Sanity is madness put to good use. – George Santayana
Why Your Pharmacist May Hate You and Other Great Mysteries Revealed
15Feb2011 Author: Mother Jones, RN
I can’t believe that I haven’t been putting up new posts on my blog. This would not have happened under ordinary circumstances, but that whole widowhood thing threw me off my stride. I’m addicted to blogging. It’s my drug of choice. I’ve been doing a lot of things over the last couple of months. For instance, I met someone really special on OKCupid. He’s my Gentleman Caller. He’s not a stalker, he has a job, and he thinks I’m cute. Ok, maybe he’s a little delusional about that whole cute thing but, so far, he makes me very happy.
Gentleman Caller and I have a lot in common except for one thing. He loves watching TV cop shows—they bore me to tears—and I prefer reading a good book. I’m currently reading this book. The book’s author is Drugmonkey, the Master of the Pharmacy, and the proprietor of the sardonic blog, Your Pharmacist May Hate You. I met Drugmonkey via his blog many years ago and he’s one of my good blog buddies. Drugmonkey’s book delves into the mysteries of life, like why does it take so long to get my friggin’ prescription filled at the pharmacy. He also discusses more serious issues like how Big Pharm gets away screwing over the general public. Big Pharm is evil, and Drugmonkey gives his readers the inside scoop on what’s happening in Pharmaceutical World. Drugmonkey is a champion of truth, justice, and the American way. He is Super Pharmacists, and his stories will motivate you to vote all the Congressional idiots out of office.
I’m about to test Gentleman Caller’s commitment to our relationship. Sure, he’s cute and adorable, but I’m going to see if he keeps his sweet disposition when I turn off his TV set and ask him to read Drugmonkey’s book so we can talk about it. Somehow I think he’ll do it for me. I’ll keep you posted.
13 Responses to “Why Your Pharmacist May Hate You and Other Great Mysteries Revealed”
Leave a reply
Disclaimer
There has been a lot of chatter in the blogosphere about medical bloggers and HIPAA regulations so let me make this very clear: I write composite stories about many different people that I've cared for over the years.
The Curmudgeon
February 18th, 2011 at 10:49 am
Glad to see you posting again.
Does Mr. Drugmonkey explain how Walgreens and the other chains make more money from generics than from far more expensive brand-name medications? This is surely counterintuitive, but I know this must be the case because my local pharmacy gets militant about trying to foist generics on me and mine. I have one medication that I’ve used for years now for glaucoma. I tried the generic for awhile and I didn’t feel it worked as well. I may be a cheap bastard and all that but actually being able to see is important to me. So I went back to the brand name. But it’s a constant struggle with the pharmacy.
It’s a struggle even though in Illinois, doctors can, by law, direct, on their prescription forms, that no generic may be substituted.
Tweets that mention Why Your Pharmacist May Hate You and Other Great Mysteries Revealed - Nurse Ratched’s Place -- Topsy.com
February 25th, 2011 at 12:32 am
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Liz Ditz, Alex. Alex said: RT @lizditz: from Nurse Rached's blog, a glowing review of @drugmonkey book http://bit.ly/fRAhhJ Your pharmacist may hate you [...]
UnsinkableMB
March 3rd, 2011 at 11:11 am
Hi, Mother Jones… Glad to see that you’re writing again and that you are doing well. Been catching up on my blog-reading on my day off today and noticed that you still have a link to my old blog “Living Large.” It actually links to a non-nursing blog now – which is weird… Anyway, you can find me now at “Blood, Guts, and Coffee” (www.bloodgutsandcoffee.com).
Take care and keep up the great writing!
Cheers,
MB
John
March 8th, 2011 at 6:00 pm
Hey there –
I mentioned your blog today on the eCollegeFinder blog. Thought you might like to check it out!
http://blog.ecollegefinder.org/post/Top-20-Nursing-Blogs.aspx
Mother Jones, RN
March 8th, 2011 at 7:07 pm
Thank you, John!
