About Me
Our Pharmacy
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Freequently Asked Questions about ordering prescriptions drugs from Gulfport Healthcare
Q: How does your Pharmacy work?
A: Please click on the "New Customers" and "Existing Customers" links on the homepage.Q: Do I need a prescription?
A: Yes, for our prescription drugs only.Q: What are your hours of operation?
A: We are open Mon-Fri 8.30am to 5pm PST.Q: How much medication can you supply?
A: We will dispense up to 3 months medication at a time. You will have as many refills as your doctor has authorized you to have on the prescription that you fax to us. The maximum your doctor can authorize is a one year supply.Q: How long will my order take to arrive?
A: Prescription orders will normally be shipped within 5 business days of receiving your prescriptions. Once shipped, it will take up to 15 business days for delivery. OTC orders are shipped within 2 business days. US postal addresses must be USPS deliverable. On rare occasions some shipments may take more than 15 business days to arrive due to possible disruptions with international postal services or customs. We ask that you be patient and should your package not arrive within a 4 week time period, please call us and we will investigate and provide you with an update and if necessary we will send out a replacement. As a suggestion we recommend that you try to place your order as far in advance as possible, such as 30 - 45 days prior to when you actually need the medication.Q: Will you ship any prescription drugs?
A: We do not ship tranquilizers or opiate-containing drugs. We reserve the right to refuse to dispense orders for drugs where we are concerned at the potential for abuse.Q: What is the difference between a generic drug and a brand name drug?
A: A generic drug is a drug which is manufactured by a company that is not the innovator. Because of this, other manufacturers are allowed to produce and sell the exact medication at a lower more competitive price. The generic drug is the exact same medication as the original brand name drug, simply made by another company. Due to strict regulations on the generic drug industry, these drugs must provide the same therapeutic effect as the brand name drug.Q: Why do the pills I received look different than the ones I get from my local pharmacy?
A: Firstly, if you are used to brand name pills and you have ordered a generic from us, the pills we send you will look different. Generics do not look the same as the brand name products, even though they have the same active ingredient and work in exactly the same way. In addition, the same brand name pill may look slightly different coming from Canada and in some case have a different name. In different countries manufacturers will often use different trade names and under international licensing agreements a different manufacturer may sometimes be responsible for the distribution of a brand name drug. Lastly, when comparing 2 different generics, they will look different if they are made by 2 different companies.Q: Do you source drugs internationally?
A: Prescription Drugs from our international dispensary are available at even lower prices than Canadian ones in some cases. All prescription medications internationally sourced meet the high standards of the country of origin. Customers will receive notification by email if their order contains an internationally sourced product.Q: I am on 5 different drugs, you don't seem to list them all-can you ship them?
A: We have identified a large number of drugs where we can offer significant cost savings. If a drug does not appear on our list it is probably because there is not a significant saving on what you would pay normally.Q: How can I pay for my order?
A: We accept Visa and Mastercard. We do not accept debit cards. We also accept personal checks, however these must clear your bank before the medication can be shipped, thus delaying the arrival of your order. We do not accept other credit cards or any other form of payment.Q: Is it safe to use my credit card?
A: Absolutely. We have taken every precaution to make your transaction secure. Our website utilizes industry-standard security measures, including SSL (Secure Sockets Layer). All account information submitted to us is safely isolated from unauthorized internet access.Q: Are there any additional charges?
A: No. Our prices include shipping, insurance and are sales tax free.Q: What guarantee do you offer that I will receive my order?
A: As long as you have provided the correct delivery address, if your order does not arrive we will offer to re-ship or apply a credit for the full amount to your credit card, whichever you choose.Q. Will you accept returns if I am not satisfied?
A. It is not legal for us to accept returns of prescription medications.Q: Will you accept my insurance?
A: At this time we do not have arrangements with health insurance companies or PBMs (prescription benefit management companies) for prescription drug coverage. We will however provide you with an invoice so you can make an insurance claim. Please retain this invoice as we are unable to issue duplicates.Q: How does you pricematch guarantee work?
A: Planetdrugsdirect will match or beat any Pharmacychecker approved Pharmacy. Shipping methods must be included when making the comparison. Competitor promotions and specials are excluded. Competitor price quotes must be provided and valid at the time of placing the order to be eligible. Competitor must have product in stock.
Monday, March 8, 2010
Old Age, From Youth’s Narrow Prism
Published: March 1, 2010
The old woman had drawn down the shade in her room — hoping, I imagined, to stop the midday Miami sun from penetrating her grief. But the sun still hit the window full force and illuminated the shade like a Chinese lantern.
