Things that bug me: An updated list

Originally posted in 2004, and recently expanded:

1. People who ding my car
2. Hangnails
3. Telemarketers
4. Paper cuts
5. Door-to-door hustlers
6. The “F” word outside of “R” rated movies
7. Reporters who mangle the English language (when did our schools stop teaching grammar?)
8. Religious people who think I should be
9. Bosses who know less than I do about my job
10. Anyone or anything that wakes me up
11. Zits (not fair at my age!)
12. Single-ply toilet paper
13. Ambulance-chasing lawyers who advertise on TV (e.g: Jim ”The Hammer” Shapiro)
14. Headaches
15. That lone mosquito in my bedroom that I can hear in the dark … waiting …
16. Honorary degrees (they dishonor real degrees and the people who earn them)
17. Rain on my parades
18. Canker sores
19. People who own vicious dogs (I blame the owner, not the dog)
20. Paper towels that don’t absorb
21. Detectable lip-synching
22. Sheet marks on my face (Me, napping? Nahhh!)
23. Ridiculous use of the word frack in “Battlestar Galactica”
24. Voice mail (this is customer service?)
25. Flyers taped to my front door
26. Clear packing tape that won’t relinquish a strip until I’ve picked away half the roll
27. All those unwanted phone books that seem to breed on my porch
28. The perverseness of inanimate objects (you know the ones I’m talking about)
29. Sun in my eyes when I’m looking for that “must-not-miss” exit sign at 70 mph
30. Nail polish that wasn’t dry after all
31. Food caught in my teeth
32. That one little bristly hair on my chin that I can feel but can’t see to tweeze
33. Doctors who say “discomfort” when they mean ”pain”
34. Pouring a cup of coffee, then discovering I’m out of CoffeeMate
35. Indestructible, hermetically sealed, tamper-proof, absolutely unopenable plastic packaging
36. Dead car batteries that don’t announce themselves until I have to go someplace
37. Four-year-olds spouting four-letter words
38. Shipping charges that exceed the cost of the item
39. An eyelash in my eye
40. 200-tablet-sized bottles sold with 20 tablets and a big  wad of cotton
41. Knowing that as soon as I post this list, I’ll think of something else …

$4 generic prescriptions: a bargain or just sleight of hand?

Wal-Mart started it. The $4 generic prescription deal. Saves hundreds of dollars for millions of patients. Or does it?

Recently my supermarket pharmacy joined the $4 prescription parade so I’m finally going to get an up-close look at all the hoopla. Until now, convenience has trumped price shopping, and I haven’t been willing to drive to Wal-Mart for my scripts.

When I picked up my refills last week at my supermarket’s pharmacy, the first thing I noticed was that I was charged exactly $4 for the least expensive refill. Curious, I checked my old receipts when I got home and, sure enough, previously I’d only paid $1.52 for the same drug.

Having recently changed insurance plans, such comparisons are going to be a bit complicated for me. But however it shakes out, it got me thinking. Retailers of all kinds are in business to make a profit. They don’t give you something for nothing. So, Thought #1: A lot of old generic drugs have cost less than $4 for a long time. Have their prices now been raised to the magic $4? And Thought #2: How much have the prices of higher cost drugs — generics not on the list and brand name drugs — been raised to offset any actual losses with the $4 drugs?

I picked up a slick little brochure listing all the drugs on my pharmacy’s $4 list. It made interesting reading. The first thing I noticed were the non-prescription drugs that have been available over-the-counter (OTC; without a prescription) for years. Guaifenesin DM (guaifenesin with dextromethorphan), an expectorant/cough syrup combo, is available OTC as Robitussin DM, Musinex DM, and a generic. I don’t know if it’s cheaper from the pharmacy or off the store shelf, or if the strength is the same. Certainly that should be checked out. On the other hand, the last time the doctor gave me a prescription for Musinex DM and I presented it to the pharmacist, she referred me to the boxes out on the store shelf.

Another drug on the list is ibuprofen, in three different strength tablets and a liquid. The name is as ubiquitous as aspirin for most adults, because it has been available OTC as Advil and in generic form for many years. If the dosages don’t match the strength your doctor recommends, adjust accordingly by taking more or less. Unless, of course, the pharmacy’s $4 is a cheaper way to go; but won’t that require a prescription from your doctor? Is it worth it to you to get a prescription?

Naproxen (aka Aleve), another pain reliever and anti-inflammatory, also appears on the list. It, too, is an OTC drug, available generically. The same is true with ranitidine (Zantac), a stomach acid reducer.

Loratadine is on the $4 list. It’s sold OTC as Claritin or Alavert, an antihistamine. Recently it has become available OTC as a generic, too. So which is cheaper, off the shelf or from the pharmacy? And if you get an actual prescription, is the pharmacist going to fill it from her stock, or direct you out to the open store shelf? If you then buy it off the open shelf, will you pay $4 because you had a script, or will you end up paying more (or less)?

Further complicating the picture is the issue of generics vs. brand names. In the past there has been great concern that generics were less effective than brand names, or perhaps of lesser or varying quality. I shared that concern for a long time, perhaps because I was so close to the world of medicine and Big Pharma. Without question, it was to Big Pharma’s advantage to promote this thinking and keep us buying their brand names. Today, though, with my budget being as big a concern as my health, I’ve taken a wider view; generics, after all, are regulated by the FDA (for whatever that fallible agency’s regs are worth).

