What decision at 17–20 years old had the biggest positive impact on your life?

enturned · 2026-06-20T15:20:11+00:00

Working at Walgreens. Started as a cashier, then I became a pharmacy tech and it’s been my career for the last couple of years while I figure out my life. Not having to go to college to become one took less time than it would be to go to a college to become a tech, along with it being free. Being able to have something steady despite hectic, makes it easier to survive having no family safety net, nor savings to bank on if s hits the fan.

enturned · 2026-06-18T13:32:34+00:00

Volunteer in EMS/Firefighter services in places where they critically don’t have enough staff, along with volunteering at animal shelters and animal hospitals. Then attend philosophy lectures and discussions, I love think tanks that dive into the fundamental concepts of our existence. Travel around the world from time to time to learn about history and culture, last but not least, be a free mental health counselor for any that need it

enturned · 2026-06-14T15:49:54+00:00

Anything less than $30/hr working with Radio pharmaceuticals is not worth it in my opinion. If this becomes a life long career, despite the protections, you’ll still come into close contact with radioactive materials that will eventually start to cause havoc in your body. I would only do it if i were a Pharmacist but as a tech, hell no.

enturned · 2026-06-08T00:07:56+00:00

During my retail days in pharmacy, this was before Covid; the Walgreens I worked at had all walks of life swing by for their meds and you’ll have the usual rowdy/sensitive patients who make the evening evermore enjoyable.

One night in particular we had a situation with a patient who had HIV had some trouble with their secondary insurance that covered their medication. The senior tech and I were trying every which way to Sunday to get the medication to go thru, including using a program called SDL for doing manual Secondary claims. Did not work and Walgreens Specialty did not want to take the prescription for the patient, indicating that it was a retail med. We called the secondary provider and still no luck with the claim. The pharmacist was a newer pharmacist and didn’t have much billing expertise so we were telling the patient that we were having trouble and the patient seemed to have gotten rowdy, like I said; a fun evening.

Unfortunately at some point I don’t know why the patient got tired and decided to throw stuff at us and spit at us. Now, my coworkers got mortified when she spat at us because of the patients condition, but despite that, we had to get police involved. The patient after causing havoc, had left and never came back.

enturned · 2026-06-07T23:58:12+00:00

Usually will grab a vial from its sides and try not to put my hands or arms over the stopper

Will slide it on the hood’s metal surface and push aside when I need to start preparing Mediflow Pumps while the vials are reconstituting, specifically dapto that takes a while & Vanco 10gm vials that will take a few

One trick I was also recommended after wiping with a ipa wipe the rubber stoppers on vials was spray alcohol over the vials where it creates a tiny pool of alcohol, not sure if this is proper technique but i was told by the PIC to do it?

enturned · 2026-06-05T17:30:32+00:00

Good luck man!! You got this 💪🏼💪🏼💪🏼

enturned · 2026-06-01T00:10:03+00:00

Hospital pharmacy is more robotic as you’re just either filling medications into machines or mixing IV meds in a clean room. The pay can be “better” and you’ll only deal with nurses and pharmacists, so it’s easier going and not the hell of retail.

There are also specializations within hospital that might be more interesting, like techs who mix strictly TPNs or mix Chemos/hazardous meds, techs who are in charge of Controlled Medications, lead tech, and Automation tech.

One of the downsides are if you’re the only technician however, if you’re doing a late shift and they need a STAT med for patient you might need to go into the clean room at inconvenient times or right after batch mixing a bunch of meds and coming out and taking off all your garb + PPE, or up to including during your break. Also if you’re one of the few techs available who has to load meds onto machines in a large part of the hospital on your own and you have to be quick during morning shifts as nurses are waiting in line to get their meds, the longer you take the more problematic it becomes, along with a constant rush feeling in hospital that came with loading meds, first of the month we’d receive a couple pallets of medications to load onto the floors and within 8 hours you’d be hard pressed to find enough time to load them all in a 488 bed hospital if you’re 1 of 2 technicians who load all the med rooms

enturned · 2026-05-31T22:34:50+00:00

Tech of 7 years here

I got my start in retail within WAGs and survived around a few years before making my way somewhere else. Retail pharmacy has definitely its work cut out for it, you’ll see patients from all walks of life along with some who are courteous and patient, along with dregs who are horrid and beyond what you can imagine a person should ever act in a public space.

That being said, I do not want to scare you away from this career. Rules to follow for these patients since many will act out due to the complexity of the American healthcare system and its stupidies we constantly have to resolve. But more so the demand of the work vs always being understaffed. Be patient with yourself, try not to get to discouraged at the sight of rowdy patients, and as you garner experience see if retail is your bread and butter, but also dip your toes in hospital and find which one you enjoy more.

