Professionals? HAHA

There are two types of professionals out there:
1. Professionals that get treated like professionals
2.Professionals that get treated like shit.

Now...what do you think Pharmacists fall under?

Pharmacy schools try brainwash their students into thinking that Pharmacists are an integral part of the health care network, that they are the last line of therapy to the patients (the gatekeeper, the guardian), the drug experts, blah blah blah. I'm not downing my own future profession (if that's what you want to call it), and I'm sure all of that is true but until everyone else realizes that it means nothing. I've treated my plumber and electrician better than the majority of the patients treat pharmacists. To what other health care provider can you curse and basically spit on if your insurance plan expired or if you waited more than 24.5seconds? I am waiting for the day when I am sitting in the waiting room at my doc's office when someone else just throws their hands up in the air and starts yelling for the doctor to see him right now and then mock his work and knowledge in front of everyone! Sorry APhA, no amount of code of ethics and professional workshops will change the mind of the masses...goodbye to the respect we deserve and hello to my daily dose of scotch on the rocks and liver failure.

--IISboy..wow reading this over again makes me want to self-prescribe some prozac, o well..


. . .



-IISboy again....happy now that I'm imagining my six-figure net pay :)

More Stupid Patients....

Hey everyone, I know it's been a while since we updated this and we apologize. Aside from the amount of studying we put in, the hours we intern, and the time it takes from recovering from acute liver toxicity we really couldn't find time to rant about anything.
I feel that I have become so accustomed to the ridiculous nature of Pharmacy Practice that nothing really surprises me enough to find it worthy to share. But throughout this past summer there have been some minor occurrences that made me realize people are genuinely retarded...here's one

(background: my pharmacy does not carry morphine and morphine related substances)

A woman comes to the drop off/input window carrying a crying infant and hands me a script. While I am looking at it, she asks me where are the breast pumps. Before answering her, I realized it was a script for oxycodone 5mg TID #60. I told her we don't carry it and she was very agitated but asked me again for the item, I pointed her to the right direction and asked her if the script was for her, and she said yes. I warned her that if she is breast feeding the drugs can possibly pass through the milk at that dose but she obviously didn't care and was getting an attitude. I offered to call the doctor and have him change the medication to something safer for her and the child but at that point she was yelling at me, so I took my red pen/sharpie and wrote on the back- patient is breast feeding...call doctor. Bye.

School's out for the summah!

Hey everyone,

Class ended a few days ago, so that means IISBoy and I are back after a stressful semester full of pharmacotherapy fun! I've got some stories to share, but right now I'm going to Hulu it up, and get caught up on all the episodes of House I missed this season.

I also need a nap and some Ibuprofen as I am trying to kick the mean caffeine addiction I develop every semester, and am going cold-turkey. Damn I could use a Mountain Dew...

Meanwhile, I am pretty much up to my ears in Tamiflu at work. Apparently the swine flu is serious business because the corporate powers that be saw fit to send dozens of boxes of it in our last warehouse order. (Unfortunately they didn't send us any of the Zocor or Vicodin we ordered, so this will be a fun week of out-of-stocks!) Anyway, I already received a few scripts from a few people "stocking up." These people are probably going to begin taking their Tamiflu in a panic next week when their seasonal allergies start acting up, and there goes $90 of medication.

--IISgirl ... I will probably have the swine flu for real next week, with many thanks to my patients who sneeze, cough, and otherwise excrete and secrete upon me on a daily basis

We SHALL return...but just not NOW

<>

We WILL return with a bag full of stories to share...be patient please!

Thanks for keeping up with IIS and requesting for more rants!

--IISBoy- trying to stay alive for the remainder of the school year!

Christmas stories?!

What do you want first, the touching story or the disgusting one? Because they both happened on the same day.

I guess I'll start off with the emotional tear-jerker...

Today I was helping an old woman who was picking up her prescriptions and a few other items such as bread, milk, a few other basic things, and a hershey bar she said was for her grandchild. She was having a hard time affording her prescriptions and was counting down to nickels and pennies trying to come up with enough. Finally she said she didn't have enough and asked me to take off everything except for the prescriptions. Then she asked me, "Which do you think I can't live without?"

