Pharmacist Jamie

Pharmacist Jamie PharmD, RPh 💊
Mom of 3 🥰
❌ Medical Advice
Collab: [email protected]

Make it make sense
07/30/2026

Make it make sense

Got this comment on a recent post and figured it deserved its own carousel 👆Pharmacists are so much more than “the peopl...
07/27/2026

Got this comment on a recent post and figured it deserved its own carousel 👆

Pharmacists are so much more than “the people who count pills.” Depending on your state, we can test and treat common illnesses, prescribe certain medications, administer vaccines, manage chronic disease under collaborative agreements, and of course catch the errors that could otherwise hurt you.

This isn’t about ranking professions against each other — every member of your healthcare team brings something different to the table. But I will always advocate for the profession.

The 2025–2026 flu vaccine wasn’t as effective as we hoped, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t worth getting.One of the bigg...
07/26/2026

The 2025–2026 flu vaccine wasn’t as effective as we hoped, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t worth getting.

One of the biggest misconceptions I see is that if a vaccine doesn’t always stop infection, it’s a failure. That’s not how vaccine effectiveness works.

This season, the flu vaccine still:
✔️ Reduced emergency department and urgent care visits by 35%
✔️ Reduced hospitalizations by 27% overall
✔️ Reduced hospitalizations by 47% in children

Why was effectiveness lower? Influenza viruses evolve constantly. This season, the dominant H3N2 strain shifted after the vaccine strains had already been selected and manufacturing was underway. That’s an ongoing challenge with influenza—not evidence that vaccines “don’t work.”

The goal of flu vaccination isn’t just preventing every infection. It’s reducing severe illness, keeping people out of the hospital, and saving lives. Even in a mismatched season, that’s exactly what happened.

And one more important reminder: approximately 85% of vaccine eligible children who died from influenza this season were not fully vaccinated.

⭐️ Vaccines don’t have to be perfect to make a meaningful difference. ⭐️

Patients with legitimate pain deserve compassionate, evidence-based treatment. I don’t think anyone disputes that.After ...
07/25/2026

Patients with legitimate pain deserve compassionate, evidence-based treatment. I don’t think anyone disputes that.

After seeing a recent video referring to pharmacists as “harmacists,” I wanted to add some context that often gets left out.

Pharmacists can’t simply fill every controlled substance prescription we’re presented with. Under federal law, we share a corresponding responsibility with prescribers to ensure these prescriptions are issued for a legitimate medical purpose. That means evaluating red flags, checking the PDMP, and sometimes refusing to dispense when concerns can’t be resolved.

Throughout my career, I’ve encountered forged prescriptions, pill mills, prescribers practicing outside their scope, and other situations that required intervention. These aren’t rare experiences—they’re part of why these safeguards exist.

At the same time, I know many patients with legitimate pain have struggled to access appropriate treatment. Their experiences are real, and they deserve better.

What concerns me is when pharmacists are portrayed as the enemy. Many pharmacists have experienced verbal abuse, threats, and even robberies. Calling pharmacists “harmacists” adds to an already hostile environment while ignoring the legal responsibilities and nuances of our profession.

I recently talked with a family member about their medication list - what’s still needed, what still fits, whether every...
07/22/2026

I recently talked with a family member about their medication list - what’s still needed, what still fits, whether everything still lines up with what they actually want out of their care.

It’s not always an easy conversation to have. Maybe that’s why it doesn’t happen as often as it should.

But medications deserve to be reevaluated, because we change. Priorities shift with time - sometimes the goal is comfort, sometimes it’s living as long as possible, and there’s no single right answer.

Our bodies change too. A medication that was safe and beneficial years ago may not carry the same risk-to-benefit balance today. It may be increasing the risk for dementia, low blood pressure, or falls.

Having this conversation isn’t about giving up on treatment.
It’s about making sure care still reflects the person.
If you haven’t had this conversation with an aging parent, grandparent, or even your own doctor - it might be worth starting.

