Recently in General Chatter Category

Alright.  I tried to lighten things up a bit by posting a funny entry that I did over a year ago but never made public.  Unfortunately I got the YEAR wrong when I set the date upon which to publish it.  Its visible, just back with entries dated around the end of 1/2007.  Go team me.

Those who are signed up for email notifications already know about it, but for the rest of you I'll just link the post here (to keep from breaking the links in the notification emails).

One of the problems with writing entries that piss off a big portion of the online community is that you draw a ton of people to your site.  That little diabetic stint along with pissing off most of the chain pharmacists pushed my web hosting bill through the roof.  Yeah, I'm a pharmacist.  Yeah, I make "a lot" of money.  However when a website starts to chip more and more away at your income, you need to stem the bleeding eventually.

I mean I love the attention and all and its sorta neat to be such a famous-yet-totally-unknown pharmacist, however love doesn't pay the bills.  So, to keep me ranting and out of the poor house, I put google ads on the sidebar over there ------->  They are stupid, text only, and actually have things to do with pharmacy (go figure).  Click on them if you're interested, if not then just ignore them.

I don't rant because I want the ad money, I dont rant for the attention or the notoriety, I rant because it keeps me sane, and it shows other pharmacists (and students) out there that you're not alone in dealing with the cesspool of stupidity known as the 'general public'.

So I hope you don't view this as me selling-out or cashing in.  I'm just trying to keep my head above water for something that I love doing and preventing me from becoming a raging alcoholic puppy-kicker.

Oh, and I don't really have any control over the ads they show, so if you see any for online pharmacies or mail order places, remember that they are paying for ads while I am receiving money for ads.  I still hate online and mail-order places.

Hi Pharmacists/Doctors/Students/General Public

As you can see, the site has changed a bit to add some new features.

• You can actually create an account/login to the site for commenting.  Doing so will (or should) make your comments appear automatically (vs me having to approve them).  If you are a frequent commenter, this should make your life a ton easier.  If spammers hijack this i'll turn it off though. :(  Sign-in page link is in upper right sidebar.
  
• Site search works again (hooray!).
• Soon you will be able to subscribe to individual entries, so you will get email notification when someone else comments (vs having to check a bunch to see if there are any new comments).
• As always, you can get email notification when a new post is made via the usual menu ---> that way.

Other things:

• I have a bunch of questions mailed to me for "Ask the Angry Pharmacist".  Be patient and i'll get to them.  About 50 of you emailed me the first day.
• If you have a topic you wish for me to bitch about, feel free to email me (druglord@theangrypharmacist.com) and i'll see what I can do.  I always like to trash on Pharmacy School classes.
• I've been contemplating putting ads on the site to help pay for the hosting (or a "buy me booze" paypal button to donate to the site), but I'm still sorta mulling this over.  Suggestions?
  

Be on the lookout for a nice hefty rant about how we are all going to get screwed over the first of the year.

Hi all! Its been a long 2 years since I started this site!

Once in a while I'll do these housekeeping posts to inform all of the new viewers at home exactly what this site (i hate the word blog) is about, how to contact me, etc.

I am, as you can probably guess, a pharmacist. I work in the very bad part of town. I use this site to vent my frustration at the world and the public in general. I like to think of myself as the patron saint of retail pharmacy. I believe I am the first angry pharmacist on the internet, but that may be a push between myself and the DrugNazi.

To answer some questions you may have:

No, I am not this rude to my patients. I may have no problem shitting on the ground, I do have a problem shitting where I sleep.

No, I don't hate doctors. There's always a few out of the bunch that really piss me off, thats focused on them. Not those of you at home reading this. I know you doctors are spying on me from the comfort of your nice baby seal skin chair.

No, I don't hate drug reps..... okay, thats a lie, i really do hate drug reps. Sorry, they make my life hell. If you're a drug rep and reading this, I'm sorry, I hate your profession (not you personally). If you were unemployed maybe drugs would be cheaper for the rest of us. Plus doctors would actually have to use professional judgement, common sense, and brains (*gasp*) when looking at new medications rather than spoon feeding them what they want to hear via your large breasts and low cut tops. *shrug* Eat a dick. Should of given me those nice 'doctor' pens you hide from us. You know, the heavy ones that come in the little felt sleeve.

