Daily Medication Storage

[Goatboy]

Must say that it bothers me that the pharmacist breaks the safety seal on things like inhalers to attach the sticky label to them. I know I can trust him but I like safety seals on things. I also don't like sticky labels on the inhalers but that's an OCD thing.

He was very good when I was on a lot of medication to take the time to break down the best time to take each one and in what combinations. Some of them interacted with others adversely when taken all at once.

Haven't travelled in a couple of years, do security seals need to be on medication when flying now? I know certain countries were sticky about large packs of medication in the expedition first aid kits. We had to have documentation for them.

 

[Bindle]

That's the practice here as well. The bottles here (or rather the labels on those bottles) contain all the RX info:
-medication (brand name and generic)
-dosage
-patient's name
-prescribing doctor's name and phone number
-Rx date and fill date
-number of refills
-pharmacy name and phone number
-expiration dates (both for the meds in the bottle and when the RX will expire)

In summary, the label is a valid, legal copy of the RX. That's why I questioned the legality of moving the meds to a home made container (or any container other than the one they were dispensed in)

No, the label is the label. It is not a legal copy of the prescription as it is not signed by the prescribing clinician. It acts merely to identify the contents and advise how they should be taken. The only prescription is the prescription. As an interesting aside, when one is admitted to a hospital and the medics write up that big chart full of medicines for you to take, that isn't a prescription either. Not a lot of people know that, you can amaze your friends with that little fact in the pub.

 

[santaman2000]

......Haven't travelled in a couple of years, do security seals need to be on medication when flying now?.....

I haven't flown internationally in a couple of decades so I'm not sure about that. But "security" seals aren't required to fly here (I have flown domestically recently) They had no problem with my rather large supply of various meds, including the syringes in my hand carried things. In fact most oral meds here won't have them at all as the pharmacist counts the pills into a generic bottle before applying the label and handing the it to you.

The "security" seals are only on containers packed at the large drug manufacturing companies and their purpose is to prove to the consumer that the contents are pure and unadulterated.

In either case, any seal will be broken when you open the container for the first dose.

I

 

[santaman2000]

No, the label is the label. It is not a legal copy of the prescription as it is not signed by the prescribing clinician.....

Prescriptions here aren't usually signed anymore. They're transmitted to your pharmacy electronically. For a decade or two before that, they were phoned to the pharmacy by the Dr. Paper scripts still exist, but they're rare. The actual, true prescription is on the pharmacist's computer. As well as the Dr's computer, and the insurance provider's computer.

 

[Macaroon]

No, the label is the label. It is not a legal copy of the prescription as it is not signed by the prescribing clinician. It acts merely to identify the contents and advise how they should be taken. The only prescription is the prescription. As an interesting aside, when one is admitted to a hospital and the medics write up that big chart full of medicines for you to take, that isn't a prescription either. Not a lot of people know that, you can amaze your friends with that little fact in the pub.

If I wanted to amaze my friends in the pub I'd buy a round

 

[santaman2000]

If I wanted to amaze my friends in the pub I'd buy a round

Careful. if I did that, my friends might reach for their meds.

 

[Toddy]

Tidily done Bishop for a couple of days out that makes life easy.

For those who might want longer term or just to better organise things for themselves, see this link.

http://www.venalink.co.uk/

M

 

[oldtimer]

I had a word with elder son today. He travels all over the world constantly, as part of his job with a well-known international charity, with personal medication in his luggage. He tells me that he has had no trouble about medication kept in original packaging, but many east asian countries can be difficult about anything carried loose or in quantity.

I also had a word with daughter-out-law who is a GP with experience of working in Africa about temperatures medication should be kept at. She tells me that the recommendation about storing below 30C is more to do with bulk, long-term storage than what I have in my rucksack.

I'm slightly puzzled as to why the OP feels the need to repackage medication. Can't it just go into a dry bag?

 

[Bishop]

I'm slightly puzzled as to why the OP feels the need to repackage medication. Can't it just go into a dry bag?

Fair question, for at least the next year I'm supposed to take eight differnent medications, ten pills spread over the day. So for short field trips having them prepared in a blister pack means I can just pop and go without having to identify each packet individually. The reduction in size also means they fit comfortably into a belt pouch along with the Nitromin spary & cell-phone.

