Trouble?

Terri001

Hi everyone. I had a question that I was curious about. I have degenerative disk disease and my primary care doctor prescribes me 60 hydrocodone a month. The directions say to take every 12 hours. Since my bilateral mastectomy, my plastic surgeon has wrote me a script for oxycodone that I am supposed to take every 4-6 hours after fills because the pain is pretty intense for me for a couple days after each fill. My question is, since they are different meds and frequency, will I get in trouble for filling both scripts? I do not have enough of either alone to make it through the month alone. Does anyone know what the rule/law is regarding this?

sbelizabeth

Terri, almost every state has a controlled substance registry, and pharmacies log prescriptions to the state by patient name, prescription filled, amount of drug dispensed, and prescribing physician.  Every pharmacy has access to this registry, although it's access is controlled carefully to not violate privacy rules.  Its purpose is to prevent "doctor shopping," and obtain prescriptions from a number of doctors. 

When you get your oxycodone prescription filled, your pharmacist might ask why you're getting controlled substance scripts from different doctors.  If he/she asks, you have several options:

• Explain exactly what's going on to the pharmacist, that your primary care prescribes analgesia for degenerative disc disease and your oncologist prescribes analgesia for cancer-related pain.  If the pharmacist has any questions, direct him/her to your plastic surgeon.
• The drugs are very similar in action--could you forgo the oxycodone and just take the hydrocodone when the fills are painful?  Of course, you'd need to run this by your primary care physician so he/she won't think you're inappropriately "upping" your dosage, and ask him/her to temporarily increase your prescription so you can temporarily take it every 4-6 hours.
• Get your primary care and plastic surgeon physicians to speak to one another and come up with a plan that works for you.

Whatever you do, you need to have the pain medication to keep yourself comfortable, so don't just try to buck up and gut it out.