Sigh.. if only its as simple as a gargle

Subject: Male, human
Complaint: chest deep, thick brown colored phlegm, bad Cough
Social Hx: Smoker
Med Hx: Used a red color gargle for the above problem

A gargle to clear the thick brown phlegm and cough?
What actually is he gargling his mouth with?

Mebe a gargle w antiseptic and local numbin agent can help to reduce the itchy throat that leads to the cough.. But phlegm??

Or mebe he is garglin w a mucolytic that he actually swallows.. Yucks...

And before he walk out, he insisted that everytime he has this problem, the gargle never fails to work..

Ahh.. if only every medical problem can be solved w a magical gargle..

Dun play doctor with me

When I call ur clinic to check the prescription, this obviously means that I have a problem.

When I identify myself as the pharmacist and informs u that ur patient came here with a prescription written by ur doc, this obviously means that I hav a problem that I need to check w the doc NOW.

When I read the patient's name to you, I expect you to pick out the correct patient card and pass it to the doctor...

... AND NOT PLAY DOCTOR YOURSELF.

The clinic assistant or the nurse here obviously mistaken me as retarded pharmacist instead of the pissed pharmacist bcos the prescription is so damn easy to read. This is what she said:

"It says 10 boxes of Estradiol valerate here wah!"

"I know, but 1mg or 2mg?"

"oh, u mean there is 1mg and 2mg..."

"Yes, that is why I called to check."

"Juz give the 2mg one."

Oh, juz give the 2mg one. Who do u think u r? Can U make the call here?

"U said 2mg bcos the doctor has WRITTEN DOWN 2mg on the card or he has INSTRUCTED you to give 2mg?"

She is dumbfounded.. She shd be..

This is not the first time clinic assistants have attempt to decide on the strength or dosing of the medicine without the knowledge of their doctor and im sure this is definitely not my last encounter w such audacity.

Fine..., if u wan to play doctor w me, better make sure u have a valid medical practicing cert... Bcos if u DUN, Im sure u dun wan to play with the PISSED PHARMACIST.

When I say..

When I say: Can u come over here and take a look?

I meant: Dun stand there like an idiot.



When I say: Payment in front

I meant: IN FRONT, NOT outside



When I say: Cashier in front (after u hav asked me a tonne of stupid questions)

I meant: Will u please get out of my face?



When I say: I dunno

I meant: I REALLY DUNNO which hair color suits u best, I think its best u shave ur head



When I say: It will be better for you to counsel your doctor

I meant: Why are you still STANDING here!! Run to ur doctor NOW!!


When I say: Im sorry, u cant buy this without a script and I dun have this in stock too

I meant: I have this item right in my cupboard now, Haha


When I remain silent (bcos u say thank you or u appreciate my help)

I meant: I dun appreciate your APPRECIATION

Take all the time u need, as if u will ever know..

I think most retail pharmacists would hav handled this group of customers before. They are definitely non-medical professionals however, they believe if they stare hard and long enough on the product they hold in their hands, God will send them all the necessary drug information they need in that few minutes. Damn, I shd hav stare hard onto all my pharmacology papers and wait for God's exam tip instead of studyin my ass off the whole night.

Well, am i fortunate to hav the opportunity to refresh my memory, juz b4 Im off duty yesterday.

Middle age lady with a young kid, askin for something for her kid's cough

Me: "Kid having phlegmy or dry cough?"

Her: "Phlegmy but doc already give her something for her phlegm. She used to take silomat but its withdrawn now. Do u hav anything that contains the same medicine but diferent brand?"

Thoughts: okay, definitely an amateur, be nice

Me: "ok, Silomat is withdrawn becos...." but b4 i can finish

Her: "I KNOW, i KNOW"

Me: "ok, since u know its withdrawn, all other brands which contains the same med hav to be withdrawn too."

Her: "I KNOW, I KNOW"

BP rising like the morning sun...

Her "Do u hav anything that is similar to silomat?"

Me "Yes, I hav dextromethophan syrup. Its meant for dry cough"

Handing it to her and she performs the miraculous act of telepathy between a mortal and God for abt 10 mins b4 my very eyes. I seriously tink Im blessed on the spot...

10 Minutes may seem a very short while for u but its definitely a long long wait for me becos i managed to do all the following things in 10 minutes :

1. Stare at the ceiling

2. Stare at the floor

3. Shout at a suspected addict that we dun sell sleeping pills without a script and we cant sell midazolam to him even if he has a script

4. Look up and down the medicine cupboard

5. Look at my watch and her watch

6. Stare at the lady who is still staring hard at the bottle of suspicious syrup which was handed to her by a professional pharmacist, ME

7. Sigh loudly to myself, hoping she will get the idea that I WAN TO GO HOME

8. Pretend to be a customer myself when any potential customer comes near lookin for the off duty pharmacist

9. Start to wonder if im able to take her on...

10. Finally smile in relief and all ready to snatch the bot back becos...

She has finally finished her little talk with God and turns to me...