 

[santaman2000]

.....I also had a word with daughter-out-law who is a GP with experience of working in Africa about temperatures medication should be kept at. She tells me that the recommendation about storing below 30C is more to do with bulk, long-term storage than what I have in my rucksack....

Yeah, all my oral meds are fairly resistant to temperature extremes. However my Victoza (a non-insulin injection pen for diabetes) still needs to be kept cool; as would insulin. TSA and airline regs still allow it; they even state up front that it should be in your carry-on and not in checked baggage. But I have no idea about international regs.

 

[santaman2000]

Fair question, for at least the next year I'm supposed to take eight differnent medications, ten pills spread over the day. So for short field trips having them prepared in a blister pack means I can just pop and go without having to identify each packet individually. The reduction in size also means they fit comfortably into a belt pouch along with the Nitromin spary & cell-phone.

That's my situation too. Most of my oral meds (the full 90 day issue) fit into a bag about the size of a loaf of store bought bread (a few bottle are too large to fit with the rest; the 90 day bottle of Glyburide/Metfornin alone is half the size of the rest combined) and I really don't want to carry that around all day every day.

 

[Quixoticgeek]

Very clever! I like that. For ordinary medications I put a blister pack into a ziplock bag with a label bearing the name of the medication, the dose, and the purpose. Beware if travelling abroad though, some countries have strange laws about what you can take in and may not let you carry stuff without a prescription or sometimes if it's not in the original packaging. For example, I got caught out by Australia, who have a ban on pseudoephedrine. It's an effective decongestant that I use occasionally when diving but they confiscated the half dozen pills of it that I was carrying.

That's useful to know, I carry that as it's an ingredient in many flu meds and a really useful decongestant.

The other useless trivia is: it's banned by the IOC. So when you've taken it, you do exclude yourself from the Olympic Archery...

J

 

[santaman2000]

That's useful to know, I carry that as it's an ingredient in many flu meds and a really useful decongestant....

Yep. Unfortunately it's also a precursor for methamphetamines.

 

[Quixoticgeek]

Yep. Unfortunately it's also a precursor for methamphetamines.

Aye, that one I did discover. Wonder what else in my standard drug bag I'm not supposed to take abroad with me...

J

 

[santaman2000]

Aye, that one I did discover. Wonder what else in my standard drug bag I'm not supposed to take abroad with me...

J

I suspect it depends a great deal on just where you're going. Pseudoephedrine is still sold over the counter here; but it's kept behind the counter so you have to ask for it, and most stores restrict how much you can buy at a time.

 

[rik_uk3]

Prescriptions here aren't usually signed anymore. They're transmitted to your pharmacy electronically. For a decade or two before that, they were phoned to the pharmacy by the Dr. Paper scripts still exist, but they're rare. The actual, true prescription is on the pharmacist's computer. As well as the Dr's computer, and the insurance provider's computer.

Thankfully we have the National Health Service and here in Wales we have no prescription charges for our medications

With the vast majority of meds coming blister packed I can't see why the OP needs to mess about, makes no sense to be honest

 

[santaman2000]

Thankfully we have the National Health Service and here in Wales we have no prescription charges for our medications ....

Is pseudoephedrine a prescription drug there? Or an OTC? That's the real problem with charges here TBH. Insurance covers most RX drugs. Tricare covers all of mine; my SIL's insurance covers his, his wife's (my daughter) and their kids' (Medicaid covered my daughter when she was unemployed/underemployed before they were married)

It's when the meds get approved for OTC that the coverage stops.

 

[santaman2000]

....With the vast majority of meds coming blister packed I can't see why the OP needs to mess about, makes no sense to be honest

Thanks for clearing that up for me. I was wondering if blister packs were prevalent there; they aren't at all common here. The only thing I can think of that comes in one is a Z-Pack. Well, that and some veterinary meds (heartworm pills)

 

[rik_uk3]

Is pseudoephedrine a prescription drug there? Or an OTC? That's the real problem with charges here TBH. Insurance covers most RX drugs. Tricare covers all of mine; my SIL's insurance covers his, his wife's (my daughter) and their kids' (Medicaid covered my daughter when she was unemployed/underemployed before they were married)

It's when the meds get approved for OTC that the coverage stops.

pseudoephedrine is an OTC med but you should not be taking it as your diabetic.

 

[santaman2000]

pseudoephedrine is an OTC med but you should not be taking it as your diabetic.

Exactly so. TBH I avoid all OTC meds as much as possible; as well as steroid injections.