PharmCountry

Since I was up taking care of my mom, I decided to switch on the local news. The first thing I saw was that Eastern Market, a DC landmark, was set ablaze in a 3-alarm fire. This will surely be a setback for the local community, which has been seeing revitalization.

Secondly, a tanker truck flipped over on a highway in San Francisco this morning, causing a fire that melted the overpass above it, eventually falling to the ground. Thankfully, nobody was killed, and only the truck driver was injured, coming away with only minor burns. Governor Schwarzenegger declared that public transportation, including trains, buses, and ferries will be free for the Monday commute.

Closer to home (for me and others in pharmacy, anyway), A Frederick, MD CVS pharmacist was shot yesterday afternoon after refusing to hand over narcotics to a would-be robber. From DC’s Fox5:

FREDERICK, Md. (AP) — Frederick police say a pharmacist was shot during a robbery attempt at a CVS drive-through window this afternoon.

It happened around 2 p-m [Sunday] at the C-V-S on Rosemont Avenue.

Police say a man walked up to the pharmacy drive-through and demanded narcotics when the pharmacist opened the window.

Police say the pharmacist closed the window and the man fired at least three shots hitting the pharmacist once in the upper chest.

The shooter then got into his car and drove away.

The victim, a 63-year-old man substituting for the regular pharmacist, was flown to Washington County Hospital. His injury is not considered life-threatening.

Police have not yet found the shooter.

All my hopes go out to that pharmacist that he will make a full recovery.

Finally, there was a shooting at a Kansas City, MO mall yesterday afternoon, ending with a death toll of four, including the gunman, who was killed by police inside the mall. My chain has a location in that mall, so I hope none of my fellow employees are among the casualties.

All in all, it’s been a busy news morning, and it’s not even 6:30am yet.

I’ve just had one of the scariest moments of my life. My mom was in bed, restlessly dreaming, when she suddenly rolled out of bed and onto the floor between the bed and her dresser. It took us about 10 minutes just to get her back into the bed.

I’m just glad she’s not bleeding and is now sleeping relatively calmly, though I’ve probably lost ten years off of my life. How am I going to leave for work tomorrow, knowing it might happen again and nobody will be around to make sure she doesn’t hurt herself?

I think I finally have an idea of what it’s like to have to take care of a parent.

My mom has been recovering from pneumonia and, combined with her asthma and COPD, nearly coughed a lung out (figuratively speaking of course, but not by much). Well, she must have coughed in the wrong direction, because now, she is in a world of pain, specifically in her upper back.

She called me Saturday afternoon and asked me to come by. She had been taking medicine for the pain, and was starting to forget what (and when) she had taken. Being the smart lady that she is, she decided it wasn’t safe for her to be alone. (This is also when I found out that this had been going on since Thursday night.)

Since I use public transportation (and one bus was over 30 minutes late due to breaking down), it took me a couple of hours to get to her apartment. In the mean time she also called her current SO, who happens to have a truck.

Tom arrived about 20 minutes after I did. After googling for urgent care centers in the area (and finding that all of them had closed down at 2pm) we decided to take her to the local emergency room. Four hours (and a blood test, an EKG and a Valium) later, we left the hospital and had dinner at a Fuddrucker’s restaurant.

Since then, I’ve been taking care of her. I don’t just mean staying with her to make sure she’s ok, but actually “taking care” of her; managing her pills (she does have a pharmacy tech for a son after all), making sure she eats when she’s supposed to, and helping her back and forth from her bed to the living room floor. (She says it’s the most comfortable for her back, relatively speaking anyway.)

I’ve been keeping her relatively doped up on the Valium (on a doctor’s advice), as well as other meds, so, while she’s in pain now, hopefully she won’t remember it when she’s better.

This is the first time I’ve had to take care of someone, especially to this degree. Up until this point, it’s always been my mom taking care of me. I’m worried that I might mess something up, cause her to overdose, or not be there when she falls (hasn’t happened yet, thank [insert deity here]).

I’ve been told this is part of becoming an adult, having to take care of a parent. I think I just wanna be a kid again.

When I came into work yesterday, there was a conspicuous note from the pharmacist from the day before:

Andrew, have you seen Rx 68432500-599?*

My first reaction was, “umm, no.” My next response was, “Ohmigod, we’re missing a batch of 100 scripts?!”

So, I searched all the drawers around the pharmacy, looked in folders, behind computers, and under, over, behind and around anything and everything I could think of. Was it in the trash? Did someone take it, accidentally or on purpose?

We finally located the missing scripts behind the drawer that they were supposed to be in. I really wasn’t looking forward to contacting all those doctors’ offices to verify the prescriptions.

*Rx number’s changed to protect the innocent, or at least, well…me.