tvfrfireman
Portland, Or
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I spoke with my physician today about our upcoming snowbird trip to the Southwest in January. I take a timed released pain medication that is a controlled substance. He told me I would need to see a pain clinic or Doctor in Arizona as they would not fill an Oregon prescription. What do those of you in my situation do? Am I getting the right scoop? Dave
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flaja
anywhere,usa
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Yes Dave. Your Dr.'s Rx will only be honored in Oregon. You will have to find a Dr. in Arizona to write your scripts. Bring along any pertinant records & even a letter from your Oregon Dr.. It will help to facilitate the process. We have had no problems once they understood our lifestyle. Nor with our insurance. Also it doesn't hurt to have a Dr. around who is already familar with you & your medical needs. Ain't none of us getting any younger! LOL ;-)
- Roy & Jacqui
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wayne_tw
South Dakota/Georgia
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Why won't ypur doctor write you enough to last while you are snowbirding?
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tvfrfireman
Portland, Or
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Wayne tw : High powered pain medications are done on a month by month visit to the Dr. They will only fill controlled meds for thirty days at a time.
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George H
Washington
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Joined: 06/27/2006
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I also take a controlled pain med., order it by mail and am allowed one refill. Don't have answer for you, but there are ways to do this.
Roy and Jacqui are correct though, getting a local Dr aware of your condition could be an advantage.
George, Juanita and Mandie (boss Shar-Pei)
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star6443
Buffalo, NY
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Can't a relative pick up the refills and mail them to you? carefully!
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MichDoc
Michigan
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star6443 wrote:Can't a relative pick up the refills and mail them to you? carefully!
We tried this for one of my DW's scripts, but for some frequently
"abused" drugs, the pharmacy will generally only release the pills to the actual patient. I think flaja had the best advice for you.
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Nascarcruzin
Home is where the RV is parked.
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I had this problem, in Florida, last year; to refill, my doctor had to call the pharmacy. In Alaska, I had no problem at all.
Good luck!
Rebecca
Ronnie & Rebecca
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avan
Sioux Falls, SD & Livingston,TX
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Well, I suppose it never does much good to argue with your doctor - for the most part they have such fragile egos. But I think he/she's BSing you. First, I'd ask you if he/she is Board Certified in pain management. If so, those type doctors are not too 'afraid' of giving folks, who really need pain meds, their RXs. We do find that general practioners or non pain mgt folks are a little more afraid of the audits they get from DEA and the local DARE type folks and that they also are not up to date on federal rules.
To write a Sch II narcotics RX, the prescriber must have a federal DEA #. That #, as a federal registration, is valid across the states. While a Sch II Rx can only be written for a 30 supply, as of Dec 19, 2007 the doctor can also give you 2 post dated 1 month scripts. So, in total, you can have scripts providing a 90 day supply. The writing physician then has to see the patient b/4 giving more scripts. You can accomplish getting through a longer time several ways. One, you home pain mgt doctor can, if he/she feels like it, give you a 'letter of reference' so to speak that you can use to find and establish a winter relationship in AZ. You can, near the end of 90 days, fly back home for a Dr appointment and pick up 3 more scripts. Or, if your relationship with your pain mgt doctor is particularly strong and trusting (doesn't sound like your's is), the doctor can work with you by increasing the prescribed frequency for your meds while in actuality you maintain the prior frequency thereby building up an extra supply. If you work on that for a few months, you can stretch the 3 months of allowed Rx supply (also at the increased frequency) plus the extra supply into enough meds to get you through your 5-6 mo snowbird time.
Sch. II prescription can never be refilled, can never be faxed or called in and if there is a partial fill, you lose the remainder. Likewise, you should be sure a pharmacy has sufficient quantity on hand when you need it because a pharmacy also can only order by physical paper transmitted by mail to its distributor and not by fax or phone so reorders can be time consuming.
Sch IV narcotics can be prescribed for a total of 6 mo at a time (eg. orig. 30 day fill plus 5 refills) but can only be transferred once so that's something you need to keep in mind if you are going to change locations multiple times during that period.
We've traveled with Sch II and IV meds continuously over the past 10 yrs. Not sure if we've have fills in all 48 contiguous states but in most. Never have had any state refuse our out of state doctor's Rxs. Have had to comply with some other strange state rules but the scripts were honored. Your doc is either inexperienced with prescribing narcotics, inexperienced with the regs for Sch II/IV's over state lines, nervous about having his audit records show these scripts without a monthly patient visit or most likely, just doesn't want to be cooperative.
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jimlouisesophie
Ladysmith, BC, Canada
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If you are close to the Mexican border, eg, Yuma/Algodones, you can get all the medication you need without a doctors px.
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