Magic Words

09/07/20

Kaiser Mail Order Pharmacy
9521 Dalen St
Downey, CA 90242
Attn: Alexis Morgan, Mail Order Pharmacy MGR
866-523-6059

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For your convenience this document (including all attachments) is published on the Internet at:
http://www.mkgappraisal.com/letter2020_04.htm

Valley of the Dolls

Valley of the Dolls by Jacqueline Susann

From Wikipedia: Valley of the Dolls is considered a roman à clef, with its characters based on famous figures such as Judy Garland, Carole Landis, Dean Martin, and Ethel Merman

The book was published on February 10, 1966, and "took off like a Cape Canaveral space shot."

Although Publishers Weekly, in an advance review, called the novel "big, brilliant and sensational", if "poorly written", the book received largely negative reviews. Feminist Gloria Steinem criticized the book in The New York Herald Tribune, as did The New York Times. Time magazine called it the "Dirty Book of the Month".

Despite the poor reviews, the book was a runaway commercial success. On May 8, 1966, in its ninth week on the list, the book reached #1 on the New York Times Best Seller List, where it remained for 28 consecutive weeks. With a total of 65 weeks on the list, the book became the best selling novel of 1966. By the time of Susann's death in 1974, it had entered the Guinness Book of World Records as the best selling novel in publishing history, with more than 17 million copies sold. By 2016, the book had sold more than 31 million copies.

Below is an excerpt from the middle of the book. This explains how doctors (and nurses, and pharmacists, etc, etc, attitudes about diet pills came to be so anal retentive. They can't stand the thought of being associated with OMG "dirty windows".

Then she felt it! Oh, God! It was glorious! Her whole body felt weightless...her head was heavy, yet light as air. She was going to sleep...sleep...oh, the beautiful little red doll...

The following day she visited Henry’s doctor. He turned her down cold. She was in excellent condition. What was this nonsense! No, he would not give her a perscription for Seconals. Stop drinking all that coffee. Cut down on cigarettes. She’d sleep. If she didn’t, then her body didn’t need it.

“That isn’t the way to do it,” Irma explained a few days later. “You can’t go to a good doctor and just come out and ask for them. It’s best to find a little doctor — one whose ethics are a little shady.”

“But where? Irma, I slept four nights in a row with those blessed red dolls, and it was heavenly. I haven’t slept in two nights without them.”

“Look for one of those third rate hotels on the West Side. You’ll see a doctor’s sign on a dirty window,” Irma explained. “But don’t just walk in and ask for pills. You have to play the game. Walk in and say you’re from out of town — California is always good. Don’t wear the mink, or the rates will go up. Tell him you can’t sleep. He’ll make a stab at listening to your heart, and you keep saying all you need is a few nights’ sleep. Then he’ll charge you ten bucks and give you a prescription for a week’s supply, knowing you’ll be back. And he knows he’s good for ten bucks a week. But believe me, it’s worth it. You may have to try a few doctors before you hit the right one — two turned me down — but you’ll find one. Don’t go to the Mackley Hotel — that’s mine. He might get suspicious.

Jennifer found her doctor on West Forty-eighth Street. She knew he was the right one when he disinterestedly dragged out a dusty stethoscope and made a half-hearted attempt to feel her pulse. Sure enough, he pulled out his prescription blank. “Nembutals or Seconals?” he asked.

“The red ones,” Jennifer mumbled.

“Here’s a weeks supply of Seconals.” He handed her the prescription. This should straighten you out. If not, come by again.”

Anne was delighted at the change in Jennifer. She knew nothing about the pills, but she was pleased to see.......

Idiotic Statement by Max Bastow, MD

You continue to have issues on your lab work related to testosterone.

The testosterone level has come down some thankfully, but is still above what is considered a good target level on treatment. In the cases when we do have people on testosterone we aim for levels of 500-600. Yours is in the 900s.

But more importantly your blood counts have risen significantly. This can be extremely dangerous to your health, even fatal. And based on this I strongly recommend immediately stopping any testosterone treatments.

This means returning to your testosterone provider and seeing if the pellets can be removed.

These high blood counts can cause blood clots, heart attack, and stroke.

If you are having symptoms of headaches, fatigue, feeling sluggish or foggy you need to let us know right away because that can be a sign of the high blood counts causing an issue.

