Charcoal Drawings by Vanessa Rodriguez

Can You Help Me Find the Metamucil?

Shara Drake

“I have always thought that would be kind of a fun job, counting pills and stuff ya know.” That is what usually comes to mind when most people think of a pharmacy technician: the pill counting. But really you do so much more of the “and stuff” than that. While working as a pharmacy technician over the last ten years I’ve learned that you must become a personal shopper and assistant some days, a phone answering service and a detective most days, and a patient advocate every day.

Being a personal shopper isn’t the hardest part of the job, but it gets interesting when people start disclosing a little too much information. I can tell you the exact aisle and shelf location of all the constipation aides, they are by far our most requested items. At least once an hour I will get a customer coming up and wanting to know where the magnesium citrate is, it is kind of the holy grail of all the poop juice. Well it’s on the very bottom shelf in the middle of aisle G12 and its probably shoved all the way to the back of the shelf so you basically have to get on the floor to reach any of it. Then they come back one minute later and ask you to come show them. That’s when it gets interesting, anytime someone gets asked “can you come show me?” by a customer we always wish him/her good luck, and if it’s a repeat offender we say, “it was nice knowing ya buddy.” 

One time I went to show this woman where the Epsom salts were. She uses it as a fertilizer for her roses, and it is another product on the bottom shelf that gets overlooked frequently. Before I even got to finish with the woman, I got stopped by a lanky forty something balding man and asked “if we had any of that over the counter Viagra stuff?”

Face palm.  “No, sorry sir, that is a prescription only product.”

His face had disappointment written all over it, not to mention the woman I had been helping turned about ten different shades of red and she excused herself around the corner. 

“Is there anything like it that doesn’t require a prescription?” he asked as I was starting to walk away to find Epsom salt lady again. 

“Umm, not really, there’s nothing out here that’s been proven to work by the FDA and not interact with any other kinds of medications you may be taking, if it’s something you’re really interested in though I would just put a phone call in to your physician and see if they would write you a script.” Again, he looked disappointed, but he thanked me awkwardly, and asked where the razors were, which I gladly took him too because it was right where the Epsom salts were, and I had a chance to find my original customer and see if she ever found her rose bush fertilizer. Leaving our protected little “fish tank” of a pharmacy to go out into the store makes for a nice little break to get to walk around a bit, but your also at the mercy of the customers coming into your personal space, grabbing your arm as you walk by, and even getting hit by a cart every now and then.

As far as answering the phones, that’s probably what we spend most of our day really doing. People are busy, and even more people cringe at the thought of having to go into Walmart, so a lot of them call ahead of time to place an order or see if an order is already done for them. In great cases you can answer the call, greet them like we are trained to do, let them know when and if the prescription is finished and say goodbye, easy peasy. But then there comes the investigation part of the phone calls:

 “Why is my birth control forty dollars this month when it was just nine dollars last month?!” or “how am I out of refills already, I just saw my doctor last week!”. The pharmacy is really the middle man between the doctor and the patient and insurance and the patient, so if something has changed on one end and makes it all the way to the patients end, I need to make some phone calls and start doing some detective work to figure out why things have changed. 

So I will make a call to the insurance company, be transferred to a couple different representatives, find the root of the issue, then have to call the patient to let them know the status of the issue. “Rhonda, hi this is Shara calling you back in regards to your prescription form earlier, I just wanted to let you know that I called your plan and talked with a representative and it turns out your coverage lapsed on the first, they gave me a member services number so you can call and get your plan reinstated.” Chances are that Rhonda got a letter saying her coverage was lapsing and didn’t read it or did read it and didn’t understand what it was saying. 

Calling the doctor’s office is much different than calling the insurance companies, calling the doctor’s office you get to know the nurses by voice and almost start a weird kind of phone friendship with them after so long and never actually meet in person. 

“Hey Jenny, it’s Shara here at Walmart, calling on one of Dr. White’s patients.” You start to talk about how busy the weeks been or if it’s a full moon or not because people are starting to act a little nuts. 

There are the phone calls that roll the personal shopper and the answering service into one too. One of the most out-of-place things I have been asked to do was check the price on a set of new tires. I found the price online using my cell phone and the Walmart app. I joked about how I usually call the Deli to ask about my tires, kind of sarcastic but they laughed and thanked me for my time.

One thing that’s incorporated into all roles though is being compassionate for the patient. As gross as some stories get and as long as some phone calls can take, these patients are depending on you to take care of them. One of my favorite patients to see come in is a man who had a liver transplant, so he was on transplant drugs that were costing him almost three hundred dollars a month! He was barely making ends meet because of this cost and was considering going without, which would have really put his life at risk. After making a couple calls to his insurance company and to the doctor’s office that did the transplant, I figured out a way to get his cost down to sixty dollars a month, which hey, is still expensive but much better than three hundred, and after that it went down monthly until he was only paying eight dollars for a three months’ supply! The tears in his eyes were from pure gratitude, and I have made a friend for life by just listening to his story and caring about his situation. 

