i’m pretty sure it’s illegal to modify a script after it’s been signed…
Just for argument’s sake having a prescription for insulin doesn’t mean you’ve been trained to use it - though that’s the hope.
The insulin scrip has been a bit of a red herring here though. For pumpers it’s more about the sets, reservoirs, etc.
Thanks for your comments.
Fair Winds,
Mike
You can abuse lots of stuff. The mere fact that you can walk right up and purchase R and NPH insulin for $25/vial in the US is hardly an impediment to misuse.
I agree with Mike. The whole insulin example is a red herring. Insulin is special. Banting and Best agreed to license it only if it would not be denied to diabetics (by doctors). Doctors regained control with the insulin analogs, but the availability of insulin without prescription is still a remnant of that history. The problem with infusion sets and things like syringes is really questionable. You can hurt yourself a lot more with a razor blade, yet you don’t need a prescription for a razor blade. In fact a child can buy a razor blade.
We don’t need prescriptions for insulin in Canada, or for syringes, insulin pump supplies, etc. If it works that way here, i.e., never heard of anyone misusing insulin or pump supplies, why does it have to be regulated elsewhere? I purposely don’t use prescripitions, because it saves my insurance company money. It’s cheaper to buy the supplies without scrips.
By the way, I can’t see how ball players can use injected insulin. For non-diabetics, it’d make them go into insulin shock. They used to use it to shock depressed patients in psychiatric hospitals, rather than electric shock. And even if the non-diabetic ball player ate lots of glucose, his own pancreas would put out more insulin, so he’d still go into shock. Puzzles me.
Not just ball players do/have done this. Cyclists who race competitively and have diabetes have to get special items from the governing body of the cycling community called TUE’s (therapeutic use exemptions) so that they are permitted to use insulin.
It has been used in the past as a performance enhancing drug by cyclists. And the pancreas would sense this extra insulin and prevent an excessive amount from dumping into the system (it doesn’t know that it didn’t actually make that insulin), so the individual should not go too low from their pancreas overfilling the system. However, the low could occur if there was not enough glucose on board when the individual took the extra injection though.
I agree with you here.
but I don’t think that’s the point why needles requires prescriptions,just think of all the things that you would administer ,subcutaneously,with those needles,my head hurts when I think of little teenagers using the same needles I use to push god knows what into their system!
I kind of understand why insulin is restricted,I mean,you could really get into trouble if not using it properly,but sometimes,I think it should be left of the hook.
as for the needles.I was once traveling abroad,in England,I lost my box of fine needles,I had to use the same needle I came with for weeks!,when we went to the pharmacy and asked for the needles,they told me that it requires a prescription!
I don’t mind the doctor’s fee,one,because I already see my endo every month or so(newly dx),two,because I’m not paying for them,the insurance does,if not,the government.
I have thought this many times - not just with prescriptions, but with getting renewals for them. Prescription. Fine. But why do I have to get one renewed for medication for a disease that’s chronic? Asking this question, though, is similar to searching for the meaning of life. You won’t get too far.
Actually insulin is perhaps the most anabolic of all the hormones. I would suggest that this topic is perhaps inappropriate to discuss and providing information on that topic is not in the best interests of this community.
So why don’t we just leave it at that.
Voted best answer.
I agree 
I had a Dr do this to me as well. It wasn’t a modification of an existing script, but my year-long script had expired & she refused to write a new one for more than a month unless I came in again. I also found myself another Dr.
There are actually state laws that govern when prescriptions expire. For instance in Tx, they expire in 6 months to a year depending on the drug (http://www.tsbp.state.tx.us/consumer/broch4.htm).
Actually BSC,
I tested this the other day. David’s glucagon kit had expired. I had no idea when I first filled the prescription that I was given upteen refills, same for his second fill and only on asking for a third RX did I realize that the endo had prescribed upteen refills, all along. So I now, have glucagon prescripts at every pharamacy near home, am starting on kit 3 while the last two, expired, have gone unused.
I live in Canada, where I have not come across any diabetes supplies other than glucagon, of which I am now uncertain, where a prescription is actually needed, to be filled. I asked the pharmacist last night, do you have a glucagon kit in stock? She did. Do I need a prescription to request one? She was not sure, she needed to check a schedule 2 list to see. After several minutes of her trying to check and waiting on the computer, I told her that checking might not really be relevant as I am almost certain that I have a repeat filed with her particular pharmacy. She responded that the prescription with the filling fee IS VERY more than likely less expensive than providing the glucagon without a RX and did then confirm that yes David does have a RX on file. So I filled the RX.
I then waited in line at pick up and suggested to a senior that she pass me to the cash, as over and above the RX I also needed to get ketostix and glucose test strips, so I didn’t want to hold the senior up while I requested the additional “hand written” receipts that I would need. Lo and behold the poor senior had just purchased a glucose meter that day. Did three blood pokes in the a.m. and got C something errors to all. While she brought the meter back, she had not brought her strips. The pharmacist suggested she come back with the strips for guidance and went through a few basic steps. The senior figured she probably ran into trouble as she was not putting the strip into the machine, before adding the blood. So here she was sticking the strip on her blood dot and then sticking it in the machine. SO WHO HERE thinks she understood the instructions enough to know that she has to CODE the machine to the strips.
Where are our doctors /pharmacies in all of this. HOW does this kind up stuff end up in the hands of people who have been given zero to no instruction on how to use the tools that have been prescripted… and yet HOW much was that prescription FILL, FEE, and doctor visit fee.?
Cheryl
Yes, that is correct. MM will contact the Dr and so will my pharmacy mail order service Medco.
I believe you can walk into a pharmacia in Central America or South America and get insulin without a prescription because I saw this on a Dlife episode last year. So why is the US different?
I personally agree with you on the insulin, especially since the dose is not fixed, like a pill. It creates problems, such as when I went to Germany in '08, and wanted to get an extra vial of insulin before I left. Even though there is no fixed dose written on my Humalog prescription, the pharmacist had to fight with her computer in order to allow me to purchase that vial.