Writers annoy me...not sure if it's their fault though...

I had a call from a patient/customer yesterday who was very worried about an article she read in a magazine. It was a women's magazine like Elle or Cosmo or something like that. I don't remember for sure. ANYWAY, she said there was an article in there that said if she takes ibuprofen (Advil, Motrin) she will get breast cancer. I get a fair amount of calls like this where one small study reported in the lay press causes a huge uproar. I advised her that many scientific studies have outcomes that just do not apply in the real world, but I would look into it for her and call her back by Monday.

It turns out it won't even take that long! I was able to obtain a report on the study cited in the magazine and I could not believe how frickin irresponsible the magazine was to report the findings like it did. My patient read the title to me on the phone. It read:

"Regular Ibuprofen use Associated with Breast Cancer"

Just that sentence alone is scary as hell. Especially for someone with a family history of breast cancer like my her. Yes, it is true that in this study there was a statistically significant increase in breast cancer in women who took ibuprofen. However, a blanket statement like the above title is misleading. At least according to me.

The University of Southern California researchers, who published their findings in the June 1 Journal of the National Cancer Institute, concluded that their data provides only slim evidence to support any ibuprofen-breast cancer causal effect. That means who knows if it's actually ibuprofen that added to breast cancer risk. It might be something completely unrelated to the actual medicine. The authors even put up some theories that may explain the findings. People who have conditions that require daily painkillers are more likely to be treated by physicians and thus have better chance for early discovery (hence a higher rate of reported breast cancer). They also theorized that some women took ibuprofen to relieve early symptoms of breast cancer, although this one was less likely because early breast cancer tends to be asymptomatic.
Here is another nail in the panic coffin, the study included zero data on the doses used by the study participants. They just surveyed for daily ibuprofen (and aspirin and tylenol) use. It would be harder to establish a causal relationship without the doses used. Incedently, the aspirin and tylenol group showed no increase in breast cancer incidence, but I will still recommend ibuprofen when appropriate.

Anyway, long story short, don't believe every frickin word you read in Cosmo eh? I wouldn't be HALF as annoyed if the article mentioned just those few extra facts. You know,it just occured to me that I ranted and bitched and complained, but I don't really know what the article in the woman's magazine actually says. I just had the title read to me. Hmmmm. It's possible I could have wasted a LOT of time on nothing because she didn't read the whole fucking article.

God DAMN, customers annoy me.


FYI:
Journal of the National Cancer Institute

Marshall SF, et al. 2005. Nonsteroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drug Use and Breast Cancer Risk by Stage and Hormone Receptor Status. JNCI; 97: 805-812

Work rots (as usual)

Hi reader! You may have noticed a lack of posts lately. The reason is my job. Lately it has been like I would imagine a shit farm would be. No offense to shit farmers though. I only feel like blogging "mostly" when I am feeling positive. (Pharmacy Rants notwithstanding) There has not been much to feel positive about at work lately, hence the dearth of postings. (I love using the word "hence". I try to work it into every conversation, hence the "hence" above.)

Anyway, I am feeling a little better about work so I thought I would take advantage and whip out a little post for you. So this little post was better than nothing right?

Don't answer that.

On a lighter note...

We are spending a few nights in Kansas City just to get away for awhile. Great news! The kids are with us! PLEEEEEASE for the love of all that is holy let me remember that I like them! When will the whining stop? WHEN?

I don't care what anyone says...firing people sucks

There have been some "inequities" in the cash registers in the pharmacy and the big bosses needed to find how it was happening. The Loss Prevention man came in after hours and I helped set up some extra surveillance.

(While we were doing this I discovered a camera I didn't even know was there! Even though I had not done anything, it was pretty chilling to realize that if I was up to something they would have caught me!...No guilty conscience here...I swear)

Anyway, I assured my boss and the loss prevention supervisor that we were going to find out that it was some kind of innocent mistake. I even went so far as bet breakfast on it. My boss took me up on it right away. He thought had it all figured out. Unfortunately the new camera proved him right. The employee was fired a few days later. The shittiest part about it was this person was not let go before having one last shift. So I had the pleasure of working a whole evening with someone, a person I considered a friend as much as an employee, and I knew it would be their last night. I got through the night pretty well but it was still pretty surreal. I know this person violated my trust by stealing from the company, but it really doesn't make me feel any better at all.

My boss is never going to collect that fucking breakfast either.

