Ropinerole availability

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Polar Bear
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Location: United Kingdom

Ropinerole availability

Post by Polar Bear »

Following having my last ropinerole prescription dispensed the pharmacist 'owed me' some pills. Today I visited to pick up the balance and was advised there was a difficulty with supply. The Saturday locum was on duty and no 1mg tablets were available, this locum told me that she also worked in the city and that particular pharmacy also had no 1mg tablets and they were providing 2mg pills that could be halved. She suggested that she ordered up some 2mg pills if I was willing to halve them - this would mean they wouldn't be available until next week. Alternatively there was the option of supplying 4 x .25 pills for each 1mg pill but she wasn't happy about doing this.

My question was - why wait until I came to collect, why didn't the pharmacy contact me sooner regarding this shortage. If they didn't have my contact telephone number on their database they could have posted a short note to me, delivered next day, or they could have contacted my GP whose details were on the prescription and have my medical practice phone me with a message to get in touch with the pharmacy. The locum's response was that she didn't know, she only works Saturdays.

Fortunately I do have enough pills for the next few days but what if I had been going on holiday as I shall be doing in a few weeks.

I do hope that this shortage of 1mg pills is a very temporary hiccup. Also that whatever the cause may be does not affect the pills of other dosages.

I am in the UK. I'm assuming if there was any major issue or a wider supply problem one of our members here would also have come across it.
Betty
https://www.mayoclinicproceedings.org/a ... 0/fulltext
Opinions presented by Discussion Board Moderators are personal in nature and do not, in any way, represent the opinion of the RLS Foundation

Stainless
Posts: 274
Joined: Tue Dec 01, 2015 9:30 pm

Re: Ropinerole availability

Post by Stainless »

Sorry about the hassle getting your prescription. The pharmacists used to make me feel like I was doing something wrong when I picked up a clonazepam script for 20 years. Apparently benzos are trouble but worked well for me and I don't know how you could abuse it since it just put me to sleep.

When I was on a low dose I could not squirrel away any spares for the inevitably of problems getting a new script every month. Later when I was on higher doses I would take less on good nights and have backups.

I think before you spoke of the maximum ropinerole dose being something like 1 mg. Clinical Management of RLS and everything online says 4 mg. I am taking 1 mg. now but seem to get much better all day relief on 1 1/2. I am trying keep it to a minimum and to come up with a game plan going forward since the ropinerole seems to have about the worst augmentation record. I don't see any alternatives on the horizon.

Polar Bear
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Location: United Kingdom

Re: Ropinerole availability

Post by Polar Bear »

Fortunately my pharmacist wasn't being difficult as such, it was more that those on duty during the week had been inefficient. All will be sorted.

Yes, most documentation still refers to the max dose of ropinerole to treat RLS/WED as 4mg. However, several of the experts now consider that the dosage of 4mg is enough to encourage augmentation and would recommend the max should be 1mg.
Betty
https://www.mayoclinicproceedings.org/a ... 0/fulltext
Opinions presented by Discussion Board Moderators are personal in nature and do not, in any way, represent the opinion of the RLS Foundation

ViewsAskew
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Re: Ropinerole availability

Post by ViewsAskew »

Hi Stainless - the newest version of Clinical Mgmt on page 164 says to keep it at 1 mg if at all possible to reduce the chance of side effects.

Hi Polar Bear - you'd think they would have let you know since it impacted your order and you had to tell her what you wanted to do... Guess you are lucky that they do have 2 mg tabs - how horrible if they had a shortage of all of them.
Ann - Take what you need, leave the rest

Managing Your RLS

Opinions presented by Discussion Board Moderators are personal in nature and do not, in any way, represent the opinion of the RLS Foundation, and are not medical advice.

Yankiwi
Posts: 548
Joined: Wed Sep 10, 2014 7:20 am
Location: West Coast, South Island, New Zealand

Re: Ropinerole availability

Post by Yankiwi »

There are shortages of some common medications in New Zealand and the pharmacy will sometimes "owe" part of a prescription but it will be available a few days later. I have a spare bottle of 100 .25mg ropinerole because I only take one .25mg tablet each night and my prescription is for up to four. Usually I tell the pharmacist I don't want a new jar. The shortages might be part of the drug buying agencies in countries with socialized medicine.

Polar Bear
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Re: Ropinerole availability

Post by Polar Bear »

Views - yes, the thought of there being a general shortage doesn't bear thinking about.
Betty
https://www.mayoclinicproceedings.org/a ... 0/fulltext
Opinions presented by Discussion Board Moderators are personal in nature and do not, in any way, represent the opinion of the RLS Foundation

Polar Bear
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Posts: 8797
Joined: Tue Dec 26, 2006 4:34 pm
Location: United Kingdom

Re: Ropinerole availability

Post by Polar Bear »

Just to give a quick update on the balance of ropinerole 1mg pills that were owed to me, were unavailable, and thus one week later the 2mg pills were being ordered by the Saturday locum and which I could cut in half.
Yesterday, Wednesday, 10 days after initially going to have my prescription dispensed, I returned to the pharmacy to pick up the agreed 2mg pills and was attended by the Final Year Student Pharmacist in Training who advised that to obtain the 2mg pills I needed a new doctor's prescription for 2mg.

I was speechless............ explained my frustration. i.e. I'd waited a week to be told that the balance 1mg were unavailable and would I accept 2mg pills to cut in half. The 2 mg pills had to be ordered. Now to be told I couldn't have the 2mg without a new prescription. Why didn't the pharmacist tell me last Saturday that I needed a new prescription. So, there's me, straight faced..... expressing my disappointment at their inefficiency and how it would take several days to get another prescription - which also meant hoping the (unimpressive) medical receptionist at my GP Practice would pass the request correctly to my doctor.

There was a silence of many seconds eye-to-eye while I waited... wasn't going anywhere, eventually Student Pharmacist excused herself, went into the back and spoke with Brian the regular pharmacist - whisper whisper - and came out with the balance medication in 2mg format.

I drove home telling myself - Ha !! I laugh in the face of inefficiency !!
Until next month and my next prescription :)
Betty
https://www.mayoclinicproceedings.org/a ... 0/fulltext
Opinions presented by Discussion Board Moderators are personal in nature and do not, in any way, represent the opinion of the RLS Foundation

ViewsAskew
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Joined: Thu Oct 28, 2004 6:37 am
Location: Los Angeles

Re: Ropinerole availability

Post by ViewsAskew »

Polar Bear wrote:
I drove home telling myself - Ha !! I laugh in the face of inefficiency !!
Until next month and my next prescription :)


Indeed!!!

I would have been just about apoplectic, by the way...thank goodness for someone who can identify idiotic processes and rules and overrule them!
Ann - Take what you need, leave the rest

Managing Your RLS

Opinions presented by Discussion Board Moderators are personal in nature and do not, in any way, represent the opinion of the RLS Foundation, and are not medical advice.

Polar Bear
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Posts: 8797
Joined: Tue Dec 26, 2006 4:34 pm
Location: United Kingdom

Re: Ropinerole availability

Post by Polar Bear »

Apoplectic is a great word.
Betty
https://www.mayoclinicproceedings.org/a ... 0/fulltext
Opinions presented by Discussion Board Moderators are personal in nature and do not, in any way, represent the opinion of the RLS Foundation

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