How To Get an Urgent Refill on a Restricted Medication

Background is a repeating image of small pills of different types, text reads "how to ger urgent refills on restricted medication, free script! janetjay.com"

Get an Urgent Refill on Your Meds: Step-by-step instructions & a free downloadable script to help communicate with your medical team

So you need an urgent refill on your pain pills, brain pills or another controlled med, and you need it now. How do you make your doctor understand, listen and act? How do you make sure the pharmacy cooperates with them? What’s the best way to keep track of all this nonsense? And most of all, what exactly do you say to make this magic happen?! Let me lay our your options for how to get that urgent refill in your hand. Want a free printable script that tells you word-for-word what to say? I’ve got one of those too!

Preface: Don’t Let It Come To This!

Don’t wait until the day before your script is out to try to get an urgent refill. The more important a med is, the more wiggle room you need to leave your pharmacy.  Do what you can to avoid being in a position where you have to carefully choose your words and your stress is through the roof.  Set up automated refills! Set up reminders! Set up alarms! Set up alerts– however your brain works, do what you can to keep on top of this stuff.

computer, phone with spreadsheet open on screen and paper / tablet showing "medical contact log", text reads "printable medical contact log and custom spreadsheet, etsy.com/shop/painchronicbuticonic, janetjay.comBefore anything else, download a free medical log here and start keeping track of your contacts with doctors, pharmacists and medical staff. It may save your ass in significant ways. And even if not, it’s good to keep track of things.

However: shit happens. Lines get crossed, to-do lists get forgotten, and emergencies arise. Sometimes you find yourself in this position whether you like it or not.

So when you really need an urgent refill now, here’s what to do.

Don’t believe your pharmacy’s automated line

I use Walgreens so let’s use it as an example. Their automated line it will say “Your meds will be ready at 9 AM tomorrow,” . Don’t believe it! Sometimes the automated system will immediately say “We need to contact your doctor about this refill, but it’ll  be ready at 9 AM.” Don’t listen! Maybe it works that way with some meds, and maybe that works as it is supposed to a lot of the time! But if you urgently need your meds, you can’t rely on it.

alt-ai is loading...

Call (actually call) your doctor ASAP

The next morning, within an hour or so of the office opening, you call your doctor. Here’s the default message I would leave for the nurse.

Call #1

Hi this is Janet Jay, I am a patient of Dr. Whoever and I’m calling because I am out of Medication X. Since I just took my final pill this morning and my next dose is at 4 PM, it’s really important to get this called in ASAP to the [pharmacy] at [address/cross streets]. Please reach out if there are problems; if there are no issues, there’s no need to get in contact with me! Thank you SO much for your help on this, I really appreciate it.

(The bit about calling back is optional but I always stick it in to save them a little bit of effort. You want to stay on the good side of the office staff as much as you possibly can.)

Take a look at that script: there are a lot of important hooks in there. No matter what, you MUST say: your name, your doctor, your medication, how much you have left, if it’s time sensitive and just how much, your pharmacy, and your phone number.

No matter how you word it, you have to make sure you communicate

  • Who you’re trying to reach

  • why you were calling,

  • what you need them to do,

  • when it needs to be done

  • & why it’s important it be done ASAP

Next? You wait. Double check with your pharmacy.  Pet your doggos. Wait more.

Don’t Trust Your Pharmacy’s App/ Automated Line

itsa doggoYou’ve left the message above and are hoping to hear back soon. Most pharmacies have an automated system or app that you can check prescription status on. Unfortunately, it really varies how quickly and accurate their they update. That’s fine normally but when you are waiting at home with bated breath, trying to play middleman between a doctors office and the pharmacy about a medication you have to have ASAP, you don’t want to call and nag your doctor about calling in a script that they’ve already called in an hour ago. Not that it would be the end of the world if you made that mistake, of course, but when you’re asking for slightly special treatment you really want to be aware that you’re asking for special treatment.All that to say: even if the Walgreens app says they’re still waiting to hear from your doctor, you need to actually call and ask a real person whether your doctor’s office has gotten in touch. Half the time they’ve already heard from the doctor and it just hasn’t updated yet. But even then, the call isn’t a waste! It lets you reiterate to the pharmacy tech when you’ll be there to pick it up and the importance of it being ready then.The big thing is to be aware of what you’re doing and what you’re asking of people. Hopefully you don’t find yourself in this position often!

Call #2

Hi, Janet Jay again calling about the status of my [med] refill. I left a message at 8:12 this morning about my urgent need to get a script called in to my [pharmacy] at [cross streets]. Unless the pharmacy gets it today, I’ll end up missing my 6 PM dose today and my 8 Am dose tomorrow, which would cause me a lot of pain and disrupt some really important plans. Please let me know if there’s anything at all I can do to speed this process up, and sorry to have to bug you about it again.

