Great article, thank you for posting. I do have a medical problem so its especially interesting to me. Thanks again

I thought I had sample letters to give to your provider, but I can't put my hands on the files, at the moment. I was able to locate the following. It is from Doctor Grattan Woodson, who is prominent in pandemic awareness. He has several publications that I recommend for reading to help you with this specific type of prepping (there are specific medical considerations to prep for). BUT ... the information he offer to approach your doctor for stocking additional meds is universal. I hope this helps:

==========================

Enlisting Your Doctor’s Help
By Grattan Woodson, MD, FACP

http://birdflumanual.com/resources/Home_Influenza_Treatment/files/Consumer%20Medication%20Stockpiling/files/Enlisting%20Your%20Doctors%20Help%2022Nov2006.pdf

This essay is written to provide consumers with some ideas how to successfully enlist their doctors to secure a medication stockpile for use during the pandemic. Drugs that need to be stockpiled include those taken regularly for chronic medical disorders and those for treatment pandemic influenza.

These days being a doctor is not much fun

Being a doctor today is hard, especially for Pediatricians, Family Practitioners and Internists, the disciplines that provide the bulk of primary care in the US. The demands placed upon them are rising while their pay is falling. Many are burned out, frustrated, and depressed. Not a few are leaving practice early due to stress and fewer of the best and brightest students graduating from college today choose a career in medicine. There are many
reasons for why medical practice has changed so much in the past decade but they are not the subjects of this article. I mention them only to provide you with some insight into why the experience many patients have today with their doctors are not as satisfying as it was in the past.

Frankly, doctors are not in the mood to deal with the pandemic issue. At work they pressed for time. Patients today are very demanding and have access to considerably more information than ever before. Doctors are bombarded with patient requests for drugs seen advertised on TV or in magazines. Patients seeking to use an unproven alternative herbal or “natural”treatment for their serious medical disorders instead of the proven conventional drug treatment is a recurring headache. As they say, a little knowledge can be dangerous, especially when it comes to the practice of medicine. These encounters have made doctors skeptical of anything brought to them by the patient.

The fact is most doctors simply don’t appreciate the gravity of the risk we face from pandemic influenza. Almost all the doctors who practiced during the last important pandemic in 1957 have retired or are dead. The only people alive today who survived the 1918 pandemic were children at the time and not many of them recall much about the event. In medical school, little is taught about pandemics although there is a good bit of
time given to seasonal flu and the value of annual flu vaccination.

Those of you who have really studied this issue probably know more about influenza history, virology and genetics than the average primary care doctor. While the seasoned doctor realizes that virtually everything they know about the practice of medicine is learned from the care of patients, few of us think that our patients are a reliable source of medical education. These factors are some of the reasons most patients have been
frustrated in their efforts to obtain their doctor’s help to prepare for the pandemic. --- CONTINUEd at LINK, above --- INcluding:

Put yourself in your doctor’s shoes

An uphill battle

Don’t be pushy

Be polite and respectful

Easy does it

Provide them with information but not too much

The bird flu is not going away so be persistent

Doctor’s have their patient’s best interests at
heart

Canadian Internet Pharmacies

Not a one of my doctors would help me in the meds dept. If I was going to die, they'd not help LOL. All they care about is their paycheck, and while Veterans Affairs ISN'T supposed to take what I cal bribes to push someone like Pfizers meds, they do anyhow. Even if the med has absolutely nothing to do with your condition, they'll push it. Have colon cancer? Here's an inhaler!!

I take anti-depressant/anti-anxiety meds. I'm hoping that when shtf I'll be able to ween myself off of them, but if I find that's not the case I currently have about a 3 month supply and am continuing to increase it. There is no way in hell my doc would prescribe me extra, but by skipping one or two pills a week, I've got quite a nice stock of them going. If you're in the position where you can do this, I would definitely suggest it. Obviously don't do this if your medication is extremely vital to your health on a daily basis... but in my case, I just stay away from people on the days that I skip my meds, in order to be able to stay clear-minded every day after shtf. I'm also looking into alternative medication such as herbs, and plan to start making some of my own.
If it gets to the point where we have to start foraging, and I'm sure eventually it will, pharmacies will be -the- first place I go. We're fully capable of easily stocking -everything- else we need, but medicine is the most difficult thing we can stock, and it will definitely not only come in handy for ourselves, but for bartering as well.
I also strongly suggest stocking up on vitamins and minerals, and get used to taking them now. It's one of the best preventative measures you can take against illnesses.

Skepsis, instead of skipping a day of your med from time to time, you might try cutting the pill in half and see how you do on a half dose. This will tell you a couple of things, how successful you might be in weaning yourself, how little of a dose will work for you, and how much you truly need the medication.

You are absolutely right about good vitamins especially under SHTF stressful situations.

They actually started me on half of the dose I'm taking now but then upped it because of events that happened recently, however the type of medication has relatively mild withdrawal effects. I'm working more on psychological treatment and meditation now so that I'm better able to control my symptoms without the use of medication. I'm hoping to be off of them by the time shtf, but just in case I'm not - I'll be prepared. But I am pretty sure in that case, half a dose would be just fine, doubling my stock. Thank you for your comment!

How do you store the extra meds? Do you pack it with both a dessicant and an O2 absorber in Mylar?

Since I can't imagine being able to get more than a year ahead on my meds, I just put them in a tote (cool dark place) and rotate through them.