD.

We also switched from Lexapro to Amitriptyline. Both are anti-depressants used in pain management but there seems to be better results with tri-cyclic anti-depressants then they do with selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors like lexapro. It also has some properties that will help you sleep better, so hopefully I will be able to get a good nights sleep for a change.

We then switched muscle relaxers. I had been on flexeril 10mg for the longest time and thought that it was no longer effective. We switched over to skelaxin but found that even though it is covered by my insurance, there is a higher co-pay for it. Instead of $5 for the lowest co-pay or even $20 for brand name, skelaxin was $35. While that may not seem like much, when you have 7 prescriptions going at once and 3 of them cost that much my pharmacy bills easily hit $300 a month. I am now on robaxin.

Since I did have some refills left on the hydrocodone and darvocet I filled those to have on standby. Oxycontin is controlled very strictly and I will have to call for the refills rather then them pre-authorizing it. Sometimes even if I call a day or two in advance the docs and the pharmacy play phone tag meaning that I could potentially go for a bit without the meds. While I want to avoid the tylenol I also want to avoid being in pain and having it around will prevent "empty bottle syndrome."

I look forward to seeing the doc again in 2 weeks to follow up. I am feeling confident we found a good jumping off point and will not need but minor if any adjustments for now. If we do it would be the amitriptyline going from 25mg to 50mg and after that I would think we could go for the better part of a year without having to up the others.