the new tech

so for a couple of months now, all the employees at the pharmacy have been begging the owner to higher a new tech. with both of our interns gone, myself going to school full-time, and only 2 full-time techs, we've been a little short lately.
now, however, perhaps being short on techs was the better option.
the owner hired the new tech 2 weeks ago. he started last monday. here are some of the amazing things we have had to deal with since:
-he likes to take off for 45 minutes to get lunch with his girlfriend, and not tell anybody when he leaves. i know by law we have to let him leave for a break if he asks, but all the other techs stay as a courtesy to one another. sure, it might be slow when you leave, but 5 minutes later, we could be slammed. such a thing happened last thursday, leaving 2 techs and a pharmacist to figure things out, without a clerk, as she left early as well.
-he conveniently forgot to subtract the half hour to 45 minutes from the hours he worked, and wrote down a full 9 hours on our timesheet.
-he charged someone $34 for a usually $10 prescription, and $99 for on that is $47. as an independent pharmacy, we have to watch prices very carefully. we also recently found out that the pharmacy he came from (another independent that was bought out by walgreens) had been getting reimbursed by medicaid only $150 for a $280 prescription. no wonder the pharmacy shut down. they were losing over $100 a MONTH on only one prescription.
-lastly, and most scary, he filled someone's robinul with ropinirole. unfortunately, the mistake got past our pharmacist and out of the pharmacy. luckily, it was a really good customer who is extremely nice. she called to let us know she received the wrong medication and we fixed it for her today.
i really am starting to not like the new tech, and i've only worked with him once, since he's only there to fill in the days that i'm at school. the few times our paths have crossed though, i have found him to be extremely arrogant and unwilling to listen to constructive criticism or instructions. if i ever get the chance to work with him again, i will be taking him down a few notches. just because you know how to work foundations, does NOT mean you are the best tech in the whole wide world.

sometimes doctors are retarded

and sometimes they are amazing. i've dealt with a little of both today.

i went to a new general practitioner today as i've had some doubts about mine ever since she diagnosed me with prediabetes after only running one set of tests. bascially our conversation went like this:
me: my periods really suck. i don't know why.
md: well, i think your sister has pcos, so you probably have it too. and so you're probably prediabetic. let's draw your blood.
i was never told to go in fasting to that appointment, so what she thought was a fasting glucose level actually was not. now i can understand that seeing a "fasting" of 115-120 would be alarming. however, she also ran an a1c test, which i think she chose to ignore after having the following conv. with her nurse at a prediabetes clinic:
me: umm, my a1c is 5.1%. is that just okay?
nurse: whoa, no, actually that's great. keep doing what you're doing!
those test results were from october. i talked to the nurse in april. for 7 months i was on four 500 mg XR metformin once a day. when i finally got those original test results i brought them into the pharmacy and discussed with one of the pharmacists whether or not i should continue taking the metformin. we decided that i should try to go off of it and keep testing my blood sugars to see what would happen. guess what? there was little to no change.
so today when i went to see the new doctor, i brought in my old test results with my little notebook of all my blood sugars written down. as i was telling him all of this, he kind of gave me a weird look when i told him i had an a1c of 5.1% and almost freaked out when i told him about my metformin dosage. i am glad to say that i have been officially taken off of it and will continue with lifestyle changes for the next 6 months when i will be retested and we will see where i stand. yay for competent doctors!

pharmacy schools

so this summer one of my goals is to narrow down where i want to go for pharmacy school (and figure out where will accept me...that's another story though). i know that some pharmacy people read this, so i want your opinions. tell me where you went to school and why you loved/hated/are apathetic about it. i'm looking at the northern u.s., specifically northwest. because i hate hot climates. well, not so much that i hate them, just that i'm in a perma-bad mood when the temp climbs too much above 72F. and the NW is still fairly close to the family. but basically i'll go wherever will take me. so yeah. give me some feedback!