diagnosed with flu, told we can't have tamiflu rx

[Wishing on a star]

Yep, they thought tamiflu was some kind of miracle drug when it came out.

Current tests show that it does almost nothing for most people.

We did get some a couple years ago... didn't help us much.

 

[Hrhpd]

Yep, they thought tamiflu was some kind of miracle drug when it came out.

Current tests show that it does almost nothing for most people.

We did get some a couple years ago... didn't help us much.

I think the 48 hours is bull and isn't effective that late. Nobody I know who has taken it within the 24-48 hour mark has had any luck with it.

I think the only reason it worked so well in our case is that the kid walked into my room in the morning, said "I don't feel good", had a 102 temp and we were in the clinic in less than an hour. Went straight to the pharmacy and filled the prescription. He took his first one an hour later, so depending on when he started the fever during the night, it was 8 hours or less after the first symptom.

And the only reason we went so early is that we knew that his good friends were positive for flu. Otherwise, I would have waited around to see if any other symptoms cropped up.

Even the nurses were surprised that he swabbed positive since he looked so good, wasn't coughing, or showing any other signs. And no fever because it came right down with Advil.

So, we caught it way, way early, before any real symptoms showed up.

 

[Fire14]

I had a coworker test postive of Chritmas holiday and she got tamiflu and it helped her. She is high risk I'm sure.

 

[Patience]

I think the 48 hours is bull and isn't effective that late. Nobody I know who has taken it within the 24-48 hour mark has had any luck with it.

I think the only reason it worked so well in our case is that the kid walked into my room in the morning, said "I don't feel good", had a 102 temp and we were in the clinic in less than an hour. Went straight to the pharmacy and filled the prescription. He took his first one an hour later, so depending on when he started the fever during the night, it was 8 hours or less after the first symptom.

And the only reason we went so early is that we knew that his good friends were positive for flu. Otherwise, I would have waited around to see if any other symptoms cropped up.

Even the nurses were surprised that he swabbed positive since he looked so good, wasn't coughing, or showing any other signs. And no fever because it came right down with Advil.

So, we caught it way, way early, before any real symptoms showed up.

It was the same for us. My daughter woke up with body aches and a high fever on a Friday. She was at the doctors office by 10:30, was swabbed and tested positive for flu type A and had her first does of Tamiflu about an hour after that. She felt fine by Sunday but she went on the Tamiflu within hours of showing symptoms.

 

[disfan07]

I was told by my internist on Friday and ER doctors yesterday that they are now only prescribing tamiflu for high risk patients (or if they live with a high risk patient). They said there are just too many flu cases and they have to prioritize who needs it the most and who it is really useful for. It has a lot of side effects and for most people is t worth it.

I know that if I get the flu I will automatically be put on tamiflu because I have asthma, heart arrhythmia and a suppressed immune system and every year that I get the flu, I end hospitalized for a week.

But my internist said she doesn't like prescribing it for low risk patients. She doesn't think it's worth it. No two cases of flu are the same so the people getting better with tamiflu might have gotten better faster anyway. She said that unless her patients have underlying conditions she tries not to prescribe it. However, she does have the parents who push and push for it and won't leave without it....but she has similar parents when it comes to antibiotics.

 

[gemini2727]

I think Tamiflu is bologna. If not taken within the first 2 days of getting the flu it is basically ineffective. If you do take it in time it only reduces your illness by one day. It's been know to cause GI problems. It might ease some of the symptoms but so does NyQuil. Best thing to do is drink lots of water and wait for your body to get better.

My daughter was diagnosed with flu a few years ago and was given an Rx for Tamiflu. She still talks about how much she hates that medicine! She had a bad reaction to it, so nauseous and then vomiting, where this wasn't an issue before she took it. Her flu symptoms were mild compared to how the Tamiflu made her feel. I guess it's different for everyone, but I would not give it to her again (not that she would take it, lol!)

 

[Callie]

I had the flu a few years ago. Think it was H1N1 that was going on?
Anyways I ended up with Tamiflu. They gave it to me due to the fact I have Asthma, and it could end up badly.

 

[LuvGoofy6]

I had Influenza over Christmas and the dr. office I went to did recommend Tamiflu as long as a person was inside the 48 hour window. I unfortunately was outside of that window. I am a teacher and several teachers where I work were sick and the ones that took Tamiflu loved it and seemed to be back at work faster. One thing they did say about Tamiflu was that it was very expensive. Maybe call the pediatrician and ask if you show the diagnosis to them they can call a prescription in for you without paying for another doctor visit?