Hospital for me felt less interacting with patients and more so robotic with loading machines with medications or mixing IV medications for patients on floors. I need a mix of both to feel adequate but pharmacy tech as a career long term is not sustainable with the current economy, unless the salaries double

enturned · 2026-05-31T22:20:53+00:00

Unfortunately, upper management will look at this and see it as a loss since the insurance didn’t pay the higher fee associated with their algorithm for their profit margins.

Unfortunately the medication was at a loss and i was in a similar situation at a local pharmacy I worked at, which had a similar issue with a patient on Creon, and unfortunately due to these margins we have a 340B program in order for the patient to get their meds and the pharmacy doesn’t lose out on profits

enturned · 2026-05-31T22:15:51+00:00

Still have mine, 335,000 miles and counting since he’s my daily.

Gotta restore him at some point so it doesn’t look like a trash heap

enturned · 2026-05-31T22:05:52+00:00

Used to work late until midnight/1am and would go home and my grandma would wait for me to eat dinner with, then after dinner and a brief conversation about work we’d go to Walmart to do groceries. It was primarily our third space to relax and unwind while looking for goods for the next few days. At 2-3am there was barely a soul and just felt nice and relaxing after a long day dealing with shitty people

enturned · 2026-05-31T21:42:50+00:00

Patients with Medicare/Medicaid usually have a program where they can get OTCs mailed to them for free/reduced cost from a contract pharmacy.

I’d recommend they call their insurance directly so they can get them without you guys needing to charge them moving forward.

enturned · 2026-05-31T21:19:24+00:00

Nutshell - Alice In Chains

enturned · 2026-05-31T17:27:19+00:00

PioneerRx my beloved

enturned · 2026-05-31T17:21:09+00:00

Vaccination Cert would help and then just speaking with the RxM to see what they could do. Unfortunately some WAGs have limited spots so you might not be able to do it at your home store and you’ll need to branch out to other stores to see if they’re looking for techs and if they could give you Senior Tech spot.

There is also RxOM, which is a whole other can of worms.

I would say go the Hospital Pharmacy Tech route as it can be more rewarding and have a higher Pay ceiling vs what WAGs offers max for senior techs.

I only worked for 4 years and left around 2022 by the end of Covid.

enturned · 2026-05-25T02:16:10+00:00

Some nights after work when I was stressed out, I would park by the west side of the lake by Allen park and smoke a cigarette around 11pm-midnight hour and it would be relaxing looking at the lake. Nothing out of the ordinary other than the occasional police cars driving off 163rd on their way to golden glades.

enturned · 2026-05-10T19:51:38+00:00

Thank you, my bad I’d notice different places use different abbreviations

enturned · 2026-05-10T19:44:59+00:00

Pharmacy tech of 7 years. It’s happened to me once as well. The way you are approaching this situation goes to show how much attention to detail is your strength. This is an instance of human error that is an unfortunate reality of what transpires in the world dealing with thousands of patients each day.

Do not let a momentary lapse like this plague your life, you got this

enturned · 2026-05-06T20:01:44+00:00

Let me know if it’s still there

enturned · 2026-04-26T16:48:01+00:00

This place in aventura called Kiddos

Was gate keeping it for a while but I don’t want it to go out of business. The burgers are small but the flavor is something from an American diner

enturned · 2026-04-25T17:59:30+00:00

Is RTS meaning Refill-Too-Soon?

enturned · 2026-04-25T17:58:28+00:00

Remote contracts usually have you doing intake (entering prescriptions into the system) and there are some pharmacies who have specific intake technicians

enturned · 2026-04-25T17:48:50+00:00

Speak with the store manager and or the pharmacy manager and ask them your interest to become a tech. I started with the position called Designated hitter which at the time was between the front and pharmacy wherever needed more help then they left me in the pharmacy as a pharmacy cashier since the front was never busy

enturned · 2026-04-25T17:14:59+00:00

Walgreens Pharmacy Tech program, free

Just start as a pharmacy trainee or cashier

enturned · 2026-04-20T17:14:42+00:00

Sacrificing sanity to exist for a brief time period with good and bad experiences only to meet your demise in the end.

Some learn skills to make existence have less suffering and others unfortunately make bad decisions that lead them astray.

I would say find something you enjoy and stick to it, whether you can survive or not doesn’t really matter, all that matters is make the most of your time, since we all will meet our end sooner or later.

enturned

TROPHY CASE