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Imitrex in Vials - Huge Improvement


cbitter
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Hi All,

This cycle, I was finally able to get my doc to prescribe Imitrex in vials. 

It is much simpler and a lot cleaner compared to taking apart and "splitting" the cartridge injectors.

Additionally, I find that .2ml is perfectly sufficient to abort most attacks under Kip8.  And while the vials are labeled as .5ml, I'm able to get three separate .2ml injections from each vial.

1ml "insulin" syringes with thin 33-gauge needles work great.  Don't let your doc or pharmacist try to convince you that you need a larger gauge for "draw up."

It took some persistence to get prescribed - and a bit of searching to find a pharmacy that stocked them (my Rite Aid was able to do so with a generic sumatriptan - but I highly recommend vials if you have to use Imitrex.

Craig

 

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Hey Big J... in my experience, insurance companies are much more focused on "units" (not MGs) allowed per month.  Try to get a script for the 6mg (.5ml) auto-injectors and see if your insurance will allow 10 cartridges/month (giving you twice the total MGs of sumatriptan).  

Or, just get the vials... waaaay better.

:)

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  • 1 month later...
On ‎4‎/‎10‎/‎2018 at 6:42 AM, cbitter said:

Hey Big J... in my experience, insurance companies are much more focused on "units" (not MGs) allowed per month.  Try to get a script for the 6mg (.5ml) auto-injectors and see if your insurance will allow 10 cartridges/month (giving you twice the total MGs of sumatriptan).  

Or, just get the vials... waaaay better.

:)

"units' is EXACTLY the right word.... insurance-ese is like a foreign language...clusterheads gotta learn it...

...and always keep in mind....insurance companies operate in a twilight zone of up is down...black is white...yes is no...no is yes...don't believe what I say on Tuesday because it will change on Thursday. So, NEVER accept the first answer...and NEVER accept NO. It's a GAME...ya need to learn how to play...don't get mad...get busy. They WANT you to quit...DON'T. Use their own tactics on them...persistent refusal doesn't make them right...refuse to lose...sometimes they give up (THAT'S what they hope YOU do!). Sometimes they quote FALSE reasoning...as in: "that is not a medically acceptable/necessary/approved treatment for you". THAT would be known commonly as "bullshit"....because then they would be practicing medicine without a license...without having SEEN you as a patient. Get thee a willing Doc to fight for you....sometimes all you need is a "letter of medical necessity" indicating THIS is what the Doc has decided YOU need. Stuff in writing like that scares the pants off the "green eye shades" in the basement of  Screw-You Insurance Company ( that's ALL of them...I don't care what the name on the bldg./website says).

Vials vials VIALS...YES!! Twice the bang for the same price.....with no "McGyver-ing" involved. If your Doc...for some unknown reason... won't prescribe...ask the Pharm to sub out the Stat-doses for vials, and get a box of insulin needles. Try multiple pharmacies if necessary. As one Pharm told me...it's the SAME med...SAME price....doesn't matter to us.

One way I got past limits: when the requested triptan script called for 12 ( I really needed 18)...the insurance company only approved 6. The Doc said Okayyy...watch this....and wrote another script for a different triptan (smart/savy lady). Approved without question...at a higher total cost to them than just giving me the 12 in the first place. YES...I know NOT to mix triptans...I ALWAYS waited at least 24 hrs between different meds (per Doc). It would be funny if there weren't fellow clusterheads suffering thru this maze w/o the right Doc and/or enough "pissed of and not gonna take this anymore".

Best

Jon

 

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Use of vials is off most insurance radar.  Generally you can get 5 vials (6mg) which can be 3 doses each at a cost well below the autoinjector.  Glad you found a better solution.  Just be careful not to overuse imitrex as rebounds suck as much as clusters..  

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