I'll kick you in the back of the head old man

OK, now this isn't divulging patient information... it's fairly common for kids around here to sound like they are Ricky Bobby Jr. So this kid walks up to the counter with his grandmother and she asks what is good for a burn. I was like "well, what kind of burn." I didn't know this would take me into another dimension of the twilight zone. The kid holds out his arm which has a hole about ½ inch deep burned into it and was starting to scab over. To me it seems he probably should have come in about 2 days earlier. He says his brother and him were doing a science experiment and salt and ice.... well needless to say he had a nasty little hole in his arm. I suggested neosporin and some gauze to cover it. After much debate about exactly which product to use he starts complaining about the neck muscle he pulled while playing chicken... Yeah, I stopped paying attention and walked away, the kid totally reminded me of taladaga nights.

Breast feeding... beautiful???

Ok, I'm not a mother, and not female, and I don't see the beauty in breast feeding. I understand that it is natural and that it is necessary and shouldn't be stopped. However, there is a fine line between this beautiful act and being gross. The line is crossed when I have to watch! I don't care what you do, but my freedom of being a happy-go-lucky individual is infringed when I have to see a baby mouthing some sagging boob. COVER UP! There is a law being passed saying that I can't ask someone to cover up. This seems to be a bit overboard on protecting a woman's rights. If they want to show their boobs go to spring break or mardi gras and get on girls gone wild. Otherwise cover up! I don't think anyone would have a problem with breast feeding if they didn't have to watch. Yeah, it might me a little uncomfortable and inconvienient, but I think wearing clothes all the time is! I can't take a quick run to the store without a shirt or in my underwear, why is this lady allowed to run around with her boob hanging out?

Three Sixes???? 666??? medicine?

Craziness in the pharmacy again. These older african american ladies steped up to the counter the other day and asked for some help.

"Excuse me do you have any other types of the three sixes?"

"No, I've never heard of it, I'm sorry." I reply.

This is where it gets fun...

"You don't know about three sixes medication?"
"Yo daddy knew about three sixes. I want the three sixes with quinine. It'll fix anything."

"I'm sorry we don't have anything like that." I try to say without laughing about 'yo daddy'.

"Oh well, where's your Geritol at?"

Do you want Plan B or Plan C? The morning after pill dilema.

Ok, I'm totally all about women's rights and having access to the morning after pill. I believe that it will stop some unwanted pregnancies. I also believe that I should have no say in what a woman does to her own body. This issue trancends the debate on morals or ethics with the morning after pill.

I just had a lady, not the first one I might add, who came into the pharmacy asking for the morning after pill and said that she had already taken it earlier in the month and wanted to know if she could take it again this month. Ok, let's just take a little more responsibility please! It's $40 for the morning after pill, it just happens to also be $40 for just about every birth control pill, patch, insert... ect. Doesn't it just make logical sense to go on some form of birth control? I guess I just have a problem with people being reckless with their bodies. The morning after pill is not side effect free... it's not tylenol or benadryl! You're playing with hormones here people! See a doctor, go to a clinic, get on the pill!!!
Ok, that's it.

Forged Prescriptions

I'm not really sure why people do it, but they do. Forge your prescription and I get pissed. That's the way it works. It's like you think I'm stupid when you hand me something that isn't real, that's the way I look at it. I've gotten to be really good at spotting forgeries too. I usually laugh just before I call the doctor to confirm I get to call the cops on someone. Why do I laugh? Well, there's lots of reasons....

1. Different color ink
2. Writing over a number doesn't mean I can't see what was already written
3. Messy doesn't mean it's a doctor's handwriting
4. Misspelled drugs are funny when you try to pronounce them
5. Calling in your own prescription and then calling back to "make sure the doctor called"... it's your same voice!!!!
6. It is easier to get the doctor to over prescribe than to forge

Ok, that's about it for now... But I'll be sure to get some more that I like.

Walgreens discrimination?

This is in response to reading comments made in the linked article.Walgreens is being sued for company wide directed discrimination. I feel that people need to be realistic. You get paid to do your job. You don't like your job, quit. You don't like your pay rate, quit. You aren't given a promotion or transfer, quit!

The suit alleges unequal pay, but the pay rates are the same, it's the bonuses that are where the differences are. Mr. Tucker, you say that you aren't doing well because you have a bad store, then make it good. You want a good bonus, then do what has to be done to succeed. There are set standards for what a bonus is paid on. I am a white guy working in a inner city store. I make it my job to have a great store that makes me a bonus, not only because I like the bonus, but because I have pride in the store and my work. Where is your pride?

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How can you say discrimination?

Walgreens has been slapped with a federal lawsuit for discrimination because they have "unjustly" placed African-American employees in under performing urban stores in predominantly African-American neighborhoods.

Just like the Walgreens company, I believe people like to see a reflection of themselves staring back at me when I go to the store. In African-American communities, sorry to say it, people like African-Americans to serve them. In white areas people like white people serving them. On Neptune, people like Neptunians serving them. Walgreens has the highest percentage of minorities I have seen of any retail store and offers service in many languages. Perhaps it was just making good business decisions to have African-American managers and pharmacists in urban stores located in African-American neighborhoods.

While the ideal world would be colorblind, the real one is not. That is a sad fact, however, providing customers with service representatives that represent the population is not discrimination, it is good business. I am glad for civil rights laws, but this is an abuse.

I would believe that in giving communities staff which is representative of the area, we are accepting and acknowledging the differences in culture and attempting to better serve the customer. If you don't feel comfortable with your pharmacist, you will not talk to them. While African-American pharmacists and managers might not be the only way to make a patient visiting a neighborhood Walgreens feel at ease, it is a start. A patient at ease and comfortable with their pharmacist will communicate better and be better served by the expertise of the pharmacist's consultation.

Tuna fish suspension!?!?

Ok, i know this is strange sounding, but I think it is really cool. I just made a tuna fish suspension for dispensing a drug to a cat. I work at a Walgreens and we compound specialty drugs for all different purposes, but this has to be the strangest think I've ever heard of, but it was really cool. Well I guess if a doctor can think of it, we can make it.