Bleed Purple For Lupus Awareness

Purple is an incredibly unique color. The most beautiful flowers in my opinion are a deep dark violet color. I had a purple wedding dress because I adore the color. How can you not? Purple isn't just unique and beautiful it's a symbol. It represents lupus awareness.This month is lupus awareness, so to show your support you could educate yourself and others about lupus and don't forget to wear purple! 1.5 million Americans currently have Lupus. Lupus is an autoimmune disease that can possibly damage any of part of your body including skin, joints and organs. An autoimmune diseases suggest that your immune system does not know the difference between evil invaders and your healthy tissues. Generally, women ages 15-44 get lupus, but men,children, and teenagers can get lupus as well. Lupus symptoms can last for several years and it can be hard to diagnose as the symptoms mimic minor illnesses. 

Lupus symptoms consist of:

• Fatigue
• Fever
• Joint Pain
• Stiffness
• Dry Eyes
• Headaches
• Butterfly-Shaped Rash On Face
• Fingers and Toes turn white or blue when exposed to cold or stressful periods
• Chest Pain
• Shortness of Breath

Can you imagine what it would be like to have a difficult to diagnose disease?  Ian Harding, the actor in Pretty Little Liars, tells us about his mother who has lupus. Mary Harding was diagnosed with lupus when Ian was six years old. Ian recalls the days when his mother's hands swelled and how she contently wore hats in public to protect herself from the sun. In several interviews he explained that as a child, he did not understand Lupus, but understands it more now as an adult. Ian Harding has always supported his mother, and has been working with the Lupus Foundation of America for the last two years to raise awareness.  His mother would talk to her children about Lupus as it evolved in her life. Her children did not know until they were older that Lupus was possibly a fatal disease. Ian had a stronger emotional sense of the world than most of the children his age and his mother's illness affected him greater because of it. His mother explained, "As a parent, I didn't need to be the perfect mom, but wanted to be apart of it. I needed to show up and do the things I needed to do to raise the kids. I didn't want my kids to grow up to think their mother was fragile." Mary Harding did not let Lupus get in the way of being there for her family. Ian told an interviewer about his opinion on Lupus awareness and finding a cure, "I think with any chronic thing no matter how strong or strong willed you are, there comes a time you just wish it wasn't there. The more I got involved in lupus foundation and see doctors speak on it, it feels like we are so close. I have this feeling that if we care about it a little more that would be the final push over the top."

There are a variety of different medications that can help with signs of lupus disease. 

• Low Dose Naltrexone (LDN) is used to treat symptoms of lupus disease including fatigue, muscle pain, and joint pain. LDN helps the immune system, lowers the inflammation, and releases natural endorphins. 

• Quinacrine is an Antimalarial medication used to treat lupus and rheumatoid arthritis symptoms. Quinacrine reduces inflammation and helps control skin rash in people who have lupus. This medication also may help releive muscle, joint pain, fatigue, and fever.

• Chloroquine is an Antimalarial medication used to treat Lupus and rheumatoid arthritis symptoms. This medication treats auto-immune diseases to help suppress over activity in the immune system and limits inflammation. It also helps reduce signs and symptoms of Lupus such as pain and swelling.

• Hydroxychlorquine is an Antimalarial medication used to treat symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis and lupus. This medication is used to decrease the symptoms of lupus. It helps relieve inflammation, swelling, stiffness, and joint pain. 

These medications help lupus disease patients stay healthy and cope with their disease. If you are looking for these types of medications, or someone to speak with, the staff at Woodland Hills Pharmacy might be a good place to start!www.WoodlandHillsPharmacy.com/contact_us

Jennie-Your Undercover For Everything Pharmacy

Take A Bite Out Of Lyme

We all love limes. They're great for cocktails and squeezed over rare meats. But it can also remind us of an important awareness. Take a Bite of Lyme is a wonderful trend going around to raise awareness for Lyme disease. Woodland Hills Pharmacy has been nominated to participate in the Lyme Disease Challenge! We would like to spread the word and nominate Jennifer Braunersrither, Tamara Bowen, Judy Advent and Zannie Liska! 
Show your support and take a bit out of Lyme!

Judy's Story

My aunt in law, Judy, was diagnosed with Lyme disease but she did not have the rash as the first sign of Lyme disease. Lyme disease is caused by the bacterium, Borrelia burgodoferi, which is transmitted to humans through the bite of a tick. There are several different symptoms that Lyme disease patients exhibit which include fever, headache, fatigue, and skin rash. Lyme disease can affect the skin, joints, heart, and the nervous system. The blood tests that doctors generally use miss 55% of the Lyme disease cases. Lyme disease is often hard to diagnose.
Judy (shown on the left) emphasized how it felt to have Lyme disease, "Your body aches, you have headaches, and you are very tired.  My worst flare up was when the Lyme disease went to my brain.  I couldn't speak, I had a stutter, I couldn't find my words.  I lost my memory for about 2 weeks." Judy could not recall how she was infected with Lyme disease, but assumed it was from a deer tick. Lyme disease didn't effect her life until she had one of her worst flare-ups. She was checked into the hospital and sent home with an IV PICC Line of antibiotics that she changed daily. Judy explained that she never let Lyme disease interfere with her family's needs. Judy, instead, used her talents and understanding to raise awareness in her community. This bracelet (pictured below) represents a few different illnesses she fights for. The green represents Lyme disease, while the other colors represent the various illnesses she supports. She continues to stay strong and lead a powerful, encouraging life.


