Last night a woman came in for some medical advice. I find it interesting how many people come to the pharmacy to ask for medical advice before calling their doctors!
This woman was concerned that her bi-polar daughter might be pregnant. She had her tubes tied a few years ago, but was now displaying all of the symptoms of pregnancy. So the mother came in to ask if it was possible she was pregnant. Knowing that I’m not allowed by law to give medical advice, I was skating on thin ice. So I told her that I had a girl friend who had her tubes tied and got pregnant a few years later anyway, so yes it was possible.
So then she asked what should she do. I told her to buy one of the early pregnancy test kits and use it to find out if the daughter really is pregnant. I told her that there are other medical conditions that could mimic pregnancy, but she should do the test kit and then call her doctor. She thanked me for my advice and told me that she hoped it was one of the other medical conditions and not pregnancy. I kept my mouth shut at that point, other than telling her to consult the doctor. To the best of my knowledge the other medical conditions that can mimic pregnancy are not good at all. I think pregnancy would be preferable!
After the woman left I apologized to the pharmacist for not asking her to come and counsel the patient. She was within earshot the whole time. She told me that I told the woman exactly what she would have told her, but next time to call her into the conversation. She was nice about it, but I felt bad anyway.
I was reading a story on today.msnbc.msn.com about how pre-teen girls are getting bikini waxes! The article was talking about how girls as young as six years old are having hair-removal waxing done, from their faces, backs, and bikini areas. I think that is way too early for something like that! What kind of body image problem are these girls going to have as they grow up? How can a mother be so irresponsible as to encourage this type of thing? Why are we trying to force our kids to grow up so fast? This is just plain silliness!
Well the pharmacy has cut back hours so much that I haven’t worked at my headquarters in many months. So I’ve been bouncing around filling in as a substitute/floater from store to store. I’ve done a lot of travelling and met a lot of nice people! Having said that, I’ve met a lot of not-so-nice people too!
A few weeks ago I was working at a store where a customer didn’t have any health insurance and his prescription costs were going to be over $400! The customer asked if there was any way I could help him to reduce the cost of his prescription. I asked him if he had Internet access, and he told me yes, he did. So I advised him to go online to the manufacturer’s website of the medicine and download a coupon for the medicine and bring it back to us.
The pharmacist overheard me telling the customer that he could do that, and he was so furious he told me to punch out and go home immediately and never come back into his store! Can you believe that? Because I was trying to help a customer save some money on his medicine!
Yes, there are some real jerks out there, that is for sure!
I was just remembering a customer that came into the store last week that I wanted to comment on. She looked like she was in her 80’s at least, but she dressed like she thought she was only 16! And she had on so much cologne it could choke a horse! It was really hard keeping myself from laughing out loud when I saw her. She was wearing a skirt that was what I would call a micro-mini – not something you can bend over in and remain dignified! I’m not quite sure who she was trying to impress, but it really was pathetic. I wish that people would learn to dress a little bit more demurely when they get older! And use less cologne! If I dress like that when I’m in my 80’s I hope someone tells me to grow up and act my age!
Today a customer (a man) was shopping at “my” pharmacy, walking up and down the aisles. He had his young (about 5 years old) daughter with him. Suddenly he collapsed in a heap on the floor! One of the store employees rushed to the man, another to the pharmacy and got the pharmacist “L” to come check out the man. She checked his pulse and blood pressure and decided that they were really bad and the store manager called rescue. A fire truck arrived within a couple of minutes (it was really fast, but really a FIRE TRUCK? The man collapsed on the floor, he didn’t spontaneously combust!)
So the man was taken to the hospital. The store manager went along to watch the little girl. She ended up staying at the hospital for a couple of hours to watch the little girl until the wife could arrive; apparently the wife worked over an hour’s drive away! That was really nice of the store manager to volunteer to stay!
Needless to say, many customers saw the fire truck and ambulance and asked about the drama for much of the day. I don’t know if the man is OK or not. Sure hope so! It sure was lucky he was in the store when he collapsed, and not out driving his car!