My Methadone Doctor Fucked Up & now I'm fucked

[lman_15]

I was planning on seeing my meth doc on Tuesday I was unable to make it to him (it's a 2 hour greyhound ride from where I live), plus 2 hours in bus's after that, anyways I called him and asked if it would be cool if I went to see him Thursday, he said cool, I'll fax over a script (which he has done 100's of times for me already never a problem), we talked about the mg, for what days & at what clinic. Long story short I show up at my pharmacy today and there is nothing there for me, plus he doesn't work today. Now I am supposed to wait till tomorrow do a 4 hour mission in withdrawal and be fucked because of this idiots mistake. If I use to ease the withdrawal would I lose a carry of due to the fact that it is his fault completely can he not take it away, I have an incredibly quick metabolism and wake up feeling shitty everyday I need my meth as soon as I wake up its not 8 hours past that and I feel like garbage. Please tell me my options, and wether I would be in shit for using or not? because I won't be able to make it down to him tomorrow without a dose and even then most likely won't be able to get on the bus without something like how am i supposed to travel to my doc or the pharmacy shitty and puking everywhere

 

[T. Calderone]

The trouble is, you're at this doctor's mercy needing your carry-homes. Even with documentation that said prescription was not at the pharmacy as promised, you know he will follow guidelines and deny your take home privilege for using. When was your last dose?

 

[helium-4]

Well you can't totally blame him for missing your appointment, nor for some reason the fax not going through. I had some similar issue with a alprazolam script which took me 5+ days to get resolved before I actually had a script in my hand. I don't blame the doc, the nurses or the pharmacies. Shit happens. Nothing I could do the speed it up.

I'm honestly surprised your pharmacy allows faxed CII substances like methadone. Most pharmacies will not allow it because of state laws. What state are you in.

I'm not sure how we can help. If your Doc drug tests you and you use to cover the WDs you might loose the script. You might have to wait it out. Sucks, but what can you do? You probably best off waiting till tomorrow. Its one day.

 

[Swimmingdancer]

We really can't know what your doctor will do. It depends completely on the doctor/clinic, their rules, how compassionate/understanding/trusting your Dr is, if you have built up priveleges like take-homes that could be affected, if you signed an agreement, where you live, your past history like whether or not you've missed appointments in the past or had dirty tests in the past, etc etc.

I would try double-checking with the pharmacy - sometimes they misplace faxes. Also see if there is an emergency/off-hours line for your Dr, or if you could see a colleague of his or anything like that. If you do end up using just be honest with your Dr and explain why. Hope it all works out

 

[lman_15]

Okay so I called my doctors after hours office (which is in Toronto once again 4 hours away from where I am). Also, the after hours office opened once my pharmacy closed just my luck. Anyways after being transfered 5 times and given ten different numbers to call I finally got in contact with the right person who called me back 20 minutes later, luckily she had my script in her hands (which for some reason never made it to the fax machine), but because the pharmacy written on the script was closed and because she isn't my meth doc she can't change the location so that I could have gone to another pharmacy. Long story short doc printed it and signed it but never sent it, they have it but can't change the info and have to fax it tomorrow. I felt like complete ass a reliable connect happened to have 4 methadone carries that he got from a good friend. Long story short he sent me the 2 bottles each of which contained 50mg of methadone. One bottle had the info still on it and it coinsided with what he told me (mg too ml ration & total mg of the bottle), the other one had the info ripped off, anyways when I drank them they tasted as methadone should and now I'm feeling fine and withdrawal free, so if all goes well and if they weren't cut with an opiate that'll show on my piss test, i'll be able to go to Toronto see my doc, pass my piss test, get my 3rd carry and start seeing him once every 2 weeks, i'm really glad I didn't use and even though i grabbed methadone it was pretty much the best thing I could have done in that situation in my opinion. How do I go about approaching my doc about the mishap? I don't wanna tare him a new one (I did earlier on when I was feeling shitty) but I just want an explanation from him as to why it happened and hopefully an apology. But what is the best way to approach this?

Any responses to my course of action (i.e. grabbing methadone from a friend to hold me over)?

