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Thanks for your suggestions Dave. Would bringing thr current migrain medicine raise issues if it was noticed? If I am going to have to go back to the USA every 3 months for the humira since it must be kept cool, we have a storage container that does that in checked luggage, then I might as well bring the others in too it seems to me to minimize shipping cost. You recommend in a pocket over having the medicine in a checked bag? The humira in a container is a little bulky to fit in a pocket, so planned to just keep it in checked luggage as we have done in the past on vacation visits.
I was very discouraged by this issue until your shared experience. So the idea of moving to CR is back on the plate.
i wouldn’t try bringing in a narcotic if i were you, just in the off chance that it’s discovered. i’ve heard a few horror stories lately about people shipping in vitamins which were confiscated in customs and held for ransom until the person got a license from the health minister to import them. somewhere in this process is a quasi crackdown, so i would follow the advice of those who do this on a regular basis. an example of their stupid logic is back in march i ordered a back massager. the item cost $22, plus $15 shipping to aerocillias in florida. when it got to Costa Rica i was informed that i had to supply my passport number, my this and that other number, and then weeks later i was informed that i needed a license to import this product. and oh, by the way, customs would like to be paid $100 for storage of this item. I told them to keep it. another person i know had a similar problem with over the counter medications, so something is going on in customs that warrants a heads-up.
John, as to the Humira, I just wonder if an arrangement couldn’t be made to have it shipped UPS overnight? Yes, it would be pricey, but it would be a lot less expensive than airfare and maybe a night in a hotel in the U.S. every three months. Plus, depending on where the Humira comes from and where in the U.S. you fly to, you’d have to make an arrangement to actually get your hands on it. Of course, if you haven’t been granted residency yet, you’re going to have to leave the country anyhow, so it might as well be to the U.S. as to Nicaragua.
You’re going to have to obtain all the meds in the U.S. upon the prescription of a U.S.-licensed physician, right? If I were bringing them in, I think I’d keep photocopies of those prescriptions with me, even if you (John) were bringing them in for your wife. I think I’d have a copy of the picture page of her passport and the page with her most recent entry-to-Costa-Rica stamp, too.
The chances of something coming to the attention of the Customs agent as a bag goes through the x-ray scanner are much greater, I think, than the chances of you being ordered to empty your pockets or purse. That’s why I think that something small might attract less notice if carried on your person. How about one of those handsome fanny packs that used to be all the rage? I dunno . . .
Interesting, maravilla, your back massager experience is the same as my first experience with the four Nylabones. I abandoned the Nylabones, as you did the massager, and then re-ordered just two. They came through without a hitch.
I’ve ordered vitamins and other supplements (although not recently) without any problems whatsoever. And in May we came back with half a suitcase full of supplements which also went right through.
Who’s to say?
I do agree that trying to bring in narcotics would be iffier still, than other meds. That’s why I wonder if an acceptable alternative might not be available here on a physician’s prescription.
I would honestly question, that for for anyone here that requires medications that are only available in another country or at least available at a descent price, why they would ‘risk/consider’ living here?
Relying on the mail to deliver, paying ‘ransom’ and just the thought of needing emergency hospitalization really concerns me. Obviously the private hospitals would be used and I know they are very good.
CAJA as we know if OK for emergency treatment in the case of accidents and heart attacks, but for a continuing chronic condition that one is already aware of, would cause me to really reconsider this move.
After being in an accident 5 months ago, with ‘potential life threatening’ injuries have really made me ‘rethink’ about what is available.
I am still recovering and have had to use many different private practitioners/services.I think I understand your skepticism, costaricafinca, but getting meds from the U.S., whether they’re available here or not, just hasn’t been a great big deal for me for the past four years. And it has saved me a bunch of money.
So far, there’s only been one bad experience and I think I’ve figured the workaround for that.
David, I understand that CAJA does not ‘provide’ any strips at all for diabetics. Is this correct?
While after being her a while, I really understand ‘taking the good with the bad’ but when it comes to the health of a loved one, I am ‘still out on this issue…’
And being Scottish, I am always on the side of saving money!I honestly don’t know if the CAJA provides glucometer test strips or not. My guess (and it’s only that) is that they do, but that they’ll be the cheapest ones available. That means drawing blood from one’s fingertip.
For me, it’s worth about any price to use a glucometer that ranks high on accuracy and reliability and which permits “off-site” testing — drawing the blood sample from the forearm or thigh rather than from the fingertip. If I had to prick my fingertip two or three times a day, I’d be much less compliant and my health would suffer.
But the question is larger . . . What else does the CAJA not provide? According to my endocrinologist, they do not provide the Januvia that’s the drug of choice to manage my blood sugar. Likewise, they offer only one anti-cholesterol med and it’s a poor choice. And apparently they do not provide the Humira that John’s wife requires. And what else?
I claim some Scottish blood, too, but sometimes a penny saved really is a pound misspent and when it comes to my health, I opt to pay the price.
Thanks for the advice and logic for it. I am not daunted by getting the prescription meds in the US and bringing them to CR. I can do a one day trip and have the relative who stores the humira in her refrig meet me at the airport with it and then jump on the next plane back and find fares based upon preplanning in the $400 per trip range reguarly. Also, my wife plans to continue to see her Doctors in the US every 6 months or so. So she can make every other trip with me for doctor visits and family visits. The pills can be transhipped or bought in CR to be honest, they really arent expensive in CR its the humira that is pricey. The narcotic is not something she needs often and we carry it in with us on visits in carry on bags along with her other meds all properly labeled.
The migraines have gotten less frequent as we have landed on medicines that keep things in check pretty well. She only refills this prescription annually now.
She has not needed emergency care for her situation as she rigorously follows the med and other routines and takes good care of herself. With four daily flights to Houston from SJO airport, she can get back to a doctor in the US in a day or so if needed. Its 3.5 hours to Houston from CR so not really that far away.
My medical coverage in the US makes it possible to continue to get affordable treatment here for now… of course the health reform bill can change that if they ever write down what they have planned on one place. But will search for Doctors in CR to shift my wife’s care over time although her internist is one we will keep always. He is top notch and kids me about coming to CR to treat her if we have a nice guest room for him and his wife. The doctors in CR so far have agreed to provide a copy of her medical treatment and tests to this internist so he can remain the primarily controlling and coordinating doctor for her variety of treatments.
I am planning a trip to CR in a couple of weeks to nail some things down in this arena and a few others then coming back to rent for 3 months or so in 2Q 2010, trying to catch the warmest temps to see if those locations I focus on are not to hot for my nature.
Well again thanks for the advice from all. I hope we can meet sometime David as well as others on here. This is a great forum Scott.
Just some additional info. Due to 4 parcels arriving at out post office at the same time, we had to go to the customs office in Caldera to pick them up. With over $600 in total, including new phones and everything was listing with the correct cost, we expected to have to pay duty, but they opened the boxes while we there and their only comments was that our friends really shouldn’t have sent ‘doggy treats’ as the were made from chicken, as in no meats , nor Calcium vitamins. They mentioned, next time if any medications were sent, we should have a prescription to to show the clerk at the post office. They let us keep them anyway, and we paid $5.
Thank you for the additional information. I assume the “medication”(calcium vitamins? is a prescription really required for these anywhere?)is available in Costa Rica but all they asked you to provide in the future is a prescription?
John, no, a prescription is not required, neither here nor there, for any calcium supplements.
And, yes, he said, that in future if ‘medications were sent’, I only had to have a prescription to show personnel at the post office.
Well, usually we don’t have any problem at the PO, as they don’t usually open the boxes.
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