How I Get My Meds: My Secrets

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persistence
March 7, 2017 - 3:31 pm
Spam? Offensive?
persistence
Total Posts: 1532
Joined: 08-11-2012
When I was in the United States, I could not find a psychiatrist and could not get meds.

So, I moved to the most remote area of the entire Dominican Republic, a NATION of 12 Million. I live in a town of 10,000, an hour from the nearest pharmacy, four hours by pickup truck and bus from my chosen psychiatrist here. Finally, I have relatively easy access to the medicines I need, with the help of friends.

First, I call a moto taxi that takes me fifteen minutes to the bank on the main road. There, I deposit 300.00 USD in cash into the bank account of a friend who lives in the capital, four hours away.

My friend goes to the bank in the capital, withdraws the money, and then he is ready to seek my mwdicine for me.

After withdrawing the $300.00 I deposited in his bank account, my friend in the capital goes to see my psychiatrist in the capital.

My psychiatrist takes clients on a first-come, first-served basis four days a week from 1:00 PM until 6:00 PM. He is able to see all of his clients this way.

My friend goes and waits in line, pays the psychiatrist $33.00 USD for a prescription for my medicines, and then proceeds to the pharmacy with the prescription.

In order to only have to do this once every three months, the psychiatrist writes a prescription for three months worth of medicine at a time.

Because I am as stable as I am likely to get, my friend gets a new prescription for the same old medications.

I take three medications, all at bedtime:

1). Quetiapine/Seroquel 25 mg to calm insane thoughts and behaviors and promote sleep,

2) Alprazolam/Xanax 2mg to stop thoughts and compel sleep.

3). Excitalopram/Zoloft 25mg as an antidepressant.

$250.00 USD buys 90 tablets of each of these medicines, which will last me three months.

My friend goes to the pharmacy where he believes he can obtain all of these medicines cheapest and he buys them for me.

Then, my friend goes to the bus station where small packages can be sent nationwide for $5.00 USD. He sends my medicine to me by bus, to the capital of this state.

The next day, I go to the capital of my state, an hour from here, by commuter pickup truck, and pick up the medicine.

Of the $300.00 that I sent to my friend, $17.00 is left over as his compensation for spending his time helping me. Here, $17.00 is enough to pay someone for a day of effort, which is about how long it takes him to do all of the above.

Through the carefully thought out and planned strategy above, I save a say of interstate travel; save $40.00 USD I would otherwise gave spent on transportation; save $10.00 USD that I would have spent for food in transit; and save $55.00 that I would have had to pay had I gone for a full therapy session along with a med visit.

By paying a friend in the capital to buy and send me my mwdicine, I save a day of stressful travel and travel expenses equal to a third of what my medicine costs.

Living out in the wilderness with dramatically less stress, I take quarter of the amount of medicine that I once took and that enables me to pay for it all out-of-pocket, with no bull#@$%&* of dealing with an insurance company to reimburse my doctor or pay for medicine.

I once took 800mg per day of Seroquel/Quetiapine, which pushed me to prediabetes. Now, I take 1/32nd as much quetiapine as I was taking in 2024.

Writing this, it seems like there might be another benefit from moving to a low stress atmosphere: My symptoms are less acute, so I can get by without ANY therapy visits and spending perhaps 10% of what I once did on medicine.

Instead of going to formal therapy, I have found ten people through church who understand my illness, keep my confidences, encourage and help me to get and take my medication, and even feed me when I get hungry if I help pay for food.

Instead if spending so much money on travel, twice-weekly therapy and meds, I pay neighbors to ckean my house, take meals with neighbors instead of eating out, and my neighbor/church friends give me my cognitive behavioral feedback.

This is what works for me today along with medicine, instead of more medicine and more formal therapy.


I'd rather have a frontal lobotomy than a bottle in front of me.
Spam? Offensive?
persistence
persistence
March 7, 2017 - 3:31 pm
When I was in the United States, I could not find a psychiatrist and could not get meds.

So, I moved to the most remote area of the entire Dominican Republic, a NATION of 12 Million. I live in a town of 10,000, an hour from the nearest pharmacy, four hours by pickup truck and bus from my chosen psychiatrist here. Finally, I have relatively easy access to the medicines I need, with the help of friends.

First, I call a moto taxi that takes me fifteen minutes to the bank on the main road. There, I deposit 300.00 USD in cash into the bank account of a friend who lives in the capital, four hours away.

My friend goes to the bank in the capital, withdraws the money, and then he is ready to seek my mwdicine for me.

After withdrawing the $300.00 I deposited in his bank account, my friend in the capital goes to see my psychiatrist in the capital.

My psychiatrist takes clients on a first-come, first-served basis four days a week from 1:00 PM until 6:00 PM. He is able to see all of his clients this way.

My friend goes and waits in line, pays the psychiatrist $33.00 USD for a prescription for my medicines, and then proceeds to the pharmacy with the prescription.

In order to only have to do this once every three months, the psychiatrist writes a prescription for three months worth of medicine at a time.

Because I am as stable as I am likely to get, my friend gets a new prescription for the same old medications.

I take three medications, all at bedtime:

1). Quetiapine/Seroquel 25 mg to calm insane thoughts and behaviors and promote sleep,

2) Alprazolam/Xanax 2mg to stop thoughts and compel sleep.

3). Excitalopram/Zoloft 25mg as an antidepressant.

$250.00 USD buys 90 tablets of each of these medicines, which will last me three months.

My friend goes to the pharmacy where he believes he can obtain all of these medicines cheapest and he buys them for me.

Then, my friend goes to the bus station where small packages can be sent nationwide for $5.00 USD. He sends my medicine to me by bus, to the capital of this state.

The next day, I go to the capital of my state, an hour from here, by commuter pickup truck, and pick up the medicine.

Of the $300.00 that I sent to my friend, $17.00 is left over as his compensation for spending his time helping me. Here, $17.00 is enough to pay someone for a day of effort, which is about how long it takes him to do all of the above.

Through the carefully thought out and planned strategy above, I save a say of interstate travel; save $40.00 USD I would otherwise gave spent on transportation; save $10.00 USD that I would have spent for food in transit; and save $55.00 that I would have had to pay had I gone for a full therapy session along with a med visit.

By paying a friend in the capital to buy and send me my mwdicine, I save a day of stressful travel and travel expenses equal to a third of what my medicine costs.

Living out in the wilderness with dramatically less stress, I take quarter of the amount of medicine that I once took and that enables me to pay for it all out-of-pocket, with no bull#@$%&* of dealing with an insurance company to reimburse my doctor or pay for medicine.

I once took 800mg per day of Seroquel/Quetiapine, which pushed me to prediabetes. Now, I take 1/32nd as much quetiapine as I was taking in 2024.

Writing this, it seems like there might be another benefit from moving to a low stress atmosphere: My symptoms are less acute, so I can get by without ANY therapy visits and spending perhaps 10% of what I once did on medicine.

Instead of going to formal therapy, I have found ten people through church who understand my illness, keep my confidences, encourage and help me to get and take my medication, and even feed me when I get hungry if I help pay for food.

Instead if spending so much money on travel, twice-weekly therapy and meds, I pay neighbors to ckean my house, take meals with neighbors instead of eating out, and my neighbor/church friends give me my cognitive behavioral feedback.

This is what works for me today along with medicine, instead of more medicine and more formal therapy.


I'd rather have a frontal lobotomy than a bottle in front of me.

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