After I finished my chemo and rads I was put on Tamoxifen and this suited me fine. I got a bulk prescription from by GP - 86 at a time - and I had no problems.
Then I was switched to Aromasin and for some reason my GP won’t give me this med. in bulk so I have it on a repeat prescription every month.
The problem is I only have two tablets left from my current prescription which I will take on Wednesday and Thursday, but when I phoned my chemist to see if my next prescription was ready, she said it wouldn’t be ready until Friday.
I take my tablet in a morning so I can get it out of the way. Will it matter if I my Friday tablet after 5.00 p.m. when I collect it after work?
It worries me so much, esp. when I read on the packet leaflet that they have to be taken at the same time every day!
Please could one of the forum Cancer nurses please advise me as i am really worried about this.
Thank you
Rosalind
hi Rosalind,
I would have thought taking it in the evening and not in the morning for one day would cause no problems. But perhaps you could ring your breast care nurse just to confirm for you. It is always a worry when we are told to take the meds at a certain time
Good Luck
Sandra x
Hi Rosalind
As Sandra has suggested, it would be advisable to give your breast care nurse a call to check out your concerns about taking your medication.
Best wishes
Lucy
Hi Rosalind
I would ring the pharmacy explain that your medication is part of your breast cancer treatment. They CAN do it quicker if they need to. You can ask them if it matters if your treatment is delayed for a day - that will probably get things moving.
I can only get monthly tablets for tamoxifen and it drives me mad. I have other meds as well all monthly but due at different times and it’s so hard to keep track. I think there’s probably been a lot of wastage of meds so they’re restricting now.
Elinda x
Hiya Rosalind,
For the short time I was on the same tablet as you,my G.P.wasnt a happy bunny because of the cost,he said they cost £90 a month so would only prescribe one month at a time in case I developed an adverse reaction to them and wasted any. Hes dead happy now that Im on Tamoxifen,he willingly gave me 3 months before I came to Spain and hopefully will give me 3 months again when I go back next month for a surgeons appointment,if not Ill buy them from the Spanish pharmacy,5 euros over the counter. BTW,over the last year,I have missed my daily tablet at least 8 times,youre obviously doing really well,dont stress about taking it late one day,I personally take a lot of supplements which I have great confidence in,they have all had good reports when given to us BC women,I take Co-enzyme Q10, Selenium,Multibionta(this one prevents problems in private parts) plus Glucosamine and Chondroitin and good old cod-liver oil. If I didnt have constant pain in my shoulder I could almost forget what I`ve had,can recommend this cocktail. Hope your new tablet suits you and you keep well, love Mags xx
Thanks for your support everyone.
I didn’t realise that Aromasin cost £90 a month! So I can now understand why they only give out one months supply at a time!
I will see if I can get hold of my BC nurse, but I do appreciate all your responses.
I am taking OEP and Omega fish oils as a supplement.
Is there a list of supplements on this web site that tell you what is good and what to avoid?
Many thanks for your help.
Rosalind XXXX
Hi Rosalind, I must have a very good GP because he generally gives me a prescription for 2 months of ALL my tablets each time. Have you been back to speak to him/her to tell him the problem you have? If you were unwell for a few days you could be unable to go to collect your pills on the day the chemist gets them in. I just cannot see what the problem is. Nomatter if they are £90 a month…it will mean that it evens itself out over the weeks and saves both the GP and the Pharmacy and yourself less work. I would have a chat with your GP and ask what the problem is…and tell him about yours. Hope this helps. Love Val
The thing that always bugged me was having to pay for my medicines throughout my treatments. I can get the medicines free in the hospital but have to pay them when I go to the chemist…I live in Scotland and the rulkes are different here. But have reached 60 so I get them free at last. Some patients get ALL prescriptipns free because they have (say) thyroid problems. But for 21 years I have had to pay for mine. It is a mad system indeed.
Hello Ladies,
I was at my doctors surgery last week, and am given to understand that in England at least (since April 09) we can now get an exemption certificate to cover the cost of our prescriptions for up to five year from dx of bc.
My doctor was very helpful and filled in the apropriate form for me and even gave me a pre-paid envelope and just told me to sign the form and post it, which I did.
I normally pay for a yearly prescription but it will be very helpful to get the free service once my yearly one runs out in October.
I am awaiting it’s arrival any day now.
Best Wishes
Isabelle xxx
Hi Ladies
Everyone suffering from cancer in England (not sure about Wales Scotland Northern Ireland) gets free prescriptions for 5 years. You need a form signed by your GP and then you send it off, they send you back a medical exemption card that you show to the chemist when you collect your prescriptions.
I only found this out through my Mac nurse as my Gp never mentioned it!!
Phillippa x
Hi again. Haven’t been able to get hold of my BC nurse but I will keep trying.
I am due to see my Doctor for a review in September, but will be seeing my surgeon in August. I don’t see my Onc. until next March.
