A trip to the US

[Rocky]

Three weeks ago I was asked at the last minute to go to California with someone. It was on a Sunday and I had about an hour to decide. I said yes. We where suppose to be gone for only 9 days, so I took about two weeks of medication. That was a poor choice. The other poor choice I made was not to have Extended Medical insurance before I left.

The trip lasted 10 days longer than expected, so I ran out of medication. I found a walk in clinic in Lodi, California. I explained to the Doctor that I had run out of meds and needed prescriptions to get me through 7 days. I had my clinic in Canada send a fax to the walk in clinic in Lodi a list of prescriptions. I also had about two days left at that time so took them to the clinic with me.

His nurse did a blood pressure check, but that was the extent of it. The Doctor spent about five minutes with me asking me about the meds. He did nothing other than that. The cost of visit was $135. I got the prescriptions and had them filled. The cost of the meds was $350 for one weeks worth. (Walmart pharmacy) At home, even without prescription medical coverage, the cost of my meds is about $150 a month and of course the visit to any Doctor in Canada would have been no charge.

So, my suggestion to every one traveling is to take ALL of your medication, no matter how long the visit will be, and get Travel Medical insurance by the year, just in case you need to travel at the last minute.

 

[catwoman]

Rocky:

Geeze....
Exactly what RXes did you have filled at Walmart? That's a heckuvalot. If you had had generic warfarin, that would have only been $10 an RX at the most for those ($10 for 90 tabs).
Years ago, I was at a cat show in Oklahoma and a judge I was keeping records for had forgotten her BP meds at home in Colorado. Luckily, two people in the show hall were pharmacists and were locals. One got her enough tablets to tide her over until Monday.

I keep an extra stash of warfarin and antibiotics in every piece of luggage plus my briefcase -- probably enough for 1 month. I have to rotate the tablets every so often. Yes, I toss some out, but I use generics so not much lo$$.

I will have to ask about the travel medical insurance. I was recently promoted in status as a cat show judge so I can now accept assignments worldwide. Whether I will accept them is another matter -- overseas travel takes more a chunk of vacation days, if you're still a working stiff like me. I still have to have a REAL paying job to pay my bills. We do get a small insurance policy through the cat registry, but it won't cover things like a Dr. appt for forgetting my meds at home; it's for injuries.
BTW, I have shared my warfarin stash with other mechanical valver friends at cat shows. Some people do go off for the weekend without remember to pick up an RX refill at the pharmacy... I now tease that person when I see her.

 

[Rocky]

It was not just the Warfarin, it was all of them.

 

[Duffey]

Rocky,
Your advice is duly noted. Thank you!

 

[Mentu]

I completely agree with you that one should take all of one's medication when traveling. As you have experienced, things can change. In the US, however, instead of going to a Doctor, you could possibly have saved the expense of the Doctor by going to the pharmacy first. My experience is that the pharmacy is much more likely to provide just a few days of medication to get you home and often at minimal cost. This happened to me on a trip to Seattle. Sorry that you had to learn this lesson but thank you for sharing it with us.

Larry

 

[Rocky]

I tried that. No help. I also tried to get my Dr in Canada to send a prescription to a US pharmacy, but they told me that was illegal.