Her: "My girl has never taken this before, better not try this." Oh, took u this long to realise that..

I think God has told her that he doesnt know what the crap this crazy pissed lookin pharmacist has recommended.. hence its better not to take anything fr her

or

God is restin today becos ITS SUNDAY and hence he sends his little drug angel to tell her that now is not a good time, pls ask ur medication related question later.

And since the pharmacist looks as if she is going to bite your head off, quick, drop the syrup and RUN for ur dear life.

Oh ya, Run RUn RUN for ur life!!! Satan has taken the form of a Pharmacist and is givin malicious medical advice that might juz cure ur cough!!! Better escape to the nearest doc and get codeine based syrup for ur kid and set the future foundation of drug abuse.

As for me.. I juz wan to go home...

R U the pharmacist?

I wonder why they ask ME this question? I would love to reflect upon myself if its my problem but I ALWAYS wear my white coat WITH my name tag that says: Pissed Pharmacist, PHARMACIST.

So whats the problem? U mean I dun look like one?

I swear i will answer this to the next idiot who ask me this question:

"Why? U mean I dun look like the pharmacist even with my coat on? U r right, Im the cashier."

Moving on w pride

A senior colleague shared with us his retail experiences recently. He has worked in retail for a long long time, 21 years in fact. He revealed his secret to his loyality to retail and that is his love for this job as a retail pharmacist.

And true enough, i agreed totally with him that when u choose a job u loved and u never have to work a day. Another colleague, however, more senior than the first one, left our company to join a hospital. Before he left, he sent us an email telling us his reason of leaving and that is to move on to a place where he needs to learn and he encouraged us to take up a higher degree. And i agreed with that too.

But i agree more with the second colleague and i admired his courage and bravery in making the decision to move on (Hey, he is not a young chap). It is easy to stay in a place of comfort and familarity than to move to a place so chaotic and stressful as a hospital. In his pharmacy, he makes the decisions, he makes the call, he is the boss. In the hospital, he is juz the pharmacist. But who knows, he might like it.

Why do i feel that way? Becos i tink i understand how he felt.. or at least this is how i feel. In the hospital, u hav to work ur ass off. Dispensing, packing, counselling... Patients staring, patients waiting, patients complaining... U have to be on call and any1 can juz call u in the middle of the night for drug info. Its a matter of life and death if a wrong medicine is given in the hospital. Tough job, I know! But u r treated for who u r, a pharmacist.

In the retail pharmacy, I get 0 to5 patients for prescription medicine a day, I sell so many packs chlorpheniramine that i hav lost count. I can eat snacks the whole day and Hey easy job!! but i hate it.

I hate it when aunties ask me which body powder suits them better; baby powder or prickly heat. I hate it when the man yells "U dunno!!" at me when i cant tell the differences between the 2 types of refill heads for his electrical oral B toothbrush. I hate it when im counselling a customer at a busy hour and this guy comes straight to me and ask me where is the office. And when i told him its right at the other end and THIS IS THE PHARMACY. He replied angrily that he is juz askin me. I hate it when im nice to a customer and he takes advantage of that and wants to keep his grocery in the pharmacy til he is off work and free to come and collect. I hate it when customers kick up a big fuss when they cant get their free goodie bags becos they didnt bring along the flyer that entitles them to do so. I hate it even more when they say the flyers are all over the floor and any1 can juz pick them. All these doesnt make me feel very pharmacy-ing

Choosing a job that u love is not easy becos its means that u may have to give up a lot of privileges and freedom. Its also takes a lot of courage to learn fr the beginning and u need to be very humble even if u used to be a tyrant in ur small retail pharmacy. But challenges are wat make life interesting. Overcoming them is what makes life meaningful.

I dunno if staying in the same line for years is meaningful but i certainly know that if i dun try reaching for moon, how would i know if i cant grab it? I may not make a good clinical pharmacist now and most probably i will be placed in the retail outpatient pharmacy initially but who knows abt the future. Or mebe after a trip to hospital i may learn to appreciate retail afterall to know sweetness is to taste bitter.