My email is druglord@thissitename.com I'm sure you can guess what 'thissitename' is. I get enough junk email making fun of my small penis and tiny breasts so you'll have to use knowledge to email me (added bonus: weeds out the retards). You can email me pretty much anything. Questions, comments, nude photos you might be considering sending to penthouse but need another opinion, anything!

Unlike the DrugNazi, this site is for pharmacy related stuff, not political bantering and soapbox. I may get on the soapbox when it relates to pharmacy, but not on other stuff. I know i'll piss you off with my views, so i'll keep them to myself.

No, I dont know the DrugNazi. I keep on telling him to email me so we can go out on a drunken angry pharmacist escapade, but he's too busy being angry at the world as he bends over for one of the corpo-mega-chains.

I use bad words. My mother reads this site and is ashamed that I use such foul language. She also doesn't work with the public. Silly mom.

I'm not good with computers. I just click the little "Save" button and magically my words appear on my webpage. Dont ask me computer questions unless it involves Foundation Systems Inc pharmacy software. I'm good at that. If any of you at home work for them, drop me a line, I want to say hi. I might even plug your software here.

In the past few years, this site has gone from getting about 10 views a day (mostly by me) to a metric (not imperial) buttload of views. What do I think about this? IM FUCKING FAMOUS! HOLLYWOOD HERE I COME-or maybe not. Hell, someone even created a site called theangriestpharmacist! Talk about riding in on my coattails! Sorry pal, unless you make the 10:00 news going on a killing rampage of minority welfare children I have you beat in the anger department hands down.

I would however like for you to tell your pharmacy friends about this site so they can get a chuckle and realize that they are not alone floating in the sea of stupidity. I know most of you have, but I know a few of you are slow and need a little prodding.. "Go! Shoo! Fax this to your friends.. go now! Its okay! Mush!"

Got a call from a fellow classmate of mine. He had quite a large bitch that he wanted me to make "public".

Turns out Amgen is not shipping any of their dropship items (Enbrel, etc) to pharmacies UNLESS the pharmacy orders it through one of their "approved" (read bribed) wholesalers. His independent wholesaler was not on the list. I got in contact with said wholesaler and they told me that Amgen basically told them to go piss up a rope, and for the pharmacy to switch wholesalers.

Now for those of you not in pharmacy, Enbrel is a drop-shipped item. Meaning you order it through your wholesaler, and Amgen ships the medication directly to the pharmacy. The wholesaler does not stock the medication. It goes from Amgen -> Pharmacy. All the wholesaler does is handle the billing aspect and money exchange, thats it. Has nothing to do with this 'pedigree' mutual masturbation clusterfuck.

I have no idea if this applies to other Amgen that wholesalers stock (like Epogen).

So, the small independent pharmacies, wanting to stick to their loyal independent wholesalers, cannot order any Amgen products any longer. All because some motherfucking douche decided to get some bribes from McKesson, Kinray, and HD Smith. Fuck Amgen.

I'll let you know how this turns out. He's got every independent phoning, emailing, and threatening to cut off Amgen completely unless their wholesaler gets added. Of course i'm not helping Amgen either.. :)

Like what you read here? Do I put a smile on your face? You wish you could help your old angry buddy? WELL HERES YOUR CHANCE!

My store has 3 pharmacists, 2 techs and averages about 370-450 rx/day. We're looking into getting some robotic automation going. We're looking at ScriptPro, Parada, etc etc etc. Something to carry our top 100 drugs so I can spend more time yelling at crackheads than counting out the vicodin and soma.

All the machines basically do the same thing being in the same price range with the sales drones saying the exact same shit. The sales tards dont use the machines, they arent pharmacists, and are about on par with Drug Reps. The'll suck ya off to get a sale, and to make matters worse, the're all males! Im confused and frustated!

So i'm asking you, my faithful readers, for your input as to which machine. Feature pissing you off? Feature pissing your techs off? Let me know! Let me learn from your mistakes!

Seriously! Not joking, I really do need help. No annoyance is too small or too insignificant!

No, the silence you saw on this blog was not me killing myself, nor drinking myself into a scotch induced stupor with the DrugNazi/Monkey/Whatever he is this week.

I was out of state for a week enjoying some family time. I'm not going to say what state, but I'll just let you know that its not one of the 'looney' states.

I'm dreading work tomorrow. I know i'll have about 500 messages for me from patients in a panic because they didnt take their post-thanksgiving turd yet. I already know I'll have Celgene on the phone pissed off because I dispensed a Thalomid Rx right before I left and didnt call it in to report it. Yeah, because thats not a HUGE waste of my fucking time. Plus I know that I screwed something up sometime during my vacation and get yelled at via the patients about it (YOU SHORTED ME SOMA EVEN THOUGH YOU WERE ON VACATION!)

