Welcome back, Jack!
Goodness, it's been a long time, hasn't it? Sorry, things have been even more hectic than usual, and I've been having a little technical difficulty with my computer. Little sucker's been acting out---I think it wants more attention. Heh, kinda like a two year old I know... ugh.
Tate has officially hit the terrible twos...and with the mother of all vengeances. Egads, my child is so manipulative. Throws a fit at the slightest provocation--real or perceived. It's totally confounding me. I feel like a terrible mother. I don't know what to do... the only thing I can come up with is to just ride it out. Does it get better?? Please tell me it does. And while you're at it, pray for LOTS of patience for me, because my patience tank is below "E".
Doing better with quitting smoking. Had less than 10 each of the last 2 days--which is about half my normal intake. My health benefits kick in at work soon, and I'll be able to find a doc and get on Zyban. I tried my dad's prescription once (shhhh, don't tell!) and it actually started working the first day. But I felt guilty and stopped, lol.
Yeah, I just realized I've never actually told y'all what I do now. I'm pretty much a pharmaceutical rep. I work for a compounding pharmacy (which means we don't just sell the drugs, we are licensed to make them). But we also offer a host of peripheral services. One of the major ones is monitoring patients on long-term regimens. For instance: we supply a lot of Hepatitis C patients with their meds. It's a combination therapy with a lot of not-so-nice side effects, one big one being major depression (a small but startling percentage of Hep-C patients on the combination therapy commit suicide if not closely monitored). One of the services we offer is to keep in close contact with them, calling and checking up on them, seeing how they are with side-effects (it's not unusual for our Patient Care Coordinators to be calling the cops on the other side of the country to prevent a patient suicide). The best thing of all is that all our peripheral services are no-fee. Since we can "compound" the medications (make them in our labs), we save a MASSIVE amount of money in providing them. For instance: say you've got a manufactured drug that costs $65/pill. We'll compound it, say for a cost to us of $5/pill, and sell it for $40/pill. The public is saving $25/pill, and we've got $35/pill to spend on providing patient services at no fee to them.
I LOVE that we do that. It's awesome. We get letters all the time from doctor's offices and patients saying how we've saved their lives and livelihoods and all that. It's such a good feeling to actually HELP people, really and truly HELP. I'm hoping to get transferred in the next few months into the Patient Care Coordinator department, so that I can call and check up on patients, fight with other departments to make sure my patients get what they need, etc... it's never dull over there. But I was hired in as a Patient Care Advocate (which is basically sales), so I have to sit tight for a bit and prove some stick-to-it-iveness.
My job is to talk with doctor's offices and market our drugs, as well as get them to refer patients to us (mostly Hep-C, AIDS, Cancer, etc) so that we can handle their drug loads. We have a much higher success rate for compliance (patients staying on their meds and finishing treatment) than doctor's offices do, because they don't have the resources to be able to give the constant personal attention. It's really rewarding to be involved in something like this. It sure beats a lot of other jobs I've had.
Ooooooh, and I have such a pretty compensation package... yay! Two weeks paid vacation, sick days, personal days, paid holidays... it's wonderful! God has been SO GOOD to me, y'all, you have no idea. He's just awesome. Y'know, it's easy to throw out phrases like "God provides..." but man, He really does!! It's so amazing...
Anyway, I've rambled enough, because I'm sure you care deeply about the intimate details of my job...Ha! I'm gonna go defrag my hard drive and hit the sack. I'll talk atcha tomorrow, probably.
Love God, love others, love life--and live it OUT LOUD! Live and leave a legacy that points straight to Him. I know I say that alot, but every word of it is good advice, every time.
-Jack-