 

[sookie]

My 13 yr old woke up with the classic flu symptoms. I took her to a Minute Clinic (should be Hour Clinic, took almost 2 hours to be seen). She slept in the car while waiting. Dr (nurse?) confirmed it was the flue and told us rest, fluids and tylenol. I asked about Tamiflu to reduce symptoms and time of flu - that was really the only reason I took her was for the RX. She said they are only doing it for high risk groups. She first said the general population is over using anitviral meds so they aren't working as well (my child has never had an antiviral and on antibiotics once in her life). When I pushed, she said they have been advised to only give RX for high risk.

I am guessing there is a shortage. Wish they had posted that on the door to the clinic so I could have saved my $100 and 2 hours of time.

Wondering if i should call her pediatrician in the morning and see if he will give us the RX - closing in on those 48 hours that I have heard is best for Tamiflu.

It is on shortage. I would agree with the NP you saw at the minute clinic. If your DD has mild enough disease that she is able to stay at home, I would continue with the care she advised. Worse, if the NP is on a collaborative practice agreement and goes against what she has been told to do under that agreement - she can get in trouble. Minute clinic goes by strict collaborative agreements and if the NP goes against what she has been instructed, she is not covered to practice. So when she said that she has been advised only to give the RX for high risk, I am betting that is what she is referring too. At least, that is what our local Minute Clinics seem to do.

I know this sounds silly - but I know that I had an "emergency" run into a minute clinic last when my face broke out horribly. So horribly in fact that I was panicking. I am in my late 20's. But I could not get into derm, nor I could I get into my PCP or any other clinic. So, for the first time ever, I went to a Minute Clinic. I can only prescribe up to age 21 because I am peds specialty, and of course, I would never prescribe for myself. Anyway, I gave them my list of meds, but the NP could only give me / refill what was on her roster. She actually showed it to me because we were talking shop - I'm an NP too. For acne, she could only prescribe out of a list of of a few acne medications. In fact, for each diagnosis or complaint, what she could give (medication wise) was based only on each diagnosis. What she could prescribe and when she could prescribe it was very much spelled out to her - she had very few liberties. And for my acne - she could only prescribe certain medications based on the severity of my acne. But thank god she got me through, because I had to speak the next week in front of a group of people. I was able to get my acne calmed down to where I could cover it with makeup.

Anyway, for our kids - most are only mildly ill. We are only treating the severely ill with antiviral medication (think hospitalized) or those who are very high risk (have a pre-existing condition that makes them more likely to be hospitalized). And we will only give tamiflu to those kids within the 48 hour window.

If everyone with flu like symptoms got tamilfu - we wouldn't have enough of it for the extremely sick. Everyone is coming down with flu like symptoms right now. It is absolutely awful.

Did they complete a flu test on your DD or did they just diagnose clinically? If she was diagnosed clinically and did not have a flu test, that makes it even trickier. Good luck OP. I know it is frustrating but I also know if my DD were mildly ill and had no other illnesses, the tamiflu would probably do little for her anyway. I can understand wanting to go all momma bear and wanting to protect her with meds though...

 

[disfan07]

It is on shortage. I would agree with the NP you saw at the minute clinic. If your DD has mild enough disease that she is able to stay at home, I would continue with the care she advised. Worse, if the NP is on a collaborative practice agreement and goes against what she has been told to do under that agreement - she can get in trouble. Minute clinic goes by strict collaborative agreements and if she goes against what she has been instructed, she is not covered to practice. So when she said that she has been advised only to give the RX for high risk, I am betting that is what she is referring too.

I know this sounds silly - but I know that I had an "emergency" run into a minute clinic last when my face broke out horribly. So horribly in fact that I was panicking. I am in my late 20's. I could not get into derm, nor I could I get into my PCP or any other clinic. So, for the first time ever, I went to a Minute Clinic. I can only prescribe up to age 21, and of course, I would never prescribe for myself. Anyway, I gave them my list of meds, but the NP could only give me what was on her roster - she actually showed it to me because we were talking shop (I'm an NP too). For acne, she could only prescribe out of a list of of a few acne medications. In fact, for each diagnosis or complaint, what she could give (medication wise) was based only on each diagnosis and was very much spelled out to her - she had very few liberties. And for my acne - she could only prescribe certain medications based on the severity of my acne. But thank god she got me through, because I had to speak the next week in front of a group of people. I was able to get my acne calmed down to where I could cover it with makeup.

Anyway, for our kids - most are only mildly ill. We are only treating for the severely ill with antiviral medication (think hospitalized) or those who are very high risk (have a pre-existing condition that makes them more likely to be hospitalized). We will only give tamiflu to those kids within the 48 hour window.

If everyone with flu like symptoms got tamilfu - we wouldn't have enough of it for the extremely sick. Everyone is coming down with flu like symptoms right now. It is absolutely awful.

Did they complete a flu test on your DD or did they just diagnose clinically? If she was diagnosed clinically and did not have a flu test, that makes it even trickier. Good luck OP. I know it is frustrating but I also know if my DD were mildly ill and had no other illnesses, the tamiflu would probably do little for her anyway.

