Happy 4th of July!

Happy Belated 4th of July from Woodland Hills Pharmacy!

Migraines:Some pres Ways to lessen the Pain

Have you ever felt like your head just got thrown into a blender and there is nothing you can do to stop it? The room is spinning, nausea is taking over, and everything you try doesn't seem to   help. You finally find some relief from the nausea by throwing up. You lay down to try to soothe the pain and after a short nap everything is back to normal. This is a migraine! The American Migraine Foundation defines a migraine as a "neurological disorder that is characterized by hyperexcitable brain networks that may be triggered by a variety of stimuli (e.g. alcohol, menstruation, fragrances, light glare)." Migraines are triggered by specific characteristics such as stress, specific type of food, menstrual periods, and fatigue. The graph includes several common symptoms of migraines such as nausea, visual problems, vomiting, and dizziness. This month is Migraine & Headache Awareness month in which people all over the world are raising awareness by discussing chronic migraines all over the internet. The American Migraine Foundation reports that thirty six million Americans suffer from migraine headaches. With migraines being common, it is important to discuss migraines and educate others.

When I was a senior in high school, I would have miserable migraine episodes. At the time, I wasn't aware that it was a medical condition I was suffering from.When they came on I was extremely dizzy. It felt as though the room was spinning and I was helpless to stop it. Constant dizzy spells made me nauseous. Some days I could barely move without feeling like I was on a boat. I would get nauseous and rush to the restroom and throw up constantly. After I threw up, my dizziness would lessen. Then, I would sleep for a few hours. After I had slept, I would feel normal and fine. They only happened every other day at first, but it didn't take long for them to be every day aggravation. One day right when I got home, I could tell an episode was coming on strong.  I barely got into the kitchen before I was on the floor from the dizziness. I could not move.
It was obvious I needed to see a neurologist. The following day, I went in and explained my issues. The doctor explained to me that I was having migraine episodes. My migraines were most likely triggered by my diet and stress. I found out that I was eating things like ham, which has nitrates in it, that can trigger migraines. He explained that I would need to take a medication every single day for the rest of my life to prevent the episodes. The upside was, once the medication had been absorbed in my body after a few days, I rarely had migraines. It is no surprise that I am prone to migraines since my father's mother had migraines as well. While I rarely have a migraine, I still get headaches. I use the best home remedies for my headaches that I have been able to figure out. Most of the time my headaches are gone if I take Advil with coffee or a caffeinated drink. My headaches do not come close to how bad my migraines were. The migraine medication made such a difference in my life and gave me the ability to function on a daily basis.

I am NOT my migraines! I believe it is important to educate others about them and the ways to prevent them. There are a surprising number of ways to alleviate or prevent migraines right at home.

• Prescription or over the counter drugs may be a good alternative if there appears to be no help from other options. 
• WebMD explains the importance of caffeine for migraine patients, "Caffeine is a common ingredient in many prescription and over-the-counter headache medications. Caffeine additives make pain relievers 40% more effective in treating headaches." 
• It is important to note that caffeine helps the body absorb migraine and headache drugs quicker which in result brings helps relieves the migraine quicker.

We also offer a medication here at Woodland Hills Pharmacy that might be right for you. Lidocaine  nasal spray is often used to stop migraines and cluster headaches within minutes after they occur. This medication relives the pain of the migraine quickly after used. If you have any questions, feel free to call or e-mail us at Woodland Hills Pharmacy and we would love to relieve your migraines.

Jennie-Your Undercover For Everything Pharmacy

Walk off Your Symptoms of MS

What is MS?

Multiple Sclerosis is a disease that is continual and chronic. It affects the brain as well as the spinal cord by causing scar tissue to be created in several areas due to nerve damage. Depending on where this damage is, it can cause muscular imbalance, loss of control, and speech or visual difficulties.                             

• There are four types of MS: relapsing-remitting, secondary-progressive, primary progressive and progressive relapsing.
• About 85 percent of those who are newly diagnosed have the relapsing-remitting form of MS.
• The disease is unpredictable, and each individual will not experience the same set of symptoms.
• Without disease-modifying therapy, about 50 percent of those diagnosed with relapsing-remitting MS will become progressively worse at 10 years after diagnosis.

