Advice re prescription

[poemontheocean]

In here for traffic (sorry.)

I had a prescription for pain relief faxed through to a pharmacy 2 days ago and I've realised I'm not going to have enough to last after tomorrow.

Due in work first thing Monday - won't have a chance to see the doctor.

What do you think the best thing to do is? Should I call OOH today or tomorrow?

Appreciate advice :) thanks.

Do you have a walk in centre to go to today?

If you can't get to the gp , how can you get to work ?

Thanks, will call OOH now.

The tablets are co-dydramol, if that means anything to anybody!

Hi there, I'm a pharmacist- advice to one of my patients in this situation would be to phone OOH and explain the predicament. Let them know your circumstances and they will assess your clinical need and more than likely fax you a prescription to your local pharmacy. They have a duty of care to you as a patient, remember that.

If you are not even able to get to a doctor, surely you are not fit for work with or without medication.

Where did this myth abouy pharmacies giving you your regular meds without a prescription come from? My pharmacy fucked up and ordered the wrong medication off my repeat list but refused to issue what I needed and told me I had to go to my Dr. They need a prescription to issue

It's not a myth. I've had it done in Boots when my prescription didn't come through in time for me when I was going on holiday.

From nhs.uk www.nhs.uk/chq/Pages/1011.aspx?CategoryID=73

If you urgently need medication, contact your prescriber immediately to arrange a prescription. If this isn't possible, you may be able to get medicine from a pharmacist in an emergency, subject to certain conditions.
You must have been prescribed the medicine before by a doctor, dentist, nurse independent prescriber, optometrist independent prescriber or other healthcare professional, who is registered in the UK. In addition to this, the pharmacist:
will usually need to see you face-to-face
must agree that you need the medicine immediately
will usually need evidence that you have been prescribed that medicine before
must be satisfied with the dose that is most appropriate for you to take
The pharmacist may provide an emergency supply of up to 30 days' treatment for most prescription medicines, with these exceptions:
permitted controlled medicines (controlled drugs) – up to five days' treatment
insulin, an ointment, a cream or an asthma inhaler – the smallest pack size
the contraceptive pill – a full treatment cycle
liquid oral antibiotics – the smallest quantity to provide a full course of treatment
The pharmacist will then make a note in their prescription book of:
your name and address
the nature of the emergency
the date of the emergency supply
the name, quantity, form (e.g. capsules, tablets or liquid) and strength of the medicine
Even if the pharmacist is unable to give you an emergency supply of a medicine, they will advise you on how to obtain any essential medical care you may need.

That's a paracetamol/codeine combo try taking some 8/500 or 15/500 otc Co-codamol

I went to the walk in centre on Wednesday and took their advice but it just kept getting worse throughout Thursday and that was when I rang OOH in despair!

LIZS, with difficulty, but the tablets ease the discomfort enough so that I can sit in a taxi and manage. Without them I don't think I'll even be able to manage that.

All I can do then is grimace my way through today and tomorrow and save enough back for Monday I guess.

I've not known anyone be prescribed codydramol for many years, are you sure?

Thanks Grapefruit, will do that :)

I did take some over the counter stuff as advised by the walk in centre but it didn't really make a difference. To be honest the prescribed meds definitely don't make it go away but they stop the spasms which made sitting in a car for example impossible without a lot of pain.

I sound like a wimp sorry - hate people going on about their aches and pains but this doesn't normally happen to me thank god!

Is Co dydramol the one they discontinued due to it being used too often in suicide attempts? Or is that another one?

Speak to a GP and get a new prescription. If it's not strong enough then maybe you need a combination of different meds.

I did read something once about pharmacists being able to give an advance on a prescription that they know is coming, but have no experience of it being an option in real life, and wouldn't depend on it.

I struggle to get prescriptions when I am on the same thing, every week, two years. No matter when or how I make the request, more than 50% of the time my prescription is not ready. Frustrating is not the word.

That's what the box says?

If it's back spasms try and get into see an osteopath or chiropractor today

I think your best bet would be to get the Otc version mentioned below and see gp asap next week. You can't rely on ooh indefinitely. Have you had any investigations for your back pain.

Get to a chemist and ask them what they recommend to replace it

Book an appt at Gps to get examined - don't assume they can do nothing - it may be a physio issue and then you need to get on and sort that. As a none urgent appt if pain is sorted it will take a couple of weeks

What is so critical at work that your health takes second place, sort your health and you will be in a far better place to work

Ok well if they are codydramol 10/500 you can get something extremely similar without a prescription.

Paramol contains the same dose of paracetamol and approx 75% of the dose of dihydrocodeine.

Not an exact match but very close. They are not recommended for longer term use but may last you til Monday then see your own GP for review.

It was the GP and walk in centre who said I didn't need examining, unless I was experiencing incontinence and other symptoms which I'm not.

I hope I don't sound soft but I do think it's a bit beyond over the counter stuff; anyone who knows me will know I don't say that lightly but it really is very uncomfortable.

I'm hoping it will go as suddenly as it came :) but I don't want to assume that for Monday if you see what I mean.

for back spasms I found Nurofen (Brufen) a far better drug than the others

If you can't sit in a car whilst being driven you really are not fit for work. I would second the osteo/Chiro route - costs but worth it long run. Find a recommendation

Secret, I think it's the muscle relaxant in the ones I have that are helping rather than the pain relief - they don't remove the pain but they do stop the spasms.

Yes; have had nurofen thanks - it doesn't make a difference.

There isn't a muscle relaxant in those. A muscle relaxant is diazepam and tbh if you've got a really nasty spasm they should have given you that

They don't contain muscle relaxant. They are paracetamol plus an opioid painkiller ( ie dihydrocodeine from the codeine /morphine family )

The GP said they contained a muscle relaxant that would help with the spasms and it seems to have helped.

Nope, sorry, they don't. They're purely codeine and paracetamol