Emergency Refill of Prescription Prozac in Puerto Rico?

January 5, 2020 3:50 AM

An American friend just landed in Puerto Rico for vacation, alone, and realized they forgot a bottle of one of their prescription meds, Prozac (and have an extra bottle of another med, instead). They're in San Juan. They're asleep right now, so I'm doing some remote leg-work in hopes of handing them info when they wake up in the morning. Any advice/info I can pass along re: resolving this as quickly as possible and getting them the meds they need would be greatly appreciated!

Documentation on the Puerto Rico website says "you need a hand-signed prescription" -- unclear to me if this means "a fax of a signed prescription from a US-based psych would suffice" or "need to find a Puerto Rican doctor and get a prescription written." If the latter, I'm guessing this is a common enough problem and a local urgent care or hospital should be able to help, but I'm not sure. People on various websites have also mentioned overnight shipping of pills from a US-based pharmacy to Puerto Rico. That feels a little sketchy, but I'm unsure.

I'm pretty sure this is an easy problem to solve but I haven't encountered it before so I'm just looking for info that might help them make solving it easy. They're pretty reliant on meds, and I'm not sure how they'll be feeling in the morning. I think my main concern is "who, exactly, in the US needs to talk to who, exactly, locally, to make this problem go away?" With secondary concern "is anything going to be open on a Sunday?"

posted by Alterscape to Travel & Transportation around San Juan, PR (7 answers total)

Best answer: There's a Walgreen's in San Juan, but I don't know if it's open on a Sunday. Complicating the issue of getting the medicine there is that a lot of stuff won't be open Jan. 6 (Day of the Three Kings-Epiphany)--something to keep in mind as you look at options.

Good luck to your friend.
posted by correcaminos at 4:11 AM on January 5, 2020

Best answer: Prozac is fairly long-lasting, so they shouldn't wake up feeling rubbish. Google Maps suggests there are several CVS locations in San Juan. Both they and the Walgreens appear to be open on Sundays.

More from speculation than experience: If they fill their prescription at either of those chains, I'd go to the branch in the most tourist-y area and ask. It may be as simple as the pharmacist can locate their prescription in the computer, but, if not, this is likely a problem they've heard before.
posted by hoyland at 4:24 AM on January 5, 2020 [2 favorites]

Best answer: Puerto Rico is part of the United States.
posted by PSB34me at 6:31 AM on January 5, 2020 [29 favorites]

Best answer: In the past I have found pharmacies willing to spot me a 3 day supply while I sorted things out, so I suspect they have some breathing room.
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 7:42 AM on January 5, 2020 [2 favorites]

Best answer: This is a solvable problem. CVS will still be open on a Sunday. She should go there and ask for a short fill. Then on Monday call the prescribers office and ask that they call the pharmacy directly for a refill. Looks like limited hours due to 3 kings but they are still open.
posted by pintapicasso at 8:45 AM on January 5, 2020 [2 favorites]

Best answer: I left home without medication once, and my husband Fedexed it to me. Is that possible for your friend?
posted by islandeady at 9:07 AM on January 5, 2020

Response by poster: You were right, pintapicasso and correcaminos -- my friend was able to walk into the CVS near the Sheraton, talk to the pharmacist, and get enough meds to last through their trip.

I entirely whiffed my articulation of PR as a territory of the US in my ask -- thank you to PSB34me for the call-out. I was half-asleep and worried for my friend when I wrote the question, but that's no excuse for not articulating things accurately.
posted by Alterscape at 11:37 AM on January 5, 2020 [5 favorites]