Living with Multiple Sclerosis isn't the easiest, especially when it begins to affect your mobility.   There are a variety of different symptoms of MS. Often times people who have MS become depressed and emotionally unstable. It is quite common that MS patients have muscle spasms. The bowel symptoms of MS patients includes diarrhea or constipation. Another common symptom of MS is chronic fatigue.   This picture mentions several symptoms of MS.

Though, as of yet, there aren't any permanent solutions for the symptoms of MS, great strides have been made in recent years in the development of new treatment options. Ampyra (dalfampridine) another form of fampridine (4-Aminopyradine) has shown exceedingly good results for those with walking difficulties due to MS. Low-Dose Naltrexone may also be helpful, as the National MS Society reports: 

"The investigators found that LDN significantly improved quality of life (specifically, mental health, pain and self-reported cognitive function), but no impact was observed on aspects of physical quality of life (such as fatigue, bowel and bladder control, sexual satisfaction, and visual function). Vivid dreaming was reported during the first week of treatment by some patients, but no other adverse effects were reported."
(http://www.nationalmssociety.org/Treating-MS/Complementary-Alternative-Medicines/Low-Dose-Naltrexone)

    Karli- Your undercover technician for everything pharmacy

Have you found something that relieves the pain? Help us understand your symptoms and find more answers. Comment below!

Good OR Free; Never Both

In My Experience: Free is Never Better

Have you ever had to deel with bad healthcare customer servicae whether it was from a pharmacy. free healthcare or healthcare at a private company? I currently have the terible free healthcare, but I am in the proces of switching over to a private company. A few medications that I currently take need refills. I called up my county clinic to make an appointment and they warned me they are booked up to June.  I asked to speak to someone who could help me get my prescriptions because at this point I had no refills left. The customer service representative tells me to call back the next morning and to speak with a specific person.

The next day, I call back, they transfer me... no one answer. I repeat this process three more times with the same outcome. Fed up, I call back and tell them I need to talk to someone. I get transferred. I tell this technician what prescriptions I need and she puts me on hold for ten minutes. After a few more transfers and explaining my dilemma to a few more snarky receptionist and waiting on hold for 10 minutes, someone answers and says,"Is this Suzanne?"

For the fifth time, I told her my name and briefly described why I was calling. She asked what prescriptions I needed and that she'll have to call the pharmacy. How many more people will I have to deal with just to get a refill? This is a nightmare. But that's what I get for signing up for free healthcare. Finally, after another ten minutes on hold she tells me that I can pick up my prescriptions at the pharmacy. After spending an hour and half on the phone, I was irate and outraged by the horrible customer service this clinic had.

 No one should be treated this way no matter how free the services are. I have seen incredible technicians help customers and meet their needs without being rude or placing customers on hold endlessly. 

Technicians ought to be there to help the patients, and find the best price for them. It's not only good manners, it's good for business relations. As I work, I hear the technicians typing away behind me and chattering pleasantly on the phone. They are always helpful, cheery and incredibly patient. They always seem to go the extra mile to see that the customer is taken care of. I respect and admire that they all maintain the same sweet, understanding manner on every level from pharmacists to clerks.  Our head technician, Ren overheard how long I was put on hold. She was shocked and told me she would never treat patients the way my free health center was treating me.

This experience has taught me that not every company believes in helping their customers or providing superb customer service. I don't know about you but I think I would rather pay through the nose, if I had to, for a company that actually cares. I won't be giving them my time or my business. As a marketing director for a pharmacy, I know the importance of customer service. How can you be proud to work for a company that doesn't do it's very best to help it's customers and make a difference in people's lives?

Jennie-Your Undercover For Everything Pharmacy

Never Give Up On Yourself

"Obstacles don't have to stop you." Michael Jordan once said,"If you run into a wall, don't turn around and give up. Figure out how to climb it, go through it, or work around it." Every individual goes through different obstacles but it turns us into stronger people.

