It's Friday! Yes, I can see why you are ready to be over it.

Ed Koch was indeed an interesting character. Most of our politicians are not at all entertaining or interesting. Some are downright evil. It would be nice if more were fascinating characters, or at least competent.

Happy birthday, Olivia! Sounds like you've got a splendid day lined up - may the rest of the year be just as great!

Also, I think we all need pictures of the skates and the cake.

Still grumbling at my doctors... after almost 3 days without the new aggressive med that had been prescribed but not given because it "wasn't in stock and we're still waiting for the manufacturer to ship it," I started calling around to other pharmacies. Nobody had it. I started Googling, and found that the specific inhaler I'd been prescribed was recalled in December. Just exactly this strength. All other strengths are available, and all strengths of the diskus version, just not the one I've been waiting on, and not even the manufacturer knows how soon it'll be back. How does this not lead to an automatic flag when a new prescription is entered in an e-script system? Grrr.

Still feeling much better than this time a week ago, though.

Many, many get-the-care-you-need-from-a-good-team vibes to Allyson, who really deserves to be bathing in a 24/7 radiant sauna of self-esteem instead of having to wade through shit to get to functional. You're so much better and more astonishing and gifted than you believe you are, and you deserve all the good docs and good meds and good coordinated care to keep your brain chemistry from getting in the way of your utter excellent Allysonosity.

Can you go out and get a good coffee or tea and clear your head for a few minutes? I usually go smoke, but anything that gets you out of the office for a few helps.

I went to the bathroom. That was something! Something pathetic.

I started Googling, and found that the specific inhaler I'd been prescribed was recalled in December. Just exactly this strength. All other strengths are available, and all strengths of the diskus version, just not the one I've been waiting on, and not even the manufacturer knows how soon it'll be back. How does this not lead to an automatic flag when a new prescription is entered in an e-script system? Grrr.

That is wackadoo. No pharmacy could tell you that's why they don't have it??? Ridic.

RIP, Ed Koch.

Happy Birthday, Liv!

JZ, I bump into so many doctors and nurses that don't know IV compazine hasn't been available for months maybe even a year, and it's a slow as hell process to get them to change to some other (sadly less effective) anti-emetic.

But that's within one place--being out and chasing down something discontinued must be really annoying--but I wish the hospital pharmacy would tell the doctors that they haven't just run out, it's a nationwide (maybe more) shortage since the manufacturer suddenly (from an outside perspective) stopped making it.

So it keeps getting written for...

Slept really poorly. I'm hobbled by the fact that I'm incredibly PISSED OFF about this whole thing, not least because without telling me, at some point in the process they'd rewritten the position description to include only 30% the stuff I was originally hired to do. (The rest is more general environmental work.)

With luck my dog will start barking during the interview.

I need tea.

Sending you all the patience and interview~ma, Consuela. I can't believe they're putting you through this.

JZ, can you ask your doctor if one of the other dosages will work, even if it's a lower one that you have to double up on?

In work news, I've already found one writer I would like to strangle. You can barely see the original copy through the red-lined edits, and it's not even just lazy mistakes, it's bad writing.

ita !, that's nuts. Bad enough having to figure it out by piecing together bits of info from a bunch of unrelated sources, but you're dealing with a single self-contained hospital system. No reason on earth why everyone in the system shouldn't have the same info. Utterly ridiculous.

Amy, it's the lowest dose available. But it is available at that dose in another form.

I just... I'm not a programmer or coder or anything but an end user so I really don't know from experience, but... every drug manufacturer on the planet has a gigantic web presence, not to mention FDA and DEA. And more and more places are moving to e-script programs, of which there aren't that many. It doesn't seem like it should be that difficult to set up some kind of... I don't even know, subscription? Where a manufacturer reports a recall to FDA and DEA (including if/when the recall ends), and once a month or whenever the recall list is included in whatever periodic updates the escript programs have to run anyway, triggering a red flag any time the recalled product is entered in a patient's profile. Microsoft and Adobe and Java and a jillion other programs run constant updates, where once you've registered your copy of the application it contacts you and, once you click "OK," does all the rest of the updating and correcting and patching for you. It's not perfect, but it more or less works. Is there some obvious reason I'm not seeing that this would be not just hard but impossible for escript systems?

Also, strangle away! You can blame the PF and the 'roids, and if you get a jury composed entirely of editors they'll probably not only acquit you but give you a medal.

JZ, I hope your doctor's office can rewrite the script and get you the meds you need.

'suela, that is maddening. I know you will kick ass during the interview and if the dog barks, the dog barks. There wouldn't have been a dog to bark if they had met with you face to face. (I get the reasons why not, but still).

I am over 80 hours for the pay period, so today is just keeping an eye on my e-mail and making sure nothing goes pear shaped. I won't get paid unless I do more than 3 hours of work today (we don't get paid any overhead overtime hours).

Seriously, I'm going to write the rules of grammar ON this writer. Or possibly tattoo them.

I hope you get the inhaler soon, JZ. It's so stupid that even in this age, so many things get missed. I was also shocked that when S. went to fill my Prednisone, the pharmacy was out. I mean, it's Prednisone. How do you run out of something that basic?

Do we have any Bay Area Buffistas with publishing experience? This job was listed in Publisher's Lunch today: [link]