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Little Tolvaptan quirks

Due to the risk of 'serious and potentially fatal liver injury', the dispensation of Tolvaptan is very closely monitored and the PHARMACIES THEMSELVES need to be certified under the Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy ('REMS') Program.

Because of this, there are currently only three specialty pharmacies in the US that are certified to fulfill Tolvaptan prescriptions: AllianceRx (Walgreens), Avella (Optum) and PANTHERx.

If you're ever in a situation where you need to go through a specialty pharmacy, check out online reviews to see how others have fared from a customer service standpoint. SERVICE MATTERS! I queried members of the Tolvaptan Community on Facebook when I had to choose. Based on their recommendations, I decided to try Avella.

As I'm quickly approaching my one month anniversary of taking Tolvaptan, I was pleasantly surprised to receive a call last week from Avella. A very personable customer service rep asked me about my experience so far, making note of any side effects I'd experienced. [Side Note: it's so nice to talk to someone who actually 'gets it' - or has at least been trained to understand what we're going through]

She also noted that my doctor had only placed a one month prescription and that she'd already reached out for a renewal and that they'd be contacting my insurance for pre-approval if my dosage increased.

Wow! A proactive company. #love

By Friday I'd received a call back from the company (which I didn't notice until Monday afternoon - oops). I returned the call first thing Tuesday and am currently waiting for my next day package to deliver my next month's meds.

No muss. No fuss. Just solid service and delivering on a promise. The 'hassle' of going through a specialty pharmacy is actually worth it.

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Round 2 deja vu

My doctor decided to keep me at the initial 45/15 mg dose for another months so I'm anticipating a similar water consumption. Here are the first four of seven (?) or eight (?) five gallon bottles of water. My local grocery store has a water bottle fill station for an extremely reasonable 39 cents a gallon. The frugal side of me thinks I should invest in reusable water bottles and take advantage of the savings. The lazy side of me thinks that it'd be a total hassle to wash the bottles, keep bugs and dust from falling into them before I'm able to refill them, remember to take them with me to the store (I can't even remember those reusable shopping bags) and then stockpile a source of bottle caps. It's just so much easier to buy these recyclable five gallon bottles. Lazy beats frugal.

Winner Winner!

Mon Apr 1 2019 - Just look what showed up on my doorstep (okay, it was actually a FedEx driver) by 930am this morning! Super, super exciting!!! I had that box open and my first dose taken in no time at all. My biggest concern now is whether taking it at 930am is going to mess with my sleep. They say that it's best to take the first dose as early as possibly (my plan is 6am) so you can take the second dose as early as possible (8 hours later at 2am) so you're not waking up all night having to go to the bathroom. As it is, I won't be taking my second dose until 530pm. Ugh. Fingers crossed. In the meantime, here's what everything looked like when I opened the box (yes, I took time to actually photograph this momentous moment). After the inspection of the non-med part of the box, I set my bottle of water next to me (I was working from home) and I waited. And I waited. How long would it take before I needed to go to the bathroom?!? Turned out to take 45 min...