Tuesday, August 03, 2004

My first impressions of EJ...well, clinic was slow this morning and then was a little busy in the afternoon but all that doesn't matter because I don't get to see patients by myself. In fact, I sit there and watch and I feel like I'm imposing if I ask a question of the patient. I did get to see 1 patient but she was new and I needed to get background info before I could start and of course, like all older patients, her PMH was extensive. I did finally move on to the questions for her issue today when the resident was in there and really I don't think he had to ask extra questions but oh well. And actually, he repeated questions he heard me ask. It's kind of annoying to be playing shadow but at least I could answer any pimping questions he threw at me and he does a good job teaching so okay, maybe it wasn't all that bad. I was proud that I could come up with questions for my mental differential. Damn, maybe I did learn something this past year afterall!
~me~ at 5:54 PM

Monday, August 02, 2004

I think I have successfully annoyed if not pissed off the pharmacist and her tech at KMart. They may ban me for this. Okay, it wasn't that bad. Anyway, I went to buy my 100 day supply of levoxyl and really didn't pay much attention to the cost until after I paid for it and was walking about the store. It cost $50!!! What the F%&#!!! So I go back and ask what happened since the last time I bought a 100 day supply, it was only $30...and that was only about 4-5 months ago and this was the cost for the past 3 years. Well, the pharmacist had said it was spendy and I guess I didn't pay much attention to this because hell, it was 100 pills and I knew it was spendy ($30 is spendy to me since I used to pay $12 in oregon for the exact same pills). So apparently King Pharmaceuticals came out with a generic for levoxyl and instead of keeping the "brand name" the same price, they priced this new generic at a higher price than the original cost of levoxyl (in the days when it was the generic for Synthroid) and upped the price of levoxyl. Lost? Here's how things work: Drug X is the generic for levoxyl which was (until now i guess) the generic for synthroid. All this means is that they keep upping the price of all the drugs. Anyway, back to pissing off kmart employees...so I had really been confused when I dropped off the script because they said they had to call the MD to authorize a switch of levoxyl for synthroid (the md had written synthroid) but that they would fill the 100 day supply anyway (it took a good 2 minutes for me to understand how they could do that when they had just told me they had to talk to my doctor first). After I paid I went back and had to make them fill the 30 pill supply Rx on file and refund my money for which task I had to walk all the way to the customer service desk (how stupid!). I apologized profusely but felt really dumb.

Now for part b of this issue. I really prefer getting 100 day supplies because it's more convenient (especially for my upcoming travels) and the insurance company makes you wait 25 days before refilling the 30 day Rx. I am currently in the middle of a dosage change and while I am okay on levoxyl, I don't want to switch to this generic only to have things get screwed up because of a slight formulary difference. I suppose realistically this can't happen but I don't have time to keep fooling around with these TSH lab draws (and at $45/draw, the money isn't flowing for that use - insurance pays most of the $145 total cost). Do I take the chance and just buy the 100 day supply of generic next month (and finishing up the "pissing off the kmart employees" campaign)? Or do I continue this month by month thing? All I have to say is "Damn those money hungry bastards at King Pharmaceuticals!!!"

In other news, I had fun and learned a bunch at the Family Medicine convention. And today was my first day at my Family med sub-i at EJ. I'm in clinics all week then move to inpatient service. It was cool but rather slow going and yet the resident felt rushed. Only at the end was there more than 1 patient of his to see. I felt awkward just being a shadow and so I was glad I was finally able to see someone on my own.
~me~ at 6:09 PM