Zofran I'd the only anti-nausea med I'm not allergic to. Certainly not as much of an issue for me as for chemo patients, but scary.

It is crazy making. Even crazier is the $190 jump in cost to the patient. That's just fucked up.

I have complicated feelings about the college kids who use it as a study aid (meaning the ones who aren't prescribed it by their doctors). On the one hand, calling it "drug abuse" seems like the wrong term since they aren't really abusing it--they aren't going on a study bender!--but on the other I do worry about long term use of such powerful drugs without a doctor's supervision.

This explains his other problem, which is getting the Nurse Practitioner at the college to prescribe it for him. For me, it is just so obvious that he needs it-- he has a pretty hard time even when he is on it, but I think it takes the edge off just enough that he can use coping techniques. Again, I can relate, because my Celexa use doesn't mean I don't have emotions or get sad, but it does mean I can have some control.

Are the companies only doing this with mental illness meds, because that goes back to the "isn't really a sickness" train of thought, which also sucks. I mean, would they for example, ask someone to pay for extra insulin or blood pressure meds?

I think it's anything with a street use, like the oxycodone.

Well, didn't Kat upthread say that they're only paying 2/3 for Grace's breathing meds, or something?

Oh, right. That I'm not sure about.

Zofran (ondansetron)?

No--compazine. Zofran's totally available in IV and pill form. I take it in both. I just wish it worked as well on migraines.

Man, the Bloggess really is One of Us. [link]

I swear that the war on drugs causes more pain and hardship than actual drugs.

If you really want to contemplate the completely screwed up nature of our health care system, ponder the reasons for the shortages of essential cancer drugs [link] It has mainly come about because the amount of money an oncologist in private practice makes is based on a percentage of the cost of the drugs, so they order expensive drugs rather than generics and drug companies stop making the generics.

It makes me feel warm and fuzzy about my treatment at Kaiser, since my drugs were generic because Kaiser doctors make a salary. I don't know if there are any potential problems down the road for my generic Adderal from Kaiser.