Exactly. And maybe this will sound selfish to some but as a very high risk patient I appreciate that they're doing it this way. With my illnesses and my history of pneumonia and cardiac problems secondary to the flu, I'm happy to hear that they are taking people like me into consideration when making decisions about who gets the medication.

We had 35 confirmed cases on flu on my campus just last week (we get emails from stude t health when there are large numbers of cases) so its running rampant where I am right now and I can't avoid school and I can guarantee that a lot of people who are sick are probably still showing up to class.

 

[hellow]

I have seen a lot of TV commercials for Tamiflu telling you to go to your doctor within 48 hours. It seems like if drs. are limiting who they prescribe it for due to shortages that the company should either lay off on the advertising, or clarify a little better. It would save a lot of people from going to the dr. just to get "take 2 aspirin and call me in the morning". I would hate to waste the money and time.

 

[sookie]

I have seen a lot of TV commercials for Tamiflu telling you to go to your doctor within 48 hours. It seems like if drs. are limiting who they prescribe it for due to shortages that the company should either lay off on the advertising, or clarify a little better. It would save a lot of people from going to the dr. just to get "take 2 aspirin and call me in the morning". I would hate to waste the money and time.

Have you guys seen this bumper sticker?

"Ask your doctor if medical advice from a television commercial is right for you".

 

[hellow]

Have you guys seen this bumper sticker?

"Ask your doctor if medical advice from a television commercial is right for you".

So true!

 

[mad madam mim78]

I very much disagree with this. My 5 year old daughter woke up with a high fever and body aches the Friday morning before Christmas. I took her to the doctor that same morning and she tested positive for type A flu. She started Tamiflu that day and by Sunday (two days later) she was feeling fine and was able to enjoy Christmas. It's a miracle drug to me.

My kid took Tamiflu within 8 hours of his first temperature after swabbing positive for A. This was back in early December. (He was prescribed Tamiflu because there are two high risk people in the household.)

Fever came down with first Advil and never came back, never developed a cough nor the typical aches and pains, was feeling absolutely normal in 24-36 hours.

In our case, the Tamiflu worked wonders and took off almost a week of the flu. And we are pretty sure we know from whom it came and the same bug knocked a bunch of his friends on their butts. A close knit group of boys all came down with it at the same time. All swabbed positive for A. None had Tamiflu and all had symptoms for over a week. DS was the only one on Tamiflu and was the only one who did not develop symptoms except for that fever that first day. Not scientific evidence, but still a pretty good control group.

There are a ton of flu-like illnesses going around. Our ped told us that many of the clinics aren't even swabbing for flu unless high-risk. Just saying 'it looks like the flu." And because the non-high risk patients are not swabbed, they can't prescribe Tamiflu because it is not known if it is absolutely the flu or one of the flu-like illnesses going around.

It has been a couple of years now that the flu virus has been mutating to have a resistance to Tamiflu. Not prescribing it for non-high risk patients is prudent because you need Tamiflu to work for high-risk patients.

As takers of Tamiflu, it works for us. I took it recently as a preventative.

My dd took it and she had Type A 2 weeks ago.

It does make you feel like crap though. It gave me a headache.

However I was taking care of my DH who just came home from Triple Bypass surgery and 2 kids with the flu in the same house. I erred on the side of caution.

This week we are going for our flu shots if they are available. DH got his before coming home from the hospital, since we had flu in the house.

My older dd can get one as she has a heart issue. I will be interested to see if I can get a shot.

The reasons I say these things about Tamiflu is because this is what I've heard from doctors. They were giving my daughter Tamiflu recently in the hospital and one doctor was trying to take her off of it but the main doctor wanted to keep her on it. She even admitted that she wasn't sure how benificial it was but when you're at the hospital they aren't going to skimp on the meds. She sent us home with a prescription which I did not fill.

My other daughter got the flu a few days later and it lasted about 4 days without meds. Now maybe had I dragged her to the doctor and begged for a prescription it might have shaved that down to 3 days. Forty dollars worth of co-pays isn't worth one day. If it makes people "feel" better I guess that's priceless but I think it's snake oil.

 

[LilyWDW]

Yep, they thought tamiflu was some kind of miracle drug when it came out.

Current tests show that it does almost nothing for most people.

We did get some a couple years ago... didn't help us much.

Another thing to remember is that when people here post "It worked for me" we are seeing a correlation... not necessarily a causation. Studies and research want to find causation. They want to know that A does or does not cause B. Just because B happens after A does not mean that A is always the cause of B. There might be another reason that impacted the relationship.

This is why we have to go through a causation analysis to see what has the best possibility of being the causal relationship.

 

[sookie]

Another thing to remember is that when people here post "It worked for me" we are seeing a correlation... not necessarily a causation. Studies and research want to find causation. They want to know that A does or does not cause B. Just because B happens after A does not mean that A is always the cause of B. There might be another reason that impacted the relationship.