Max C Bastow, MD

Fact 2

From:Max C Bastow, MD Sent:4/16/2020 11:04 AM MDT To:Philip G Rice Subject:RE: Follow Up Question The number one thing is to stop using testosterone. There are mentions in your records that you may have had more testosterone treatments done, if true I'm a little bit flabbergasted that this treatment was continued. Especially after all we talked about the side effect on your blood that you are clearing having. The only other thing I can think of is Blood donation. Max C Bastow, MD From:Philip G Rice Sent:4/15/2020 4:49 PM MDT To:Max C Bastow, MD Subject:Follow Up Question The last sentence of item #2 below is a question I asked you on 11/1/19. Is there anything else you can suggest that might lower the 'high blood counts'? I made a good faith effort (on 3 or 4 occasions) to look for your answer, and I cannot find where you have ever responded to this question. If there is a response and I just missed it, please direct me to it, and accept my apology. If not, will you please say something, so that I will know to quit looking for an answer. Thank you !! Under the subject 'labs' 10/25/1922, in reference to blood drawn on 10/22/19, you stated: You continue to have issues on your lab work related to testosterone. The testosterone level has come down some thankfully, but is still above what is considered a good target level on treatment. In the cases when we do have people on testosterone we aim for levels of 500-600. Yours is in the 900s.

The List

Phentermine, any kind of diet pill
Opioid, any kind of pain pill
Testosterone
Aanabolic Steroid
Marijuana
Beer, any kind of alcoholic beverage
end of list

Fact 4

Rod Serling - The Twilight Zone. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

Magic is in the eye of the beholder.
Albert Einstein was famous for this "thought experiments". Follow along with me on this "thought experiment" to demonstrate how magic is in the eye of the beholder.

I have prepared the kitchen by removing (as much as possible) distractions. The TV is turned off. Nothing is cooking, there is no noticable smell. The room temperature is comfortable. As we enter the room, I have you sit at the table. While you are sitting down, I open the refrigerator and smoothly grab (with my right hand) a 12 ounce can of beer. I carry the can from the refrigerator and place it on the table directly in front of you.

When I place the can on the table, I want it to look like a casual jesture. It is not. I have practiced this. Many times. I need there to be a noise when I put the can on the table. I practiced until I was able to produce the exact noise I wanted. Just loud enough so that it is impossible for you to not hear it. The label must not be directly facing you. And the whole thing has to look nonchalant.

My Response to the Idiotic Statement

sorry it has taken so long to respond. I have been busy, but I feel obligated to respond as best I can without further delay.

1) Removing the testosterone pellets is not an option.

2) High Blood Counts: As far as symptoms are concerned - 'headaches, fatigue, feeling sluggish or foggy' - I think mostly not, but hard to say 100% not. Is there anything else you can suggest that might lower the 'high blood counts'?

Mormon Row Boat

I am not a Mormon (LDS). I lived in Salt Lake City once. For about 9 months. One time on a ride to the airport, I overheard 2 people talking. I picked up this bit of wisdom on how people who are not Mormon (like myself) cope.

If you go fishing, and you take a friend with you that is a Mormon, he will drink all your beer. The way to avoid this is to take 2 Mormons. You can be sure that neither one will drink a drop.

The Magic 5 Words

In: News, by: UnAttributed

If You Regularly Use These 5 Words, You’re a Better Leader Than You Think

DNYUZ.com 10/10/2020

https://dnyuz.com/2020/10/10/if-you-regularly-use-these-5-words-youre-a-better-leader-than-you-think/

We’ll get to them in a minute, but first, a thought about why they matter so much: It’s because leadership is hard. That’s not a profound thought, I know, and it comes as no surprise to most of you.

Leadership, after all, is primarily a function of determining a direction and influencing people to move in that direction. However, that makes it sound far too simple. Moving a group of people collectively in any direction is hard. One of the most challenging parts is that you are ultimately responsible for the way your team and organization performs. Not only that, but you’re also accountable.

The two things, by the way, aren’t the same–responsibility and accountability.

Responsibility, we understand as having a duty to care for a thing or person. I am responsible for writing and publishing this column. I’m also responsible for making sure my children log on to their virtual class via Zoom every morning.

