What I learned today at work....

*That one box (2 cartridges, or a 2-week supply) of this drug costs $1,948.51.  You have to pay cash to carry them from the pharmacy, and usually insurance won't cover it. (They didn't cover it in the case of my patient today!)  It is a drug used to treat inflammatory conditions like Crohn's disease and rheumatoid arthritis.

*When a patient presents to your unit for help with their "self-injection" and you have never even touched yet administered a dose of this gold, it was the right thing to go back to the nurses station to review the drug, discuss the administration, etc.  (We never see this drug on my floor.  Until today!)  I told this polite non-English speaking family (via help!) that I truly had never administered this drug before so I had some checking to do and would be right back.

*It proved not to be the right choice to hand the cartridge pen to a coworker to give me a quick demo how to set it up for administration....because....

*That little trigger button is mighty easy to activate and pretty soon you find the medication squirting all over the side of the supply cabinet.  And once it's activated---you can't stop it.  It looks like a stream of pee from a baby when it flies through mid-air.

Ohh Emm GEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!

*And then you freak out for a brief second in coming up with how you will address with this non-English speaking family that your coworker just shot their $1,000 cartridge of medication all over our workroom.

*And then you freak out again when you realize that yes, our department will of course be responsible in providing the patient with a new cartridge of this fine drug.

Good thing our supervisor is awesome and shrugged it off with a summary of "well, accidents happen.  No one should feel bad about this."

Even though we were responsible for wasting 1 of 2 medication pens, they are supplied only in a box of 2.  Of course.  So, our department pays for the whole box to obtain the one cartridge at a grand total of $1,948.51.

My coworker felt so terrible that she came to my desk later today with 2 gifts for Maddox and Kellan.  She is the sweetest lady ever.  Hey, it's not her fault--I'm the one that came back and asked for help!

It's a good thing most mistakes in life are fixable, right?