That is the sign I saw hanging at the Walgreens pharmacy… ‘Get your Flu shot today and available everyday!’ or something like that. It was printed on pink paper and placed all over the pharmacy area.
There is this Walgreens store about 5 mins drive from my home. So today, I decided to get my Flu shot. This Walgreens is new actually. It recently opened more than a month ago. I have never seen a brand new Walgreens store before. But it was nice going inside a new Walgreens. It has nice clean floors, neatly and organized items, spacious aisles and new employees ready to work! Well, except one employee and it was the pharmacist. She wasn’t ready to start her new day at work.
There were about 5 customers ahead of me. But since there was only one pharmacist at this new Walgreens location, there was a bit of a wait to get my Flu shot. I talked to the pharmacist while she was accessing my insurance information. She told me that there were more pharmacists working with her at this location only in the first few weeks the store opened. After that, she was the only one left. She was the only one taking med orders, giving Flu shots, preparing the med orders and working on the cash register. I told her this is crazy. She needs help! She told me that she has been managing and working at the Walgreens pharmacy for 17 years and she is in need of a break from all this work. I told her that I don’t blame her at all.
While she was helping other customers, she gave me this vaccine consent form which had questions like are you allergic to some meds, you have health problems, bla bla… then I signed the paper at the bottom. When she finally called my name, I approached her at the cash register. She told me I had to pay a $15 co-pay. So when I swiped my credit card and she handed me my receipt, I saw $15.27 on the receipt! Since I waited there long enough, I didn’t bother to ask her what the $0.27 was for.
She told me to go into this room where she will administer the vaccine. I don’t know where she went after I sat down in this room because I waited for a bit. When she finally came back into the room, she told me again ‘I have been a pharmacist for 17 years and I really need a break.’ I forgot what I said to her. But while she was talking to me about not having a break, she pushed that needle onto my left upper arm so hard that I felt a sting for a second. Man, I think she really needed a break from work!
Last year when I had a Flu shot from Kaiser, I didn’t feel any pain at all. I didn’t realized that the person had already given me my Flu shot. My arm didn’t even feel sore.
However, after getting that Flu shot from the pharmacist at Walgreens today, my arm has been sore the rest of the day!
Anyway, I am still glad I got my Flu shot. 🙂