There are many other colleagues who moved on to different sectors but hospital. And there are so many stories i hav heard abt ugly incidents between the nurses or doctors and pharmacists... And this kinda scares me a little but i think its abt time for me to move on... (after my bonus of course)

I will tell u my adventures in the hospital if im successful. :)

Pls accept me as a drug expert or at least some1 who knows med a little bit more than u

Lotsa customers came to buy travel sickness pills fr me today..

He is one of them.. Tall, polite, decent lookin, english speakin..

Him: "I want this medicine, Dramamine, for prevention of motion sickness."

Me: "Oh, Dramamine is no longer available here but i do have an alternative. Its called Novomin. It contains the same active ingredient as Dramamine."

Him: "Really, does it contain Aspirin? I cant take Aspirin.."

I repeated myself: "There's no aspirin in there. It contains the same medicine as Dramamine. If Dramamine works for you, Novomin shd be okay as well. "

He seemed to have understood me, then he took 3 steps away from my dispensary, stood there for a moment and stared at the box of Novomin.

Then he turned around, came up to me and enquired again:

"This really doesnt contain Aspirin right? Cos i really cant take Aspirin u noe. I get swollen eyes."

"Yes, this has no Aspirin. If there is any, it will be stated on the box."

He seemed convinced enough to go away but I muz say Im veri disappointed.

Why? Becos pple like the above customer, who looks like he has obtained a certain level of higher education, doesnt believe in what the pharmacist says. Even simple things like what this medicine contains, he is sceptical... What does this imply abt the rest of the public?

There's an article in Straits Time abt pharmacist, juz yesterday. It talked abt the role of pharmacist as some1 who spots medication errors and help doctors in the dosing and monitoring of medicine. I have to admit that Im no clinical pharmacist and i have moments of ignorance too. But Im pretty sure that none of the medicines in my cupboard contain Aspirin. I oso know that if u r allergic to aspirin, u shdnt take NSAIDs as well. I bet the above customer dun and i bet he wun believe me even if i told him so.

Yesterday a lady came w a script for Prednisolone. It states:
Pred 50mg for 4 days under instructions and
40mg for 4 days, 30mg for 7 days and 25mg for 7 days under remarks.

For the pple out there who dunno, prednisolone is a steroid and when u take high doses of oral steroid, you cant juz stop them abruptly.

And so i told her, straight and crystal clear. The doctor has written this and how this medicine shd be taken. She dunno believe me AT ALL. Even when i point to the words on the script and read them out word for word, in front of her very eyes, she still dun believe me. She insisted that her doctor told her to take for 4 days only and to infuriate me even further, she asked me if this is how i translate the script. What is there to translate? Its not even a handwritten script, its computer generated. I gave up and told her I dun hav enough tablets for her.

I remembered telling a fren (a teacher) that sometimes doctors make mistakes. She dun believe me. I guess its the same with all the pple out there except for pharmacists. I remember spotting a medication error when i was workin in a clinic as a clinic assistant after my A levels. On the patient's card, under allergy, Ponstan was written and yet Ponstan was prescribed to the very patient on his very first visit. Thank God Im blessed with super pharmacist viligance even without my 4 years in pharmacy school and saved that quack's ass.

Mebe we pharmacists are not as recognized as nurses or doctors becos we hide behind our counters spotting mistakes. We dun say things like, "Crap, Dr Brainless has left out the strength again" (in front of you) but that doesnt mean we dun call the doctor and check with him. A classmate actually told me that there is a "whatever" doctor in her polyclinic becos he always forget to write the strength of Metfomin and everytime she checks with him, he always reply, "whatever".

The only thing patients care abt is how long do they have to wait before they can get their med. They get mad with us when we dun dispense medicine fast enough, but do u understand the frustrations behind every call to the doctor? Sometimes, the doctors dun even thank us and most certainly we dun get any appreciation out of u. Is it our fault that we save ur life when we intervene in a potential drug interaction? A good example would be prescribing NSAID to a warfarin patient. A simple but terrible mistake. A customer of mine told me this is exactly what happened to him and he ended in the hospital for a week becos of internal bleeding. Will this happen if there is a pharmacist around? Probably not. But would u noe if an intervention has taken place becos a pharmacist has spotted and corrected it? No either, becos we hav ethics to protect the dignities of our healthcare colleagues. But sadly, we lost ours in return. How? Why?
Quoting the actual words of a real customer:
" U dun hav to call and check the script. My doctor knows.."

Will dispensing rights be ever return to us in the near future?

I doubt...

Are we going be as recognized as our fellow healthcare coworkers?

I hope...

Are our benefits and monthly pay going to increase?

I dun think so...

Are we going to call the doctors when we spot something out of line?

We muz, in our line of duty..

How are we going to face the angry crowd, waitin impatiently for their med day after day?

Like We always do..