My first day of work in a pharmacy was June 1st, 2001. It was my first job, and the ultimate goal was to make enough money to buy some bitchin' clothes for my sophomore year in high school.
Fascination grew while learning terms like "Stool Softner" and the fact there were medications that made you pee. In fact, the "pee pills", HCTZ and Furosemide, were the very first drugs I learned. By the end of the summer I found myself enjoying what I was doing, but still had no idea that it would transform into my lifelong profession.
Now, I'm staring down at my ten year pharmacy anniversary. Changes over those ten years are too numerous to count, and too minute to elaborate upon. There has been different cities, different schools, different states, and yet I ultimately have not wavered in what I want to do.
Well, until actually starting pharmacy school.
I remember the Bextra and Vioxx recalls, the birth (if you want to call it that) of Medicare Part D, the proliferation of e-Rxs and the rise of $4 generics. I have seen way more than I ever intended to and sometimes I feel like I have more knowledge and experience than I deserve.
The question now becomes, do I celebrate this milestone? Do I look upon it with befuddled curiosity and continue on with my day? Does it even matter in the grand scheme of things?
I am 25 years old and have spent nearly half of my life in this profession. I venture that there are very few others out there who can lay claim to such a fact.
Who knows what will happen in the next ten years? Who knows if I'll even still be optimistic after another ten years.
If one thing is evident, I feel I should at least raise a beer when June 1st arises. And then hunker down a prepare for a day of work in the battlefield that is pharmacy.
Because right now, that's what pharmacy is, a battle. A battle between the desires of the profession, between PBMs, between what our current health care system says what pharmacy is compared to what it should be, and between our own shreds of sanity.
And at least I'm young enough to still have my sanity.
For now.
1 comment:
As someone who's spent his entire career in a pharmacy, I can understand where you're coming from. I was 16 just shy of 17 when I started, now nearly 14 years later, I still do it.
What's sad is I completely know what you mean when you ask if you should celebrate it or not.
Excellent post though.
Post a Comment