If any of those things don’t happen, I’m held accountable. That’s true of every leader–the part about having to give an account. Sometimes it’s to your boss, or your customers, or even your team. When it happens, it often means owning up to it when things go wrong.

By the way, I don’t mean you had a bad idea, or miscalculated the net margins on some report. I mean, you were wrong in how you handled the important things, like your team.

“I’m sorry, I was wrong.”

Those are the five words. The thing is, the first part of that sentence hurts when the words come out of your mouth. The second part, for most of us, is almost unbearable. We don’t like to apologize. We really don’t like to admit we were wrong.

Except, it turns out that one of the most important leadership skills is admitting when you’re wrong. You should even give yourself permission to be wrong. That doesn’t mean you should strive to be wrong, but anything you can to take away the visceral reaction inside your soul that recoils at the idea of being wrong will make you a better leader.

Sometimes it happens (you’re wrong, I mean), but good leaders make it a point to respond with an apology. And, I don’t mean one of those apologies where you tell someone you’re sorry for how they feel. That’s not an apology at all, by the way. It’s more of a slap in the face. Never mind that you can’t be sorry for how anyone else feels.

It also works when you encounter a customer with a problem. This may be an even more important example.

Sometimes the words are a little different, but it should sound the same to the customer. “I’m really sorry, we didn’t handle that well,” or “I’m sorry, we really dropped the ball on that shipment.”

Usually, there are other words that need to follow, like what exactly you plan to do to make right whatever you were wrong about. But notice what words aren’t in there–namely an excuse for why you’re sorry, but not really wrong. That’s just not going to cut it, and if you can model that, you’ll be a better leader than most.

Ultimately, leadership means being accountable. Even when it isn’t your fault–it’s still your responsibility.

Fact 8

From the order (Thursday 7/23/20 at 6:30 AM) to shipment (Wednesday 7/29/20) took 6 days. This would take 30 minutes at a retail pharmacy.

The Kaiser Golf Method

The Law: According to Huong Le, PharmD (presumably an authorized Kaiser representative)

Huong thi thanh Le, a/k/a Huong Le
Colorado Pharmacy License PHA0018486

Wednesday, 7/29/20, 9:07 AM (post shipment)
Huong Le, PharmD:

"I want to point out that this is a controlled medication, and Mail Order can only process 30 tablets and have that shipped to you because they are located in California and per California state law, they can only process and ship 30 tablets of a controlled medication at a time."

The Law: According to Philip G Rice:

I agree that phentermine is a "controlled substance".

California State law is silent on the quantity that may be initially dispensed for prescriptions (controlled substances and non-controlled).

To say it another way:
There is no law that prevents Kaiser Mail Order from dispensing 90 phentermine tablets to me.

Commentary

It's not complicated. One of us is right and one of us is wrong. If you want to prove me wrong, you know what to do. Provide me with a citation so that I can read the law. Show me the law. If you can.

We have a contract. Kaiser has the burden of proof.

If you are unable to show me the law, I demand that you immediately:

Ship 60 phentermine tablets to me.

At the time of our contract, I insisted on a shipment of 90 tablets. This is consistent with DOCTOR'S ORDERS. The quantity of 90 is consistent with similar prior phentermine prescriptions that have been sent to me by Kaiser Mail Order Pharmacy (3078 0102 8948). I am not asking you to do anything you haven't done before.

Upon shipment of the 60 tablets, Kaiser Mail Order Pharmacy is authorized to charge my credit card $6.37 ($14.55 minus $8.18) -- if you have the nerve. But ship the 60 tablets immediately as an act of good faith. You can do this. Anything less than your very best effort in this regard is just going to make you look even worse than you already do. The tablets should arrive at my mail box (or my front door) no later than Sunday 8/30/20, because on Monday morning, 8/31/20, 9:00 AM, I am going to be out of the medicine I need.

My position is that you screwed it up. You need to fix it. Unless, of course, you can show me the law.

Thank you for your cooperation.

Sincerely,

Philip G Rice
11268 E Linvale Dr
Aurora, CO 80014
720-282-3376
phil.rice@mkgappraisal.com

Health Record Number 427582802, DOB 4/25/53

-- End of Letter --

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