my prescriptions are supposed to be on auto-refill

[redbird]

They've been on auto-refill for ages, and I thought they still were. Which means I almost ran out of the gabapentin, because I thought I had an unopened bottle of pills. Instead, I had one pill in the bottle on my dresser, and one day's supply in my daypack.

What I think happened is that CVS offered to reschedule my pill refills so both prescriptions would be ready on the same day, and instead just stopped refilling these automatically. So, OK, I have put in a refill over the phone, which I should be able to get tomorrow morning. I am then going to tell them to put it back on auto-refill while I try to decide whether to take all my prescriptions down the street to Rite Aid.

I can think of one good reason not to, namely that CVS is closer to my doctor's office, which is useful when they're doing things like calling in an antibiotic prescription for pneumonia. Right now I'm filling one prescription at Rite Aid because I prefer the generic they carry to the one CVS does. There's another that my insurance company insists on sending to the CVS mail order pharmacy. And two, including the one I'm grumbling about here, that could equally well go to either. The only thing I'm sure of is that if I do transfer these prescriptions to Rite Aid, I'm going to tell CVS why.

ETA: I filled the prescription today. Apparently gabapentin is sufficiently a controlled substance that it can't be on auto-refill, though not at the level where I have to get separate paper prescriptions for each month's supply. Which in turn means that taking it to a different drugstore wouldn't avoid this problem.

Comments

[umadoshi]

Oof, that all sounds frustrating. :/ I hope you can get it sorted in a way that's at least fairly convenient.

[sine_nomine]

Ugh.

NY State makes things even more complicated by requiring one to designate a pharmacy and they have to electronically send prescriptions.

And my poor Sweetheart calls all pharmacies "CVS" which can sometimes mean Walgreens or Rite Aid - and inevitably means being at the wrong pharmacy for a prescription pickup.

[ranunculus]

If you have a Costco nearby they usually have a good pharmacy. They were a lot cheaper for me (for the same drugs) than Wallgreens or CVS.

[carbonel]

If you would be willing to say what you're taking the gabapentin for, I would be interested in hearing that.

The last visit to my doctor resulted in a prescription of gabapentin for occasional serious headaches. This was a compromise; I was asking for an opioid scrip (the last one lasted at least a couple of years, but I haven't been able to get a refill), and she's been working her way up from NSAIDs. I think I've taken three pills so far, and have an "answer hazy" on results. Possibly a positive effect, but I'm not sure. I'll keep trying it.

[redbird]

My neurologist originally prescribed it for neuropathic pain in my knee. Sometime after he prescribed it, I developed a symptom (presumably also from the MS) of low-level twitching, which the gabapentin prevents. If I miss the evening dose, I twitch just frequently enough to keep me from falling asleep (though not enough that the person I'm sharing a bed with, if any, notices).