Caption contest

I hate to be one of those lame ass parent types who gushes about how awesome his kids are. (Actually if you knew me offline you would know I have a really hard time admitting when I like my kids.) Anyway this is one of my all time favorite pictures of "monkey 2". What exactly do you guys think he might have been thinking?

Fascist humor

I gotta give credit to Maddox. What I don't understand is...why the hell do I think this is so funny? Am I a closet fascist? Do I even know what a fascist is? Ahhhh the questions the questions!

Damn, the pharmacy didn't burn down

Sort of a false alarm today. The "fire" was some dudes working on the roof Air Conditioning units. They were doing some soldering and got some smoke and solder too close to a sensor and blammo! Off goes the fire alarm. Caused a little excitement but that's it. Ok, I have to admit I am glad it didn't burn down. I may bitch about my job, but I like it well enough.

There. I said it.

The roof! The roof! The roof is on fire!

I just got a call from the pharmacy..apparently the roof is actually on fire! It was everything I could do not to say, "We don't need no water let the mother-fucker burn! Burn mother-fucker, BURRRRN!"

(He had already told me that everyone was out and safe by the way)

I guess I am going in a little early today.

Women can be mean too

We have a 4th year pharmacy student with us this month in the pharmacy. He is doing a required clerkship with us where you basically work as slave labor 40 hours a week and you pay tuition for it. During the last week of the rotation we try to have a little potluck lunch in honor of the student as a thank you of sorts. Small compensation, but we like any excuse to bring food into the pharmacy. The pharmacists especially like this because we pretty much never get any time off for lunches. Having food nearby at least guarantees a 20-second gorging in between phone calls. One of the pharmacy techs brings a crock-pot with some kind of beef and potato stew. Here is where the fun (and meanness) happened. Apparently one of the other techs thought it was too bland. On one of her breaks she bought on of those spice envelopes with chili powder and stuff in it. She unceremoniously dumped the whole package into the crock pot, stirs it up, tastes it and declares, "That's better!". I just can't get that imagary out of my head. Holding the spice envelope over the pot, looking the other person right in the eyes, and dumping the whole thing in right in front of everyone else with a "What are YOU gonna do about it?" look on her face. It's the female equivalent of a guy doing a crossover dribble on the basketball court, dunking the ball over your head and declaring that he did it all because he just slept with your mom the night before.

In yo FACE bland-soup-maker!!

Maybe you had to be there.

Why did I choose pharmacy?

After reading my pharmacy rants (part 1 of many to come), a fellow blogger asked me why I chose pharmacy as a profession. I have no quick and easy answer to that at all...but maybe I am trying to overcomplicate it. I already worked at a large chain drugstore through high school and college, and the pharmacists there were always trying to encourage me to go to pharmacy school. I never really took it seriously until I found out how much money they made. That's pretty much it. Yes the story is slightly more complicated than that, but that's pretty much it.

The longer version is not much longer.... I graduated from high school in 1987. I worked for a major drug chain for most of high school and all of college..stockboy, assistant mgr, etc. I was lucky enough to get a full ride to State U. about a year after high school but I still needed some extra money (still just a stockboy you see). I joined the Army National Guard in 1989 and took a year off school. I also figured it would help me figure out what I wanted to do with my life. It did enhance my work ethic but still didn't help me find my "career". I never really found anything that interested me enough to make it my life's work. I just went back to school and tried to learn as much as possible. I tried education (physics/chemistry and earth science..I was going to be a science teacher!) and accounting (going to be a CPA). Neither of those managed to hold my interest for various reasons. Next I tried radiography, which is basically taking x-rays, MRI's, CT scans, etc. It was interesting and challenging and I liked it except for 2 things. First, the money was less than I was looking for...around $20,000 a year 6 years ago. (I was making that as an assistant manager at the drugstore.) Second, and most important, I came upon a huge realization that I did not really like sick people very much. Mostly it was the getting bodily fluids hurled at me in various ways. I just didn't feel like I cared enough about the people I was helping. I needed to find a way I could do something mentally challenging but also had a little extra layer between me and patients. Thus I began to consider pharmacy. I spent 3 semesters kicking my own ass taking full loads of science classes and pre-req's for pharmacy. Those classes were awesome and I knew I was on to something. I liked Genetics, Biology and Microbiology so much that I made my "backup" major Biology with the idea that I would become a criminologist (THIS WAS YEARS BEFORE CSI I SWEAR!!!) or possibly work in genetics research. I was accepted into pharmacy school in 1995 however, and graduated with a Doctor of Pharmacy in 1999.

