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How would you interpret these directions?


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My directions used to say take 1 tablet (Clonazepam) once daily as needed. I don't take them all that much. At our last appointment she said she would like me to take it more often and I didn't notice she put refills on it (she never did). She now left the clinic and they haven't gotten a replacement yet. They won't move me to someone else in the practice. I have to wait for whoever fills her position.

My directions now say Take 1 tablet every day as needed. 

What does she mean by "every day as needed?" Is it still just once daily as needed? The wording has got me thrown off. I wouldn't have put much thought into it had she not said she would like to see me take it more often.

Maybe it's just every day during stressful times when needed. I don't know. Thanks. 

Edited by Persona_Is_Life
Punctuation. Spacing.
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That’s the way I see it. Take one a day (and I would interpret that as *up to* one a day, take half twice a day if that’s helpful), but only if you need it. Maybe she was encouraging you take it more often, and not wait til things got too bad. 

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I have similar directions for the same med.

Once daily as needed = 1 tablet every day as needed is how I would interpret it.

It's hard when the "as needed" part is left up to us sometimes, because learning to define "need" is tricky.

 

The plan I've currently negotiated with myself as an experiment for the next two weeks is as follows:

-on nights before I need to be functional the next day (e.g., nights before work/school), I'm going to take a full tablet at bedtime at least 3 times. If I'm not taking a full tablet, just for the duration of this experiment, I'm going to take 1/2 tablet, and I can still take a full tablet every night.

-on nights before I don't have any particular commitments the next day, I can take 1/2 to 1 tablet, and I'm going to do my best to take 1/2 tablet if I can talk myself into it to see if there's less rebound insomnia/anxiety

 

If I were in your situation, I would want to know if the practice will cover refills until they have a new prescriber for me, since they're not allowing switching to a new prescriber. That way I would know if I had reliable access to refills or not, which would help me know how much of a supply I have access to. But that's just me.

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7 hours ago, Persona_Is_Life said:

My directions now say Take 1 tablet every day as needed. 

What does she mean by "every day as needed?" Is it still just once daily as needed? The wording has got me thrown off. I wouldn't have put much thought into it had she not said she would like to see me take it more often.

My Ativan prn script says that , "take every day as needed". I think this is the make sure you get the full script. I have a pharmacist try to give me 30 or later 45 tabs on a "take 1-2 as needed" monthly script. I had to demand I get 60 pills. "Take every day" just makes sure it is clear even though it is a prn script you are free to take it every day.

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7 hours ago, Wooster said:

I have similar directions for the same med.

Once daily as needed = 1 tablet every day as needed is how I would interpret it.

It's hard when the "as needed" part is left up to us sometimes, because learning to define "need" is tricky.

 

The plan I've currently negotiated with myself as an experiment for the next two weeks is as follows:

-on nights before I need to be functional the next day (e.g., nights before work/school), I'm going to take a full tablet at bedtime at least 3 times. If I'm not taking a full tablet, just for the duration of this experiment, I'm going to take 1/2 tablet, and I can still take a full tablet every night.

-on nights before I don't have any particular commitments the next day, I can take 1/2 to 1 tablet, and I'm going to do my best to take 1/2 tablet if I can talk myself into it to see if there's less rebound insomnia/anxiety

 

If I were in your situation, I would want to know if the practice will cover refills until they have a new prescriber for me, since they're not allowing switching to a new prescriber. That way I would know if I had reliable access to refills or not, which would help me know how much of a supply I have access to. But that's just me.

Thanks. The practice will. They've written scripts when she wasn't working (it wasn't uncommon to have a script written by someone else there) and my Vyvanse script was written by someone else..

Let me know how the experiment goes! 

 

41 minutes ago, notloki said:

My Ativan prn script says that , "take every day as needed". I think this is the make sure you get the full script. I have a pharmacist try to give me 30 or later 45 tabs on a "take 1-2 as needed" monthly script. I had to demand I get 60 pills. "Take every day" just makes sure it is clear even though it is a prn script you are free to take it every day.

That's weird. I worked in retail pharmacy for 7 years and we've always filled the full thing because we don't know on what (or how many) days you'll take 2. That's weird. 

 

Thanks to all that responded! I wish she had just left it at one daily as needed though. 

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1 hour ago, notloki said:

My Ativan prn script says that , "take every day as needed". I think this is the make sure you get the full script. I have a pharmacist try to give me 30 or later 45 tabs on a "take 1-2 as needed" monthly script. I had to demand I get 60 pills. "Take every day" just makes sure it is clear even though it is a prn script you are free to take it every day.

Does your pdoc specify a number on the script? Mine just writes how much he wants to dispense. Ex- I take adderall TID... So he writes 

(#90 ninety) on the order 

and ive never had anyone question it  

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3 hours ago, Iceberg said:

Does your pdoc specify a number on the script? Mine just writes how much he wants to dispense. Ex- I take adderall TID... So he writes 

(#90 ninety) on the order 

and ive never had anyone question it  

My pdoc specifies everything, this was a different doc. I can't remember if the quantity was written.

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10 hours ago, Iceberg said:

Does your pdoc specify a number on the script? Mine just writes how much he wants to dispense. Ex- I take adderall TID... So he writes 

(#90 ninety) on the order 

and ive never had anyone question it  

That makes sense. I forgot some doctors do that (out of retail for too long)! That's the more likely scenario. 

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