 

[Swimmingdancer]

Okay so I called my doctors after hours office (which is in Toronto once again 4 hours away from where I am). Also, the after hours office opened once my pharmacy closed just my luck. Anyways after being transfered 5 times and given ten different numbers to call I finally got in contact with the right person who called me back 20 minutes later, luckily she had my script in her hands (which for some reason never made it to the fax machine), but because the pharmacy written on the script was closed and because she isn't my meth doc she can't change the location so that I could have gone to another pharmacy. Long story short doc printed it and signed it but never sent it, they have it but can't change the info and have to fax it tomorrow. I felt like complete ass a reliable connect happened to have 4 methadone carries that he got from a good friend. Long story short he sent me the 2 bottles each of which contained 50mg of methadone. One bottle had the info still on it and it coinsided with what he told me (mg too ml ration & total mg of the bottle), the other one had the info ripped off, anyways when I drank them they tasted as methadone should and now I'm feeling fine and withdrawal free, so if all goes well and if they weren't cut with an opiate that'll show on my piss test, i'll be able to go to Toronto see my doc, pass my piss test, get my 3rd carry and start seeing him once every 2 weeks, i'm really glad I didn't use and even though i grabbed methadone it was pretty much the best thing I could have done in that situation in my opinion. How do I go about approaching my doc about the mishap? I don't wanna tare him a new one (I did earlier on when I was feeling shitty) but I just want an explanation from him as to why it happened and hopefully an apology. But what is the best way to approach this?

Any responses to my course of action (i.e. grabbing methadone from a friend to hold me over)?

Glad you were able to get methadone and not heroin!

I would definitely not get mad at the doctor, it could easily have been an oversight on the part of the receptionist, often the doctor will just leave the script for them to fax. In my experience most doctors who are doing you a favour by faxing a script (which, at least in my province, they are not even really supposed to do for methadone anymore) to your pharmacy when you missed an appointment, are not very apologetic if they or someone who works for them made a mistake and it didn't get faxed. You could just very politely explain to him what happened and that it was very traumatic for you since you can not handle going even part of a day without taking your methadone and were fully expecting the script to be at your pharmacy. It's up to you whether or not you want to tell him that you got some methadone illicitly, but in my experience with the methadone Dr's I've had, honesty is the best policy, otherwise they will think it wasn't a big deal because you seem fine and to their knowledge went a day without your dose. But do/say what you think is best for your situation.

Lessons I have had to learn:
- ALWAYS call the pharmacy to check if they received a Rx that was supposed to be faxed, before the Dr's office closes.
- NEVER assume doctors, receptionists and pharmacists won't screw up, double-check everything! They are only human and are not really thinking about how you are completely dependent on methadone in order to function and are totally at their mercy, nor do they understand what that feels like.
- If there are any 24-hr pharmacies or at least one with long hrs in your area it is definitely worth it to switch to one IME.

You may also want to tell your Dr about how your methadone doesn't "hold" you for a full 24 hrs, they will sometimes consider split (2x/day) dosing for people who metabolize it quickly.

 

[T. Calderone]

I wouldn't say anything to your doctor at all because it's not his fault the script didn't get faxed over.
I'm glad you found some methadone to tide you over. Do you live in a rural area? I forgot what that's like, damn

 

[lman_15]

Thanks for all the advice I honestly feel 100 times better, I did take a bit more than I should have (I'm prescribed 75mg a day and took 2 50mg carries so looking back on my decision I wish I would have just taken 75mg, but in my furious anger and frustration as well as my anonymous with how I was feeling physically I decided to just chug down both of em, actually feeling quite good right now).

