I pride myself on keeping on top of our medications--so we don't run out. Today, I went to put a new Exelon patch on DH and found we were completely out. We use a mail pharmacy that sends a 3 month supply and I truly thought we had another box. Dang!
I called our local pharmacist to get a box for now and was told they are completely out of stock and would have to order more on Monday. Besides sthat, the prescription needed to be renewed. They would FAX his dr. This is Saturday. He won't be open until Monday.
So, I called the mail order pharmacy and was told they would have to FAX the dr on Monday and would send a 3-month prescription as soon as they heard back from him. Will take best part of the week.
Is this going to hurt him? He does have plenty of the Namenda 2x a day. I'm just sick about this.
Mawzy, I have no idea what the effects of a lapse are with Exelon. Perhaps you might call DH's doctor and get his emergency number, call him and have him call an emergency rx into another pharmacy for a one month supply? Then the mail order people can take care of the rest on Monday. Good luck, Sue
if you go to another pharmacy with the old rx sometimes the pharmacist can give you one patch to get you thru thil they do the order. cvs gives me a couple of pills if that happens and just deducts from script later. divvi
I do not have the old box with the prescription date on it and the number for the mail order pharmacy doesn't do any good here. I'll keep working on it and let you know. Thanks for your support!
Keep giving him the Namanda meantime. This happened to me last year with both the Namenda and Aricept by mail order. He really took a downward spiral before I could get him back on them. But he seemed to recover. This year I decided to go ahead and use my local pharmacy and pay extra because I had enough on my plate with both of us using several meds. I get a 3 month supply at a time for both of us so I don't have to make so many trips to the pharmacy.
Imohr--this might be a good idea. I'm already in the do-nuthole with my meds. I renewed some today and was surprised. So, I have over 60 days left of some of mine and will have 90 within a few days. This stuff is expensive. However, we are getting a nice little refund from the IRS. :)
Mawzy, what dose is he on? The thing about the Exelon patch is that if a person has been on the 9.5 mg/24 hours and has missed doses, they shouldn't be started back up on the full dose. The incidence of side effects (nausea, vomiting particularly) increases markedly if this happens. That's why people are usually started at the 4.6 dose for a month and then moved up to the 9.5 dose once it's tolerance for the drug is well-established. If he's been on the lower dose, he should be fine re-starting after a couple of days. If he's been on the 9.5, he should probably start back on the lower dose before progressing to the higher dose.
I only know this because it happened to Mom. She had severe, debilitating nausea and vomiting and we had a devil of a time figuring out why. We finally discovered, sort of by accident, that she would just decide to stop that silly patch and then re-start it a few days later. (She's not on it anymore. :) ) This is also well-documented in the med package insert.
Sorry to interrupt. I'm not an Alz-Spouse, just an Alz-daughter. I lurk to pick up tips, but had to join this one.
Also, any physician will have someone taking call for them on weekends. You can call various pharmacies that have weekend hours and ask if they have Exelon in-stock (and dosage). Then you should be able to have the on-call paged, explain the situation, and have them call in a prescription to the pharmacy that has it in stock. Of course, this will only work in more urban areas where there are more pharmacies to choose from.
Hypothetical question, since my DW isn't on Exelon patches, but I wonder if one could achieve the same result as starting with a 4.6 mg patch instead of 9.5 by just wearing the 9.5 for 12 hours instead of 24?
i dont think it works like that chipper. the dose is too high and can cause issues with soo much too fast. namenda and aricept most of these drugs are weaned on them and off them to allow the body to adjust. i would think too much in a short time will produce unwanted side effects. divvi