Worried about being "red flagged" by the pharmacy; should I take the rest of my script back?

Pharmacy professional weighing in.

You have absolutely nothing to worry about. Controls are monitored for what's filled. Like another user said, if you take them back the pharmacy will just destroy them, nothing is documented. There are often self-serve drop boxes for meds in pharmacies, look to see where they might be in your area (Most of the time it's a pharmacy, but can be elsewhere). Nothing is reported with med disposal.

Gonna say as well that 10 tabs is absolutely nothing. 5-325 can come in bottles of 500 tabs, and seeing prescriptions for month-long supplies for chronic pain users is pretty common.

The drug reporting watches for patient safety by making sure that a patient isn't getting multiple prescriptions (potentially at different pharmacies, or different prescribers) that could interact with each other. Let's say you take Oxycodone 5mg three times daily chronically. You get in an accident and the emergency room prescribes you Norco (your hydro/APAP 5-325). The monitoring tool lets them know that you're already on an opioid and to either change therapy or verify the additional dose with your PCP.

Anyways I'm rambling. Long story short, you've got the least suspicious prescription. Nothing to worry about.

Source: am psych RN and have lots of experience with ppl who are actually abusing drugs.

Yeah you're thinking about this waaaaaaaay too hard. PDMP is basically just a record that's open to interpretation. One script from one doctor for 10 of an opiate looks fine and makes sense, especially if you also report the medical history of having had a surgery that year.

What they're looking for for signs of abuse is things like:

• lots of different doctors (shopping around)
• one doctor but in obscene quantities or doses (pill mill, also the patient will need to be tapered, depending on the drug cold turkey could kill them).
• a drug that is different than the one they found on testing, so for instance you have a script for Adderall but there's no Adderall in your pee but there is oxy. That means you probably sold it or traded it for the oxy.

TLDR; Ten pills once is chump change.

I'm still relatively young

Your naivety gives that away. I'm putting this on your permanent record.

I could be way overanalyzing this

You're not overanalyzing it. You're Wayyyyy overanalyzing it to a detrimental degree.

Even if you did take them back, and the pharmacy made a log of it, it would just be in their internal pharmacy 'drugs to destroy' log and wouldn't be sent to the state or anywhere else to update your records.

All they see is that you were prescribed a very small amount of a low dose pain medication once after a surgery and you picked it up. Something thousands of people do every single day.

It's not that important. You're not going to be red-flagged because your doctor/surgeon wrote a prescription and you picked it up.

You only get flagged as a drug seeker for drug-seeking behavior. That does not include picking up a small prescription for a few pain meds a doctor wrote for you after minor surgery. If it did, anyone who's ever had a root canal or tooth pulled would be flagged and the system would be useless.

You're over analyzing.

The system is (supposedly) to track narcotics to prevent overprescribing. Your one-off script because of one surgery isn't a concern.

Take what you need. Don't think just because today you feel OK you don't need the refill - pain can be sneaky, and come back with a vengeance tomorrow. What the surgeon prescribed is based on experience with prior surgeries - there's a bell curve of post-op pain level and time, that's used to guide prescribing.

For example, after one surgery I felt fine and had already been given a strong pain med injection, and figured I'd be fine for a few hours. When my nurse realized my pain med prescription hadn't been filled yet, she rushed off to get another shot for me, knowing that I'd shortly be in major pain. She'd seen enough of that type surgery to know how it works for most people. I thought I had plenty of time to get it filled.

The focus of the tracking system (ostensibly) is to expose patterns of abuse...which is (supposedly) more likely from long-term use/prescriptions (months/years) - such as with chronic pain sufferers. It's more concerned with docs over-prescribing, since they instruct the pharmacy what to give you - you can't just walk in and say "gimme 30 vicodin".

I think you're thinking about this way to hard. Its an anxiety response. No ones going to blacklist you or judge you for taking a medicine you were prescribed by a doctor. They also probably wouldn't make a record if the pills were destroyed. If they did it certainly wouldn't be attached to your medical records. They aren't being counted against your record. Its not a punishment or a test. You had a surgery, and the prescribed treatment for said surgery aftercare is pain meds. Its okay. You aren't a criminal or suspicious or being judged for anything.

If you don't like how they make you feel that's okay. I personally can't stand opioids and could manage the pain with Tylenol when I had surgery. But that doesn't mean its a bad thing to take them. Opioid addiction is generally only a concern after several weeks of constant use, and if you immediately hated them then you're even less likely to get addicted.

You are going to be okay no matter what you decide. No one will judge you or think less of you no matter what you do.

