You know it's bad when...

So unless you've been hiding under a rock, the Midwest was slammed with a brutal snowstorm. My last experience with it was yesterday evening when I left work. It was just starting to pick up in intensity at that time. Took me 20 minutes to dig out my car from the 8 inches of snow that fell while I was hustling away at filling prescriptions for patients who were freaking out at being snowed in for days. The drive wasn't all that terrible at the time - despite blowing the powdery snow across the city and not seeing lane lines and only going about 20mph most of the drive home. In fact my only difficulty the whole drive home was getting up the incline of the entrance and in the garage. Let me tell you, I am more than satisfied in the extra rent I am paying for indoor, heated parking.

I woke up today with a call from the back-up scheduler. She wanted to see if I would be able to make it to a store 4 miles away that afternoon. At the time I agreed, but in a couple hours of talking with my friend who shacked up here to avoid the 40-minute drive home, checking Facebook statuses of closures, snow-ins, and driving horrors, I finally called the store and said I wasn't going to try to risk coming in today. Luckily they had a back-up plan in the event I couldn't make it. I still felt bad but not as bad as I would normally be when I miss a shift.

And that's my 'you know it's bad' moment. You know it's bad when I don't go in to work. In the 10 years of working with my company, this marks my 4th missed shift. The last time this occurred was September of 2003 (thanks to a broken-down car and no one to drive me).

So, I say to those in the Midwest and Northeast:

Midwest, already affected: I hope all of you are okay and dealing with the weather, work, and personal safety well -however you choose to balance.

Midwest and Northeast, to be affected - this is a very major storm. Please prep yourselves - grab extra food, and prep for 1-2 days of snow-in. Lots of snow and heavy winds will make most traveling and businesses difficult, if not impossible, to function.

Best wishes to all,

JRPh

Pharmacy Follies

This week found me working my first overnight shifts. I don't mind it at all – actually had been contemplating this option for years while in college. I'm naturally a night owl; plus who wouldn't like the notion of working 7 days on, 7 days off? So when a help email was sent looking for emergency coverage for 2 overnight shifts, I grabbed them. The main problem occurred to me shortly before I was getting ready to go to work: I had been up since 9am that day, and needed to stay up till 9am to get through my shift and the drive home. Thankfully, the can of pop I had that day and the 2 bottles I consumed that night kept me going.

Both overnight went rather smoothly. Was a little rushed between 10pm (when the night staff left, leaving just me) and 11pm or so, but afterward was smooth sailing – just the occasional ER patient here, the quick phone call there. Both mornings after found me home, and up just long enough to check email before crashing to sleep.

Good thing I did the second morning. Email from the district office informing me my schedule changed for that day, and I was due at another store in 2 hours. A quick phone call to the scheduler saying, "Yeah, I just got off work an hour ago," got that reversed.

Meanwhile, a sampling of the inane questions I've received over the past week of so:
- My mouth is feeling dry. Can I drink a glass of water? No, haven't you heard that water is the leading cause of dry mouth???
- My ear is itching. Can I scratch it? Depends – can you reach your ear?
- I’m using ear softener drops. Will it hurt me to take a shower? No, stay smelly; it's preferable to clean body and ears. And yes, all three of this questions asked by the same person in the course of 2 days.
- I just used Capsaicin and now my skin is burning. What should I do? Considering that’s how Capsaicin works… but this chick just wasn't getting it, so I told her to wash it off and try IcyHot instead.

And no surprise that "flu frenzy" continues. Everywhere I go seems to be out of stock on:
- flu shots – seasonal and H1N1 (if they even had it to begin with)
- thermometers
- children's and infant’s Tylenol and Motrin
And every ER I've talked to have been swamped with parents sending their kids in with "flu-like symptoms." Luckily, I've intercepted a lot of parents – either on the phone or in the store – and gave recommendations on how to treat symptoms at home. At this point it appears the H1N1 is breeding and spreading in the ER and doctor's clinics because those who do have it are spreading it to those who think they or their kids/siblings/parents/friends/etc. have it. Every chance I get, I tell parents only to go to the doctor unless absolutely necessary (i.e. cannot treat or control symptoms at home). It's the flu (seasonal or otherwise) and treatment is still the same – symptomatic treatment with plenty of fluids and rest.

This flu season will not end soon enough…

Feeling like a Broken Record

Various phone calls are having me say the same lines ad nauseum:
"Thank you for holding, this is Jaded, how may I help you?"
"I'm sorry, we are out of flu shots."
"No, our other locations are out as well."
"No, I don't know if any of our competitors have any in stock."
"We have another order, but we're not expecting any more as it is on back-order."

My apologies to any of my patients who feel like I don't care when I say this to you - after saying it dozens of times, it becomes automatic. The situation stinks, but it's not in my control.

Any other 'broken records' out there?

- JRPh

Floating

Since getting licensed over 3 weeks ago, I've been getting first-hand experience on 'floating.' After working with several of these 'floating' pharmacists, I wasn't exactly thrilled at the idea. Seriously, what pleasure can you derive from a job position that gives you no consistency over where you work, when you work, and what day you have off?

Well, after 3 weeks of floating, I've discovered it's not as bad as I was expecting. Granted I've had one or two bad or hectic days, and yes they sucked. But:
- I always take pleasure in the fact that I don't have to go back into that store the next day (unless, of course, my scheduler has me working the same place two days in a row).
- If a situation gets out of control or I'm not sure how to handle it, I can still use the magic cop-out phrase, "I'm sorry, but I'm filling in here. That decision needs to be made by staff pharmacist/pharmacy manager." Keep in mind, I try not to use that phrase often, because it would suck to be the next person to come in and fix multiple problems.

One thing I have learned to appreciate in my floating experience is how good techs can make the day so smooth. The store I worked at through college had its luck by getting some well-trained techs, and even on high-volume or technical difficulty days, there's still a sense of flow and stuff still gets done. I've been at stores where the techs move to keep everything going, and just know how to do their jobs and how to do them well. Of course, I've worked at stores where getting the techs to do their job properly is akin to pulling teeth. Even a slow store can be a nightmare if the tech cannot or will not do their job properly.

The Day Has Come

As you can see from the recent changes to the blog, I have finally transitioned from pharmacy intern to pharmacist.

I could say that it was a wonderful and exhilarating feeling; it was.
I could say it was a relief to find I passed the exams; it was.
I could tell you that everything has now changed...

Eh, not really. Other than everyone expressing their congratulations, I felt just the same as I did before I earned the title RPh. And I actually reflected on it for a split second while at work today (not that I had much time to think about it).

And how did Day One go down? Covering a pharmacist's vacation at my own store, while we were down one tech and scrambled through most of the day.

Nothing like hitting the ground running...