The October Miss Medication Contestant!

Brought to you by our sponsors Astroglide® (For that natural smooth feeling when you need it most) and Fleet® Enemas (When you just don’t feel regular…) I present to you the October Miss Medication Contestant!

For years there has been an argument over which medication is indeed the prettiest. We have our snooty, rich, wanna be hotties such as Ms. Lipitor and our trailer trash, food-stamp loving friend Ms. Hydrocodone. Neither one of these… things… are considered beautiful enough to make our final selection.

Voting will be open for YOU to choose who will be the new 2007 Miss Medication contest. Now let us introduce our first contestant….

Miss Nexium!

Miss Nexium comes to us from the fruitful land of Astra-Zeneca. A controversy ensued recently as it was discovered that Miss Nexium bares a striking resemblance to her sister Mrs. Prilosec. Furthermore it was noticed that they have many of the same qualities, which has led someone to wonder whether or not they are one in the same.

Miss Nexium likes to play with proton pumps, but tends to inhibit their activies. Her good friends include Ms. Amoxicillin and Ms. Clarithromycin and they have formed a the "Anti-Helicobacter pylori" league. Miss Nexium enjoyes long walks through the small intestine, but never more than 6 hours. If you like spicy foods and caffeine, Miss Nexium is the medication for you.

Everyone, please give Miss Nexium a hand!

Did you know?

I learned something invaluable today.

30-12 = 28

I don't know how I have gone this far in school without learning this. I mean I'm only a 4 year chemistry major, but surely they must have left that out of Calculus.

Or perhaps there is just another method for counting Lortabs that I am unaware of. Maybe there is this magical land where it rains Vicodan and Darvocet, where refills are unlimited and pixies galore....

Or perhaps this person was just a drugged out dumbass who can't count. Its your call.

FDA = Fucking Dumb Asses

I know governmental agencies are fucked. I understand that the word ethics and government agencies are very rarely found together. But this is just plain ridiculous...

Everyone has heard of the recall of infant's cold medications. What few people realize, normally because they're too busy bitching that we no longer have the Dimetapp they want, is the lack of studies on said medications.

The drugs - they include some Dimetapp, Pediacare, Robitussin and Triaminic products - have never been tested in children, which a previous FDA panel noted as long ago as 1972. Drug makers instead have used extrapolated data from studies in adults to come up with dosing recommendations based on a child's age or size.

So these items have been on the market and used for over 30 years... yet there has never been tested on that which it is market towards. Surely one would think our own government would research items which are ingested by our young.

The medicines are widely used, with an estimated 95 million packages sold for infant and toddler use each year.

Thats a lot of medication being sold and used without any proper studies being conducted. But wait, it gets far worse.

A Food and Drug Administration panel of advisers voted yesterday to ban scores of popular over-the-counter cough and cold products intended for children under the age of 6 because they have not been shown to work and can cause injuries

Obviously these people have never seen the relief received from a 5 year old from one of these items. To flatout state that these drugs have no benefit on children is ludicrous. I understand that there are people out there who should not be parents. I also understand that these said people have a difficult time reading the directions on the packaging which has led to the OD'ing of their child on said medication. But does this justify stating that these medications do not work whatsoever?

That being said if common sense was merely used, if patients actually consulted with their doctor and/or pharmacist, then the deaths associated with OD'ing could have been avoided. Still doesn't change the fact that the FDA is a bunch of jackasses. Hmmm that gives me an idea for a cartoon to draw in class tomorrow...

Good God

Not really a rant but I was sent this the other day.... (Notice: NSWF)


http://www.flickr.com/photos/damienjones/436198624/

Its scary that people can actually use something like this...

Hi this is Jack Meoff...

10:14 AM:
Phone rings
Hi this is Jack Meoff is my Lortab prescription been called in?

10:19 AM:
Phone rings
Hi this is Jack Meoff is my Lortab prescription been called in?

10:34 AM:
Phone rings
Hi this is Jack Meoff is my Lortab prescription been called in?

10:41 AM:
Phone rings
Hi this is Jack Meoff is my Lortab prescription been called in?

10:46 AM:
Phone rings
Hi this is Jack Meoff is my Lortab prescription been called in?

10:52 AM:
Phone rings
Hi this is Jack Meoff is my Lortab prescription been called in?

