Saw the doc this afternoon.
It was a good visit all in all. We talked about the increase in pain and how while the meds work they are no longer working all the time.
He upped my breakthrough meds, which I figured he would go up just a bit, he pretty much tripled the dose. I can actually take a 1/2 which is 15mg (the old max dose was 10mg) but the full dose is 30mg. Of course they are also scored which means I can take a 1/2 if need be which means I can also take about 22mg rather then the full 30. I am just gun shy for the 30 as I am fairly sure it will knock me on my ass! LOL!
He also did a quick "procedure" I believe it was called iontophoresis. Basically it is like a TENS machine except they had little sponges under the electrodes. As the current traveled through the pads it basically forces the medication into the area of pain. I forgot the name of the medicine they used but it is close to lidocaine. They want me to come back for it 2-3 times a week but that is going to be a bit tough as we live so far away so I will have to figure something out for that. Perhaps finding someone in town he can do this part of the pain management.
Of course increasing the dose created a new problem as well as very few pharmacies carry that dose and if they do they do not carry the amount he prescribed. Since we have had this problem in the past with lower dose/amount I decided to try and call some of the pharmacies in town before we drove all the way back and it was a good thing I did as not one single of the ones I use had the meds. It took some sleuth work but we did find a place and that is where we ran into the second problem, the number the doc wrote it for is not covered by my insurance. The pharmacist said that they could go ahead and just sell me what they would cover and I would have to "write off" the extra or I could pay out of pocket for the extras. Now we are talking about a medication that is strictly controlled and rather expensive and I have 60 pills over the limit. The only thing going through my mind was that I would 1-not have enough meds for the month as the overage was going to be at least $120 if not more which is a far cry from the $10 copay I have. Of course out of curiosity we asked anyway and was pleasantly surprised when they charged us a whopping $25 for the overage. Long story short (too late, I know...) I got all my meds and it was no where near what I thought it would be.
The good news is that I will most likely NOT take that many pills in a month. That means I can build my "stash" back up which anyone having chronic pain knows is ever important. You build a stockpile of 2-3 weeks up for those times where you might not be able to get to a doctor for your refills or more likely the pharmacy runs out of your meds and no one has them. I found that out the hardway as well as they do not get refills overnight or even in 2 days. It apparently takes a week and sometimes more for them to get their shipments, learn something new everyday!
Oh well, my wife is back with my burger so I am going to take a break and eat something.
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