Returning Medication

[Woody]

I had an appointment this Wednesday with my Pdoc.
The week before he had prescribed me Ritalin on a test trial basis and it ended up not working. At the end of the appointment we came to the conclusion that I should not take the medication anymore because it was raising my blood pressure to unacceptable levels. As I was getting ready to leave he directed me to return the Ritalin to the pharmacy. This is not the first medication that his prescribed me on an on trial basis but its the first time that he has asked me to return the unused to the pharmacy.

Has your Pdoc ever asked you to return a medication?

[amber25]

I've never had a doc request it, but he probably just wants it to be disposed of properly. Imagine if every unused med went in the trash, what would happen to our water supply and such?!

[paul m]

Hello Woody. Its nice to see a doc being envoirmentally friendly. Dumping unused meds down sewers has quite an effect on our waterways as the sewage treatment plants cannot render all of the chemicals safe with the technology in place. Plus on the intake, our water treatment plants were not designed to filter out this all of this chemical stew.

In Ontario almost all pharmicies will take back your old meds. I am unsure how long this has been in effect, but at least a couple of yrs. However, while this program is backed by the Min. of Envoiroment, they do little to make it known to the public. Take Care. paul m

[AJ]

In Alberta you can take your meds for disposal to almost any pharmacy. ENVIRx goes around to all the pharmacies and picks up pails of returned meds and bio-hazards, for proper disposal. The returned meds go to Swan Hills for incineration. It's better for the environment. It helps prevent diversion of drugs for illicit use. It helps to prevent poisoning of kids. It reduces the chance of error when current meds are to be taken. There are also a few drugs that break down into toxic chemicals when expired (tetracyclines).

[Woody]

Duh! I completely forgot about that
Thanks all

[Woody]

Update

Well one week later my pdoc says ....
"Did you return that Ritalin cause I want you to try it again"
Luckily, I had not yet, I was going to do it at the end of the month when I picked up my monthly supply. I would have been some p'd off that if I had.

[paul m]

Hello Woody. For once being slow, turned out to be fast. Wasn't there a turtle that did that? Good luck trying the ritalin again. Its one of the meds I have never tried. I hope it works this time for you. Take Care. paul m

[Woody]

Co-payments on 2.00. Big deal right? But to me its more then just the co-payment, it is about wasting perfectly good medication.

Turtle and the hair and just about every slasher movie out there. The heroine running like mad, the villain trudging at his own little pass but always catching up to the heroine.

So fare results are demoralizing. We had to discontinue it before cause it made my BP(blood pressure) go threw the roof. So now we are trying at /2 the original dose to see if the BP still rises. BP is not as high as before, but I am also not getting the wanted results of reducing the chaos inside my head and now I think it is starting to affect my sleep patern. Going at /2 dose was a hail mary pass as other CNS stumulants will have the same effect on my BP as Ritalin.

[AJ]

What time are you taking it Woody? Has he considered other meds used for ADD?

[Woody]

I take it first thing in the morning.

We talked about Wellbutrin but my history with antidepressant is not good. He also mention amphetamines and that he did not recommend going down that route.

[AJ]

Let's hope you can tolerate it at the dose you need to be effective, without it increasing you blood pressure.