There are a variety of different medications that can help with signs of Lyme disease.

• Low Dose Naltrexone (LDN) is used to treat symptoms of Lyme disease including fatigue, muscle pain, and joint pain. LDN helps the immune system, lowers the inflammation, and releases natural endorphins. Borrelia burgodoferi releases a neurotoxin that is responsible for the symptoms that Lyme disease patients exhibits. 
• Cholestyramine binds the neurotoxin in the GI for excretion which over time reduces the symptoms to one's body. 
• Glutathione nasal spray helps Lyme disease patients replenish their cells with desperately needed Glutathione proteins.  

These medications help Lyme disease patients stay healthy and cope with their disease. If you are looking for these types of medications, or someone to speak with, the staff at Woodland Hills Pharmacy might be a good place to start! www.WoodlandHillsPharmacy.com/contact_us

Lyme Disease Awareness Month

May is Lyme disease awareness month.  Lyme disease organizations hold events as well as individuals all over the world are posting online in support of Lyme disease. The challenge consists of taking a picture or video taking a bite out of a lime, and posting a fact about Lyme disease. It is essential that we raise awareness about Lyme disease and it's symptoms. "Just by protecting yourself from ticks." Judy explains how to guard against the disease and why it's so prevalent, "The area in which I live has a high rate of Lyme disease because  we live in a heavily wooded area with lots of deer roaming around." It is important to be educated and support Lyme disease awareness. So do yourself a favor and take a bite of lime and join the Lyme Disease Awareness movement!

Jennie- Undercover For Your Everything Pharmacy

And the staff at Woodland Hills Pharmacy

You Have Been Rejected!

Rejection Is Never Fun

Boys can be cruel but being rejected by your prescription plan can be wose. There are a few little trick that can help.
 Let's say you call up your local pharmacy and give them your insurance information. The customer service representative usually tells you that they will call you back to let you know if your insurance goes through. And of course when the calls comes, they tell you that your insurance rejected your request for coverage. The customer service representative proceeds to tell you that if you want to pay out of pocket the cost is $100.

There you are thinking of every expletive in your vocabulary that you could possibly fling at the money grubbing companies that put such a hih price on vital medications. They must know you cannot afford to pay it. The pharmacist will get an ear full from you but what will that help? What can he do? It's your insurance company that doesn't care about your well being. How could they?  It's like that costly insurance bill you pay every month doesn't mean anything to them. You were just rejected by them and they don't even know anything about you. All you are is numbers on a page and dollar signs that are too low for them to care.

Pharmacy technicians deal with insurance rejection constantly. Calling that sweet old lady to tell her the $100+ prescription isn't covered is possibly the worst part of the job. As we are a compound pharmacy, sometime insurance companies do not cover compound medications. Our pharmacy does its best to work with the patients and the insurance companies to find the best possible solution. It always helps to understand the full process when there are so many parties involved. Here's what we do in a few easy steps.
Once the pharmacy receive the prescription from the doctor's office we call the patient to get more information. We alway need to have:

• name(confirm spelling)
• phone
• date of birth
• physical address
• allergies to medications (if any) 

 Once the patient tells us we have okay, we get their insurance information. We need different numbers from you prescription insurance card than what you usually give for medical coverage.

• BIN
• PCN
• ID
• GROUP 

Once we enter their insurance information into the system, we will get an acceptance or rejection. Depending on the reason for rejection, we either call the patient or the insurance. If our rejection states it is because it is a compound there is nothing we can do and the medication will have to be paid out of pocket.  Patients often have the misconception that pharmacy technicians do not care if a patient's medication is covered. We know the importance of having the proper medications to treat illnesses and diseases. And it's in our best interest as well as our patients' to try to get the prescription covered. We strive for a good relationship with our patients and we don't want you to pay more than you have to. I know first hand the importance of having the right medications because I have struggled to get my medication covered as well. It's infuriating when the medication to make your life so much better is only accessible at a very high price. One of our pharmacy technicians has explained to me that she never enjoys telling a patient their meds won't be covered.

Karli Klar CPhT

Karli emphasized when I asked her how she deals with rejections

"Every patient's insurance plan is different, it is very difficult to tell whether any particular plan will covered non-formulary drugs or compounds or a lot of our specialty items... I hate to see a customer upset because of a high deductible or difficult insurance representatives."

At our pharmacy, we pride ourselves on serving our patients well and making sure they have the right medications. We do the best we can at working with the insurance companies to ensure our patients they receive the medication they need. Rejection is not an easy task and not something we enjoy here at our pharmacy. So, the next time you get rejected for a pharmacy please know that it is not always easy for the pharmacy technicians to deliver the bad news. 

Jennie-Undercover For Your Everything Pharmacy