So, no being a pharmacy technician isn’t a glamorous or high praised job, and the extra obligations of personal shopping and nonstop phone tag make can be exhausting at times. But, the days when you get to make someone else’s day or even week, when they show their genuine sincerity, you feel a sense of pride in your work and yourself and go home knowing that you did make a difference, even to just one person.

Hidden Oddities inside Four Unique Museums

By Paige Wood

What is the first thing that comes to mind when you hear the word museum? Is it bones and fossils? Or maybe it is abstract art that you don’t understand? These next examples will not be like anything that comes to mind, but they are worth the visit. It's time to take off the blinders, get off the interstate of normality, and experience these four odd museums that are unlike anything you have seen before. 

It’s time to get off the pot for this museum! Barney’s Toilet Seat Art Museum in San Antonio, Texas will have you wondering just what you can't do with a toilet seat. The museum’s owner, Barney Smith, began decorating toilet seats after he was inspired at a plumbing supply house while picking up parts for his job (“Barney Smith’s Toilet Seat Art Museum”). According to Ferguson, Barney’s first decorated seat displayed a pair of deer antlers. In 1992, he opened the museum up to the public (Ferguson 40). He has been decorating these toilet seats for over 50 years. According to “Barney Smith’s Toilet Seat Art Museum”, today the museum houses 1,350 decorated toilet seats displayed in every place possible throughout the old metal garage. Most of Barney’s creations are personal and every seat has a story. His collection includes tributes to his wife, featuring a seat adorned with the stethoscope she used as a nurse, depictions of historic events, such as the eruption of Mt. St. Helens in 1980 that inspired a toilet seat decorated in ash, and reflections of other influential moments in Barney’s life. For example, the museum features a seat showcasing a chunk of space shuttle debris from the Challenger Space Shuttle and a seat featuring a hornets’ nest that Barney destroyed (Ferguson 40). In order to fully open the lid on this experience, you need to visit the museum in person. The museum is free to visit, but you must call ahead to make your afternoon appointment. Barney can be reached at 210-824-7791 (“Barney Smith’s Toilet Seat Art Museum”). If you’re a guy, you’ll appreciate the fact that after you leave, you will never have to put the lid down on this experience. 

The next museum up on the list will have the hair on your arms tingling in excitement, fascination, or maybe even disgust. Leila’s Hair Museum in Independence, Missouri is filled with many unique pieces of art made from human hair. It truly is an unbe-weave-able find. According to Arthurs, the museum’s owner started her hobby in 1956 when she saw an arrangement of hair in an antique store window (6). She ended up purchasing the arrangement and researching how to make her own art out of human hair (Arthurs 6). Leila Cohoon opened the museum in 1989 in her dorm-like cosmetology room, after deciding to stop hiding the creations that she had made and collected over the past 40 years (Marsh 26). According to Erickson, the museum has over 400 wreaths and 2,000 pieces of jewelry on display made from human hair. These jewelry items include rings, watch fobs, bracelets, necklaces, chains, brooches, hat pins, and corsages (“Leila’s Hair Museum”). Marsh comments, “Cohoon also has locks from George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and John F. Kennedy, as well as Elvis, Michael Jackson, and Marilyn Monroe” (26). These famous locks help draw visitors into the museum. “Leila’s Hair Museum” states, that the braided hair wreaths are the main attraction. Cohoon's collection includes nine wreaths made from hair contributed by just one person. The rest of the wreaths have a hair length contributed from each family member. Cohoon states that “Before the camera was invented, that’s how you’d document a family.” The wreaths featured in Cohoon’s museum are unique representations of family trees. Along with the family wreaths, Cohoon also has a friendship wreath, that she believes came from a church group, where each member contributed a length of hair (Arthurs 6). If this information has brushed a wave of excitement and intrigue over you, then you should schedule a visit. Visiting hours are from 9AM to 4PM Central Time on Tuesday through Saturday, and tickets are $15 for adults and $7.50 for seniors and kids. The museum’s address is 1333 S. Noland Rd, Independence, MO, and while it is not necessary to call ahead, you can assure that Leila will be present during your visit by calling 816-833-2955 (“Leila’s Hair Museum”). I hope that you have a hair-raising time!

