When the pharmacy is closed..it is closed

On the weekends, my pharmacy closes at 6pm. Signs are posted. This has been the closing time for the past 5 years since the store has been open. All other pharmacies in the area also close at 6pm except the few 24 hour stores.

Every damn weekend people want me to stay after 6 to get their damn stuff. I have been open 10hrs (Sat) or 8hrs (Sun). Get here when I am open. I am not staying. Last week, idiot #1 came up right as my cash registers were being taken by the front store supervisor. So, I had to ring her out. Which leaves me open for the next idiot to come up. My drop off window is closed and the gate is down. Idiot #2 waves several new rxs at the supervisor and asks if she can still have them filled. I said no...we close at 6. Now, before everyone gets all upset, I would probably stay for a regular customer with a true emergency. Anyway, she snaps back "Well, what time is it?", still not looking at me, but the store supervisor. I say, 6:05. She says, "So for a lousy 5 minutes you won't fill my rx?" I say, yes but there is a 24 hour big box rx less than 5 miles from here. That's too far for her to drive. Not my fucking problem. Then she has to pull the "Well, I thought I would give your pharmacy a try, but I guess you don't want my business" crap. Hell no, I don't want one more person in this pharmacy to give me attitude. GO AWAY.

I put the pick-up window gate down. Now I cannot see from the electronic switch on the wall if someone is near the gate. I hear a voice....oh you're closed? I holler over the noise of the gate...YES! I set the alarm and leave to see the woman standing there. I inform her we close at 6pm and it is now 6:10....we open at 10am tomorrow. She is at least polite and says that she will come back in the morning.

I am a person....I have a life....and I don't get paid OT to stay after my shift and help your sorry ass. Get to the pharmacy when we are open.

Here I am again

Ok after an 18 month abscense, I have returned. Looooonnnngggg story.

Anyway, I am still in the retail craziness and hating every day. Why do I torture myself? I am seriously considering switching to another field, but the economy is not the best now to go job hunting. I will wait impatiently for the economy to improve.

Pet peeve of the day.........I got off work at 5pm. I had a few items to pick up before I left the store. There I was at the front of the store at the register with crap in my hands, purse on my shoulder, no white coat anywhere near me, and with my husband when a woman comes up to me and says "Oh you're the pharmacist...I have a question..............."

I just wanted to scream.....THERE IS ANOTHER PHARMACIST ..............GO ASK HIM.

But I didn't, I answered her question, but not to my full capacity. I was not going to go all the way back to the first aid isle to help her pick out crap for her son's poison ivy.

Don't bother me when I am obviously on MY TIME. I have a life too.

Before I go....

I just had to tell a story a fellow pharmacist told me today. A few years back she was working in a predominantly poor neighboorhood that happened to also be predominantly black. Nothing against any African Americans here. It's just that she had a hard time understading the language nuances. One lady called several times very upset over something. After many people listening to her woes, my friend finally determined she had a "tater vine" growing out of her "cat." Now tater vine means what it says potato vine and cat meant vagina. OK...now we get a picture. Why did she have a potato vine growing out of her vagina? Well, apparantly she had a prolapsed uterus/bladder combo so in her book of old wives tales, it was suggested she insert a potato into the vagina to hold it in place. She did not use the whole potato, just a wedge (not that it would have mattered much). Anyway, my friend convinced her to go to the free clinic to get a look-see. Aparantly, the potato really likes to grow in a warm, moist, dark environment. The lady had to have a hysterectomy.

I have so many whys to this story, I cannot list them all. #1 being Why are you calling the pharmacist? We have no pills for growing vaginal potato vines. Maybe you should call Home Depot and they can assist you with a weed-wacker purchase.

Worst story I've ever heard. I've got some doozies, but this wins the prize.

On Hiatus

I'll be gone for a while. My store is getting a new computer system in 3 weeks and with all of the training and prep I am exhausted.

Will post when I get calmed down.

Thanks to the couple of you who have been reading.