Genevieve
March 9th, 2011 at 6:22 pm
It’s been awhile since I last visited, I see you’re still at it. Love your posts.
Genevieve
March 9th, 2011 at 6:24 pm
Oops~ put the wrong website on. Anyhoo…I love visiting your blog.
Chris
March 10th, 2011 at 11:11 am
Any nurses following the FDA’s plan to regulate genetic testing companies like 23andMe?
More info on my blog.
tammy swofford
March 13th, 2011 at 3:07 pm
Mother Jones!
So glad you are back! I had almost given up on seeing you return to the blog world.
It is good to see a post. And Drug Monkey? The man is an absolute nut!
Glad things are going well for you and the sun is beginning to shine in your life again!
Love and hugs,
Tammy
Cathy Lane RPh
March 14th, 2011 at 10:00 am
Was looking at the posted exchanges I’ve bookmarked (ghost of a nurse Aiko Hamaguchi) and was glad to see you’ve posted a new blog, Nurse Ratched. I can attest that Drugmonkey’s every word is true.
To respond to Unsinkable MB, nearly 25 years ago when manufacture of generic drugs was validated by the FDA, brand name drug companies often had their own generics to directly compete with themselves. I can remember Lederle’s penicillin drugs, and Sandoz’ generic drug products labeled with a generic brand company’s name and wondering how come the brand name drug cost so much more than the generic when they manufactured by the same company.
However, we learned in state pharmacy law, three entities were involved in a generic substitution: 1) it was okayed by the doctor, 2) it was acceptable to the pharmacist, and 3) authorized by the patient. So far that I can tell when pharmaceutical benefits managers (PBMs) arrived from health insurance and prescription coverage benefits companies, especially when their own associated ‘agencies’ were involved from different states’ drug mills, the PBMs could easily bypass all three because ‘they’ were in charge of paying for the drugs that were necessary to the insured employee.
No one pays cash for prescription drugs anymore because some drugs are very expensive. Others are not, and it’s a little unfair that costs of life-sustaining drugs are so disparately priced. On the other hand, when some drugstores can price their drugs dirt-cheap because of deep-discounting (which was illegal at the time when generics were first allowable), and pharmaceutical companies can get kick-backs from insurers, then the money-makers (PBMs) can play fast-n-easy with the public’s money in the Medicare ‘insurance’ and Medicaid ‘state insurer’ fields, and wreak havoc in the games that ‘private’ PBMs are playing. But the game is so insidious that it’s hard to tell just whom is doing what to whom, and my take on it is that Big Pharma and Big PBM with the support of BIG AMA is raking it in hand over fist, while the pharmacists just fill the scripts and shut up. No one asks pharmacists what they know about it since our patients and customers know we’re making ‘big bucks’ they think we’re in on it, but no one asks pharmacists what we know. They just look us behind the counter and ask us if we need to go to school to be able to fill prescriptions and cuss us if it takes too long to fill the friggin’ prescription.
As a 5th year intern, (most kids would be 24 yrs old but I’d dropped out 5 years when my son was born so I was 30), I remember the sense of unreality absolute ludicrousness and consternation I felt in my white pharmacy school jacket, looking at this belligerent patient demanding that I use my little aqua blue counting tray and spatula and take out all the pale green and cream capsules of brand name Prozac marked with Dista and replace them with the capsules that said Lilly. They came from the same @$%! bottle.
And so it was in pharmacy school, one of my professors, now working in the FDA, stated in our first professional year biopharmaceutics, ‘if you think that pharmaceutical companies are working for the benefit of mankind, you’d believe the check is in the mail, the moon is made of green cheese, and he’ll call in the morning’.
Lauren
April 6th, 2011 at 3:21 pm
Glad to see you’re back!
Fallen Angels
April 10th, 2011 at 1:11 pm
Hi…I am seeking opinions/suggestions from nurses about a possible problem with my nursing program applications. I’ve posted the issue on my blog…anything you have to say would be greatly appreciated!
Jess
April 18th, 2011 at 3:09 pm
hope it went well!