Cutting Prescription Pills

I’ve been taking prescription pills for many years. One in particular is a diuretic to help control hypertension, along with two other medications. The diuretic has always been a capsule. That makes it a lot easier to swallow - and that makes a big difference when you have a lot of pills to take and I usually take pills with orange juice. Taking them with water makes me gag! I used to think it was awful when my mom and dad would come and visit and they would have a large ziploc bag filled with prescription drugs. Now I’m doing the same thing. Anyway, the diuretic that was recently delivered was no longer a capsule. It was a weird sized thick pill. If I didn’t read the label I would not have thought that the dose called for half of the pill. That meant I would need to cut it in half which really feels like ancient history. I also have a thyroxin pill that needs to be cut in half for the extra dose one time per week. But that pill is a lot thinner and can be broken with my fingers. So rather than cut the diuretic every time I need to take it I decided to just cut them all up at one time. What a mess - they don’t cut clean and the butter knife I was using to do the job wasn’t exactly sharp. This is what happens when you get generics rather than the official medication. I don’t like it. And it’s not easy to swallow with that sharp edge! 

LensCovers Sunglasses Replace Prescription Sunglasses

My prescription sunglasses are easily 12 years old or older. I got them in Milwaukee at our favorite Optix shop. Since then, my prescription has changed a few times, but I never updated the sunglasses. So whenever I wear them, it's a bit blurry, and there are no bifocals. Sometimes I end up with a mild headache from the stress of it all, especially when it is boiling hot with a full sun. And when we are walking and end up inside, I don't have my regular glasses to switch off. So walking in Union station - to beat the heat - can be a very dark experience. For whatever reason I started researching flip ups for my husband, who refuses to wear sunglasses. In doing so, I came across LensCovers sunglasses and read all the comments, most of which were quite positive. So I followed the sizing instructions and ordered up a khaki colored pair for about $15 - a lot cheaper than prescriptions! They arrived yesterday and I was quite surprised how well they fit, and looked - considering they are really cheap plastic. But the real test was on today's walk in the boiling heat and full sun. For the first time in MANY years, I could actually see things clearly, there was much less glare, they are extremely light, and they covered more face space than my old ones ever did. The nicest part was that all I had to do was remove them when I entered Union station, and didn't need to fumble around to change them with my regular glasses because I was already wearing them. My husband tried them on for fun and they worked for him too. I've gone from wearing contact lenses and stylish sunglasses to prescription sunglasses and now to LensCovers. It's a great option for walking and driving. They are simply quite practical. 

Open Arms Medical Clinic in Hawthorne Florida

We left without taking one prescription medication on a short road trip. We stopped at a pharmacy and they said they either needed the bottle or a written prescription. Of course, the Med list on express scripts with an ID wouldn't do. So we had to find a walk in clinic. Along the route on highway 301 we stumbled upon Open Arms Medical Clinic. Even though it was in tiny Hawthorne Florida, we still needed to fill in six pages of history, provide insurance information, and wait for it all to be processed. But we wanted to take care of this issue so as not to have to think about it any more. It turns out my husband ended up liking the very kind and wonderful physician more than he likes his regular doctor. He said he was examined better than ever, and got a tour of the little place which included a laser, small surgery suite, and enough supplies to get the basics covered. We got the prescription he needed and had it filled at the CVS down the street. It reminds me of the show Doc Martin- a small town physician handling all the community medical care somewhere in England. Since we travel through this way regularly we could make this his primary care stop! It is an experience we won't soon forget - but those six pills ended up costing us about ten dollars each. 

 

Forgot Prescription Medications on a Roadtrip

Oops! What do you do when you forget a prescription medication on a roadtrip? I guess we are going to find out. My husband somehow forgot one of his pill bottles and will need to get a replacement somehow. We stopped at a pharmacy in Georgia and they said we had to either have the bottle or a hard copy prescription. I thought showing them the prescription in express scripts with an ID would be enough. Well it isn't. He suggested we visit an urgent care clinic to get the prescription. I'm not sure why a phone call and fax from our doctor's office doesn't do. In the meantime I'm trying to find a pharmacy at our destination that a fax could be sent to. All I know is this will never happen again - but I'm not sure we'll ever see these pills. Thank goodness they are not super essential, just really essential. More to come!