Prescription medicines and generics
I have had a bad experience overnight. I use Panamax Forte as a pain killer on bad nights to sleep - I use them sparingly too so last me a while. I got a new script filled on 30th December and opened it up last night and it wasn't my usual Panamax Forte but a different one called Codalgin Forte. Now it supposedly had 30 mg of codeine in each capsule like Panamax Forte has. So I took one at 10pm going to bed early as leg ached and I cant sleep without a strong painkiller on these nights it plays up - well by 11pm it hadn't kicked in so took a second one making it 60mg of codeine. By now I was back in the lounge room sitting up as I cant get comfortable lying down when it is that painful and that is why I need the strong one. I couldn't sleep there either so waited out the time 4hrs and tried taking 2 Panadeine tablets which each have 8mg of codeine in them = 16 mg. They worked after a fashion and enough to go back to bed and sleep lightly until 6am.
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Weird as you would expect 60mg to work and if not some might say my body has got too used to it - but then 18mg worked enough to dull the pain if not strong enough to sleep deeply without being conscious of it at the same time.
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Today I went back to the chemist and told them I had said I did not want a generic and they changed it over for me to real drug.
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I get so sick of this as recently found they had slipped in a generic on another drug I use and had wondered why it wasn't as efficient.
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BTW it cost me $4.30 extra to get the real drug that was tested and trialled for years to be approved onto the market. Whereas these generics only have to have the active ingredient in them and the fillers can be different the Pharmacist (owns the shop) told me and she has marked my file now with no generics at all - thank goodness.
She told me that generics do not always work as well as the original drug - so I asked her why then do your assistants ask "Do you want the cheaper drug" when they should say generic drug as most of us understand that generics are cheap and were developed for third world countries who couldn't afford first world meds.
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As God only issued me with one body I want to keep it as healthy as possible don't you?
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Blow using third world meds - we are supposed to be a wealthy country and if the UK as someone recently posted can give their pensioners FREE scripts - why are we having to pay when we have paid our way all our lives by working and paying our taxes and are due a bit of TLC when we are elderly.
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I will finally get a specialist appointment next month and find out why this pain is so blooming awful as it is not arthritis the GP says. Not in the joint.
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If I had the money I would have kept the rotten ones that didn't work and I would have had them tested to see just what was in them - just cant have had 30mg of codeine in each by my reckoning.
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Meanwhile kept the batch number and will write to TGA and manufacturer and ask for the batch to be checked as they have to keep one of every batch for checking. Wont do much good but worth the effort. Cynical old me reckons they all lie these days of greed before compassion. They are supposed to do random checks on these generic drugs but then I well remember Pan Pharmaceuticals a well renowned manufacturer where random checks were supposedly being carried out and where it was discovered by a patient having bad affects that short cuts were being taken to increase profits due to greed once again - don't you?
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But really a warning that things are not always as they seem and you can think you are going nuts if you don't know it can happen to anyone. Nothing worse than people not believing you when you do know your own body.
Interesting Val as they always tell you that the Genetic ones are the same--I too an very cynical--
Good on you for taking those steps to find out more--
I also have dreadful pain in the leg--it is however coming from my back--maybe yours is as well ?