Why am I Still Here???

After a 10 hour shift one may mistakenly believe that I am still "nice" and cuddly like a fluffy kitten. I was hopeful when a girl I didn't know came to the pharmacy. I thought I was home free, but no. She is a new intern here to train with the district trainer. Damn the luck. It gets even worse when my relief calls and says he is on his way from Miami which means I am stuck in a drowsy hell waiting and waiting and waiting. The evil b*tch-monster starts to take over, kind of like when the Hulk starts to appear...."Pharmacist smash!"

He then calls to say he got lost and may be about 10 more minutes. When he shows up all of the techs are like "Oh sh*t, not him again." I never worked with the guy but I guarantee the sh*t will hit the fan when the boss gets in at 2PM because the pharmacy will be a complete mess. Well, at least I fixed an insurance/vacation auth for a couple who live here part time and Canada part time. They had 3 take-home-a-sacks full of drugs for their 4 month journey. I guess their insurance doesn't work in Canada even though the cash price on most meds is always cheaper than here. Just ask those chartered prescription tours to Canada. It's an adventure and your pills are cheaper because Canada's government wants its people healthy. I wish mine did...damn lobbyists...damn kickbacks...but I digress...

I laugh to myself when my boss has a bad day because he reminds everyone over and over and over about "...that one time he stayed late on Christmas because the overnighter had a flat tire..." and other assorted stories like the world has in fact decided to sh*t in his Wheaties as many times as it can. It wasn't even the fact that it was Christmas that made him mad, it was because he had to stay late. I came in Wednesday night and he was sitting in the waiting room chair because he thought I was gonna be 10 minutes late but I showed up 2 minutes late. Take that. I may even throw him off and come in 4 minutes early one day. He won't know what to do with himself....whatever will he complain about...

I warned the technicians that the person covering for me this weekend got really bad reviews from another pharmacy she covered for. The techs there hated her and said she was mean. If she mouths off to my techs they will all walk out. It is the weekend and they will find other things to do. The kids I work with on the weekends are fun. They got suckered into staying until 11PM on Saturdays and Sundays but we always have a good time and I feel bad that they may have a bad couple of days but I am going to see The Cure (yes, they still tour) with McRPH and raise a little hell at the bars.

Meanwhile, back at the pill rodeo, my floater will sit and do no work...no supplies...no filling...no cleaning...no take out the trash...piss off my boss when he comes in Sunday and Monday morning.....hahaha... I will hear all the gory details Tuesday morning and laugh, laugh, laugh because if she doesn't do enough work he will make her stay a couple of hours unpaid to do the work she should have done when she was being paid to do it. The funnier thing is that he has done this to another floater before. Freaking hilarious...and they say I am the lazy one but my work seems to miraculously get done every night and I don't leave them more than a couple of rxs to fill or more than a couple totes of warehouse if at all possible. It must be the Keebler elves or the tooth fairy or something. I get no respect.

The boss also likes to remind everyone that every time they call the district supervisor about the tardiness of floaters, many of whom are notorious for showing up an hour or more late, the supervisor assures him that each and every floater is just as good as his full time staffers. That really pisses him off. It makes me laugh every time he tells a story about someone showing up an hour late, which happened to me this morning, and lets the supervisor know to no avail.

So I raise my glass to the veritable sh*tstorm that is appropriately happening after I am long gone on Friday the 13th. Salute!

Sushi Paranoia

Sushi and sashemi style eateries flourish in eastern and western culture. Most dishes consist of raw seafood either as is fresh from the carcass or treated with "sauces" that kill parasites. I just can't eat it.

I have always been paranoid about parasites. I had a dog with tapeworms once but luckily you can buy pills to get rid of the tapeworm at any pet store. I have watched the shows on the Discovery Channel about human parasite infestations and read articles about human parasite infestation in other countries. All of them gross me out.

I don't even think I could deal with lice, be they head or pubic, scabies, or anything that gets in the gut and stays there. Hell, I get paranoid and itchy just filling an rx for lice or scabies. I couldn't imagine the freak out from finding tapeworm segments in my feces. I have the chills...

For the rest of my life I will always eat fully cooked meats and well cleaned vegetables. I don't want to end up as a case study on the Discovery Channel...

Fun in the Sun

I have many little dark brown spots on my arms and a small mole on my chin. I look up at them every day wondering when they will turn on me and become cancerous. Oh little spots, I lovingly coat you with SPF 45 if I go out in the sun or keep you hidden under fabric so as not to expose you to the horrible UV rays that will ultimately mutate your fragile DNA and turn you against me.

Little spots will you let me have decades to live or just a few more years? Remember little spots, I protect you as best I can and stay out of the sun to keep you safe. Please don't hurt me.

Inevitably one of them will turn on me. With ozone depletion and living in a tropical zone it is pretty much guaranteed that one little spot or more will run rampant and maybe metastasize. Sad, but at least I do not use a tanning bed. Exposure to concentrated UVs would make it happen faster.

Have you noticed the increasing rates of cancer in teens who frequent tanning beds? I went to high school with two sisters who owned a tanning bed. They were always an unnaturally dark shade of brown all year long. They were both fair skinned with freckles prior to tanning bed use. Years of tanning add up.

Sadly, the younger sister developed a malignant skin tumor during pregnancy that metastasised. She carried the baby to term but died shortly after. I can't help but think the years of tanning bed use caused such a painful tragedy. She was in her early 20s. Much too young to have skin cancer in my book.

Manufacturers of tanning beds proclaim that their product is completely safe and does not lead to cancer. I think a retroactive study and a well controlled study following tanning bed users who start under the age of 18 and continue throughout life would prove them wrong.

Please be responsible with your skin. UV rays have a profoundly damaging cumulative effect on our skin cells. I definitely recommend at least SPF 45. I use it on regular skin, face, and any exposed skin if I am going out in the sun. I also use facial SPF daily. I am going to fight skin cancer every step of the way and you should too!