She sat silently in a wheelchair, her 93-year-old silhouette stooped in the bathing light. I entered, held her hand for a moment and introduced myself. “Sit down, doctor,” she said politely.I asked her why she had come to the nursing home, and she described the recent passing of her husband after 73 years of marriage. I was overwhelmed by the thought of her loss, and wanted to offer some words of comfort. I leaned in close and spoke.“I’m so sorry,” I told her. “What has it been like for you losing your husband after so many years of marriage?”She paused for a moment and then replied: “Heaven.” Seeing my bewilderment, she smiled and went on to describe how she had endured decades in an unhappy marriage with a gruff, verbally abusive man.
As she spoke, I realized why my instincts were so completely off. In my misguided empathy I had committed what William James called the psychologist’s fallacy, assuming incorrectly that one knows what someone else is experiencing. With this newly widowed patient I imagined that only a life of sadness and decrepitude remained, and I felt bad about it. But I was wrong. She had not fallen into the abyss. She was glad to have finally won a measure of freedom and was determined to make the best of it. As her life unfolded at the nursing home over the next year, she threw herself into new activities and relationships in a way that was quite unexpected.
All of us lapse into such mistaken impressions of old age from time to time. It stems in part from an age-centered perspective, in which we view our own age as the most normal of times, the way all life should be. At 18 the 50-year-olds may seem ancient, but at 50 we are apt to say the same about the 80-year-olds.
“So what’s it really like to be old?” I often ask my patients, who are mostly in their late 80s and 90s, and the responses are unexpected.
“I forgot I was so old,” a 100-year-old patient recently told me, and then excused herself to make it to bingo on time.
This age-centrism is particularly pervasive in people’s attitudes toward nursing homes. All too often we imagine that life seems to end at the nursing home door — that it is loveless and lonely, with death hovering close by.
We make this mistake when we refuse to see the needs for intimacy even in the most debilitated elderly. Our youth-centered culture equates love with sex; in contrast, I have seen with my older patients that love can be an endlessly blossoming flower, felt and expressed in hundreds of ways. A friend’s mother who suffers from Alzheimer’s disease has fallen in love with another resident on her floor, and they walk around holding hands and snuggling with a new found innocence that perhaps only their memory loss restored.
We also project our terror of death onto the aged, assuming that fear and depression must stalk the final years of life. And yet in my 15 years of working in nursing homes, I have never heard a patient say that he or she was afraid of death. Sometimes there is acceptance, other times anticipation, but most often it is not a great concern. Life goes on in its shadows.
In the end, there is a cost to our myopic view of aging. We imagine the pains of late-life ailments but not the joys of new pursuits; we recoil at the losses and loneliness and fail to embrace the wisdom and meaning that only age can bring. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow captured the sentiment well:
For age is opportunity no less Than youth itself, though in another dress,
And as the evening twilight fades away The sky is filled with stars, invisible by day.
Dr. Marc E. Agronin is a geriatric psychiatrist at Miami Jewish Health Systems.
Thursday, March 4, 2010
Part 4 Stress and Your Diet
Your diet can actually make stress worse. If you aren’t eating well, it can cause disturbances in your mental and physical health that can lead to all sorts of stressful situations. An improper diet can actually lead to all sorts of problems in your life. If you’re eating very poorly, you could experience:
.
- Brain fog
- Memory problems
- Depression
- Inability to focus
- Difficulty concentrating
These are just a few of the many problems that can be caused by a poor diet, and each of these can contribute to excessive stress. If you have memory problems, brain fog, and the ability to focus, for instance, you may have a lot of trouble getting your work done on time and meeting deadlines at work.
Excess Carbohydrate Consumption
Perhaps the most common dietary cause of these issues is the consumption of excessive carbohydrates. Not all carbohydrates are bad, but refined carbohydrates can lead to many types of mental disturbances when consumed to excess.
It is advisable to limit the consumption of refined carbohydrates and “white” carbohydrates such as white rice, white flour, white potatoes, and white sugar. While other types of carbohydrates can also cause issues if
consumed to extreme excess, these refined sources can be especially problematic.
Try replacing these refined carbohydrates with healthier versions. Use whole grain breads instead of white, brown rice rather than white rice, and replace sugary drinks with diet versions.
Caffeine Consumption
Caffeine consumption can also cause problems, especially in individuals who develop a sensitivity to it. Even if you have been consuming caffeine on a regular basis for your entire life, you may suddenly become sensitive to it.
Consuming too much caffeine can also lead to sleep disturbances, which can definitely lead to many problems, including the same types of mental disturbances that are caused by excessive consumption of carbohydrates. Cut caffeine down to no more than a couple of servings per day at most.
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