Receiving treatment while out of country

[Eugmn]

Hello, hoping for a little advice and to maybe find somebody in a similar situation. I live in United States, Denver Colorado. My health insurance is through Kaiser Permanente. I have another residence in Colombia South America.

The house in Columbia was about halfway built when I was diagnosed three years ago. We really didn’t have any option but to finish out the project.

The problem I’m having is getting enough medication to allow me to stay in Colombia for at least three months. My insurance after I have fought a little bit has now told me they will give me my normal one month dosage of Zytiga, One additional month that is a vacation override, and then the third month I would have to completely pay out of pocket. I currently am on 250 mg Zytiga per day. I also receive a six-month Lupron injection that I will receive before I travel.

I really don’t understand why receiving 90 Zytiga pills for 3 months is an issue as most people that I know of are on a much higher dosage and go through 120 pills per month.

What Kaiser has offered me will get me by through my next visit, but any other visits I do for the rest of the year will require me to pay for everything out of pocket. The only other option I have is to have somebody mail me the prescription monthly in which postage rates to Columbia would be about $120. I am also entertaining trying to get citizenship and possibly medical insurance within Colombia . My wife is a Colombian citizen. The other issue I have is Kaiser requires me to have monthly bloodwork while I am on Zytiga. I am going to attempt to get my blood work done while in Colombia and email back the results to my doctor. I still haven’t received verification of that will be OK.

[fluffyfur]

will your doctor script you a higher dose if you explain your situation so that you can make it last for three months?

how much is it to see a private physician in Colombia and buy the drug there? Make copies of all your medical records and bring them with you.

why is postage that expensive? i am on the USPS website and the most it would be is 38.00 to ship for priority international.

pe.usps.com/text/dmm300/Not...

[Eugmn in reply to fluffyfur]

Thanks for the ideas. I already asked my doc about prescribing a larger dosage. No chance of that. Zytiga is prescription in Colombia, so I will need a Colombian doc.

I will check on USPS. That could be my solution. I used DHL before.

[fluffyfur]

Also do you even need a script for Zytiga in Colombia? I would have your wife call a local pharmacy near your house there and ask the pharmacist. You may be able to walk in and buy it off the shelf. Many drugs are OTC in foreign countries.

Here's some discussion of people that just walked into a pharmacy in Medellin and bought whatever they wanted.

tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic-g...