Going off all of my meds

[Neverthesame]

Because I know that so many people are against it and do not like to spend their tax dollars on it.

This is just my opinion on this, as a tax payer and someone who has to quit a med cold turkey due to financial difficulties.
It wasn't Effexor I had to stop for lack of money, it was Paxil.
I didn't want to go off it originally, but I simply couldn't afford to keep taking it. I was just starting therapy and was still highly symptomatic and non functional at the time.
I very nearly died. The psychological symptoms of discontinuing that drug ended up overwhelming me, leading to me attempt to end my own life.

Whether or not there was a program available for me to have used for a subsidy to continue taking the med, I had no idea. I wouldn't have known who to even ask about it. All that's beside the point. With how badly I suffered on quitting that drug, plus knowing that Effexor wasn't much better. I promise you, taking advantage of any tax funded program to keep you on the drug proper or to quit it using the safest possible method. You would not be a tax leech. Friday wasn't exaggerating, this shits dangerous. It's doable but dangerous.

Preventing a person from having to endure weeks of miserable physical symptoms and a dangerous chemical imbalance leaving them unstable, being added on top of a rebound high intensity symptom spike all at the same time. That, is tax money well spent.
Anyone who could argue that, has never been there and doesn't have a clue. Use whatever you can to aid yourself through this. You are the reason these assistance programs exist. You are worth the money.

Anyways, keep fighting, you can beat this.

 

[Deleted member 12723]

I very nearly died. The psychological symptoms of discontinuing that drug ended up overwhelming me, leading to me attempt to end my own life.

I am so sorry that this happened to you and so glad that you lived. You have helped me so much and I really appreciate you doing this.

I promise you, taking advantage of any tax funded program to keep you on the drug proper or to quit it using the safest possible method. You would not be a tax leech. Friday wasn't exaggerating, this shits dangerous. It's doable but dangerous.

Thank you so much for saying this, I now feel a lot better because of what you shared with me. I am calling my doctor as soon as the office opens up. I am really scared now properly of this and will be able to tell my doctor just how afraid I am and to stress upon him how badly I now need his help.

Anyone who could argue that, has never been there and doesn't have a clue. Use whatever you can to aid yourself through this. You are the reason these assistance programs exist. You are worth the money.

Anyways, keep fighting, you can beat this.

Thank you so much for taking the time to tell me these things. I really appreciate you being there for me now.:hug:

 

[joeylittle]

Last year I remember paying for some prescriptions for a while and then had no co pay and that is when i should have asked my questions. I had the money last year so there was no problem.

OK, I think this is a deductable, not a co-pay. A co-pay is what you are charged when the insurance company is also paying for the medication. A deductable is an amount that you need to pay on your own before insurance will kick in. They usually re-set at the beginning of the calendar year. @lostforgottensoul explained it in more detail in her post.

So, you have to meet a 500$ deductable, but that does not mean you need to pay 500$ in order to get your effexor. Back when you were paying for some prescriptions for awhile, were you paying the full price of the med, or a portion - do you remember?


Venlafaxine ER on good rx: Dead Link Removed

Those rates are for a one-month supply of 150mg - so, 30 pills, 150 each. I understand that money is really tight right now, but if you can come up with 11$ (give or take) and use one of those coupons, you can just buy the medication outright without needing to use insurance.

 

[Deleted member 12723]

were you paying the full price of the med, or a portion - do you remember?

Thank you joey I will check into that for me. I was paying full price for the medication and it was for four bottles of it at a time which on Wednesday I get a free bottle for a months supply. I have to wait for the application to be processed which takes forty five days so my outlook is more optimistic this morning for me in my situation. Thank you for explaining things to me in a way that I could understand.

 

[Deleted member 12723]

A co-pay is how much you pay at a doctor visit.

Yes I am understanding the difference now. The pharmacist called it a co pay and was misinformed I realize now. I was paying five hundred dollars a month for my Kaiser coverage when I had the money to self pay a couple of years ago.

My co pay to see my therapist is seventy dollars a visit. That is until the deductible is finally paid off. I have what is called Covered California and once the financial assistance covers whatever they agree to I am then freed up to go to my doctors and therapist again with no more co pay. But other services do have fees like blood labs etc.

I am currently covered again. But until the deductible is paid off everything is frozen for me. I remember paying two hundred and fifty dollars for some of my medications last year.

I am so sorry to hear about how much you are paying right now and I think it is ridiculous and insane how expensive health care has become in this country. Like I said if I did not have this coverage I would have no health insurance at all.

My payment each month used to be thirty eight dollars a month and has gone for some reason down to a dollar a month now for this year.

I think because I live in crazy California the insurance is better. Just my opinion. Living on a fixed income each month, has its drawbacks. My car registration is due and it went way up and is three hundred dollars on a two year old toyota corolla. But that is because our governor arranged for the gas prices and the DMV prices to go way up to pay for immigration programs as California is in extreme debt right now. I hope all of this makes sense.

So money is going to be very tight for me for the next few months.

 

[lostforgottensoul]

My car registration is due and it went way up and is three hundred dollars on a two year old toyota corolla

That maybe due to state income tax. When I lived in KS (a state with state income tax. Florida doesn't have state income tax) they added property tax for your car onto your registration making it potentionally thousands of dollars depending on what car you have. I was paying a few hundred for a out right owned old car/truck. Its more for a truck. Here in florida my registration for a 2001 chevy cavilar is around 50 bucks. Big difference then the few hundred in KS. Califonia has one of the highest taxes in the country all around. Not fun. Plus ObamaCare is dying. Insurence companies are pulling out. Here in Florida there is only Florida Blue so you have no choice. Some States have no insurence companies so they are screwed. If we opened the States to compete with one another that would be so much better. But anyway, thats a discussion for another thread. I hate that PPOs have been taken away in now two group insurences at two different jobs. PPOs didnt have that huge $750 (and $500 at my last job) burden on the consumer/insured at the beginning of the year. It just had co-pays and thats it.

I think it is ridiculous and insane how expensive health care has become in this country.

Agreed and its sad. ObamaCare was supposed to help, not hurt. It was supppsed to fix healthcare. Healthcare is so broken but I hear Canada is worse.

 

[Deleted member 12723]

I just got off the phone with my doctors receptionist and she is passing the message onto my doctor. It may take up to forty eight hours to get a call back from his nurse with instructions for me. So I am all set and just hoping for some good help from him.

Thank you everyone for weighing to help me, much appreciation for all of your wise advise and tips. You really helped me to come to a far better decision. I was just floundering around not knowing what to do.

 

[Choosing]

Thank you so much, I am feeling a lot of fear right now. I am very upset that no one told me about this ha...

Being surprised is a big trigger for me too. You’re not alone in this.
L

 

[Deleted member 12723]

Being surprised is a big trigger for me too.

Thank you so much, I hate being caught off guard always. I am always at a sudden disadvantage. It takes me a while to catch up and I am also very reactive emotionally.

 

[Deleted member 12723]

Well I now have a three month supply of the Effexor. I went to my pharmacy and told the nurse what I needed and what was going on and she told me it would not take long to fill it.

When they called my name I told a different nurse what I needed and why. He said that last year I used the one time offer so lucking I had the money in the account and now am all caught up on my regular dose. I have to call my doctor tomorrow to tell him that I would like to taper off this stuff while I have the chance having so many doses right now.

I never got even one brain zap.

I want to thank all of you so very much for advising me, I really do feel so helped by all of you.