Meanwhile, my coworker was helping a young woman who was picking up a script for herself, as well as a basketful of holiday candy, makeup, and other things. The young woman was watching the old woman count out her change and finally told my coworker, "Nevermind, all I need is the prescription right now."

She then took the $50 she was going to spend on other items, gave it to the old woman, said "Merry Christmas, you need this more than I do," and the old woman started crying.

Just when a day full of ungrateful, rude assholes nearly destroyed my last remaining shred of faith in humanity...

It's so heartwarming I could puke.

-------

Ok! Now let's rewind to the beginning of the day for a story that makes me puke for an entirely different reason.

I was the first of the day shift to come in the morning. The midnighter was chilling at the back counter. I glanced at the manager's office, which is the back of the waiting area, on my way in. I saw a big pile of ad papers strewn about the middle of the waiting area so I make a note to tell one of the front store people the next time I see them.

Our poor manager was on her way in for the day, apparently she was picking up the ad papers on the way to her office, and I hear something like a muffled scream, so I come out to check on her, and was in no way prepared for what came next.

THERE WAS HUMAN FECES UNDERNEATH THE AD PAPERS.

SOMEONE SHIT IN THE MIDDLE OF THE WAITING AREA.

AND APPARENTLY NONE OF THE MIDNIGHT SHIFT NOTICED.

So the manager says, "Fuck this! I'm not starting off this shift like this!" And she throws some extra floor tiles down on top of the poop, and called maintenance to get the floor cleaners out to do it. I heard her yelling into the phone, "I don't care if it's Christmas Eve! There's crap all over the floor and the smell is wafting into my office!! Send someone out!"

As I was leaving work today she was in the process of reviewing security tapes to try identify the mysterious Christmas Eve Pooper. I'm dying to know who it is, and how this came to be. I'm suspecting that at least one of the midnight shift knew about the poop but none of them wanted to do anything about it, so they are all denying knowledge of the turd's existence. Anyway, the surveillance tape will tell the truth.

God I hope she puts it up on youtube.

--IISgirl ... Merry Christmas to all!

Never fear, a student pharmacist is here!

So, many of you may be asking, “IISgirl, where have you been for the past 2 months?”

Well, my answer to you is simple: I’ve been studying therapeutics and saving the lives of little old ladies!

Saving old ladies?! Let me elaborate.

Well, there I was at the coffee shop, feeding my caffeine addiction and studying therapeutics. A fairly boring Sunday afternoon. I glanced up from a particularly enthralling chapter of DiPiro just in time to see a frail old woman fall out of her wheelchair and hit her head on the pavement on the other side of the parking lot.

If I remember correctly, "Oh shit," was my sentiment at the time.

I went running outside. It took me long enough to get across the parking lot to see 4 or 5 other people walking right by this woman who laying on the ground, not even giving her a second glance. I was enraged that these assholes were too engrossed in their cell phones and cups of coffee to give a damn about another human being who was hurt.

The woman was about 80 years old. She had an equally old and frail friend with her who was trying to help her. There was a bleeding gash on her forehead, but she was fairly alert and cognitive. As I was talking to her and checking her out, another person who wasn’t an asshole came over to see if we needed help. I sent him back into the coffee shop for ice and napkins and wrapped her in my jacket.

Now, it turns out the lady was on warfarin, so she was quite the bleeder. Finally the bleeding was under control and I put ice on it. I checked her pupil size—did the whole PERRLA/EOMI exam that I thought I’d never use—to check for signs of a concussion. Things looked ok.

The guy who came over helped me lift the lady into the car and pack up her wheelchair, her very worked up friend said she would drive her to the ER, and my work there was done.

The lady was such a sweetheart. I hope she’s ok. I’m sure she is, she was quite the trooper.

It felt weird, operating solo, making the decisions and having a real patient. Between me and the guy who came to help, I was the one with the healthcare background, so he and the two old ladies were looking at me for direction. It was a relatively minor and simple situation, but I felt so accomplished being able to help that woman. I feel like I really made a difference!

