Pharmacy Schmarmacy

All of our jobs have their predictabilities and their surprises whether you are raising kids or working behind a desk.  However, the GP (general public) tends to just blow my mind.  Special group of folks, I tell you.  I know I am GP too, but I'm just not as special as some of them.

I shared this photo with you a month or so ago.

 A smoking cigarette in the drive through window--- I wouldn't sell him his LORTAB seven days early so he left me this gift.  We had to endure the smell a good while before we figured out where it was coming from. Thoughtful guy.

This resourceful note came in just last night.  Don't have a piece of paper to write your meds on?  Just whip out a five.  He wanted me to tell him if there were any interactions among his medications.  I asked him was the bill my tip.

Maybe you already know..... what is it shaped like?  My "super" tech Wes picked it up off the counter by the register thinking it was a piece of someone's jewelry.  Hold on to your stomach.......... he had picked up someone's TOOTH FILLING!!!  While they were handing money over to us, confirming their address with us, it just fell out.  Bam, right on the counter.  Needless to say, Wes quickly became an expert on decontamination practices, hand hygiene/antisepsis, and compliance with universal precautions on transmitting diseases.

Yep.  He pulled it out of the BOTTOM pocket of his cargo ankle pants.  I think they were shorts but since I could practically see the top of his thighs coming out of his red underwear, I will call them ankle pants.  It was in 3 pieces -- a little tricky {impossible} to scan into the computer.  This is not unusual.  The most common appearance of "nasty" prescriptions I describe are the ones that appear as if they have been stored in the compost pile.  Then there are the ones that you can scratch debris off of.  And then there are these.  There is a long story attached to this one but bottom line is he left with no meds.

People know what they want, what they really, really want and he wanted "that yellow Vicodin".  The generic changed it color at the end of March and really took some hydrocodone lovers for a loop.  I mean, that yellow dye makes them very very happy, evidently.  And they really, really want it.

The things I DIDN'T get a picture of were:

-the little girl whose mom had me vaccinate her while she was asleep and the needle awakened her so fiercely and suddenly, the needle was forced out and random customers had to help me hold her down to finish the job.  I had to walk outside after that one.  Lesson- duh- Never give a shot to a sleeping child.  I'm sure my shocked face is in her nightmares.

-the time I gave a flu shot and I failed to check for cotton balls in my basket before I walked out and the blood gushed and I felt like a spastic idiot trying to stop the blood with my latex gloves and yelling for a GIRL tech to bring me cotton balls because the lady had disrobed because her shirt didn't allow any wiggle room for shots.

- the man who approached me with the problem of belching-- constantly-- even right in front of me, multiple times, and had the crazy notion to tell me that it "tasted good" but it just had to stop.  I sent Wes to show him my recommendation on the floor-- I could NOT walk out there with him.  Wes confirmed my every aversion for not wanting to do my job in that moment.

-the pills that were brought back to me last Wednesday that had splattered blood on them.  Red blood on white chalky pills complete with blood on the bag.  Of course, we all checked our hands for cuts, staple pokes, red finger nail polish-- truly, God forbid-- and nothing.  It all was a bit strange and I could NOT take ownership of this mystery.  I replaced the pills, handed him the bag and just shrugged.  I fell asleep that night being fully convinced something very strange had happened once the bag left my store.

-the girl I followed to the "nausea" aisle who started heaving.  I ran to grab a shopping bag and got it back to her Just. In. Time.  No mop needed.

And this just since February, maybe?  And I only work 8 hours a week.  And I work in a fairly normal part of town but the GP never fails to deliver.  The point of this post-- smile at your pharmacist and be patient.  You just never know what is going on back there.