my PIC so owes me

weather: 25° F
reading: stop prediabetes now

it's that fatal time of year for all pharmacies. most people look toward the new year with optimism and hope of better days to come. not i. i watch the days on my calendar creep closer and closer to january the 1st and i think "oh crap. not again." here's a brief explanation why, for those of you not in the pharmacy field.
insurance companies are basically the spawn of the devil. they live to make life as miserable as possible for as many people as possible. this includes pharmacies and doctors. after the beginning of a new year, several things happen. many people change insurance companies. most people have to start over on their deductible. and some people lose coverage all together. all this equates to a crap load of work for pharmacists, interns, and techs every where.
the last few days before the new year and spent with people trying to cram every last refill in that they can before they have to start paying full price for them. occasionally, they'll even come in a few days after the new year and ask you to back-bill the claims for them.
there are also those patients who expect you to magically know their new id numbers, insurance policies, etc. and become irate when you tell them that the old insurance you have is no longer in effect.
saturday was the 2nd to last business day before the new year hit. we're closed on the 1st and only open half a day on the 31st. hence, saturday was a nightmare. we were also short staffed, which is usually not a problem for a saturday. but when you do 174 scripts compared to the usual 80-120 with just a tech, pharmacist, and a clerk, it really sucks.
not to mention that our all-time favorite drug addict paid us a visit. last time we saw this man, he swore he would never return to our pharmacy because we had "defaced" his prescription for some ridiculous amount of oxycontin by writing "refill too soon until (certain date)" on it. after all, he told us not to run it through his insurance (yeah, like that's not a give away that you're doing something illegal). anyway, so early in the day i receive a call from a man that goes a little something like this:
me: pharmacy, technician speaking.
man: hi, i was wondering if you could give me some price quotes for some medicine.
me: sure, go ahead and tell me the names of the medications.
man: well, i have about a half dozen or so scripts.
me: okay.... well, just start telling me and i'll give you the quotes as we go.
man: the first one is for Lortab 10-500 #120.
me: (thinking "oh this will be fun...") that's $xx.xx
man: okay, the next one is for oxycodone 30 mg #150
me: (RED FLAG!) that's $xx.xx
....conversation continues in this manner, all price quotes being for controlled substances in extremeley high amounts.
man: well, i think that's it. i have one for oxycontin, but i know that's a lot. besides, i used to fill there all the time.
me: oh really? well, what's your name? (in case we gave him a break or something last time he filled these)
man: it's werner heisenberg ***(not actual name)
me: (why does that sound familiar....???) okay, well, is that all?
man: yeah, thank you.

as i get off the phone i turn to my pharmacist and ask if she remembers werner. her jaw drops and eyes bulge and i see a little bit of her soul die. she reminds me of his previous escapades at our pharmacy and all i can think is why i didn't ask for the name first and start hiking up the prices in hopes that he would find somewhere cheaper.

this was not the last i heard from dear werner, however. he made a point to call me twice more to ask me the price for that oxycontin 80mg #90 script. and i told him the same price both times. as the clock slowly crept closer and closer to closing time, i told the pharmacist that i bet he wouldn't show until a quarter to closing. well, that came and went. then it was 10 to. still nothing. finally, at FIVE MINUTES to closing, he shows up. his "girlfriend" arrives a minute or two later, and they sit together waiting for us to fill his scripts (luckily he only filled 3 out of his gigantic stack). the girlfriend actually has the nerve to say "i bet you guys are trying to go home, huh?" NO FREAKING KIDDING! THEN GET YOUR REAR END OUT OF THE PHARMACY! the pharmacist and i make it a point to count at the speed of light and not respond to anything the say to us. perhaps we'll be so rude that he'll never return. as our clerk is ringing them up, we're sending off orders and running final reports when i hear him say "i don't have enough money. can i just get part of this prescription?" to which the pharmacist almost screams at him "we don't split prescriptions. you can leave it here until you have the money or you don't get it." so he decides to leave one of them behind. AFTER I TOLD HIM HOW MANY FREAKING TIMES WHAT THE PRICE WOULD BE!!! i nearly walked out there and strangled him.