The Mütter Museum located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania might have your skin crawling at its oddities. According to Jones, the museum was founded in 1863 as part of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia as an educational center for practicing physicians. The museum was meant to help doctors experience what they might encounter during their practices (Jones). Today, it is open to the public but is still considered to have educational value. The Mütter Museum is home to the largest collection of anthropodermic books. What does that mean? It means that the books are bound in human skin! According to Lander, three of these books were bound with a woman named Mary’s skin. Mary was admitted to Philadelphia General Hospital in 1868 with tuberculosis. While she was there, she obtained a parasitic roundworm from pork products. Mary later died from the tuberculosis and parasite and was autopsied by Dr. John Stockton Hough. During this autopsy, he removed skin from Mary’s thigh and took it to the basement to tan it in a chamber pot. He then used the skin to bind three of his books: Speculations on the Mode and Appearances of Impregnation in the Human Female, Le Nouvelles Decouvertes sur Toutes les Parties Principales de L’Homme et de la Femme, and Recueil des Secrets de Louyse Bourgeois. The three books each are based on female health, conception, and reproduction. Along with the aforementioned books, there are two other anthropodermic books in the collection at the Mütter Museum (Lander). If that does not interest you, there are other items on display such as wet organs, wax models, medical instruments, examples of multiple diseased organs, such as eyes and gallbladders, and other unique items like the ‘soap lady’ (Golden 616). There is almost no limit to what you might find in this museum. The museum is open daily from 10AM to 5PM Eastern Time and tickets are $18 for adults, $16 for seniors, $13 for youth ages 6-17 and Free for children 5 and under. There are also discounts for veterans, students with ID, and Monday and Tuesday walk-ins. Memberships can also be purchased. The address to visit in person is 19 S. 22^nd Street Philadelphia, PA 19103, but you can also tour the museum online at muttermuseum.org. The museum recommends that you call 215-560-8564 before visiting in person to ensure that you are able to view each exhibit (“Hours and Admission"). Have a bone-chilling experience!

With the past three museums, you may feel a little gross. Well never fear! This museum has exactly what you need to wipe that gross feeling right off of you. The Moist Towelette Museum in East Lansing, Michigan is home to two bookcases with over one thousand different moist towelettes from around the world (Blankinship). Towelettes on display have been acquired from countries such as Sweden and Japan (French). According to Blankinship, the oldest item found in the collection is a box of “Wash Up!” towelettes from 1963. The collection features everyday towelette wipes, such as a CVS towelette and more unique items featuring used wipes donated from celebrities, like “Car Talk” hosts Ray and Tom Magliozzi (French). You can observe the collection for free in room 100 at the Abrams Planetarium on the Michigan State University campus in East Lansing, Michigan or online at www.moisttowelettemuseum.com. Visiting hours are 9:30 AM to 4:30 PM Eastern Time Tuesday through Friday (French). French also accepts towelette donations for display at the museum. 

 

Now that you have a little taste of what these four unusual destinations have on the menu for you, I hope that you make your reservation to visit one or all of them soon. It is time that we educate ourselves about those objects that are considered “different”, and what better way to do that than to see them in person? Enjoy your trip and have a hair-raising experience!

Works Cited

Arthurs, Sara. "Combing Through the Intricacies of Hair Art." US Fed News, 20 Apr. 2018, p. 6. Access World News, infoweb.newsbank.com/apps/news/document-view?p=AWNB&docref=news/16B733CC6E191620.

Blankinship, Donna Gordon. “Weird Museums: Travel off the Beaten Path.” The Billings Gazette, 21 Dec. 2014, billingsgazette.com/lifestyles/leisure/weird-museums-travel-off-the-beaten-path/article_6492f122-33bc-5055-84f8-7b8ee9c6e8c7.html.

Erickson, Lori. “Leila's Hair Museum in Independence, Missouri.” Spiritual Travels, 2018, www.spiritualtravels.info/articles-2/north-america/leilas-hair-museum-in-independence-missouri/.

Ferguson, Wes. “Circling the Drain.” Texas Monthly, vol. 45, no. 9, Sept. 2017, pp. 38–40. Academic Search Premier, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=124755292&site=ehost-live.

French, John. “Moist Towelette Online Museum.” Moist Towelette Online Museum, 2013, www.moisttowelettemuseum.com/.

Golden, Janet. “The Mütter Museum, College of Physicians of Philadelphia, 19 South 22nd Street, Philadelphia, PA 19303, USA.” Medical History, vol. 56, no. 4, 2012, pp. 616–617, doi:10.1017/mdh.2012.71.

“Hours & Admission.” Exhibits | Mütter Museum of The College of Physicians of Philadelphia, 2018, muttermuseum.org/visit/hours-admission/.

Jones, Malcolm. “Terrible, Beautiful.” Newsweek, vol. 140, no. 21, Nov. 2002, p. 14. Academic Search Premier, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=7853160&site=ehost-live.

Lander, Beth. “The Skin She Lived In: Anthropodermic Books in the Historical Medical Library.” The Historical Medical Library, 1 Oct. 2015, http://histmed.collegeofphysicians.org/skin-she-lived-in/.

Marsh, Betsa. “5 Weird Museums.” Saturday Evening Post, vol. 285, no. 6, Nov. 2013, p. 26. Academic Search Premier, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=91761410&site=ehost-live.

Wilkins, Mike, et al. “Barney Smith's Toilet Seat Art Museum.” Roadside America - Guide to Uniquely Odd Tourist Attractions, 14 Aug. 2018, www.roadsideamerica.com/story/6166.

Wilkins, Mike, et al. “Leila’s Hair Museum.” Roadside America - Guide to Uniquely Odd Tourist Attractions, 2018, https://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/11479.