Neither my GP, Onc, Surgeon or BCN told me about the exemption certificate. I found out about it at the beginning of this year from the girl who works at my local chemist!
It makes me wonder if any of them know what they are doing!
rosalind i think that is terrible that they havent told you about the exemption cert.
i am in scotland and we dont have it here but i still know that you get it in england… our prescription charges are less here at £3 per itema nd going to be free for everybody from april 2011 (which personally i dont really agree with either as i think there will be a certain abuse of the system if that happens… although in wales its free for all so i guess the scottish gov have been watching whats been happeing there before implementing it here.
we can only get two months worth of all tablets here except contraception where its 3 or 6 months unless you go to a clinic eg a family planning clinic would give you up to a years supply of the pill.
i have 6 meds on repeat prescription and only ever get enough for 2 months at a time.
as for taking your meds at the same time… your supposed to take all meds around the same time… if it was very precise they would tell you eg the minipill must take it at same time or within 3 hours… can see anything on the BNF (drug site) that says you must take it at same time exactly.
it must really upset docs when you change to an AI as femara and arimidex are also very pricey at between £65 & £70 compared with £2.20 for a packet of tamoxifen… however the price of the AIs will reduce in time as they are always more expensive at the start as they try to recoup some of the costs involved in research.
Lx
Isabelle - as soon as you get your exemption certificate you can apply for a partial refund of your yearly pre-paid certificate. Don’t wait till it runs out in October - apply asap to get as much as possible refunded (I got 9 months refunded!).
Thanks for that April I will get on to it as soon as my new one arrives.
Best Wishes,
Isabelle xxx
I’ve been on Femara now for 18 months and my GP would only give me a prescription for a month at a time.
There has been a problem with the supply of Femara to chemists and a couple of times I found myself down to my last tablet and phoning round local chemists to see who had the tablets in stock.
It drove me mad so I wrote to my GP telling him of the supply problems and asked if I could have 2 months at a time and for the past few months I have. So I make sure now that I always have at least a weeks supply when I fill my next prescription.
Just a note about the cost. We went to Spain for 10 days in April and I took 14 tablets with me (just in case). Of course we got caught up in the ash cloud fiasco and had to extend our trip. I realised that I didn’t have enough tablets so went to the local pharmacy to see if I could buy them across the counter. Yes 167 euros for a months supply! I went to the local clinic got a prescription from the doctor (thanks to the EHIC card)which then reduced the cost to 2 euros! No problem.
Mal x
RESULT!
I went to my local chemist to collect my prescription yesterday and I explained the situation to him.
He said he would put me on the 4 week - 28 day- repeat prescription list rather than the monthly one, so I should never have this problem again.
Thank you for all your support and advice. It has also been really interesting hearing about your own prescription dilemas.
Rosalind
XXXXXXXX
Hello Ladies,
Just to say I got my exemption card for my prescriptions yesterday,so I’ll have to get the refund on my yearly one now as there is stll five months left on it.Thanks for the advice April.
I hope everyone is well today,
Best Wishes,
Isabelle xxx
Hope I can help you here i am a Dr’s receptionist!!!
The person who said you are only getting one month at a time due to cost is correct. It costs about £75 a month to give us letrozole etc. However…you can ask for a batch prescription whereby your Dr gives you 6 x one month prescriptions. You take these to your pharmacist and they will dispense you with one a month…you just need to return to you GP twice a year for a repeat script (or he may renew on a written request)
All cancer patients in the UK get free scripts whilst on cancer drugs - the same goes for diabetics and thyroid patients
Hope this helps x
PS I am on Femara which is hard to get hold of and use the batch system…I just made sure my Pharmacist always held at least one pack in advance for me each month in case of stock shortage
Pheebster I think it is only cancer patients in England and Wales who get free prescriptions. I don’t think they do in Scotland. Jackie
I live in Scotland and dont get free prescriptions. I buy a pre-paid 4 monthly and as on quite a few different medication, it works out a lot cheaper. Joyce. xx
We definately do not get them free in Scotland although the costs are slowly being reduced. I have had to pay for all my medicines. If you use have more than 2 drugs per month it is worth investing in a yearly prescription but that until recently was approx £100 a year. So over 21 years that has cost me quite a bit! But although I have complained about this inequality for a long time it is still cheaper than the costs of the individula drugs and for that I am grateful. I just think it is so unfair having such antiquated rules regarding presciptions…depending on where you live and what illness you have. For instance if you have a thyroid condition All your drugsd are free, including the contraceptive pill etc. But if you have Cancer the drugs from the hospital are free but the medication from your Gp you have to pay for…even if it is the same drug??? Also you could be working and receiving a salary but get your drugs free ( say if you had thyroid problem) but if you are unemployed and have Cancer you must pay…where is the logic? ( I am sorry if anyone does have a thyroid problem this was just to illustrate the problem). But at least when we all rach 60 we will get them free! XX Val