I Hate Dialysis Message Board
Dialysis Discussion => Dialysis: General Discussion => Topic started by: sullidog on April 01, 2010, 06:12:20 PM
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My farmicy would get mad at my neph for writing vitamin d perscriptions for me because they said it could also be purchased over the counter, at the time I took their word for it, but I'm wondering is this the same as a perscribed vitamin d? They give me zemplar on the machine now so don't have to worry about it but if they put me back on oral is the OTC vitamin d the same as a perscription written by my neph? According to my farmicy they said it was.
Troy
Troy
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Yes, it is over the counter if you are talking about D3.
My pharmacy has to special order the 1000 mg pills for me because they don't usually carry it over the counter. I have to pay for it and it is not covered by my insurance. Zemplar, Calsitriol, Recalcitriol, and others, are prescription only "active" forms of vitamin D that only a doctor can prescribe and are covered by most insurance.
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I take prescription Vitamin D 1 pill per month. The generic version of Boniva.
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Most likely the Vitamin D your neph is prescribing you is an activated form. The problem with OTC Vitamin D is that it has to go through your kidneys to get activated, in order for your body to use it. If your kidneys are in bad shape, you might not be activating enough, and then no amount of D3 will help you.
There are plenty of forms of activated Vitamin D that you can get by prescription. Even if it is a non-activated form you're being prescribed, I don't see why your pharmacy would get mad at your neph. Prescriptions are written all the time for medications that are also available OTC, usually so that you can get a different amount than what's available OTC, or so insurance can cover the cost, or even just to make it easier to keep track of.
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I take both vitamin d3 2000iu a day (OTC at my local drug store or Walmart - can usually be bought for less than $10. I personally like to take advantage of buy 1, get 1 free deals) and also take 0.25mcg calcitriol a day. Together, these 2 forms of vit D have made my PTH right smack in the middle of normal range! Before I started the D3 therapy, my vitamin D level was 12, and my PTH was above normal - 145ish or so. Now, both levels for me are beautifully normal! That is the one thing that has gone right, and it is for minimal cost. So far, I've been lucky with that.
KarenInWA
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Prescriptions are written all the time for medications that are also available OTC, usually so that you can get a different amount than what's available OTC, or so insurance can cover the cost, or even just to make it easier to keep track of.
Military clinics do that all the time, actually. I lived with a guy who would make an appointment with his doctor every time he sneezed, leaving me a bit baffled as he always came back with OTC pills in OTC doses. As it happens, any prescription filled in a military pharmacy is fully covered under Tricare. So instead of paying $12 for a box of Claritin, he could get it for free and use that money for cheap vodka.
But clearly the pharmacist knows best. That's why the pharmacist get to write all the fancy prescrip--oh, oh wait. No, that's not right. His job is to give you exactly what's written on that prescription, isn't it? Even if he feels it's redundant. Because your neph knows when he's writing a prescription for an OTC drug--and if he is, he probably has a good reason.
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Echoing other comments made here, but you can't get activated vitamin D over the counter. If you need activated vitamin D (calcitriol) because your kidney doesn't activate it, then the OTC Vitamin D3 (cholecalciferol) isn't going to help you much. I say "much" because there is recent research that shows some other tissues in the body are able to activate vitamin D3 for their own use. They are a couple of articles about this in the news section on IHD.
Another reason to get a prescription vitamin is that some OTC vitamins have things in them your doctor may object to. A lot of them use calcium phosphate and other inactive ingredients that are not good for people on dialysis.
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Well sounds like my farmicy needs a bit more training with dialysis patients, lol. Next time he does this I'll say my neph wrote this because it needs to be active, give him a call if ya don't believe me.
Troy
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my neph has me on FolbeePlus one a day. They smell like they also have iron in them.
By the way,see you are from Columbus,well hello from 45 miles south of there. Good ole Chillicothe !(ohio's first capital)
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This is an old topic, but I don't have a better subject line for it. My daughter takes calcitriol as well as liquid ergocalciferol (D2). She doesn't like taking liquids, so we requested pills for her refill, and these are cholecalciferol (D3). What is the difference? I found some information about it, but my understanding is that neither ergocalciferol nor cholecalciferol is the activated form. Are these actually useful? Is one preferred to the other?
(edited to fix a typo)
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I took Zemplar pre dialysis. My main issue with it is its about $600 for a 90 day supply. Although I have insurance I don't like the high cost of it.
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Last year I was put on three different forms of calcium, the first two failed to make any difference in my levels, the third which was specifically advised only for kidney patients, kept causing my calcium levels to raise even higher than their already high levels, so we stopped that in just one week.
I would have to go get the bottles, I have a shelf in the cabinet with all the left-overs. I recognise cholecalciferal, and ergo-calciferal. I don't remember the last one without looking.
Sorry III am not more help.