Community Forums

semathis · 10-25-2010, 08:56 AM

My husband and I are planning to take a year and travel the country. He is a disabled vet and receives his meds by mail. Are they any of you out their that are in the same situation and how do you get your meds?
We are taking a year to see if this is the fulltime life for us. We have a 32 ft 1998 Holiday rambler Alumascape fifth wheel. It has 3 slides and feels bigger than some apartments I've seen. We did stay in it for 3 month while our home was being renovated and we were very comfortable.
Sorry I'm rambling, please if anyone else has this problem please let me know the solution.

Thanks Sherry Mathis

Vegasdan · 10-25-2010, 09:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by semathis

My husband and I are planning to take a year and travel the country. He is a disabled vet and receives his meds by mail. Are they any of you out their that are in the same situation and how do you get your meds?
We are taking a year to see if this is the fulltime life for us. We have a 32 ft 1998 Holiday rambler Alumascape fifth wheel. It has 3 slides and feels bigger than some apartments I've seen. We did stay in it for 3 month while our home was being renovated and we were very comfortable.
Sorry I'm rambling, please if anyone else has this problem please let me know the solution.

Thanks Sherry Mathis

Have him go to his doctor and get a written order on a prescription and go to Walmart and get the prescription put in their system. Then anywhere you can find a Walmart you can get your prescription. That's how my wife does it. If you must receive it by mail, plan ahead and have it shipped to general delivery where you will be or, have a mail forwarding service, as we do for our mail.

Abnmarine · 10-25-2010, 03:32 PM

I always wondered how this was done even though we are ten years out from FT'ing. Makes sense now. Thanks Dan!

HD4Mark · 10-25-2010, 03:39 PM

We just sort of went through this. Have our scrips filled at a local drug store that is near by but the trip south this winter will be way out of their area. So we stopped at Walgreen's and asked about travel and they told us we can refill at any of them and there are a lot where we plan to be. We will be moving around enough so the mail order might not work so well.

Like to give the smaller local store our business but sometimes bigger is better.

Seajay · 10-25-2010, 03:40 PM

TO Sherry Mathis. One. WELCOME TO IRV2.... It is the greatest bunch of people in the world and they will help you any way they know how.
TWO. MAY GOD BLESS YOUR HUSBAND FOR HIS SERVICE TO MY COUNTRY ...
THREE. Walmart works pretty good for my meds and they are about everywhere in the USA. Try them and see how they work out for you.
FOUR.; If they dont work out you can get a friend or neighbor to pick up your mail and then have improtant stuff shipped to GENERAL DELIVERY to a post office where your will be near for a few days or a week ..
FIVE... TRY TO PICK A SMALL POST OFFICE. It makes it much easier to find your package .....
Again welcome to IRV2.......

majfrizz · 10-25-2010, 03:43 PM

if he is getting his meds thru the VA mail order, he can just continue that or arrange to have it picked up at a VA facility.

semathis · 10-25-2010, 06:12 PM

Thanks Everyone!!! Yes my Husband receives all his meds from the VA through the mail. It gets to be quite expensive at Wal Mart and other drug stores. I hadn't thought about being able to pick up at other VA's across the country. I will check with them the next appt and inquire about that.

We are just beginning to plan this adventure. We have to get a new truck as the old one isn't going to make it much further.

Again Thanks!!

Wayne M · 10-25-2010, 06:28 PM

Don't overlook a "maintenance" prescription. I am not full timing, but we do go on extended 3 month or more trips some times. I'll call the VA and ask for a "maintenance" refill. They will ask me, or I just tell them, how long I'll be gone and they send the extra medicine for the duration. I don't think they would do it for a year because of shelf life of the meds, but you can get 3 or 6 months at a time. It may be another way to go. You could then have the next shipment sent to a relative and make arrangements to have it next day mailed to where ever you may be.

Good luck.

AFChap · 10-25-2010, 06:57 PM

Picking up at a VA around the country might work, though different regions don't work well together on some things ...not sure about meds.

Our doctor knows we travel so will normally write prescriptions to cover us for 9 months to a year between visits (90 day refills, renewable 3 or 4 times). When we need a new script while on the road, he has helped us by phone and either faxed the script to a pharmacy or held it for pickup by a family member in the area.

Since your husband already receives them via mail that should be easy to work. If you changed the VA mailing address to a mail forwarding service like Escapees, FMCA, etc then you could just have that mail forwarded to wherever you are. OR, have the VA send it to a trusted family member who can mail it on to you where you are.

I am retired military. We get most of our meds from a military pharmacy where one son has base access so he can go pick it up and mail it to us. We get one prescription (not available from military pharmacy) via the military mail order pharmacy through our Escapees mail forwarding. We have our mail forwarded to the RV park where we are if possible, or a family member in the area where we are visiting, or to General Delivery ...ALWAYS via priority mail with a tracking number so it will get there in 3-5 days and we can track it to know when it arrives. One prescription (not available through military pharmacy or military mail pharmacy) we get through Walgreens.

To find a good General Delivery address we go to USPS - The United States Postal Service (U.S. Postal Service) and find a post office where we will be. Click on "more info" to get the actual local phone number for the post office, and call them to be sure they will do general delivery. Small "one-post office" towns normally will. In towns with more than one post office, normally ONLY ONE will provide general delivery service.

Midniteoyl · 10-25-2010, 07:21 PM

You can go to ANY VAMC and get you scripts refilled... You can even get seen by a doc if need be. Just make sure to take his pertinent info with him.

Please, if you have questions about Vet Benefits and the ins and outs of the VA, go to vets.yuku.com and ask.

Jim

RVhauler · 10-25-2010, 07:32 PM

I have a mail forwarding service which all mail goes to and they forward weekly to whatever address I furnish them via telephone/e-mail/snail mail. Average time from when forwarder ships til receipt anywhere in US is 3-4 days.

wa8yxm · 10-26-2010, 11:00 AM

The mail order pharmacy I use (Medco) has on file both the Billing address (A post office box) and several physical addresses for me (Places I park the house)

So for the next six months the meds will be mailed to an address in South Carolina where I will be spending 2/3 of my time (and if they come in on a day I'm not there the other park is about 3 miles away, I visit daily so I can log in here, so I still get 'em.. IN fact I get 'em direct from the UPS driver in most cases)

Talk to your mail order pharmacy.. Odds are they can split billing and shipping as easily as Medco does.

deandec · 10-26-2010, 11:37 AM

On a recent 6 week trip, I failed to take enough meds with me. My VA is in California. I was in Wisconsin. To get the additional pills, I stopped on our return trip in South Dakota at the VA.

I had to wait about two hours, be seen by a Doctor, and then they issued an additional 10 day supply (all I requested).

The South Dakota database and my VA database apparently did not talk well together in spite of the VA Electronic Records boasts. I had prescriptions for that same med waiting to be ordered and mailed to me at home, but that did seem to ease South Dakota's concern in issuing 20 pills.

For a full time traveler, going to the VA pharmacy locally seems too cumbersome for me. There are not a lot of dispensing pharmacy locations in the West US.

So, mail forwarding with tracking would seem to be the best system.

bigskymt · 10-26-2010, 06:11 PM

I update my mailing address on refills to our UPS Box when necessary. If I run low and need an emergency refill I have gone to any VA Hospital Pharmacy, presented my card and explained my situation. They have always given me sufficient meds for a few days.
I always order 2-3 weeks in advance.
I've had very good luck with UPS Store in forwarding meds, etc. They will send to whatever store I request and it will be accepted there and held for me.