Small Cool Store

Jul 31, 2006 43 Replies

|Christian McArdle wrote: | |>>>I have a little bit of spare 50mm Kingspan... |>>

|>>Make a small box out of it, stick the pills inside and bung it in the |>>fridge. Some experimentation with a thermometer may be required to work |>>out the amount of insulation required, and the best place in the fridge. |> |> |> The problem is that it will always eventually get down to fridge |> temperature. The insulation will just slow this process, not prevent it. | |True, but one presumes you need to take it out and open it every so |often to get at the pills. That lets it warm up to room temp again.

Having to monitor a semi commercial fridge to stay within the 1 to 5 deg C limits. IME One finds that the amount of warming up is small, and certainly not up to room temperature.

|Room temperature would be fine for many of them throughout the spring |and autumn - but not when it gets above 30C! And a pharmacist could |never reply that trangressing the manufacturers' guidelines would be |acceptable.

Unfortunately true :-( I find that all medical personnel, from trainee nurses through consultants, just stick to the guidelines, nobody is willing to think outside the box even when the problem is outside the box :-(

No...

It's however long the doctor says. My mother-in-law seems to have got locked into a one-month-at-a-time system (free but a pain if she wants to come and visit us for a week).

|It's however long the doctor says. My mother-in-law seems to have got |locked into a one-month-at-a-time system (free but a pain if she wants |to come and visit us for a week).

Hospitals and Doctors do not care about the what patients do outside the medical system, like holidays. I had a bust up row, well I complained bitterly in writing, but never got a reply, about a simple test and modified prescription which I needed while on holiday.

I simply went on holiday, and walked into the local Health Center, asked for the test, booked an appointment, had the test done, got a modified prescription. All very simple and painless. Could you not do the same?

I could, but my 85 year old mother-in-law won't; too set in her ways!

Funny story though; when my father in law was alive, he had prostate cancer, controlled by a subcutaneous slow-release injection at three month intervals. One of these coincided with an extended visit here (staying with me while M-I-L and SWMBO went on holiday/conference to Austria). He asked his doctor, who gave him the injection pack and told him to get a local doctor to administer it. Quite a big pack, and it was a challenge keeping it cool (almost back on topic!) before, during and after the journey here.

He rolled up at the local doctor and proudly produced the pack. Doctor opened large cupboard, stacked high with identical packs. Large elderly population here!

So do I - for medication you can only buy in 12s over the counter :-).

Mary

When I;ve had time sensitive medication the GP has given me post-dated prescriptions which I can have filled anywhere - because we sometimes travel a lot. That might be a possibility for your mother in law.

Mary

Unfortunately she is 'set in her ways'; it is all done automatically by Boots, because they are a 'proper chemist'...!

Go try buying some chemicals which is what they should be selling.

Jon

Oh dear ... perhaps she could take something for it :-)

Mary

I mean the box of pills warms up, not the fridge!

Surely the problem here is that the OP is wanting the proper sort of box.

Owain

|Dave Fawthrop wrote: | |> |True, but one presumes you need to take it out and open it every so |> |often to get at the pills. That lets it warm up to room temp again. |> |> Having to monitor a semi commercial fridge to stay within the 1 to 5 deg C |> limits. IME One finds that the amount of warming up is small, and |> certainly not up to room temperature. | |I mean the box of pills warms up, not the fridge!

I monitor contents, rather than air temps as advised by EHOs

"Mary Fisher" wrote in news:44ce6d79$0$29547$ snipped-for-privacy@master.news.zetnet.net:

Wrong. I am in the UK. I just had sufficient knowledge of the Australian issue to try to explain a bit without going off and looking things up. The medicine is basically identical there.

Rod

It was a genuine question, not an assumption, hence the query.

It occurred to me that you might have been getting medicines iun a country with different regulations and conditions.

Mary

wrote in news:4E4F49F7F9% snipped-for-privacy@lycos.co.uk:

The medicine is available in 25, 50 and 100 units. It is required to be taken forever. The doctor might vary the amount to be taken. So you could be prescribed 3 months at 100. A week later he adjusts that to 112 so you need a load of 25s (and cut them in half). Then it gets reduced to 87 so you need some 50s as well. And each time you tend to get 3 months supply. (Thankfully, it is a free 'scrip and the actual content is one of the cheapest available.)

That is without considering using alternating doses (87/100) to get the equivalent of 94.

Obviously, you really don't want to get stuck with just 100s and almost no flexibility! And you certainly don't want the 25s to be full potency, the 50s down 8% and the 100s down 20% due to poor storage.

Apparently, in the UK a 'medicine' month is 28 days; in most of continental Europe it is 30 days. (Only found that out on Sunday!) And the US pills are in bottles of hundreds (despite not being metricated!)

Rod

Guy King wrote in news:313030303432373944CE243F75 @zetnet.co.uk:

Yep - cannibalisation seems the only viable approach.

Thanks to all.

Rod

"Mary Fisher" wrote in news:44cfbd30$0$29544$ snipped-for-privacy@master.news.zetnet.net:

Mary - I understood. Of course I could have been there or bought the medicine there.

Rod

There's very little that's more frustrating than an elderly person who's set in their ways!

Si

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