Medication Switcherooo

[Aliceisalive]

Difficult times...
Before the end of 2008 I was taking Clonazepam, (1mg three times a day)
Effexor XR (75 mgs 3 of them every morning) Trileptal (cannot remember dosage, but i took two in the morning and three in the evening) Seroquel (200mg once at night) and my birth control yasmin. This combination of medicine worked EXCELLENTLY after almost 10 years of testing out medications and was able to function MUCH better than ever in my lifetime.
Mainly the addition of seroquel and trileptal.
At the end of 2008 I got off my father's insurance (turned 25)

At that point I had no insurance for any of my meds. The bill for buying this medication outright without insurance was well over $1,500 a month if not over $2,000. I still had a little effexor and trileptal left over so i decided to use it very sparingly only taking one of each a day, still the withdrawals were HORRIBLE. Alas all my meds ran out and i was suffering withdrawal from 5 medications at once. I tried to find insurance for myself... but since my meds were such a high price nobody wanted to insure me. I did find one company which did, but only took about ten percent off of the original price of my meds. Still WAY too much for me to pay. I spent the next three weeks calling insurance companies... and feeling sicker than I had ever felt in my entire life.
Lying on the couch, dizzy and nausious and my entire body tingling and my eyes unable to focus on anything.

And then I finally got my appt with my doc. He switched my effexor to Pristiq, Trileptal to the generic Tegretol, and wanted to switch my Seroquel to a generic but the price was still going to be over $200 so i couldn't afford that one. Thankfully my insurance covered ONE of my meds (clonazepam) for $20. *Still dont have my birth control

I've been taking my new meds Pristiq and Tegretol for about a week now.
I've noticed, that i can focus a bit better now and can drive (on a good day) now, but that's the only good thing i can say.

I've been very short-tempered, angry and critical of me and others. Losing control of my anger and breaking things. Very restless and burst into tears over nothing. It rather ***** when you're so annoyed at everything that you even annoy yourself. I'm scared with suicidal thoughts when i MAKE myself sit down and be calm. It crawls inside of me and makes me want to rip myself apart. I don't want to hurt myself... or others... I'm a very non violent person in most cases. I recently slashed open my leg just to get this anger out of me. This isn't me. My boyfriend is caught in the middle of this and tries his best to help me in any way he can. I did get out of the house this week which was extremely difficult... I held it together for my boyfriends b-day and went shopping but by the time i got home i couldn't pretend anymore and anxiety swallowed me whole. I had such shortness of breath i thought he was going to have to take me to the hospital.

Is this the new medication? Is this still the withdrawal from my last medication? Is this a hormonal imbalance from not taking birth control pills?

I WISH i could stay on the meds i was on... but it seems that it's just not going to be affordable as no insurance wants me.

Please! ANY input is greatly appreciated!

[Laurallei]

Alice,

On another post I read about a couple of websites.  Not sure if they will help but worth a try.  www.pparx.org & www.rxassist.org.

Goodluck,

Laura

[abby10]

Try local government agencies that offer "sliding fee scales" you pay according to your income. A lot of times (depending on where you live) they will cover most of your meds.

abby

[RubyWitch]

Not to rain on anybodies parade here, but if you DO chose to use an on-line pharmacy, PLEASE make sure you check them out thoroughly before you buy from them. Horror stories abound regarding the meds sold from on-line pharmacies. Many come from other countries who do not have the strigent guidelines we do. Just please be very, very careful.
GL  

[RubyWitch]

You are finding yourself in the same horrible predicament so many people are. It's criminal that in this country, people cannot afford the medicine they need.
Sadly, I don't have an answer for you, Alice. Sounds like you've explored the insurance angle and found out that's a dead end. That your doctor is trying to help by putting you on less expensive meds is good, but falls short of what you need, as you still can't afford some of it. Some pharmaceutical companies will offer assistance to people who need to be on their medicines........might be worth the effort to see if any of yours will help.
Your birth control should be free or extremely low cost at a clinic. Planned Parenthood would be a good starting point. I'm sure your workplace offers insurance, but if they are like most, it would take damn near your entire paycheck to afford it.
I am really sorry that I don't have much more to offer you and I hope that someone else on the forum has some avenues you could explore. You certainly aren't the only one here having to deal with this.
If you were to move home, would that get you back on your father's insurance? I know our youngest son was eligible for ours IF he lived at home and was going to school. So I'm sure most insurance companies have the same "roadblocks" in place. And I think at age 25 they cut you off no matter what. I just really don't know enough about that........
The only other thing I can think of is talking with your doctor again and seeing if there is some med you could eliminate. But if you need all of them, that is obviously not an option.
If I was in your shoes, I think I would try writing to the med companies and ask them if they offer any kind of assistance program. You might be surprised, but definitely prepare yourself for disappointment.
This is so lame, but I wish you luck in finding help.
Peace
Greenlydia