doctors appointments

How are any of you pulling it off? I have a job offer with a great company, running regional, weekends at home. Thing is, once a month i need to get to a doctor so i can get a refill on my meds, so i would need to be home on a friday during the day. no weekend hours at the doctor. my recruiter said he was going to talk to the fleet manager and make sure it was realistic before he told me it was, which i respect, most recruiters would tell me what i wanna hear. this is a great company, a really good opportunity. i am hoping to hear back good news.

one potential option is to have the doctor write me for 2 or 3 refills on each prescription, that way if an appointment date falls through, i have a safety net. The Rx is an antidepressant, i see a shrink on saturdays, cool lady, so i'm gonna let her know the deal too, theres a good chance she may know of a doctor or psych that has saturday hours.

i cant be the only trucker in the position of needing to get to a doctor once a month. hoping it works out.

 

Do not worry there is plenty of psychs on here you can talk to.

 

What medicine exactly?

When you are getting medicine from a shrink, you are approaching Mental Health and issues related to medicines specifically related to CDL and Trucking. Some of which DQ's you while you have it on board your body and for some time after.

Getting to a doc at home or somewhere truly specific on appointment day cannot, must not and never is relied on no matter what. you will have trouble BEING there for that appt. There are a thousand snafus that will go interfere with your appt.

Until we know exactly what medicines involved here, there is no point proceeding further. Some medicines you cannot take and drive a semi truck. Its that simple.

 

Take as much hometime off as you can and schedule your appointment for the last day off to provide some extra cushion. Having extra refills is a much better idea, though. Trying to get a refill away from your home pharmacy--Walmart would be the most convenient if you're out on the road--is a major pain.

 

Tell the company you have to be home one Friday a month. They got 30 days to plan ahead.
If they can't deal with that find another company.

 

If it becomes a problem simply go home on the weekend. Take Sat and Sun off then call in Monday.

Unfortunately, most places that claim weekends off is more like 34 off starting Fri night and going back Sunday.

 

Thanks man! I agree. It's a regional job primarily northeast and I live 6 miles from the terminal. As far as trying to bait me in to disclosing what meds I'm on? Haha... Sure why not. Depakote, Wellbutrin, and gabapentin. None of which violate dot rules. Going off of a lot of the total ######## most truckers spit, sloppy appearance, and horrible interpersonal skills, I'll say that myself off of these meds on my worst day is still better then maybe 40% of people in our line of work.

 

Oh yeah... Truckers know EVERYTHING just ask the guys hanging out at the buffet lmao.

 

This is one of the hardest aspects to being an OTR driver and there is no one size fits all solutions either. This topic come up a while back in here. I get asked about this several times a year. What I advise is try to schedule as far out as you can and really develop a good working relationship with your fleet manager. There are no perfect systems. Just stay as flexible as you can and see if your doc will do the same. It comes down to communication and not taking hard line stances. Once you get out on the road and see how your hometime goes this becomes so much easier.

 

My doc is in his office at 6:30 am 4 days a week. I just slide in without a appt to get my prescription refills as do many of his other patients. Doc is ok with this,,takes all of a minute and it is no doubt lucrative for doc