This is why we have to go through a causation analysis to see what has the best possibility of being the causal relationship.

Yup...

Sometimes it is easier just to say...

Most healthy people get better from the flu with or without medicine in just a few days. It is hard to tell if you would have gotten better without the medicine or not. If you have a good immune system, chances are you do just as well without medicine. The side effects and the cost often outweigh the benefits. It is miserable, but you can do well without the medicine. Often you are miserable with the medicine as well.

There are side effects - nasty ones - with Tamiflu. It is not an innocent drug.

We can say the same thing often for antibiotics. And as an aside - sometimes, people are given antibiotics for illnesses that are actually viral (a mistake). Because antibiotics do not work against viruses - those people would have gotten better anyway. People will say they got better, but in truth, they would have gotten better without treatment in the same time period.

 

[Hrhpd]

The reasons I say these things about Tamiflu is because this is what I've heard from doctors. They were giving my daughter Tamiflu recently in the hospital and one doctor was trying to take her off of it but the main doctor wanted to keep her on it. She even admitted that she wasn't sure how benificial it was but when you're at the hospital they aren't going to skimp on the meds. She sent us home with a prescription which I did not fill.

My other daughter got the flu a few days later and it lasted about 4 days without meds. Now maybe had I dragged her to the doctor and begged for a prescription it might have shaved that down to 3 days. Forty dollars worth of co-pays isn't worth one day. If it makes people "feel" better I guess that's priceless but I think it's snake oil.

For us, Tamiflu shaved it down to less than 24 hours before he was completely symptom free and feeling great. And that was priceless. Our co-pay was only $30.00. So, it was well worth shaving off several days of misery for the price of a pizza.

Additionally, everybody in our house went on preventative Tamiflu since we have 2 high risk people in our household. Surprisingly, nobody had any side effects at all.

 

[sookie]

For us, Tamiflu shaved it down to less than 24 hours before he was completely symptom free and feeling great. And that was priceless. Our co-pay was only $30.00. So, it was well worth shaving off several days of misery for the price of a pizza.

Additionally, everybody in our house went on preventative Tamiflu since we have 2 high risk people in our household. Surprisingly, nobody had any side effects at all.

I will tell you my last experience.

Bad match year. 6 years ago... about 2008?

DD - badly controlled asthmatic.

Me - badly controlled asthmatic. Breastfeeding. Working in healthcare.

Husband - Prepping to get a pacemaker for irregularities in rhythm at 30 years of age. Has asthma, well controlled.

Baby Boy - healthy as a horse, but has had some recurrent wheezing in the past.

I go to work and take care of a beautiful baby girl with a bad heart. Baby girl tests negative x2 for influenza during my first two shifts, but continues to decline. Day 3 - I asked for a repeat - she does not look right. However - because we are all vaccinated and because we have had negative tests - we are back to basic, standard precautions (no masks).

We run it again. Flu B. No wonder sweet baby girl wasn't getting better!

I was seriously sick, on my back, for over a week after taking care of that child. At the end of my last shift, I have chills and am starting to show symptoms of the flu. After I left, she was in the hospital for over a week.

I came down with the flu. I did get treated right away. My daughter got it from me, and because I couldn't keep her hydrated - she was in and out of the ER twice. She also has asthma, and had to start treatment for that as well.

My son went on prophylaxis Tamiflu dosing because he was considered to have asthma, and my husband has cardiac disease (prepping for pacemaker) and asthma. They felt OK, but husband ended up switching to the treatment dose midway through because he got sick and had to be treated.

That was several years ago. I will tell you that the Tamiflu courses, for both me and my daughter, did nothing for any of us. It might have helped my husband and baby, but only to a point. We were all still very miserable.

I think that because my daughter and I are so much healthier now, that if we were given the options to start or not start Tamiflu for mild disease - we would probably opt out. She is older and we are both a lot healthier. My 6-year-old boy - he just had an asthma attack requiring intense treatment, so I would probably be a little more iffy about that. My husband would probably insist on treatment for because of his cardiac history.

Case by case basis - and it all depends on severity too. If my usually well DD made it into the hospital - you bet your booty I would be asking to start to start tamiflu on her if we were within the window!

 

[Jewel3k]

I understand why the are so careful with proscribing it. The side effects of the tamiflu can be nasty. My husband reacted so badly with vomiting he ended up on the er. We also live with a high risk person, so we will probably have everyone, but him take it if we contract the flu again.

 

[The Wise One]

Yes there is a terrible shortage, especially for the pediatric dosages. I work in a pharmacy and it seems that even with the shortage it is being way over prescribed. Unless the patient is high risk or lives with a high risk patient they don't need the medication. I am currently on the couch with the flu and its just good ole fashioned rest, fluids and Tylenol.