{"id":535,"date":"2008-12-15T19:44:42","date_gmt":"2008-12-15T19:44:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bipolarhappens.com\/bhblog\/2008\/12\/15\/reader-comment-running-out-of-lamictal\/"},"modified":"2018-05-15T10:01:30","modified_gmt":"2018-05-15T17:01:30","slug":"reader-comment-running-out-of-lamictal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bipolarhappens.com\/bhblog\/reader-comment-running-out-of-lamictal\/","title":{"rendered":"Reader Comment: Running out of Lamictal"},"content":{"rendered":"

Here is a comment from Gina about running out of\u00a0 (Lamotrigine): <\/o><\/span><\/p>\n

Hi Julie, <\/span><\/p>\n

I’m gonna run out of Lamictal before the year ends and insurance won’t cover any till after 1\/1. I take 400mg per day, what can I do to stretch this out? I can’t afford to buy them! The doctor didn’t have any samples. \ud83d\ude41\u00a0 <\/span>Any ideas? <\/span><\/p>\n

I called GSK and because I can’t scrape up $600 worth of receipts for this year they won’t help me. Other drs office has no samples. It was like $18 per day to get just enough to get me into next year. It’s nerve wracking coming off 400 mg per day down to so little though. I definitely had some bad timing this year. I’m on medicare part D and am in the gap where I have to pay everything in cash. Of course, I’m not allowed to post on freecycle (already tried!) because it’s a prescription. I wish I knew someone else I could borrow some from and then give them back in January. I don’t know what to do.<\/o><\/span>Hi Gina, <\/o><\/span><\/p>\n

I know exactly how you feel about this. My Lamictal is so incredibly expensive without insurance and it\u2019s scary to run out.\u00a0 <\/span>Lamictal, as you can tell has some serious withdrawal symptoms.\u00a0 <\/span>So, you already called Glaxo- for those reading who don\u2019t know, the major drug companies have programs where people can apply for reduced cost and sometimes free prescriptions.\u00a0 <\/span>I am sorry that didn\u2019t work as it would be one of my first suggestions. I also know that Lamictal is not a normal\u00a0sample for a doctor\u2019s office. Drug reps seem to give out anti depressants like candy, but not the really expensive stuff like Lamictal. <\/span><\/p>\n

By the way- I take 500 mg a day- which is a really high dose and my prescription would be over $600 a month without insurance. As of now, I have a $70 co-pay as I don\u2019t use generic. The generic runs about $300 a month. <\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s great that you tried as many options as possible, but it\u2019s\u00a0too bad that they\u00a0didn\u2019t work out!\u00a0 <\/span>So, here are some ideas.\u00a0 <\/span>I assume the $18 a day is a generic option.\u00a0 <\/span>Can you borrow money from a large number of people? For example- $10 here and $20 there. You will have to come up with around $300 I guess. Sometimes it\u2019s too much for one person to do a big loan, but small loans are possible. Have you tried asking at a support group? I am not telling you to do something illegal here- and as you know, I\u2019m not a doctor- but I know that I have some extra around that I could loan out if someone asked. \u00a0<\/span>Has your doctor done all that she or he can? Can they call around for some samples? You have tried a lot of the areas I would normally suggest. I wish I had more ideas. When money is the issue, it\u2019s hard to get the medications we need.\u00a0 Another thought, c<\/span>an you do an emergency room visit? I guess it all depends on how well you can handle going two weeks without enough meds. I can’t go for two weeks on a lower dose as I get too ill, so I would go to the emergency room if I had to. <\/span><\/p>\n

I definitely suggest spreading out what you have as much as possible, as stopping completely will not be fun. Maybe someone else on the blog has more ideas, but I have to say it seems you have been very thorough already. I am glad it\u2019s only two weeks until the beginning of the year!\u00a0 <\/span><\/o><\/span>Julie <\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0Here is an update from Gina: <\/span><\/p>\n

Thank you. I ended up searching those free discount drug cards until I found the one where lamotrigine came up the cheapest for 30 pills (2 weeks). It was $75 from Walgreens. I printed out 3 different ones in case they bawked at the pharmacy, but it went through. It will get me through to the 4th or so, I think. I sure could’ve used that $75 on something else… oh well \ud83d\ude42\u00a0 Thank you,\u00a0 <\/span><\/o><\/span>Gina<\/span><\/o><\/span><\/o><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here is a comment from Gina about running out of (Lamotrigine): <\/p>\n

Hi Julie, <\/p>\n

I’m gonna run out of Lamictal before the year ends and insurance won’t cover any till after 1\/1. I take 400mg per day, what can I do to stretch this out? I can’t afford to buy them! The doctor didn’t have any samples. \ud83d\ude41 Any ideas? <\/p>\n

I called GSK and because I can’t scrape up $600 worth of receipts for this year they won’t help me. Other drs office has no samples. It was like $18 per day to get just enough to get me into next year. It’s nerve wracking coming off 400 mg per day down to so little though. I definitely had some bad timing this year. I’m on medicare part D and am in the gap where I have to pay [ Read More ]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bipolarhappens.com\/bhblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/535"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bipolarhappens.com\/bhblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bipolarhappens.com\/bhblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bipolarhappens.com\/bhblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bipolarhappens.com\/bhblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=535"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.bipolarhappens.com\/bhblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/535\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12116,"href":"https:\/\/www.bipolarhappens.com\/bhblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/535\/revisions\/12116"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bipolarhappens.com\/bhblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=535"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bipolarhappens.com\/bhblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=535"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bipolarhappens.com\/bhblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=535"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}