yeah. the owner SO owes us.

uunnnghhh...freshmen

weather: 28°F
reading: essential cell biology

freshmen+alcohol+finals week=angry me

especially when they stand in the middle of the hall screaming "F*** YOU MAN! I'M DONE WITH THIS! F*** YOU!" especially when it occurs at 1:30 AM.

but only 3 more days and i have a 4 week vacation away from the little hooligans. HALLELUJAH! however, if my final grades are suboptimal, there will be blood shed come january.

people who i wanted to slap today (and yesterday)

weather: 73°F
reading: love @ first site

#1. the airport lady. seriously. if you can't survive the ONE hour plane ride from here to colorado without your ambien, you should have gone to the doctor YESTERDAY and gotten your script filled YESTERDAY as well. don't show up at 10:05 AM asking me to hurry it up when there are already 5 people in front of you. it's not my fault your plane leaves in 10 minutes.

#2. the clerk. your main job is to help customers, namely ringing up their scripts and collecting money. the techs and pharmacists are all busy trying to get those scripts ready and don't really have a lot of time to be spending working the cash register. that is what you are hired to do. so don't bite MY head off when i ask you to ring up somebody so i can fill the script for the other person that's sitting there waiting. and especially don't snap at me when the reason you aren't already up front helping people is because you're on your cell phone. for the second time that morning.

#3. everybody who asked me for a price quote on oxycontin. or a price quote period. from now on all non-controlled substances go for a flat rate of $500. CV to CIII's go for $800. narcotics are going for $1500.

#4. the armour thyroid lady. okay, while some say i may be lucky since my pharmacy doesn't have a drive-thru, i DO get a whole different batch of idiots because we do compounding. such as the following. this lady decides that she wants her doctor to prescribe her a compounded thyroid that is EXTREMELY similar to armour thyroid. the main difference? the compounded one is a capsule, the armour thyroid is a tablet. the whole reason she wants us to compound it is because she believes the capsule absorbs better. .....WHAT??!?! okay, who has been feeding my customers this load of crap? why do people assume that capsules magically make you absorb medicine SO MUCH better than tablets? they just absorb DIFFERENTLY, one is not superior to the other. and shouldn't your doctor tell you if something would work better, not you tell the doctor? anyway, so we run the script for her and the copay comes back as $35, about 7 times as much as normal armour thyroid. so the other tech tries to call her and warn her about the cost, but when the lady answers the phone she says "i'm really busy right now, i'll call you back." so obviously we hold off on filling it because we don't want to make something especially for her when she might not want it, and then we've wasted money AND time. so yesterday she FINALLY calls us back. then she starts chewing us out asking why it costs so much more. okay lady. armour thyroid is made by a MANUFACTURER who can make it in bulk, lowering the price significantly. we have to SPECIALLY make this dumb capsule for YOU and only YOU. why do you care how much your insurance is paying? let's put it this way. without it, you're paying more. got it? and, no, we are not going to just "go ahead and fill it" while you shop around. you just said that you might not come get it. then what? we've just lost money. i'm assuming she found somewhere else that would make it cheaper because she hasn't called us back.

#5. lady with the baby at the movies. need i say more?

so a neutron walks into a bar....

weather: 76°F
reading: miss julia's school of beauty

...orders a drink and asks the bartender how much he owes him. the bartender looks at him and says, "For you? No charge."

so apparently this is how i prep myself for a monday morning at work. instead of crawling in bed so that i can have a semblance of competence, i decided to stay awake and tell myself stupid chemistry jokes while creating a new blog. ah well. with my job, i have to find some way of making myself laugh.

luckily it will be a short work week, what with the 4th of july and me possibly getting my wisdom teeth out on friday morning. they sure as heck better not expect me to work this weekend if i do. the other tech can work a saturday for once. she's going to have a rude awakening when school starts up again and i can't work as much. so much for her being able to take 2 days off a week while i'm stuck working 45 hour weeks.

one last thing before i go.

i hate weddings.