*sigh*

Oh.. DrugNazi: I thought of you as I sat there smoking my pipe and drinking a half bottle of Ardbeg 10y this last weekend. I thought "Ha ha! poor sap is probably working!".. And I was right.. :)

So i've been doing some self thinking as to why I get angry at work. I mean it cant be normal for me to get really upset when I waste my time filling someones Rx (that they bring the empty bottle) not realizing that he wanted some other Rx filled (that wasnt the empty bottle).

I mean would any 'normal' person get pissed off when you're on hold for 30 min before the patient says "oh, do you need this insurance card?" after you ask them 100 times if they have any insurance cards.

I mean a 14 year old getting prenatal vitamins shouldnt get your blood boiling. I mean what if it is their second kid? Thats no biggie right?

Getting yelled at because the doctor wont okay soma early shouldn't bug me too much, but it does. I think you get the point.

I think I get frustrated because I dont think of myself as 'better' than anyone around me. Just because I physically stand a half foot above you, doesnt make me any better than the person who cleans the toliets, or the person who bags my groceries, or the kind fellow who pumps my gas. These people have jobs just like me, pay taxes just like me, and drag their asses to work just like me. Im sure they have a unique skill that they are awesome at. Mine's pharmacy, and happens to be what I do for a living. Just because im a pharmacist doesnt make me better than you, its just what I do for a living.

But then I see stupidity in its rawest unearth form. Stupidity so intense that if it wasn't for the kind state upon which I live wiping these people's asses, they would be unable to live. I cant wrap my brain around how a person could be so utterly useless and stupid.

I dont expect you to understand how your medication works. Thats not your job, thats mine. I dont expect you to know what the proper dose is, or if your doctor is trying to kill you or not, thats also my job. I do have some sort of expectations that when the bottle says "One Tablet Daily" you will put one tablet in your mouth a day, and swallow. For some people, this mental feat rivals quantum physics.

How hard is it to follow simple directions? Even a dog knows not to shit in on its own bed, and can follow simple commands. I absolutely hate to talk down to people. It makes me feel like an idiot and makes the other person feel like a child. However im forced to do that on a daily basis. Thats the language they understand. Do I really need to tell you to remove the foil off of a suppository before you shove it up your ass? When a bottle says "SHAKE WELL" do you really need to ask me if you are supposed to shake it? That 3/4 is three-quarters of a teaspoon, not 3 to 4 teaspoons. That 1 mL (which is clearly marked on the dropper) is NOT the same as 5 mL.

Sometimes I feel like the patients are just screwing with me. You know, asking me stupid questions to be funny. Then I realize that they arent being funny, they seriously dont have the mental capacity to read and follow simple instructions printed out in plain english (which is the only language they speak). It boggles my mind so much I want to walk down there and shake them saying "WHATS WRONG WITH YOU! WHY DONT YOU UNDERSTAND!". Seriously kids, cribs + lead paint = not good. Paint chips are not food, and not your friend.

I already have a very limited patience for people, however I expect people to not know how the human body works, or what that rash is growing under their boob. Those people I will spend as much time as I can explaining things in a language they can understand. However simple instructions like 'twice daily' or 'leave this nix in your hair for 8 to 12 hours then rinse out' should be universally understood no matter what education level you have.

So all in all, my ethics/tact/respect/how i was raised say "person is equal, must treat as equal" on one side, but then the patient is a complete and utter moron. So that makes my brain go into overload thinking "if person is equal, and person is idiot, then I am idiot! I am not idiot!". Its not my intention to look down upon people (forget for a second what you read here) but maybe I might have to learn to.

Hi everyone!

If you like what you read, and dont really want to always check on the site for something new to pop up, head over to the right there -> and put your email in that box to subscribe to this blog. We'll automagically email you (as soon as you reply to the confirmation email) when new entries are on the site saving you a ton of time checking for my sporatic updates.

Or if you have an RSS reader, you can accomplish pretty much the same thing.

I'd like to take this time to introduce another angry pharmacist that will be posting his frustrations to this site. His name is 'slapaho' and he has the honor of working overnight shift in a large inpatient hospital pharmacy.

I'll be doing retail rants and he'll be doing hospital rants. We rule!