My Father was a pharmacist in Scranton, PA. Although I never knew him, he died when I was 7 months old of a brain tumor, I’ve heard a few things about him over the years from my siblings. He was very tall, very smart and crazy in love with his children. He didn’t trust hospitals, he thought they may be linked to polio; remember people thought you could “catch” polio in a swimming pool at that time. And he never kept any drug in our house except aspirin! Every pharmacist in the 1940s was a “compounding” pharmacist. My sister Kay had to help him mix drugs with a mortar and pestle when his headaches were severe and he lost the use of one arm.
Today, most pharmacists count pills into bottles that have been manufactured elsewhere. And most work for huge chains like CVS or Walmart, they don’t own their own store. Sure they have to be computer literate, they have to be able to read whatever a doctor or NP or PA writes, and they must know their chemistry. They may even need some social skills. But I really started feeling sorry for them last year when I got my flu shot at a big box drug store. It was late at night and Bob was insisting, since his hospital had not received the vaccine yet. She was a pretty, young thing and naturally we started talking while I took off my jacket in a private room behind the pharmacy.
She opened up to me about her long commute, the terrible hours, that she is currently working two pharmacy jobs, her terrible boyfriend, and the other two degrees she had before getting the Doctor of Pharmacy degree and becoming certified. “Ten years of school so I can do this,” she said as she plunged the syringe in my arm. Later I googled “pharmacy jobs” and found that many can be part-time so the company can avoid including benefits and that the rate of pay doesn’t increase over time…ie, no possibility for advancement. And now this:
http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2012/10/compounding-pharmacies-stricter-fda-oversight.html
In the past couple of weeks, a flurry of emails went back and forth between the Bride and Bob since most cases of fungal meningitis occurred in TN and VA. The outbreak is not limited to epidural steroid injections. The FDA has recommended anything made by that MA pharmacy (NECC) be pulled from shelves, which includes a numbing gel that ER physicians commonly use on children before suturing. It’s called LET for a combination of lidocaine, epinephrine and tetracaine. While checking for the list of NECC’s recalled products, I was referred through the FDA to this rather long list: http://www.neccrx.com/List_of_all_products_manufactured_since_January_2012.pdf
Unlike a bacterial meningitis, fungal infections have a slower start and a longer life, but it seems that the outbreak may have peaked at over 200 infections and 15 deaths, the last being reported in PA. http://www.redorbit.com/news/health/1112713625/fungal-meningitis-cases-214-101612/ I’ve been thinking about my Father lately. Here he is standing in front of a Valentine window display at his drug store.