11:00 AM:
Phone rings
Hi this is Jack Meoff is my Lortab prescription been called in?

Calling every 5 minutes will not help your prescription arrive any faster. This occurred until about 4pm...

Note: Name changed to protect the addicted

UCARE... BS

Its the usual Friday night. Half hour before my shift is over and shit hits the fan. As usual.

Nice guy walks up to the counter and asks if his doctor has called in his prescriptions yet. I look at my pile and see he's next in line, so I tell him it'll be a couple minutes.

I submit it to Minnesota Welfare.

REJECTED

I look at the reject and it says "PPHP UCARE" which means he has UCARE instead of welfare.

[One of the states I work in has four medicaid plans. All of those have different ids and different groups. And people get switched plans monthly. Even if they are on the same plan, every month the state will change the group number. Its a joy]

I ask him if he has a new card, and he gives it to me.... and UCARE card. Imput all the proper info on the card, submit the claim and...

REJECTED

WTF I go. I double check all the numbers and everything matchs up. I go into the reject screen and it says "Member ID not found".

Bullshit. I'm looking right at the card (dated current even). I monkey around with it, get several more rejects. Finally I call a different store and they suggest trying another group (one not on the card). Once again

REJECTED

Ah but there is light at the end of the tunnel. The reject states that "Patient is not covered". Now MN-ITs (where we verify which MA coverage the patient has) said he had UCARE. The Welfare reject said he had UCARE. Patient said his case worker just yesterday said he had UCARE. But UCARE disagrees.

Of course they're only open from 8am-5pm M-F, so the guy was SOL. We gave him some tablets to get through to Monday when we can finally get a hold of someone. In all likelihood he has coverage, theres just a glitch somewhere that says he doesn't. He was at least very patients and polite with us over the whole ordeal.

Minnesota is such a pain in the ass.... least I'm going to the bar tonight.

Ah to be Relaxed...

So we had an older fellow today he insisted on waiting until his doctor called back on his refill. Most people give up after 10 minutes. This guy did not. He plopped his ass down one of chairs and proceeded to wait.

A short time later a clerk pointed out he had nodded off. Sure enough he was there slumped over snoring slightly. We were nice and let him sleep while he continued to wait.

A little while later the clerk came up into the pharmacy laughing his ass off. All he could do to point to the sleeping man in the chair.... and the puddle that was now on the floor. Sure enough he had pissed himself in his sleep. And it was a lot of piss.

The kind people we are, we left him there, unwilling to wake up an old man who had just pissed himself in a public place. A short time later I glanced over and he was gone. All that was left was the puddle on the chair and on the floor.

Ah to be so relaxed in public...

Pet Peeve of the Day

Well after today I decided to make a list of when you should use the drive thru when going to the pharmacy

1. If your car door does not open, and your window does not roll down you must go to the drive-thru
2. If you are receiving a large order (say 2 cases of diapers for your child), you must go to the drive-thru
3. If you need to drop off more than 5 prescriptions (all from an ER doc who can't even write his own name or that are multiple controls) and you insist waiting at the window you must go to the drive-thru
• Above applies if you've also had the same med filled recently at another store and claim to not remember
4. If you want a snickers bar, you must go to the drive-thru
5. If you want to know when the next movie starts in the adjacent theater, you must go to the drive-thru
6. If you need a place to park, why not just park in front of the drive-thru

Ok I feel better now.

Solvay Pharmaceuticals I Dispise You

There seems to be one drug you get a run on daily. You may not fill any Entocort for a month, but suddenly you have 5 Rxs for it on a day. Strange how that works.

Today's favorite was Prometrium 100mg.

I
fucking
hate
Prometrium 100mg

How can one feel so strongly about a medication? Well you see some dipshit decide it would be a brilliant idea to make the capsules in the shape of a sphere. Yes you have to count these little annoying ass balls (pink balls at that) and chase them around the tray. Now when you're doing 300+ Rxs a day, you don't have time to dick around tryin to count these damned things. Concerta is the same f'n way (those are cylinder shaped).

There must be some jackass who sits in a cubical who just dreams up of funky ass tablet/capsule shapes just to piss people off. Sometime I shall find this man and shove a curling iron up his ass.

Until then, Solvay Pharmaceuticals you get a big ole FU!