In the United States only 19% of the population holds a master's degree. Even with chronic ear and eye problems I struggled through and earned a master's degree. Even in kindergarten, when I hadn't been diagnosed with ear problems, or being legally blind, I always managed to find a way. I would say things that had nothing to do with the discussion and my teacher didn't understand why. I was born with smaller Eustachian tubes than normal, so I constantly have ear infections. My mother arranged a meeting with my teacher and she told my mother that she had assumed I was mentally ill. She continually told my mother that I would never go to college. My mother had enough one day and took me to the doctor to put me through some tests. She found out that my brain was fine, but I was legally blind, and needed glasses. I'll never forget how that teacher treated me, but in the end it had made me a stronger person. I proved her wrong. I got my bacherlor's and master's degree too.  When people tell me I can't do things, I don't just give up. I figure out how to climb it. I go through it. I work around it. 

I continue to stand by myself and never let my health problems get in the way. At times health problems, can be frustrating but as they say "What doesn't kill you makes you stronger," Because of my health condition, when I was younger I needed all these medications that really helped me. That's the reason I entered the pharmacy industry. Pharmacies have the ability to save lives and alleviate pain. They give others the capability of having a normal functional life. I want to make a difference by helping others receive the medications they need and by educating people about the available products compounding pharmacy have to offer.

What obstacles have you gone through? Did you pull through? What was the outcome? Has it made you a better person? 

Jennie-Your Undercover For Everything Pharmacy

From Parking Tickets to Prescriptions

Would you believe me if I told you I wasn't always a Marketing Director for a high-ranking Pharmacy in Los Angeles? There was a time when all I did for work was try to stop theft in a store. Can you believe that?

After I graduated from California State University Northridge with a master's degree in Communication Studies, I had trouble finding a job. I began searching for an office job that fit with my moral compass. I wanted to work for a company that I could believe in and a company that treated their employees well. After endless hours of searching and several interviewers telling me that I was their second best choice, I had to resort to a job that did not utilize my degree. A friend told me about a security company that was hiring, and I applied. I received a call and was hired on the spot. A few days later, they called me back and I began the security training. I wasn't at the job a month before I began to dread going to work. 

My supervisors were rude, uptight, and inconsiderate. They didn't care if I had a fever, they wanted me at work whether I could stand without puking or not. They wanted me to catch people stealing but I wasn't allowed to do anything once they stepped out of the store. Would you try to stop a full-grown drugged-out customer sprinting for the store exit just for stealing one $5 item? This job clearly did not fit my moral compass.

The supervisors at the grocery store were rude and got mad if I did not catch someone stealing. The rules at the store made it hard to catch people. And it doesn't stop there, it wasn't the people who stole from the store that were the worst. I decided I needed a new job when my employers failed to show any care for my well-being at work.

One day I had come to work, a bit more stressed than usual. I didn't think much of it until I began having incredible chest pain. The chest pain was not going away and it was getting worse. I called the nurse and she told me I needed to call 911. It was an excruciating pain that I had never experienced before. I called 911 and called my supervisor and told him to find someone else to cover me. The paramedics told me that they did all they could and now all I could do is rest. 

That moment made me realize I do not deserve to be in a profession that makes me so stressed out. I need a job I enjoy; something that I can wake up loving everyday. I wanted a boss that considers me an asset, not an annoyance or problem. 

So I began searching Craigslist. I made sure that I found companies that were similar to my own moral standards. I came across an office job that was at a mail order compounding pharmacy. As I looked at the ad, it sounded like it went along with what I wanted to do and what I believed in. I sent my resume and prayed that I got called.

The same day I applied the owner, Steve Levin, called me and wanted to set up an interview. I interviewed for the job, liked the owner and all the employees, and everything about it. Within two hours of my interview, Steve called me to tell me he filled the position that I applied for, but was creating a position for me. This was the first time in a while that I felt really appreciated. 

Finally I found a company that fits my standards, morals, and my personality. I have creative freedom here which I did not have at my last job. I am appreciated and I love the people I work with. I am finally making a difference. The pharmacy is supplying hard to find medications to their patients and saving lives. They make an effort to do everything they can for every patient. They go above and beyond any pharmacy I've seen and I'm proud to work with, and for them. This pharmacy is my new home and  I fit right in.

Jennie-Your Undercover For Everything Pharmacy