Monday, June 9, 2008
MAP Packs
(Mission Aid Packs) I know that the drug companies are the target of all the scorn the media can launch but I wonder how much the drugs would cost if we could get them straight from them instead of having to pay the wholesaler and then the retail chain? For our mission trips to Guatemala we call the drug companies and they supply us with MAP packs. These are awsesome and contain a whole formulary of medications. These things are amazing! There is everything from cephalosporins to antivirals, blood pressure meds to inhalers. They rock! If you try to get anything from CVS or Walgreens, they look at you like you are nuts! I wonder who really deserves the scorn!
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Hi Throckmorton-those packs sound awesome. It's too bad so many things get in the way of what should really just be so simple.
It also sounds like you lead a most interesting life. Volunteering for Katrina,Guatemala, research,doctor/surgeon. You must derive great satisfaction in helping others and it must be so rewarding. :) And frustrating when you are hindered by red tape etc., but mostly rewarding.
Thank God for people like you. I just put up an appreciative post about my uro doc because I just came home from the hospital last nite. People like you make such a difference!
I thought of you and some of your comments while in there. Particularly the recent one where you explained why you like to get your patients OUT of the hospital.
Unfortunately (and still don't know exactly the cause)I developed a pre-sepsis infection and had an emergency procedure to be stented (ureteral)Saturday night. Urodoc was also treating me with IV antibiotics (Rocephin) I think. Had to be there 5 days.
Boy...did I see so many ways infection could be spread. The thing is...you can do training until the cows come home, but people are still people and they still seem to forget obvious protocols. I don't believe I would but maybe if I were rushed in their shoes I would?
On Tuesday one nurse who I respect and like very much there, gave me a Percocet I had requested after lunch. The thing is she took it out of her pocket, unwrapped, no cup and she was sans gloves and placed it in my hand.
Most people might not think twice about this but I am a germaphobe at heart. Not the crazy kind but I am just careful about certain things and also from having worked in the hospital environment for so long.
I think the Alfred Hitchcock music was playing in my head as I focused on that little pill coming out of her pocket and into her unprotected hands.
She had just left my bathroom because the toilet wouldn't stop flushing. I instantly wondered where her hands had been and what had been previously placed in her pocket.
But I opted to potentially compromise my health over maybe offending her and took it...but it bothered me.
And it still bothers me that I didn't politely/assertively speak up. How stupid am I???
I also thought of the Scrubs episode where this woman was finally able to go home and while lying in bed someone gave her a pen to sign something.
She took the pen, scratched her nose or face and they highlighted where the bacteria was on the pen and entering the woman's body down through her nasal passages into her lungs. She ended up dying from it.
Showing that episode would be an entertaining/good visual way to train hospital employees in how easily things can be spread.
Now I have been having a lot of nausea and now intestinal issues, but I think it might be from the new vicadin prescription I started last night. The nausea started after that. I hope so anyway.
They also transferred me and another woman to another floor and she was in isolation for what they believed to be C-diff. Now one side of my head said they wouldn't be sending her home if she had it. (The strongest dose of Augmentin caused the intestinal issues.)
The germaphobe warning lights went pn in my head but i still took her milk and hugged her when she left.
But I wholeheartedly understand why patients need to get out asap if possible!
Back to bed for me. I should try to just sleep out in the sun and get some fresh air and vitamin D.
Again the mission aid packs and work you do sounds awesome!
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