PHARMACIST STEVE

 

 

Several weeks ago I woke up one morning with a high end of the pain scale pain going down my right leg. Years ago I had a sciatic nerve flare and the pain seem to be very familiar from back then.  I had a fair number of opiates on hand … so I started treating the pain with opiates and NSAID’s.. muscle relaxers..  ICE… Heating pad.. topical cream.. “the works”… This was a Monday… The next day I tried to get into to see one of the 6 prescribers in the practice – NO LUCK… so I went to a urgent care in the same complex..  owned by the same hospital corporation. The urgent are doc concurred with my diagnosis and gave me some prednisone and off I went… by Friday… nothing had changed … so I was able to get into see one of the prescribers in the practice – not our normal PCP… and IMO.. the amount of prednisone that the urgent care doc gave me was TOO LOW… which this doc agreed with and called in a prescription for a higher doses and off I go…

A week later, nothing is better… so I was able to get into see my PCP… last appt on Friday… I was going to be out of opiates in a few days.  We have been seeing this prescriber for over 20+ yrs…  I don’t know if I am a rapid metabolizer or the intensity of the pain was such that if I didn’t take a IR dose of opiates every 2.5 hrs… at the 3 hr point the pain started rapidly going up the scale and even at this opiate dosing the pain was TOLERABLE…

The opiate dose that I was taking was WAY ABOVE the CDC guidelines… but.. our prescriber did not even bat a eye… wrote a prescription for 22 days at that dose level.  Unfortunately, our Part D carrier… has this quantity limit of SIX TABLETS/DAY on EACH STRENGTH..  My daily intake was less than the highest strength at 6 tabs per day, but that didn’t make any difference that I needed to take the lowest dose frequently..

I talked to their PA dept.. and they said that they would have to talk to my doc… I pointed out that I had been on that dose for a couple of weeks.. it was FRIDAY and I was his LAST APPT… I also told them that I would be out of opiates before they could reach him on Monday and that I would be in a torturous level of pain and may be thrown into withdrawal… and I mentioned the name of their medical director and that I would start filing complaints against the company and their medical director..  Surprisingly in less than 24 hrs I got a call that it had been approved 🙂

When we had our pharmacy, we sold T.E.N.S. units and I was not all that impressed with them for long term use… body tends to accommodate the electrical stimuli and they tend not to work after a week or two and the electrodes… maybe last 24-48 hrs and are expensive.

The QUELL unit is basically a T.E.N.S. unit and not all that costly $250.00  ( https://www.quellrelief.com/ ) and it has a 30-60 day money back guarantee..

I am finishing off my second week using the Quell unit daily while awake… and immediately on starting using it .. I was able to cut down my opiates… eventually 25%-33% of what I was taking… which I take more during sleep and don’t wear the unit during sleep… but.. Quell … indicates that the unit can be worn 24/7.  This unit is suppose to stimulate the body into producing “endorphins” … a natural opiate type compound.

My experience with the Quell unit… does not guarantee that everyone – or anyone else – will experience the same results..  but with the money back guarantee… what do you have to loose ?

Filed under: General Problems