Dear "Pharmacy Slave"

I would have emailed you personally, but you had no contact info or way to comment on your blog.

Your quote "I have seen all these blogs from pharmacists who are incessantly complaining about their days...and I figured that I should go on ahead and give myself a shot. As much as I love my pharmacists (at least 2 of them...one I hate more than I hate my job), they have all told us lowly technicians that we field more problems than they do an deal with much more since we're in the front lines of customer service. For the most part, our pharmacists kick back and do crossword puzzles and occasionally check the rare prescription while we do everything else...so I shall begin this lovely little blog tomorrow when I return home from work. "

I am was a tech for 15 years before I went to pharmacy school. I know what it's like to be a tech. I used to think just like you. Then I got my license. Now, I want to call my old boss of 13 years and apologize for all the bullshit complaining I did. You don't know what kind of pressure there is for a pharmacist. Yes, you are the front line for us, but we have to deal with the customers also while trying not to kill anyone. "Occasionally check the rare prescription????"" Who else can do it? The pharmaicst checks ALL of the prescriptions. I don't have time to do a crossword puzzle. It must be nice that your pharmacists can. I can barely pee. Sometimes I think about wearing depends, but then there would be the smell. I call doctors, I call insurance companies, I save my techs from being chewed out by an idiot, I handle all of the complaints, I type prescriptions, I check medication usage-interactions-dosages-medical conditions-allergies, I make hundreds of recommendations, I LISTEN to old ladies cry when they've been diagnosed with cancer.

I also value every last one of my techs and thank them regularly for a job well done. I could not do my job without them. I don't forget this. EVER. I am sorry you feel that you are a "lowly" tech. I always correct mine when they say "I'm just a tech" if a patient asks their position. I say, "You are a technician...not just a tech. Do not belittle your position in this pharmacy."

I know your job is difficult, but so is ours.

How dare you....

This weekend, an elderly man came in to get a B vitamin his doctor had recommended for his chills. I don't know of any B vitamin to help with chills. Maybe he's anemic? Mind you, this was a VERY elderly frail looking man. Are his kidneys still working? I don't know. I told him to ask his doctor to be more specific in which B vitamin he intended the man to have. I know, I know.... a cop-out but I had only had 2 hrs of sleep and he didn't seem real with-it to answer my more probing questions.

Well, a couple of minutes later the guy is back with a lady from the non-foods department asking the same question. My tech overheard and I went out front again. I re-iterated my stance on calling the doctor. The non-foods person had the cojones to say "Well, a B-complex vitamin should be OK" and start to hand it to him. Now I was pissed. Not at the man, but the non-foods associate. I said that I didn't know what other medical conditions the man might have and I didn't know of a B vitamin to treat chills. THEN SHE CONTINUED TO CONTRADICT ME BY SAYING "WELL, B VITAMINS CAN'T REALLY HURT. THEY ALL GET FLUSHED OUT ANYWAY." I had to play the "I'm the pharmaicst and this is what I said" card.

Do not argue with me in front of a patient. You do not have that right. And yes B vitamins can cause nerve damage in high doses, you moron. Where the hell does she get off thinking she can do this? Did she go to school for 9 damn years (ok not all pharmacy)?

And then there's the whole legality of this. The only thing a non-pharmacist can do is show a person where the product is. Otherwise, all questions must go to the pharmacist.

Stupid Questions 1

Do you sell contact lenses?

Are these little round yellow ducolax things called tablets? [This required a 5 minute reassurance that they were tablets]

Do you carry this battery for my phone?

Why can't I have 20 more oxycodone caps even though I just got 150 of them 5 days ago? These are for a car accident.

Me, on the phone after the tech has been asked to speak to a pharmacist: Hello, this is the pharmacist, how may I help you? Idiot: What is your name? Me: name. Idiot: Is this the pharmacist? [no dumbass, I just said that I was. April Fools]

That's all I can think of for now, but it is late and I am tired. More to come later.