Lorazepam (Ativan) Refill Question.

[travie864]

- I've got a script of 90 1mg Ativan.

- Called to get em filled a week ago but they won't let me do it early even though I am paying out of my own pocket. I asked to transfer pharmacy and I did. They told me the same thing... I didn't need them then so no sweat, this was just for convience so I let it go.

- I'm out at this point. Got em filled on October 29... today is Nov. 26.... October has 31 days in it so I should add two days, correct? That'd mean I should be able to get em filled Tuesday (the 27th) because they didn't account for the two days in October.

- The woman seemed stern about it being on the 29th. Can I not get em filled 1-2 days early? What's the big deal? Today would be one day early, correct? Because of the two days taht didn't get counted. If that's wrong, still it's just 3 days early. Why are they being so difficult. Really, I just took 3 extra and I'm out because of the two day thing but now they are gonna make me be w/ out for three because of their own flaw.

What's do you all think?

[tryong02]

You have obviously never needed to take any type of stress/anxiety meds. 1mg of Lorazepam is nothing. When I was taking it I would go to a psychiatrist, eventually he told me I could just have my rx maintained by my family doc. Even with a letter to the family practice Dr from my Psychiatrist, the Dr balked at the Lorazepam and tried to get me to take some new stuff that the "legal drug pushers (drug reps)" gave him samples of. Lorazepam is a very old and well studied drug, at 3 mg a day it is quite safe. As my Psychiatrist said, taking a couple of Lorazepams was like having a couple glasses of wine. In the end I switched fam practice dr's. I went to an older Dr who was quite familiar with the older meds and took the Psychiatrist's recommendation.

[nursegirl6572]

They are a controlled substance, like Vicodin, Percocet.  ALL of the pharmacies have to follow the same rules, it's a law.  They are just doing their job.

They will typically refill a narcotic script 3 days early, but no sooner.  It depends on how your script is written, as to how they figure your refill date.  If they are ordered 3 times a day as needed, and your doctor Rx'd 90 pills, that would be a 30 day supply.  Like I said, most pharmacies will fill 3 days early, so that would be day 27.  However, my guess is, since you've tried to refill them early at the original pharmacy, then switched pharmacies, again, trying to get them early, you may have raised red flags for them as far as drug seeking behavior goes, which is why they are being insistent about the 30 days.  

This is only ONE reason you should never take more than prescribed.  Also, doing that will increase your tolerance, and set you up to abuse the med, you have to be very careful with benzos.  If you found the med wasn't working as well, the proper thing to do would be to talk to your doctor, not take extra pills.  How is it prescribed?  What are the instructions on the bottle?

Unfortunately, there isn't much you can do now, unless you call the doc and explain what happened.  They would be able to fill it early with your doc's permission, if he changes the Rx to allow for the extra 3 tablets you took.

In the very least, the doc m,ay be able to write you a script for the extra 3 pills, to get you through to the refill date.  I think it's a good time to discuss this with your doc anyway...if you're needing 90 1mg Ativan in one month, that's an awful lot...(by my calculation, that would be 3 mg daily) sounds like you may do better with a longer acting benzo, like Klonopin.

Perfect time to have a talk with you doc.

Let us know how it turns out.

[drifter0213]

that's a bummer i hear that they do that with pain pills too