Bottom line, I don’t believe Big Pharma is sitting idly by while $4 price plans reduce their profits. And pharmacies still have to buy their stock somewhere. And they all want to make a profit. So call me crazy (it wouldn’t be the first time), but I have my doubts about how much the pharmacies are actually saving us with these $4 drug programs.

Haven’t played tag since I was a kid, but here goes …

I’ve been tagged. Lumpy tagged me with her Fluff Five Meme. Having never been tagged before, and still trying to understand exactly what a meme is, I decided to participate just this once. (I’ve always hated being called a poor sport.)

5 Things Found in Your Bag:

• Jury summons from yesterday’s appearance (In the words of the judge, the defendent had “fled the courthouse and could not be found,” so he let us all go. Whew!)
• Bottle containing aspirin, Sudafed, and some white pills I can no longer identify
• Paint chips in case I stumble across a sale (court security took my tape measure)
• Plackers (so much handier than floss!)
• Artificial tears (for those times I’m not shedding enough of my own. Need a crier? Call me!)

These goodies, along with all the usual stuff like a bulging wallet that hasn’t zipped since the day I got it, wads of shredded tissue, keys, three pounds of loose change, sunglasses, etc., all dumped unceremoneously into a big black leather hobo bag. Not a fashion statement, but it works for me. I switch to tan, or straw, for summer.

5 Favorite Things in Your Room:

My little house is so small, it counts as “my room.” I have some favorite things I still haven’t come across since I moved in here, but I haven’t completely unpacked some of my boxes. Hope some of my treasures are in there somewhere.

• Amazon Cat (no box is too small for a determined cat)

• Santa Fe Woman (original lithograph by deceased OKC artist Donna Berryhill). I love the serenity of this picture and the faraway look in her eyes.

• Souvenir picture of the balloon “Morning Glory” that I flew in back when I was a lot braver and a lot more foolish. It was an incredible experience, once I got up the nerve to look over the side.

• My dad’s medical school ring. He wore it on the third finger of his left hand and rarely took it off. His original ring, worn smooth over many years, was stolen during a burglary, and this was actually his second one. (Interesting … I can see details in this picture that I couldn’t make out before. Enough to see that it’s upside down in this picture.)

• Trail patch my son presented to me after I climbed Longs Peak (14,255 ft) in 1979. The night before, he gave me a fist-sized rock on which he had written “Keep on going strong.” It’s still packed away somewhere, I hope. If it doesn’t turn up, I’ll be heartbroken. I’m almost afraid to tackle those last few boxes now, for fear I won’t find it.) Climbing Longs, the highest peak in Rocky Mountain National Park, had been a dream of mine for about 20 years.

5 Things You Are Currently Into:

• Blogging
• Politics
• Grandkids
• MMORPGs (massively multiplayer online role-playing games)
• Mountains

5 Things You Have Always Wanted to Do:

• Raft the Grand Canyon (minus the overnight camping)
• Safari in Africa (minus the heat and crawly things)
• Own a place in the mountains
• Become a well-known writer
• Be rich, thin, and athletic! (or does that count as 3 things?)

5 People You Want to Tag:

I’m changing this slightly from people I can actually tag to those whose responses I’d be interested in seeing.

• Maya Anjelou
• Dalai Lama
• Oprah Winfrey
• My brothers and sisters (oops, that’s 4 right there)
• My grandkids thirty years from now (my bad. That’s 2, so far. Guess I’m way over the limit, huh?)

Sorry to have wimped out on the “chain letter” aspect of this tagging thing, but I don’t actually know 5 people with blogs I can tag. Anyone wanting to perpetuate this meme, go for it.

Birdwatching in the good ol’ USA

Borrowed the following from friend Lumpy because I think it deserves the attention it’s getting as a circulating email. As analogies go, this one’s a 10:

I bought a bird feeder. I hung it on my back porch and filled it with seed. What a beauty of a bird feeder it is, as I filled it lovingly with seed. Within a week we had hundreds of birds taking advantage of the continuous flow of free and easily accessible food.

But then the birds started building nests in the boards of the patio, above the table and next to the barbecue.

Then came the poop. It was everywhere: on the patio tile, the chairs, the table…..everywhere!

Then some of the birds turned mean. They would dive bomb me and try to peck me even though I had fed them out of my own pocket.

And others birds were boisterous and loud. They sat on the feeder and squawked and screamed at all hours of the day and night and demanded that I fill it when it got low on food.

After a while, I couldn’t even sit on my own back porch anymore. So I took down the bird feeder and in three days the birds were gone. I cleaned up their mess and took down the many nests they had built all over the patio.

Soon, the back yard was like it used to be…. quiet, serene and no one demanding their rights to a free meal.

Now let’s see…..

Our government gives out free food, subsidized housing, free medical care, and free education and allows anyone born here to be an automatic citizen.

Then the illegals came by the tens of thousands. Suddenly our taxes went up to pay for free services; small apartments are housing 5 families; you have to wait 6 hours to be seen by an emergency room doctor; your child’s 2nd grade class is behind other schools because over half the class doesn’t speak English.

Corn Flakes now come in a bilingual box; I have to “press one” to hear my bank talk to me in English, and people waving flags other than “Old Glory” are squawking and screaming in the streets, demanding more rights and free liberties.

Just my opinion, but maybe it’s time for the government to take down the bird feeder. If you agree, pass it on; if not, continue cleaning up the poop.

I’d be happy to credit the author, if anyone knows who it is. I did all my venting on this piece over on Lumpy’s blog (I was a wee bit agitated), so for now I leave the subject up to you.