Stockpiling medications?

I know many of You have 'emergency sacs'. How does someone acquire life-sustaining meds to stockpile in case of an emergency or natural disaster? That's one of My biggest fears, not having the medication My child would need.

You could talk to your doctor or pharmacist. Its quite legitimate to ask, as the threat of natural disasters and terrorism is big, and most emergency pamphlets state that you should have loads of extra medication in case of emergency.

It should not be too difficult to ask for, nor will people think you strange for wanting it.

I'm thinking about stocking up on Tamiflu (to counter H5N1), the biggest waste of money our Governments are investing in

Seriously though, yes I think it would be a good idea to invest. Also, tinned foods and plenty of water. If anything did happen chaos would erupt in all supermarkets with money becoming of little value.

If you're paying cash for your scripts, there's no problem at all, just get an extra one from your doctor.

If you rely on insurance to cover the costs of the prescriptions, most likely you'll need to contact them to say why you need extra medication or you'll get a "TOO SOON" insurance rejection.

edit:

Also you might want to rotate your meds, i.e. if you get a medication once a month and have an extra in storage, when you refill each month swap the newly prescribed pills for the ones you got a month ago.

[edit on 9/10/2006 by djohnsto77]

Djohn,

Cash or Insurance, the pharmacies account for what you are due. I think the best thing to do is to ask your doctor for a prescription the pharmacy can have "on file" in case of an emergency.

One area that people might look to for "emergency" medical supplies is your local farmers supply store .... Many of these types of stores supply antibiotics for animals. Often the very same antibiotics that are given to human patients by "prescription only" can be purchased directly from stores that supply agricultural needs.

Originally posted by dgtempe
Djohn,

Cash or Insurance, the pharmacies account for what you are due. I think the best thing to do is to ask your doctor for a prescription the pharmacy can have "on file" in case of an emergency.

One extra month of prescriptions won't ring any bells, it's done all the time for people going on vacation overseas or camping or somewhere else where they can't get to a pharmacy. Now if you're getting a month's worth of vicodin everyday for a few months, then yeah, some bell in the DEA is going to start ringing

My big question is just how long most of these medications last?

She's literally got two large drawers full of everything from pain killers to Penicillan and all else in between. Mostly she just hates to throw things away and fears that if she does she'll discover she "needed" it. Not to mention the out of pocket costs.

I suppose if there's ever a massive disaster she'll be the local pharmacist LOL.

Anyone know where you can go to find out the actual shelf lives of common medications?

It all depends on the medication, but I believe all benefit from being refrigerated. I know some antibiotics have very short shelflives, while others can almost last forever.

I dont know how it is some other places, but the pharmacies here mind your business...i dont care if its penicillin or pain killers! If you're a couple of days early, you aint getting them be it cash or insurance....but that s Cape Cod...everyone here abuses something or other.

I swear everyone here takes something whether they need it or not.

And the one hospital we have is full at night of the chronic complainers.....pain. Ouch.

Over the counter medications should have expiry dates on the package. Rotating the medication is also a great idea. If you want to put an emergency kit together--discuss it with your doctor, if you can get in. They should be able to write scripts to go into the emergency kit and have the pharmacy put expiry dates on the package/bottles so you know the medication will be good until then. If you want to put a kit together try to have a solid reason and length of time you want to use the kit for. Like-- I want to have an emergency medicine supply in case we have a heavy storm like Katrina and have no access to regular medical facilities for 2 weeks--. This will give your doctor an idea of how long to write the scripts for and that you have a concrete plan in mind. The doctor might even suggest a one month supply or more of some medications if they may be hard to get after a disaster.

Most emergencies will be of a short term duration unless you are thinking of a survivalist kit for long term things like nuclear war. Power outages, floods, etc. usually have some kind of response within 2 weeks to a month at the longest. You may lose everything else but at least your kit will keep you prepared for shorter term emergencies.

If you get a prescription from a doctor, there's plenty of online medication sites that will fill it, probably as many times as you want...they will even do an online consultation for the meds to approve you for prescriptions. I've never done this so I don't know how reliable or legal it is, but it would be one way. Also if you're worried about health problems coming from some kind of disaster, you should be even more concerned about maintining general health to begin with...eat well, exercise, and refrain from taking any prescriptions for extended periods of time if you can avoid it, especially things like antibiotics or steroids.

Ok- i stockpiled.

OTC:

Excedrin
Tylenol- extra strength
Percogesic- good for headaches and makes you a little sleepy.
Tylenol PM
Tylenol Arthritis strength-
Vitamin C
Vitamin B12
Cough Syrup
Homeopathic stuff like Airborne
____

Under the Counter:

3 months worth of pretty good stuff.

dg, you shouldn't take so much Tylenol, it's bad for your liver especially if you drink alcohol regularly.

I have a two month supply of Cipro. It expires in another year, but I am hoping never to need it. Cipro is a pretty trustworthy antibiotic though. Otherwise, I have my usually hurricane preparedness kit, and don't bother with anything else.

Tons of herbal meds on hand as well.

niteboy, have you actually ever taken it? My aunt took an antibiotic related to Cipro and had a really bad allergic reaction and almost died. I took the same drug and had no problem.

Just saying you should know how you react to drugs before you stockpile them for emergency use.

Originally posted by djohnsto77
dg, you shouldn't take so much Tylenol, it's bad for your liver especially if you drink alcohol regularly.

I (moi) drink regularly? ha ha ha ha ha

I have a Margarita once a year- ya think im in danger???

Still I'd suggest aspirin, ibuprofin (Advil) or naproxen sodium (Aleve) or some prescription drug over acetaminophen (Tylenol).

The stuff is really poison, countless human lives have been lost by overdoses and cats can't tolerate it at all so if a cat just accidently eats one pill its liver will be destoyed and it will die.