All in a day’s work for a student pharmacist. :)

-IISgirl… to the rescue!

Party Like Your Grandma!

So today was an excellent day to work.
1. First weekend of the month
2. Beginning of the cold season
3. Allergies
4. Herpes.

Yes. Herpes. Apparently October is the 'spread your warts to your lovers' month. Today we had an outstanding number of scripts for herpes related creams/gels and pills. The greatest (and sickest) one came in a little after 12 noon. A young man comes in with a 2 scripts, one for an older man and one for an older woman. The man was asked for identification and I realized he was not related to either of these patients, so I asked about his affiliation to the couple who is getting their herpes gel and valtrex prescription filled. He apparently is an associate of a local Nursing Community and he was telling me how there is a 'herpes outbreak' amongst the residents.

I guess everyone wants to stay warm as the weather is getting cooler. Party on grandma and grandpa.


Alright everyone, stay safe from the contagious flu and herpes!

-IIS....feeling a strange itch after shaking so many people's hands today

Mispronounced Drug Names

I think I am going to start chronicling all the entertaining mispronunciations I hear from patients.

Today's winner is Metmorfin. It's a simple transposition of letters, but I couldn't help but giggle and think of the Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers... perhaps, Power Rangers: The Later (And Diabetic) Years.

--IISgirl ... go go power rangers!

Haha. That's great IISGirl. What a coincidence, we had some tongue tied patients today as well and one lady called in for her simwatistatin and her husband's meteorprolololol.

--IISBoy...lolololol'ing all the way home.

My life is full of these embarassing little moments!

So I don't have a huge update. Basically, tonight at work I dropped the entire top drawer from the narcotics safe while trying to reach the last box of Fentanyl 25mcg patches, spilling Fentanyl patches everywhere. In all the excitement, I ripped the crotch seam in my $70 pants from Express.

Now, as a grad student, I can afford to buy $70 pants, hmm, about once every 3 years. So naturally I swore up a storm. To make matters worse, my lab coat is missing its bottom-most button, making it impossible for me to cover up my lime green underwear so easily. It was all totally visible and highly embarrassing, letmetellyou!

It figures. Pants-ripping-day ends up being the same day as ostentatious-underwear-day. But, hey, I'm sick of white coats and button-down shirts, I gotta express myself somehow. I hid behind the production counter for a while, but eventually decided it would be more prudent to attempt to duct-tape the seam back together. It didn't work that well. Eventually I convinced my pharmacist to let me leave work half an hour early due to my wardrobe malfunction, and also because we finally got our queue under control and I mentioned that I needed to study (oddly enough she believed that).

Oh yeah, and my district manager was there on a visit at the time and saw the entire incident unfold, including my vulgar and lengthy recitation of common, uncommon, and invented swear words.

And did I mention it was crazy busy during the hour of the pants-ripping? I shouldn't have to--it's the day after a holiday, of course things are going to be out of hand.

Now that I've shared these personal and embarrassing details of the night my coworkers won't let me forget, I could rant about pharmacy school. But honestly, you might have to re-name me Apathetic Intern Girl, because I'm going to need some Alprazolam and Omeprazole if I let myself get any more worked up over the many ways my college has managed to screw me over in the few days since classes started. So I'll just do my stomach ulcer a favor, let it slide tonight and keep counting down the days. :)

--IISgirl ... graceless. Entirely graceless.

How IISBoy and IISGirl Met...

Hey everyone,
It seems IISGirl and I are on a blogging spree. I guess everything has been building up from the summer and the immense boredom we're experiencing in class is forcing us to do something a little bit more exciting (entertaining you guys!)

Well here is something non-pharmacy related. I guess some of you want to know a little bit more about me and my partner and I think you all have earned it. But instead of telling you, here is a small video clip about basically how we met. It happened kinda like this:




And that's how the IrritableInterns came into existence!

:)
Have fun everyone and don't forget to add some comments!! We would love to hear your thoughts.

--IISBoy...who is waiting for a check from MARS for the excellent product placement