So in a nutshell, years of retail work, many changes of college major and a dash of military disclipline = me the pharmacist.

Can you get fired for blogging?

(www.msn.com) How stupid is this article? Of COURSE you can get fired for blogging. What boss would want you spend all of your time sitting on your ass ignoring work stuff so you can cry about how shitty you are being treated? Can you get fired for masturbating at work? I hope so! (The counter-tops are too high in my pharmacy for me to get caught, but that's not the point!)

Pharmacy rants (Part 1 of probably too many)

To my dear, dear customers:

How the fuck is it my fault that you...

• have 3 or 4 last names and never give us the right one when picking up your prescription?
• have changed your phone number 5 times since the last time you gave it to us and then expect us to magically have it on file?
• waited 4 days before bringing me your "emergency" prescription then bitch about having to wait 20 minutes?
• don't have your card or any other insurance information but still expect me to know all of the intricate details of your copays and deductibles?
• have been out of refills for 4 weeks and you waited until 9 pm on a Friday night to request a refill then bitch because you have to wait 3 days due to doctors not working the weekends?
• have not seen your doctor in 2 years so they deny all refills even though you "have" to have your birth control pills?
• ate all of your Vicodins at lunch and they were supposed to last you 3 weeks?
• pull up to the pharmacy and look at me like I'm an asshole when I tell you there is a charge and you have NO money with you? Really, how the fuck can you pull up to the pharmacy where you have had a copay for 10 years, and have NO money on you? Did you expect me to fuckin' GIVE you your herpes medicine for free???? Can you try something for me? Go to fucking McDonald's, order 25 bucks worth of shit and then look at them like they are a bunch of assholes when they want their money. If they decide that you must need to have everything for free because you don't have any fucking money then make your next trip to my pharmacy and get some fucking free herpes medicine!

Fatherhood...WTF?

When I was a new father I pretty much felt like an idiot all the time. I had some revelations that helped me get through the experience. No thanks to my wife though. Women know everything they need to know about kids naturally and they think it is funny to watch us men slog through it all. Here are some of my hard-fought insights, may they help someone someday!

1. Kids will still love you no matter how many times you fuck up.
Whether or not he deserves it, it's important for the new dad to know he can screw up and the kids will give him a clean slate. (Mom is a completely different story.)

2. It's ok if you don't like your kids every now and then.
This is one advantage we men have over women. We are much better at loving people we don't like at that particular moment. (From years of still being available for sex even if we have been banished to the couch for whatever reason)

3. The way to their heart is through their stomach.
Give kids chocolate cake and you will will be the Master of the Universe. (This is actually also true of men)

4. Don't forget how huge and scary you are to them.
Men are bullies by nature and it's hard to avoid that behavior with your kids. I will never forget the first time I made my little girl cry....it really sucks. (Again, mom is a different story...the being scared of me part, not the making her cry part)

5. It is not only ok for you to be goofy, but as the dad, it's REQUIRED!
This is by far the best part of being the dad! Kids don't give a rats ass if you kept your pharmacy inventory below $500,000 this month. They don't care that your "phone hold time" report sucked compared to everyone else in your district. They couldn't give less of a shit if you gave out too much overtime. All they care about is we're all sleeping in a bubble fort tonight! woo hoo!!! (You know what a bubble fort is right? You stick a bedsheet on the ground and use some books on the corners for weight. Then you stick a fan in one end and turn it on. Presto! Bubble Fort!)

What should this blog be about?

I have been reading a lot of blogs lately. They come from all walks of life and fall into just about any category you can think of. It makes me wonder where I want "this" blog to fall. Some blogs are done every day by essentially professional writers and read better than your average newspaper. Then there are others that are no more than narcissistic whining about which nobody but the author (and maybe their mom) gives a rip.

I am nowhere near a professional writer. There is also no way I can post something decent every day. Most of the subjects I feel like writing about will come dangerously close to narcissistic whining of my own. So I guess my answer boils down to, "What is the point of this thing?"

The short answer is the one I am going to go with for now. It is this: BLOGGING IS BASICALLY DONE JUST FOR THE HELL OF IT!

Wow that really takes the pressure off. Blog-on you chicken fuckers!