Leave a message like this…

The more info you can give them, the better. For instance, take a look at this message.
Hi! This is [Your Name] calling regarding the situation with medication X. When I spoke to someone last Monday afternoon, I believe it was a PA named Susan, I was told that I would need to be seen at an actual appointment before you could write a prescription.I know that Y can cause withdrawal if stopped suddenly and Susan couldn’t get me an appointment until October 12. So I called back on Tuesday morning and left a message on the nurse’s line about possibly getting a script to fill the gap between now and the appointment.When I didn’t hear back, i left a second message on Wednesday at 12:15. I also had my pharmacy send in a refill request. Unfortunately they gave me some conflicting information about filling the med. Since I will be completely out of this medication on Monday morning, I’m starting to get nervous. I’d really appreciate if you could call me back ASAP so we can hopefully get this sorted soon.

Don’t leave a message like this!

I’ve definitely had refill sagas that made me cry, but leaving a sob-ridden message only goes so far. Here’s a really bad example of a call that’s apt to leave you at the bottom of any call-back sheet.White man in tan blazer sitting at whtie table with white background,  yelling into a white landline phone
Hey Dr Pepper, it’s Janet Jay, and I’ve been calling and calling you over and over again. I thought picking up the phone was your job! It’s extremely URGENT that I get my Med X because now I am completely out! The pharmacy won’t give me any and you and everybody else keep telling me completely different and contradictory things about how to get a goddamn refill, and someone’s always there to keep feeding me different bullshit excuses! I’m absolutely fed up and infuriated with this ridiculous runaround. I’ve left countless messages that you fools seem to be completely ignoring even as I’m missing doses and laid up here on the couch in pain and unable to do a damn thing. You had better get your act together and get me on the line with a real human IMMEDIATELY to resolve this clusterfuck!
Yeah,  if you left me that message I wouldn’t want to call you back either! It also doesn’t provide the name of the pharmacy, when he called previously or who he spoke to.

Call #3

Here’s your last-ditch effort. Fill in with your own details.
“Good morning! This is Janet Jay. I left messages about this at 3 PM yesterday and 7 this morning, but as of yesterday at 8 AM I have been completely out of my X medication. I take it every twelve hours, so I have now missed last night’s dose and this morning’s. Because of that, this morning my pain level was an eight. I had to stay home from work, cancel plans, and have spent most of the day lying on the couch. It’s incredibly important that my refill gets called in ASAP today so that I can arrange travel to the [pharmacy name] at [cross streets/address] before it closes. 
See what I did there, with a lot of very specific details, a legitimate reason why I’m asking for the things I’m asking, and a call to action? That’s your goal.

What if you still don’t hear back after multiple messages? Time to examine your urgent refill options.

  • Do you have an email for the office or for your doctor specifically?
  • Is there a different line you could call where you speak to a person instead of leaving a message?
  • Is there a patient portal you can communicate through?
  • Are you close enough to the office that you can come in physically? You’ll have a much better chance of stealing a couple minutes of someone’s time that way. 
  • Do you happen to know semaphore? (It won’t help you here, I’m just curious.)

It’s Free Printable Time!

I hope this script manages to help some people who might be struggling just to get through the damn day. Phone calls can be so daunting and anxiety-ridden that a lot of people avoid them, but they’re really crucial for problems like this. Did I leave anything out? Do you have other questions or did this post help you in some way? Let me know on social media!Pin these so you can find your way back!Background is a repeating image of small pills of different types, text reads "how to ger urgent refills on restricted medication, free script! janetjay.com" Image of a bottle of pills, lid off, pills spilling over a teal background. Text reads "HOW TO get a refill on a restricted medication," text box reads FREE SCRIPT! and janetjay.com at the bottom

Comments

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

a white woman with long brown hair with highlights wearing a gray shirt and earrings is facing away from the camera but turning her head to look at it and half-smile

Hopefully this site will help you avoid some of the BS I’ve experienced over the last 20 years seeking treatment for my chronic pain, invisible illnesses & mental health challenges. Maybe it’ll even help you think about disability in a new way! But at the very least, I hope you learn something, and I hope it helps you feel less alone.

KEEP IN TOUCH

MY MOST-USED TAGS

acupuncture adhd anxiety Biofeedback book chronic illness Chronic Pain comic Complementary Medicine customizable Dating Disability disability pride documentary fibromyalgia film free Free Download gift guide gifts graphic novel guest post how to Icon inspiration integrative medicine Invisible Disability invisible illness life with chronic pain media medication mental health motivation Pain pain awareness month Personal Experience printables quotes relationships resources review self care sex stuff treatments