A lot of people here saying you're over thinking things, but as a chronic pain patient, I know exactly how suspicious and damn right shitty some healthcare professionals can be, and how horrible, and guilty, they can make you feel for something completely innocent because they've been drilled about "pill seekers" or whatever (but were never drilled anywhere near as hard about prescribing responsibly, only profitably) and don't care enough to actually look at why you're taking them.

I do agree with most of the comments that being flagged by anyone is probably not something that should be concerning you at all, you are prescribed the meds by a doctor, and especially after a procedure that has painful recovery, no one will think twice about it.

But it is so fucking important for people to see the kind of impact that clamping down on patients (the stress, panic, anxiety, fear, guilt despite having done nothing wrong, and so on) instead of the doctors doing the irresponsible prescribing.

I hope you manage to calm your concerns, and feel better soon.

They don’t care if you bring them back. They put them in a disposal system and won’t document who you are.

The only time prescription monitoring comes into play is if you’re filling more than a normal amount. Some states have limits on pain pills or morphine equivalents. Unless you’re popping 10 a day and begging docs for refills, nobody gives a shit.

Are you afraid of becoming addicted? Or just that they won’t give you pills when you need them?

I'm not going to say what kind of surgery that was and please don't ask.

Ah, so it was butt surgery. Got it.

What the fuck? Nobody is going to give a damn lol. Stop reading shit on the Internet.

Bro, "the system" doesn't even catch people who are abusing their prescriptions, they're not going to "get" you for ten hydrocodones.

You're over analyzing it. These medications are prescribed all the time, especially for surgeries. They're only concerned if you start filling multiple prescriptions for the same narcotics at different pharmacies. They aren't going to care if you return the pills back. It's just going to go into a pile with expired medications to get destroyed. I doubt they would make any record of it. You don't have to take any painkillers if you don't feel they are warranted. I didn't take mine when I had my surgery. Once you have completed recovery, if you want to get rid of the medications, any pharmacy will carry the materials you need to destroy the medication safely. I don't remember what it's called offhand, but you can go to any pharmacy and ask for some packets of the stuff that destroys medications, and they'll just give them to you.

Like everyone else here...your over thinking it.

That med is barely anything to worry about. Your doctor prescribed it, take it.

Trust me, you'll know when you're on the serious stuff when you have to get a new script every month that makes you go to the doctor just for a refill.

So someone I was caring for recently was on the same meds. And they didn't like the feeling and were paranoid they would be addicted. After 3 refills they are not addicted and are fine. They no longer need or desire them. However they sounded just like you, freaking out and over analyzing things. Don't post on the internet when you are under the influence of these. Also, do not make any "life decisions". Take as needed for pain, allow your system to heal. And write yourself a post-it note that says, "Are you high right now?" And maybe a little Stop sign to remind you to just chill while on these. Everything will be ok.

It's 5/325, the Tylenol is in there mostly to "prevent abuse". I say that in quotes because you can separate the two by powdering the pill and putting it in cold water overnight. The Tylenol won't mix with the water. It's a pointless addition to the pill.

As for your concern though, they gave you ten. You're way over thinking it. If you don't want any remainder when you're done most pharmacies have a drop for old meds or will otherwise take them but they don't care who you are and won't keep track.

I’ve only taken a three pills so far, out of ten total. If I take the other seven back to the pharmacy to have them destroyed, they’ll make a record of that, I would imagine.

probably not, actually. you got the pills legally. You're not trying to get more. nobody is going to look at you like you're a chronic user.

that last paragraph, though, is an excellent reason to return it anyhow. Especially if the pain is manageable without. I would suggest talking with your doctor/pharmacist about it. they can give you better guidance.

I don’t think there’s anything you can do about it. Taking them back is not likely to make it to the database. The most important thing is to not need pain pills again soon - try to push off any further. Surgery.

My ex got hit with that - came back from surgery and was red flagged so couldn’t get pain pills for recovery. My best guess is it was because she had two unrelated surgeries from two different specialists. It’s possible one ten pill prescription overlapped the second, I don’t remember. As a teacher she had the summer off so wanted to get them out of the way and have the rest of the summer to recover or enjoy. Don’t do that

Also consider your medical records should be protected from anyone you don’t explicitly allow to see them.

I live in the US. Last year I had a wisdom tooth removal and was prescribed Hydrocodone, like you.

I took one and it made me sick, so I didn't take the rest. They're still in my medicine cabinet and won't ever be touched, I'm sure. No one has come after me for it.

To anyone reading this who thinks they are fine with surveillance because "I have nothing to hide": this is the "chilling effect" in action, and it's why you should care. Step back for a second and read this post again - how fucking dystopian does it sound, counting each and every pill so The Authorities don't turn their eye on you?

I'm sorry you're dealing with this while you recover from surgery, OP. Wishing you a swift recovery!

Permanently Deleted

Flush the rest down the toilet and move on. You’re overthinking it.