Re: Diary summary week ending 30 th March 2025

[louisa maud]

Well it has started  already, my husband needs to speak to a Dr to follow up from 3 lots of antibiotics  and an xray,  last week the Dr took  away 1 tablet, he needs to sort it out, can't do it by phone, got to to it on the computer, not everyone had a computer, I know that for sure,  in my opinion it is a stupid idea, I can see A&E  will be overflowing  by people who can't  get an appt, or worse, will die.

Anyways it is a dull morning  her and very cold, was nice to have the few nice days though.

Hope everyone is feeling  chipper this morning and those under the weather are improving

LM

[Gillg]

A dull morning here, too, but I have put out 2 lots of washing, as it's going to be a busy week for me with several morning activities.  I'm feeling much more chipper now that the consultant has cut out one of my tablets, the one which was described by my pharmacist as liable to make me lethargic and heavy-limbed.  He was right!  I felt as though I was wading through treacle mentally and found walking required rather a lot of extra effort.  I must go head with some Spring cleaning while in this mood.

[louisa maud]

Medications , not all   suit everyone, today I had one changed because there is a possibility  I am having  muscle and body pain  because of it, one can only try, also  statin didn't agree with me, we take medication given and take them all for granted, I am hoping my change of meds will have me running around like a spring chicken, I can only hope.

LM

[candleflame]

Afternoon all
I rang the doctors today hoping to ask to adjust my prescription - short version they upped my dosage of one medication, but you can’t get the meds in one tablet, you have to have 100mcg in one tablet and 25 mcg in the other to make a dosage of 125 mcg each day. So I take two tablets , one 100 and one 25 at the same time each day. Still with me?
So the 100 ones have a different renewal date to the 25’s as they were started by them at different times. Please can I have the 25’s adjusted so they run out at the same time as the 100’s, so I’m not having to bother the doctors/ go to the pharmacist more often than I need to. No you can’t says they, unless you come into the surgery and fill out a form. No idea what the form is or what it will ask. Seems like common sense to me to request the adjustment, but clearly not, so that’s a job for tomorrow. Couldn’t do it today as it’s 8 days before the 25’s run out and they can only do prescription requests 7 days before ………..

[teragram31510]

<<Couldn’t do it today as it’s 8 days before the 25’s run out and they can only do prescription requests 7 days before ………..>>

So what if you are going away for a fortnight and your tablets run out 3 days before you get back?

I lurk here often and read with dismay English problems with medical treatment/doctors/surgery secretaries/parking charges and the like and am forever grateful for the French system, despite the complaints of the French - they don't know they're born !!

In passing, I can renew meds. for the next three months as long as I ask at the pharmacy less than 30 days before the 3 months start.

Margaret

[Roobarb]

Drives you mad doesn't it Candleflame? You'd think someone could just say Hang on a tick and I'll override that. Commonsense doesn't seem to be very common. 

I order my medications online, all was fine until someone decided to do a medications review, whereupon they all ended up being available for ordering at different dates instead of my being able to order everything together. That was made worse when I was going on holiday and had to request an item earlier. I made the mistake of saying what date I was going and the prescribing clerk took it upon herself to hang on for days before sending the prescription to the pharmacy. I found this out when I phoned to ask where it was,  I said she was cutting it fine as I was going away very early in the morning and the pharmacy takes 48 hours to dispense the prescription. She said No they don't!

I ended up phoning the pharmacy as my prescriptions are delivered to me, I got a much more helpful person who confirmed that they do take 48 hours and possibly more. She had processed my prescription that morning and it was on its way.

The next time I was going on holiday I didn't tell the surgery the exact date! After keeping my eye on things I've managed to align the items again.

So Margaret,  that's unfortunately the kind of thing that happens!

[Jebber]

Like Roobarb I get my meds delivered, they all run out at different times. I phone the pharmacy ten days to two weeks before the date the earliest one runs out, the pharmacist contacts the surgery and orders the prescription for everything, then delivers two months supply at the same time. It works out one request for everything every two months. The only one I don’t order is the stuff for my twelve weekly B12 injection, the District nurse orders that and the pharmacist delivers  that separately.

I was on morphine in hospital but don’t like the side affects and would rather tolerate a bit more pain. so I refused to take any strong painkillers and stick to Paracetamol.

I managed to cut out one lot of tablets while I was in hospital, I felt they were no longer needed and the hospital Doctor agreed and said I could drop them. As one gets older the doctors seem to find all kinds of reasons to dose us up with medication.

[mare]

As one gets older the doctors seem to find all kinds of reasons to dose us up with medication.

OH Dear, not looking forward to that!    .. luckily I have avoided regular medications thus far but noting the various issues here with interest re scripts, quantities and waiting times. Some years back I had to have health authority to be prescribed a restricted medication I was on for a couple of years and sometimes found I needed to to find a pharmacy who had it in stock. Not sure it was overly effective actually and managed to get off it once no longer needed special authority and our doctor instead of specialist could prescribe it. I felt I was contributing funds to his overseas jaunts actually as they were rather expensive visits to him and the medication was costly on top of that   

Husband does have scripts for several things, can apply with online portal for repeats or phone receptionist and a call to pharmacy to see when ready and no issues there usually. His main annoyance is the count of some, that they don't match in numbers with others of supposed equal quantity even though they should but usually out by a few each time. He does watch for that to get them in time though, eye drops he needs to keep up regularly for glaucoma are good though, shelf life not so much.

We must be approaching winter even though still very summery, have both been contacted by our local medical centre to say we're eligible for the flu' jab from 1st April!

A lovely catch up this morning with friend visiting from Australia and on her way back home tomorrow. Her family were good neighbours of ours 50 years ago, they had 2 or 3 moves after that and eventually settled in Australia, she is now the only one left of the family and a couple of years since our last get-together but regularly in touch.

[louisa maud]

My grandson  is backpacking at the moment, spent a month in NZ but unfortunately  left himself short to spend extra time in Denedin, he is  in Melbourne now  and travelling  to Sidney within the next few days, he has booked a surf  school which is what he really wants to do, he is a very quiet lad and I am really surprised how he is coping,  gone a boy and I am sure he will return a man,  he has been to some interesting  places, I have been to NZ   and enjoyed it very much, would go again but I am not so sure  travelling  now, think our abroad days are over

Medication, you are right, it does seem it is dished out willy nilly, in my opinion they almost frighten you telling you what will happen  if you don't take them, I had to change one which gave me a persistent  cough, now changed another with an unwanted   side effects,  but I am still here so I shouldn't  complain.

Looks like a beautiful day here so far, BT   coming to update whatever so I will be offline , not sure for how long

Viktoria,  have you been out on your scooter yet?

Take care folks.

LM