I recently talked with a family member about their medication list — what’s still needed, what still fits, whether every...
07/22/2026

I recently talked with a family member about their medication list — what’s still needed, what still fits, whether everything still lines up with what they actually want out of their care.

It’s not always an easy conversation to have. Maybe that’s why it doesn’t happen as often as it should.

But medications deserve to be reevaluated, because we change. Priorities shift with time — sometimes the goal is comfort, sometimes it’s living as long as possible, and there’s no single right answer. Our bodies change too. A medication that was safe and beneficial years ago may not carry the same risk-to-benefit balance today.

Having this conversation isn’t about giving up on treatment. It’s about making sure care still reflects the person.

If you haven’t had this conversation with an aging parent, grandparent, or even your own doctor — it might be worth starting.

I spent decades believing I was just anxious, forgetful, disorganized, or not trying hard enough.I was the straight-A st...
07/19/2026

I spent decades believing I was just anxious, forgetful, disorganized, or not trying hard enough.

I was the straight-A student. The rule follower. The perfectionist.

No one—including me—considered ADHD.

It wasn’t until after my third child was born, when the mental load of motherhood exceeded every coping strategy I’d built over decades, that I sought a neuropsychological evaluation. I genuinely wondered if something was wrong with my brain because everyday tasks suddenly felt impossible.

Receiving an ADHD diagnosis in my late 30s didn’t change who I was.

It changed how I understood myself.

🧠 Can vaccines protect your brain?Growing observational research links several vaccines — especially the shingles vaccin...
07/16/2026

🧠 Can vaccines protect your brain?

Growing observational research links several vaccines — especially the shingles vaccine — to a lower risk of dementia. The strongest studies use “natural experiments” (like Wales’s age based eligibility cutoff and the 2017 Zostavax→Shingrix switch) to get closer to causal evidence than typical observational data.

But here’s the important caveat: these are still observational studies. Even well designed natural experiments can’t fully rule out confounding, and they don’t prove that vaccination causes lower dementia risk. They show a strong, reproducible association — which is genuinely exciting — but “associated with” isn’t the same as “proven to prevent.”

Bottom line: get vaccinated for the reasons vaccines are already recommended (shingles, postherpetic neuralgia, etc.). A possible dementia risk benefit is a promising bonus, not yet a standalone reason to vaccinate.

It’s squid mating season! 🦑 I found this squid egg mop washed ashore, and the video is another I found in the water at l...
07/14/2026

It’s squid mating season! 🦑 I found this squid egg mop washed ashore, and the video is another I found in the water at low tide attached to a rock in the South Shore of Boston.

Squid don’t guard their eggs. Once laid, the parents die off (semelparity), and the capsules are left to develop on their own, anchored to sand, rock, or other egg mops nearby. The gelatinous casing protects the embryos from bacteria and predators while still letting oxygen through. If you look closely at the picture, you can see hundreds of miniature squid with eyes!! 👀 Storms and strong currents can tear a spawning bed loose and wash clusters like this one onto the beach. 🌊

Depending on species and water temperature, embryos develop for a few weeks to a couple months inside the capsule. When they’re ready, hatchlings emerge as fully formed miniature squid, called paralarvae, just millimeters long. They hatch already swimming, jetting, and hunting tiny plankton, and from day one they’re on their own.

This one had washed ashore, so I gently carried it back into the water. Embryos need to stay submerged to keep developing — once stranded on dry sand they’ll dehydrate and die pretty quickly. If you find one out of the water, the kindest thing to do is return it to the sea (no need to touch the delicate finger tips more than necessary, just cup it and carry it back).

**This was a great moment to talk to my kids about gentle hands & being respectful to all animals. Lately, I’ve watched kids fling jellyfish down rock slides & toss them in the air — not out of cruelty, but they do need guidance & education. The ocean is home to all of this, not a toy box. A simple rule helps: look, don’t grab; and if something’s stranded, ask an adult before touching it. Curiosity is wonderful — it’s how kids become the next generation of people who care about this stuff. We just want to point it in a direction that keeps the animals (and little hands) safe.

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