I am deciding on not confronting my doctor or pharmacist or anyone & instead just say you know what it was a learning experience and it was frustrating and incredibly annoying and I experienced a panic attack and a decent amount of discomfort but the last thing I need/want to do is point fingers and from here on in I'm going to keep my doctors appointments consistent and on point (only changing dates when its absolute necessary), also I am always going to double up on everything (i.e., read my script twice when doc prints it and hands it to me, double check appointments, double check, that the doc send the fax & that the pharmacy received it) and that way I with the help of all of you (i.e. doctor, pharmacist, etc.) will be able to avoid this situation occurring in the future", so yea just like you guys said I'm not going to confront any of them or be all pissy, I'm simply going to state that I was in discomfort (basically just explain the way I feel about the situation and why (without placing any blame on anyone) and then tell them what I learned from the situation and what I'm going to do to prevent it from occurring in the future and I honestly think that's the best option for me & will definitely strengthen my relationship with them instead of weakening it

Only thing I am debating about is wether to tell him I did street methadone, I have a home drug test kicking around somewhere if I can find it I'll use it tomorrow when I wake up and see if by chance anything shows (if something does show up in my urine it is something that was cut into the meth because I haven't used for a while so then I definitely will tell him but if nothing but methadone shows up then I definitely won't)

Any opinions, advice, or input on wether or not I should tell my doctor that I bought street methadone to hold me over?

I have an incredibly quick metabolism I have to eat a shit ton of food everyday just to maintain my weight on top of that I need 1-2 meal replacements a day as well (those drinks high in fat & protein) and once again just to maintain my weight, I'm 5'9" or 5'8" and weight about 145 pounds and thats with eating a ton of food a day + meal replacements, even when I was on suboxone I needed to dose when I woke up every morning, if I didn't take my suboxone within 3-4 hours of waking up I'd feel withdrawal and if I slept in late I would wake up and within an hour I'd be feeling shitty, where as my girl can go 48 hours without dosing, so I know I have an incredibly quick metabolism, how do you go about getting 2 doses a day? What are the regulations for that? Any tests they need to do? Lastly, do they split my daily dose in half so for me (at 75mg a day) would they do 40mg in the morning and 35mg at night OR 75mg in the morning and another 75mg at night? How do I go about approaching my doc about this ?

I'm from Toronto, Ontario, Canada but I am currently living in Waterloo its a city thats 1-1.5 hour drive away, but with buses and trains it takes much longer, like 30 min bus from my house to the bus terminal, 2-3 hour bus ride from waterloo to toronto (2 hour if its express, 3 if they stop in geulph, cambridge, etc., which majority of them aren't express), then 1 hour worth of busing & TTC'ing (Toronto Transit Commission for those who don't know Toronto, its just our train & bus system) so its a bitch, but yea the town I am currently living in is rural but not super small there are 2 major universities out here plus several colleges so lots of young people

 

[Swimmingdancer]

For split dosing it's really up to your doctor and whether or not he feels you would benefit from it (and believes you about it not lasting 24 hrs, some doctors aren't aware that it doesn't last 24 hrs for everyone!). If you truly feel your methadone is not lasting for 24 hrs and are waking up sick then talk to your doctor about it.

(*By the way: metabolism of specific drugs is not correlated to needing to eat a lot to maintain your weight, when people say they have "a fast metabolism" meaning they seem to burn calories quickly is not the same as being a rapid metabolizer of methadone - I've known skinny people who can eat tons but who metabolized methadone slowly and vice versa, methadone metabolism is determined by things like liver enzymes).

Some doctors will just raise your methadone dose, which can work sometimes, but other Drs will be willing to try you on dosing 2x/day. Twice daily dosing can actually can enable some people to take a lower total daily dose. Some people find they still need to raise the total daily dose for 2x/day dosing, at least for the first few days, as it can be hard on that first day if your body has to adjust to going from taking 75mg one morning to 40mg the next morning. Let me know if you want more details on split dosing, but the best thing is to just tell your Dr if your methadone doesn't hold you and see what he says/suggests. If he approved split dosing you would probably just go to the pharmacy in the mornings on the days that you had "witnessed ingestion" and get a take-home for the evening dose (unless there was some reason your Dr was not comfortable with that). As far as the precise doses you would take, that can vary and would be decided between you and your Dr.

As for whether or not to tell your doctor about the illicitly obtained methadone, as I said above I always felt honesty was the best policy, but I'm not you and don't know your Dr or how he would react, it's really a personal decision (I can see pros and cons with each option). We also can't really give you advice about potentially deceiving your Dr, as that doesn't fit with our guidelines.