There was no mistake. The bill I held recorded drugs ordered by my fathers Alzheimers' care unit. In only three weeks at this eldercare facility, his drug expenses had soared an incredible 734%. Ironically, his quality of life had plunged about same percent. Walking and talking when he entered, he now spent his days confined to a wheelchair, unable to walk, drugged into a persistent stupor.

"I've got to do something." The thought haunted me all day.

Then, that evening, an incidental trip to grocery delivered help I needed. It came in form of a thick paperback book, The PDR Pocket Guide to Prescription Drugs (PDR Pocket Guide).

The PDR Pocket Guide provides tons of information for all prescription drugs on market when it was printed. Specifics include: ·generic equivalents, ·why drug is prescribed, ·how it should be taken, ·when it should not be taken, ·side effects and special warning, and ·possible interactions with other drugs and food.

The PDR Pocket Guide is available through Amazon.com, or you might find a copy like I did at your local grocery or bookstore. Jam-packed with almost 1700 pages of information, this paperback is a surprisingly affordable $6.99.

Using pharmacy's bill as a list of medications, I read PDR report for each drug my father was using. What I found astonished me.

Two of fifteen drugs prescribed were being used "off-label" (not FDA approved for condition it is used to treat). One of those was specifically contraindicated for use with Alzheimer's patients. Two more were from drug families that I had previously identified as causing allergic reactions in my father.

When I was young, my father used to kid me by saying, "Up with this I will not put!" Up with this I wasn't about to put either, so I called his doctor.

"My father is allergic to Furosemide."

He bristled. "Where did you get an idea like that?"

"Furosemide is a sulfa drug. He's allergic to sulfa drugs."

"I never heard anything like that about Furosemide," he barked. "Who told you that?"

"The PDR Pocket Guide."

With winter finally finishing and warmer temperatures returning, you find yourself getting an itch to be outside instead of sitting in office or workplace. Hopefully you have an outside window to at least view great outdoors.

Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to walk half hour three days per week? Wouldn’t it be also nice to do this halfway through your workday? It be nice if your boss says yes you can do that? No problem. The difficulty is you only have a half-hour for lunch. Trying to fit a half-hour walking program and also eating your lunch all in that time can be quite challenging. Now it would be nice if you and your boss can work out someway to get it all done.

The first thing your boss will say is why should I bend for you and your co-workers? At that time you can list these benefits for them and their company.

Increase productivity: Decreases of abuse of sick days taken. How? Because you are letting employees enjoy some of nice outside weather, it will deter skipping work. It will also help deepen employee/boss relationship.