Anybody know of CVS new Policy on not more than #90 Oxycodone

TerriP

for the reminder

pollizle

I have been suffering from chronic and acute pancreatitis for 10 years. After suffering the first 4 years I found a doctor who was sympathetic to my situation. Since MRI's have shown my condition and it can't be faked I was given pain meds starting with vicodin and eventually going up to oxycodone 30mg so I wouldn't overdose on tylenol. 2 months ago I reached qty 540 30mg oxycodone pills every 14 days(6 pills 6x a day). I filled this for 6 months until the pharmacist said that the dea was on him and we would have to lower it. Now I am taking a longer lasting alternative and only 240 pills every month. Yea I said only. It really sucks though because the new medication Kadian 200mg makes me so drowsy I can barely function. but it does work well for the pain. so i am grateful to have anything.

midnight11

It's possible that the policy has been put in place to prevent any single store location from ordering more than x-number of tablets a month / year due to the crackdowns lately. CVS is gaining notoriety as is for really sketchy CII dispensing and ordering, and some specific locations in Florida particularly have ordered something like 50 times the national average in regard to the number of oxycodone containing products. The distributors in turn actually have a lot of the pressures put onto them to be responsible for submitting information to the DEA about pharmacies ordering unusually large restock orders, and can get their licenses pulled if they're not careful. This means that instead of just one pharmacy getting their license pulled, the company that actually delivers the wholesale bottles of medication to hundreds of individual pharmacies in your area could get shut down. It's a huge pain in the ass but the way I see it is that if we push too hard as patients and a pharmacist starts caving only to have the distributors license get pulled, you're going to have a way more difficult time finding your meds than you ever had beforehand.

midnight11

pollizle said:

I have been suffering from chronic and acute pancreatitis for 10 years. After suffering the first 4 years I found a doctor who was sympathetic to my situation. Since MRI's have shown my condition and it can't be faked I was given pain meds starting with vicodin and eventually going up to oxycodone 30mg so I wouldn't overdose on tylenol. 2 months ago I reached qty 540 30mg oxycodone pills every 14 days(6 pills 6x a day). I filled this for 6 months until the pharmacist said that the dea was on him and we would have to lower it. Now I am taking a longer lasting alternative and only 240 pills every month. Yea I said only. It really sucks though because the new medication Kadian 200mg makes me so drowsy I can barely function. but it does work well for the pain. so i am grateful to have anything.

Wow, that's an astonishing large number of tablets to be receiving. You must have been taking it for a very long time so I'm sure you've had to deal with lots of difficulty in the past. Have you not tried fentanyl? The potency is much higher and is usually given to cancer patients as a result of the super fast onset from products like actiq. It's very strange to me that you aren't on an extended release preparation of oxycodone alongside both the kadian and oxy ir that would allow for less frequent dosing or fewer tablets per day you must take.

dilauro

I spoke with several medical professionals about this.

pollizle said:

2 months ago I reached qty 540 30mg oxycodone pills every 14 days(6 pills 6x a day).

They all agreed, that the amount is almost unheard of.. The question they all had was 1 - WHY would a doctor prescribe that huge amount of pain medication that many times is used for breakthrough instead of the more effective Extended release medications. Oxycodne's, ER - Oxycontin would be the choice here. The ER medication would provide you with an even all day amount of pain relief, with only small dosages of any IR pain medication. Plus you have the advantage in having more total control of your day. The spikes anyone gets from those immediate relief medications really do not help in managing pain.

But then again, I am not a doctor, not your doctor, so I do not have all the information (nor should I) regarding why those many pills were prescribed for you.

Laila66

CA is also getting worse. I have a well documented ten year history of pain, with heaps of documentation of the damage the spinal tumor has done to my back. Yet, I am treated like a junkie when I go in for refills. I'm told "thats SUCH a high amount, I can't give you that!" sure you can, toots, you just dont want to, because on the outside I look healthy and reasonably attractive, therefore I MUST be a fraud,

To have to hop from pharmacy to pharmacy, after getting your doc fora refill and being treated like an addicts (do you gets also get the eye-roll look of sarcasm when you tell your doc you are in agony?) is sucking out the iota of energy I have left.

Nobody should have to fight for pain relief, just because other users abuse drugs. We need painkillers to survive, yet we are lumped into the abuses category. It's a disgrace, and each month I'm left in a crying, rage of frustration that the system treats those of us in chronic pain either dismissively, or as if we aree faking symptoms to get a cheap high.

And it's only going to get worse. In CA the DEA now automatically flags pharmacies that fill beyond a certain amount. They don't care if you have a well documented medical history that proves you are in pain. The DEA simply makes decisions on who is an abuser upon the number of pills taken a month.

Docs and pharmacies in CA are now I real fear of getting their licenses yanked, so they either refuse to write me a full prescription, or refuse to fill it all.

We, the disabled, sufferers, are the ones getting burned. A country as advanced as the US., Where we spend a fortune in insurance and co pays., etc. has no shame in depriving sick people the care and help they desperately need. I recently got my French citizenship, and hopefully Ina few months I can get into their system them.

Being treated like a junkie once a month is a horrible emotional experience, and causes terrible flare ups from driving to fifty different pharmacies to get a script filled, being treated like I'm a fraud, having to scream and argue that they need just check their own system which proves I've been getting the same meds for ten years......etc etc etc.

The whole ordeal leaves me in a physical and emotional mess. We all know that stress can increase physical pain. I really, truly hate the system in CA. I'm grateful i still have access (barely) to the single opiate that helps me, but it's an abomination that I, and others in a similar position, must go through sheer physical and emotional hell just to get a damn script filled.

Ok. Rant over. Only you guys understand.

TerriP

I started this thread. It is what Florida is doing to every pharmacy and my feelings every month refill time You expressed it well

paininohio

I had my first issue last month trying to get my meds filled. There was a new kid and usually I drop them off the night before and pick them up the day they're due. Well this kid told me, they didn't have any in stock and he could order them and get them in like 6 days later. Mind you, I am not on a high dose at all, nor a high amount (3 percocets a day - that's it). I was also getting antibiotics, my ibuprofen, muscle relaxers, and my thyroid meds. I have to use this pharmacy, Its in my pain contract, they have a copy of it; I've been with them for over 2 years. I do my grocery shopping there. Anyway, so I left and went back in the next day to get the rest of my meds that I dropped off and this punk kid was there again, so I asked him, can you at least call your other store and see if they have it in stock. So he huffs and puffs a bit and takes the script to the back of the pharmacy wehre low and behold, he claimed the pharmacist had some in her "drawer". I was like OK whatever, even though I knew he was full of crap. Since when does a pharmacist put a controlled substance in an unsecured drawer? Anyway, he apologized and all that stuff. I'm just glad the pharmacist knew me and knew I was compliant and a real patient, in real pain.

DogLover247

GreenEyedLady said:

Be careful of hydrocodone, I have stage 3 liver disease because I took so much of it for so long. My doctors have forbidden me to take hydrocodone ever again, besides it makes me vomit now. On the positive side between the vomiting and pain I have lost tons of weight.

Starting Jan 1, 2014 solid dose formulations of Hydrocodone will contain 325 mg of Acetaminophen and LESS due to patient poisoning. There is expected to be a shortage. Found this out on 12/23/2013

Dhoomonyou

I will be filling an rx for perc next week at CVS, should be fun.
Im in South Florida
I just might drop trou and show them my scars.