Saturday, February 10, 2018

Acid green box


I am older than penicillin, which affects my opinion on many things, including drugs.  This post is about Keppra, and now about withdrawing from Keppra. 

I know little about withdrawing from drugs. Many years ago I had a steady dose of some morphine drug for surgical pain, and quitting it was awful. I lay stiff as a board for several nights, wide awake.

The experience was the basis of my future aversion of narcotics for any pain. I’ve been through hip replacement surgery and a broken shoulder, among things, on over the counter analgesics, to avoid narcotics. I didn’t even fill the prescriptions. I probably saved a lot of money.

After more tests than the American taxpayer should pay for, the neurologist cleared me to quit Keppra over a month’s time. Though I have no trouble sleeping at night, the first night, I was still awake at midnight, three hours after bed. The second night was a bit  better.


The picture is of Keppra. I refilled the script recently, and asked the doctor’s office to prescribe enough for thirty days, in the event it might be discontinued. This being American medicine, they gave me ninety days. The few pills on the desk top are the number to get me off Keppra. The last sixty days (two pills a day) remain in the bottle.

And that is the last problem. Disposal. Most municipalities in Ohio now have some sort of program in place to collect back drugs, which generally are incinerated. The programs took off in fits and starts, but most now are permanent. In Cuyahoga Falls, down the road, the first attempts were designated collection days at specified police stations.

The line of people at the station I went to stretched around the block. The intelligent outcome of that first collection was the permanent installation of a drug collection box. This box is nearest my home, but simply is no fun. You are buzzed into the station, and the collection box is a pull down door in front of a glass window. Makes me feel suspect for doing the right thing.

The very first collection system in the area was put in place in the neighboring township of Bath.  I think it’s brilliant. It’s an old US postal box. The blue boxes that were on street corners; mail was deposited through a pull down door.


Bath installed an old blue box at the police station, repainted acid green. I take a nice, out of my way trip through the valley, to put unused drugs in the acid green box. But, I’ll wait until spring.

33 comments:

  1. Kudos to you for making the effort. It's so tempting to just throw old prescriptions in the trash. And yes, I know enough not to flush them down the toilet - can't have them drifting off into the public water supply. Although it probably would have been safe when we had the private septic system in our backyard.

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    1. Septic stuff winds up in the public water supply; that's where the pumped out stuff goes. I bet if you check, both your new homes have public disposal. It's the thing to do now, in urban environments.

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  2. Out here in the god forsaken desert our landfill is only about 8 miles down the road. I get my pills all wet and put them in the bag with the cat turds! I figure that would be enough to discourage anyone from getting them. Our landfill has lots worse stuff in it than my old pills. I like the idea of old mailboxes. Somebody was using their noodle. My best to you and the young ladies!

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    1. There used to be a public dump like that, near me. The Krejci Dump. When the federal government eminate domained my township for their national park, they acquired the dump in the deal. It took twenty or more years and superfund money to clean it up and return it to "woods".

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  3. We take all unused drugs here back to our Medical Centre.

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  4. A collection center is a marvelous idea. My son is diabetic and has a hard time finding a place to dispose of his used needles. The pharmacy has no disposal facilities, hospitals in the area only dispose of their own sharps, and his doctor does not take outside disposals.

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  5. We pass unused drugs back to the pharmacist for disposal.

    I have refused narcotics any time they’ve been offered for pain. The present problem is bad enough I figure.

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  6. Hari Om
    In OZ, the pharmacies all take back any unrequired meds. I know this not because I use them (this body can barely handle an aspro let alone anything else), but because all blister-packs had to be recorded and returned after one of our elders at the care facility passed away. I think it is similar here in UK. It is so good you can wean of Keppra, Joanne, but I am sorry it comes with side effects! You have the power!!! YAM xx

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  7. My husband currently has an Oxy script for his clavicle break. He doesn't see the appeal, fortunately, and says that Oxy makes him feel woozy (not in a good way).

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  8. Our local police station takes them. The box is convenient but with all the opioid problems I would imagine the box maybe stolen.

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  9. We have no place to dispose of drugs and it worries me. My milkshake machine came from Amazon, where else.

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  10. After reading your post, I went straight to my medicine drawer to check out our supplies. I found several that were expired. We had several bottles of oxycodone from the Army hospital. We brought it to our drug collection drop off a while ago. I don't know if they are still around. I've never heard of Keppra, but I'm glad you were able to get off it.

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  11. Here in Ontario Canada we take any drugs we don't want/aren't using/have expired to the drug store (any drug store) and they dispose of the for us. Simple.

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  12. We need something like that here.

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  13. Glad to read you made it to the doc's and your brain is normal. Like your hair too. The sweater is a treat. :)

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  15. So glad you are getting off the drug. I take my unused pills to the pharmacy for disposal. They also take used needles. Thankfully they take them so we don't have to contaminate the water supply though I don't know what the pharmacy does with them.

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  16. I hope you have a better sleep tonight. I've heard all kinds of bad things about morphine; making sleep impossible is one more I'll add to them. I cringe at the waste I see so often in prescriptions. I recently needed a topical steroid cream - only a tiny bit, which the prescribing doctor knew - and got a nine-inch fat tube of it. Now the rest will have to be disposed of. Maybe it didn't come in a smaller tube, but it should!

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  17. In Canada, we can take our unused or expired prescriptions or other drugs in to any pharmacy, which will dispose of them.

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  18. When I broke my back in 2009, I was on morphine less than 24 hours. The pain was horrible, but I didn't have to add withdrawal from drugs to it. I think we can return medications to pharmacies. I'm not sure because I've never needed to get rid of anything.

    Love,
    Janie

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  19. They've moved that box (in Bath) into the rotunda to the left of the parking lot where it used to be. It's open 24/7 so no problem taking meds in anytime. I am not sure why they moved it. It was a bit easier before.

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  20. Here in Australia unused prescriptions or other pills, are returned to the chemist (drugstore) that dispensed the, or if closer, any other chemist, for disposal. Luckily, being in a big city, there are chemists in every suburb and several in the CBD.

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  21. Good that you quit, Joanne. You'll make it. The less pills, the better.

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  22. This is a different system. I return unused drugs to the pharmacy for disposal.

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  23. If such a drugs disposal box were to be introduced to the streets in our Bath, it would be broken open and raided by junkies every night. I am not joking. They break into the locked cigarette 'ash-tray' boxes and take the stubs.

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  24. I'm glad I can take my old stuff to my pharmacy and they take care of it.

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  25. It would help if they wouldn’t prescribe so many! I wonder how the municipalities dispose of them?

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  26. Yeah, don't even get me started on doctors being either ignorant or non-caring about the addiction potentials. Been there, done that, and it was the worst thing ever. Good on you for getting off those things.

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  27. I usually just toss old pills in the trash can.

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  28. We crush ours and put them in kitty litter to dispose of!

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