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experiment setup
Nov. 10th, 2006 02:00 pmI ordered the new meds at the beginning of October. Being out of work scared me in a lot of ways, but at least it makes some things a bit easier -- if I had trouble adjusting doses, and needed to spend a few days sleeping til noon, or throwing up, or getting dizzy when I stood up, at least I would not need to be at work at 9am. And maybe these new meds would stop the timeslips. When I tried a few days of samples in the summer, I had remarkably few absence seizures or migraines, despite being near flashing lights.
Because I'm out of work, and because my insurance does not cover this drug, I did not want to pay the local retail price for it. I could go to Canada and explain my (highly unusual) situation to a Canadian doctor I'd never met, and convince hir to prescribe this weird new anti-seizure drug, rather than Neurontin or Depakote. The last time I was in Montreal, I considered spending half a day on this kind of gamble, but decided it probably would not work, and that going to Fruit Folie with Redbird and Cattitude was a better use of my time. Instead, I chose to do business with one of the Canadian pharmacies that mostly deals with underinsured elderly Americans -- it takes a prescription from a US doctor, a statement about allergies and health, a disclaimer of liability, and a check, and it transforms them into a prescription from a Canadian doctor, then into a package of medication sent by express mail.
From what I know of quality assurance (and I am learning a lot), it is not totally insane that the FDA has regulations against importing these drugs. The FDA has specifications about what medications they allow. They allow drugs they've inspected, or drugs from factories where the FDA has checked out the process, and can trust the manufacturing and testing process inside the factory. Testing products is a lot of trouble. Testing a process is a lot MORE trouble. And testing an auditing process is so much more trouble than that...I can hardly imagine how much trouble it is. Personally, I choose to trust the Canadian government's standards. But that's a matter of faith. I haven't audited the way they test drug manufacturing quality.
I placed the order Oct. 4. The medication arrived Nov. 2. That much delay is kind of scary. If I want to continue taking this stuff, I will need to order more by Nov 23. Earlier, if I want to experiment with a higher dose (and I do.)
Because I'm out of work, and because my insurance does not cover this drug, I did not want to pay the local retail price for it. I could go to Canada and explain my (highly unusual) situation to a Canadian doctor I'd never met, and convince hir to prescribe this weird new anti-seizure drug, rather than Neurontin or Depakote. The last time I was in Montreal, I considered spending half a day on this kind of gamble, but decided it probably would not work, and that going to Fruit Folie with Redbird and Cattitude was a better use of my time. Instead, I chose to do business with one of the Canadian pharmacies that mostly deals with underinsured elderly Americans -- it takes a prescription from a US doctor, a statement about allergies and health, a disclaimer of liability, and a check, and it transforms them into a prescription from a Canadian doctor, then into a package of medication sent by express mail.
From what I know of quality assurance (and I am learning a lot), it is not totally insane that the FDA has regulations against importing these drugs. The FDA has specifications about what medications they allow. They allow drugs they've inspected, or drugs from factories where the FDA has checked out the process, and can trust the manufacturing and testing process inside the factory. Testing products is a lot of trouble. Testing a process is a lot MORE trouble. And testing an auditing process is so much more trouble than that...I can hardly imagine how much trouble it is. Personally, I choose to trust the Canadian government's standards. But that's a matter of faith. I haven't audited the way they test drug manufacturing quality.
I placed the order Oct. 4. The medication arrived Nov. 2. That much delay is kind of scary. If I want to continue taking this stuff, I will need to order more by Nov 23. Earlier, if I want to experiment with a higher dose (and I do.)
