Forgetting to Order Medications

Once or twice each year, I totally screw-up my medications by forgetting to order a prescription. As I was sorting out medications for our upcoming weekend excursion, I realized that I screwed up again. 

One of my medications was almost empty when I pulled out the capsules needed for the weekend. This is not good. 

This particular medication is a combination of mast cell stabilizer and an H1 blocker. It is actually something I need to get compounded by a pharmacist in Washington state because it is not an FDA-approved medication... nor is it covered by insurance... so I have it made just for me.

I immediately called my doctor's office to inform them that I screwed up and I need them to call out to the pharmacist to order a new prescription. I probably won't see this new prescription for almost two weeks which means I will be without this particular medication for 7-10 days before the new prescription arrives. 

This also means that the quality of my health will plummet quickly. I've been down this road before so I know that my health will suffer greatly. Then, after this new prescription arrives, my health will require a week or two of extra medications to balance out my body.  

I plan to add other H1 blockers to my daily medications and I will need to add some extra mast cell stabilizers as well. The only other mast cell stabilizer I take is Cromolyn Sodium... and, last time I checked, the annual retail cost of that drug at my dosage is in the neighborhood of $30,000-40,000.  When I started this drug, the cost was $72,000 a year so the price of this particular drug has dropped significantly. Anyway, I already take 16 vials of this Cromolyn Sodium throughout the course of each day so I'll probably add a few more each day in the hope of making up for losing the mast cell stabilizer properties of my compounded drug. Between some extra H1 blocker pills and a few extra vials of my other mast cell stabilizer, I should be able to keep my body fairly stable temporarily.  

By the way, I know some people are probably thinking, "How hard is it to keep track of ordering a prescription?" Well... I have four separate pharmacies that supply me with about 18 prescriptions. Sometimes one of these prescriptions falls through the cracks in my memory and record-keeping so it goes unnoticed until I'm empty.

Since this drug which will run out in the next few days isn't FDA-approved, it also is not covered by insurance which means I need to adjust some finances since this cost was not in my head when I was planning my finances for the next month. 

The fact is, my life revolves around a religious medication regimen in order to just get through each day. I try to put this and my health problems on a back burner... just simmering... so I can try to enjoy other things in life. This typically works out great but I occasionally forget something I put to simmer on that back burner.

This is one type of screw-up which is always costly... physically and financially. And, my doctors constantly remind me that what is most important about this type of screw-up is that it is a very dangerous screw-up.