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  • Guest
    July 26, 2011 at 10:43 pm

    absolutely no need to apologize to me…i consider it a valuable profession and i’m not the least bit offended by it.
    i even took some pre-med but my father was pretty old school about women working in a male dominated profession. If i’d had money and more guts i would have continued. Times were different.
    As he got older he changed his mind about it and always regretted that he didn’t support me.
    No problem…look at all the fun i got myself into when i got out of the profession completely. I was always one to go into any door that was open!!
    pat

  • jimswife

    Member
    July 26, 2011 at 8:57 pm

    So sorry to have confused what both Pat and Sara Anns degrees are in. I guess I thought you both were pharmacists and just didn’t think about it. Pat, I too am very concerned at the types or prescription drugs we are all getting. Many times they are contamintated and we just don’t know about it. The fortunate people who don’t get sicker are just that fortunate. Again, apologies offered to you both not knowing what your degrees are in. Me? I am a mammographer and was on graduation a Nuclear Medicine Technologist. I also have a background in medicine but not as a pharmacologist that’s for sure. Very impressive. I have relatives via marriage who are also Pharm D degree’d and they have interesting jobs. Anyway, I appreciate as I am sure many on the board both of your info.

  • jimswife

    Member
    July 26, 2011 at 8:52 pm

    Whoa, so sorry about the confusion. I guess I didn’t really think about what you had written. Of course one is different than the other. Again, apologies offered.

  • Guest
    July 25, 2011 at 4:43 am

    I too am not a pharmacist not that there’s anything wrong with that. I have a degree in Pharmacology as did my father…a Pharm.D……He was the Regional Mgr. for the Upjohn Company and the youngest to boot at 38yrs of age for 40yrs before he retired.
    I also worked for Upjohn. When my father retired to Florida and was driving my Mother nuts she suggested he take the state exam in Fl as he was licensed in Ohio. That made him learn the computer and he got his license with a perfect score and was also the oldest to ever pass the exam in Fl. He worked part time in a Pharmacy near his home in Apopka, a suburb of Orlando and the stories he told. Everyone should be so lucky to have someone of his caliber behind that counter dispensing the correct drugs…you would be amazed how many times the doctor confused names of drugs but my dad was so smart he knew what was supossed to be written. He was truly amazing. He even got an offer from another pharmacy located within a grocery store that paid much higher than the store he was at but he lasted 3 weeks. I asked him why. His reply was that they were buying the cheapest drugs available that he would never allow his family to take. He was as smart as any doctor i’ve ever met and maybe smarter. The downside to that is he always diagnosed us but his best friends were also the best doctors. I was very very proud of him. I grew up reading medical journals…didn’t everyone?
    Its a very proud profession and he was one of a kind who could do his own compounding because thats what you had to know how to do back in the day. All the ethical pharaceutical houses were in the US….greed took over..everything became generic…..now we get everything from India and China and boy i really trust that and one wonders why the FDA cannot do their job properly……..doh. I see 5 to 6 recalls on name drugs a month…and have been lucky enough to receive some of them..one the last time i was in the hospital where the Jantoven 3mg (warfarin) was really 10mg..and earlier in the year a script for generic Keflex which was cross-contaminated with lord knows what but made a lovely rash. Even i cannot keep up with it!!
    He played a mean game of golf also…won the Seniors in Ohio the year he retired.

  • sara.anne

    Member
    July 25, 2011 at 2:23 am

    NO NO NO

    I am a pharmacologist. Pharmacists deal with the dispensing of drug; a pharmacologist is a type of biochemist who studies the mechanism of action of drugs!!!

    SA

    Diagnosis 2-08 Small papillary TCC; CIS
    BCG; BCG maintenance
    Vice-President, American Bladder Cancer Society
    Forum Moderator

  • jimswife

    Member
    July 25, 2011 at 2:10 am

    Ahhh, like our friend Pat you are a pharmacist? How neat is that?

  • sara.anne

    Member
    July 24, 2011 at 6:39 pm

    One minor correction….Bob Butler was not doing the research; he was director of the National Institute on Aging at NIH and needed someone who spoke “pharmacology” to get their research support program started. I was seconded to them for the chore. We were soliciting research grant applications from academic institutions.

    SA

    Diagnosis 2-08 Small papillary TCC; CIS
    BCG; BCG maintenance
    Vice-President, American Bladder Cancer Society
    Forum Moderator

  • jimswife

    Member
    July 24, 2011 at 5:42 pm

    Sara Anne, interesting that Robt Butler was doing that research. I recall when my late mother came to stay with us when she had pneumonia I went to her home to pickup her meds. I was astounded at the numbers she was taking during the course of a normal day. She was diabetic and also had hypertension and congestive heart failure. She weighed right about 100 lbs. Not a very large lady at all. When I took her to the doctor I put all her meds into a gallon zip lock bag and asked if all the meds were indeed necessary and if the doses were too high. Apparently no one had taken the time to cooralate her size to the doses. Amazing I know but it happened. By the time she was with us for 1 month her meds had been appropriately reduced and she went on to live a better quality of life for the balance of her days. I have believed for many years that many of the issues that the elderly have (*and I am now among them I guess) are due to over medicating. Many older folks have numerous doctors and franly they simply forget all that they are taking. I worked for a very good doctor one time who always asked people to put all their meds into a zip lock bag and bring them with them for appts. Many times they were taking meds from one doctor that my boss was not aware of. Again, amazing but it goes on all the time!

  • sara.anne

    Member
    July 18, 2011 at 6:26 pm

    That was a very interesting article, Cynthia. One of the interesting things I did in my past life was an assignment where I was working with Robert Butler, the geriatician and the first director of the National Institute on Aging at NIH. Then it was not uncommon (and, unfortunately, it still happens way too often) for health issues in “elderly” patients to be ignored or written off because they were “old.” One classic example, and one that I was then working on, is that an elderly patient would be on a real “cocktail” of drugs. They would then show signs of confusion and issues with balance and this would be written off to “age.” In reality, adjustments in dosages/types of drugs/drug interaction issue could CURE the problem. It is great to see that someone is looking at diversion surgery issues such as this.

    As each day goes by, and they go by quickly it seems, I wonder what sorts of decisions I would make if it ever comes to the point where I would need cystectomy (hope it never happens, but). What about care of a diversion under the scenarios that can occur with hospitals/care facilities? Frightening thoughts…at least for me.

    Sara Anne

    Diagnosis 2-08 Small papillary TCC; CIS
    BCG; BCG maintenance
    Vice-President, American Bladder Cancer Society
    Forum Moderator

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