quest for dye free meds

It should have been simple. My son's doctor wants him to switch to a different antifungal medication. A generic prescription should be either 4 or 10 dollars at my pharmacy. There's only one problem. Every dose of the medication has red# 40 in it, name brand as well as generic. The doctor had thought it was a white tablet when she prescribed it.

The suspension liquid is dye free, but it has lots of sugar, which my son is supposed to avoid in order to fight his intestinal yeast overgrowth. So two doses of sugary syrup every day doesn't seem like a good plan. The liquid also has sodium benzoate, which always seems to wire him too.

So, after a failed trip to the pharmacy, the one where I thought I'd be able to drop of the prescription for white pills and be on my way in 15 minutes, three calls to other pharmacies, I'm going to pay big again for a specially compounded medication. I found out that Medicine Shop compounds medication, but the pharmacist didn't call back so I went ahead and faxed the prescription to Lee Silsby again. At least I'll save about $25-30 by getting a 2 month supply all at once. That's only after I pay out 200 for what should have only cost 20. If this keeps up I may need to post ads on my blog.

Someday, there will be a better way. I just wish that "someday" was a little closer to now. This battle gets old. I need to start writing to politicians again.

dye free meds are coming

I heard back from the compounding pharmacy and they are shipping me the medicine. Here is a link in case you need to try to get dye free meds: Lee Silsby Compounding Pharmacy. The lady I spoke to was very helpful and checked with the pharmacist several times to answer all my questions. She said it is not common for people to request dye free, but maybe we just need to get the word out that this is possible. WE DO HAVE A CHOICE!
They had 3 options. I could get capsules, grape dye-free liquid, or plain liquid sweetened with Stevia. So, there is a choice, you just have to be really really persistent. My pharmacy and regular pediatrician never told me about this place, they may not know about it. And, oh yes, of course, we are going to pay a lot for it too. The first prescription cost $50.00 for the month supply of red #40 pills. (My son is great at swallowing pills.) The liquid or the capsules both cost $75.00. I'm doubtful our prescription plan will cover the cost of the 2nd prescription, but I'm going to try to make some headway on that later today. Otherwise, how can I know that a medicine is doing it's job when I have to sort out the mess that red #40 turns my son into?!