Sunday, June 28, 2009

Murphy's Law

Was working yesterday. All day. Did my standard 9.30 to 18.00 shift and then moved pharmacy to cover the 18.00 to midnight shift. This was my first time doing a late night shift like this and I was looking forward to encountering some wierdos. Sure enough the general public didn't disappoint.....

Big shout out to SouthDoc. Great service there. Not perfect but great service nonetheless. Absolute Pinaclav bonanza. Prescribing Pinaclav 625mg one bd for seven days like it was going out of fashion. Not to sure about the guy who prescibred Heminevrin though. When was the last time you heard of that? Sure enough I rang him to check out the story and it turns out that this genius of a patient wouldn't take a less potent sedative. He wanted something so strong that all he would accept is something not stocked anywhere anymore.

Cheers to the makers of Adcortyl in Orabase too. Thats dead annoying that that's gone off the market.

The absolute hands down winner is the tool that arrived in at 11pm though. Working for 14 and a half hours yesterday with no break. I don't mind that at all really. You know the story grap a few minutes when and where you can. The problem is that it had been reasonably quiet all day. So quiet I watched most of the Lions game on the net (tip o'the hat to www.myp2p.eu). So at 10.30pm when I reckoned it was gonna be quiet for the rest of the night I decided to get a bite to eat and I sent one of the girls to the chipper. By the time we had everything sorted and cleared my chips arrived in at ten to eleven. Now just at that point a few prescriptions arrived in. No problem. C'est la vie.

The issue was with the last prescription. Some muppet handed in two prescriptions and asked for his own one aswell, which was on file. Took a couple of minutes to get the Rxs filled. I had a bit of trouble with his own one. He only had an Rx for Ixprim, which he had already gotten in June so I forwarded it to July.

Cue him to complain about the price. "I shouldn't have to pay that much, I already got stuff this month." Yes I realise that sir but you already got this in June so I have to forward date it until next month. "But what about my regular blood pressure meds?" What do you mean?

Turns out he regularly gets some BP meds but this prescription was out of date now so no happy pills for him. Of course this wasn't acceptable. So I had to give a 5 day emergency supply. By now my chips were luke warm.

Gave him the 5 day supply and told him he needed a new Rx and also his wife's prescription was out of date now too so both of them needed new ones. I was looking forward to finally getting back to my chips. Then he informs me that there is also some energy drinks owing to his daughter. My heart sank. Took another few minutes to track down the drinks and hand them over. (Why can't these people tell you all the things they need when they first call in. I can't read their fucking minds.)

By the time I was out to him with the drinks he was complaining that his wife's Rx wasn't back in the bag. I tried to explain that that was because it was now out of date so I kept it. He wasn't happy about that and insisted I return it. Now this guy's attendance in this place was sporadic at best so the last thing I wanted him to do was do a tour of the pharmacies for the next few months when he needed to return to the doc.

Ended up photocopying the Rx and giving him the photocopy with it stamped and marked as out of date. Wandered back inside a beaten and broken man and tried to eat some cold soggy chips.

Now I know I need to service the patient and any few minutes I get at all is a bonus. And I have no problem at all with the first few people who called in, they need their meds and that's what I'm there to do. But its just frustrating that this sort of finicky customer comes in exactly when my food does, and doesn't really tell me what he wants, and can't have it anyway. It was the only 10 minute spell in 14 and a half hours where I wouldn't have minded being left alone. Murphy's Law.

Monday, June 22, 2009

Spaced out fools

Had a guy in last Friday completely doped out of it. But in fairness he did provide one of the funniest sights I've ever seen personally in a pharmacy. Firstly and elderly gentleman came in. Had the usual elderly gentleman prescription: couple of blood pressure medications, finasteride, lipitor. While I was running it through the computer he stood by the till waiting.

One of our unfortunate homeless patients then came in. Completely spaced out of it. Drunk, stoned or both I don't know. Had his weekly prescription for about 400 valium, which the doctor had issued without even seeing him. On the other hand the hostel where this guy calls home have warned us not to dispense to him unless he is sober. This was as a result of a previous incident where the weeks supply of 400 and odd valium went 'missing' in the space of about 3 hours.

While dealing with gentleman 1's prescription and comtemplating what to do with the second guy (the doctor was gone for the afternoon) the stoner stood next to the regular guy, swaying, slurring his words and asked, "Are you getting drugs off him too? It's great isn't it? They just give ya drugs for free, like." It was comedy at it's finest.

What a lovely way to spend taxpayers money......

Pregnancy Tests

I always wonder about what to say to people who buy pregnancy tests. I mean it's pretty standard small talk for most people buying OTC medicines. Woman comes in with a headache looking for paracetamol and as she leaves you say "Ah, these should do the trick now for you". Or a man buying anti-histamines and you tell him "Ah well, hopefully these will stop the sneezing anyway".

I'm always unsure of what to say to people buying pregnancy tests. "Best of luck with that now" doesn't quite seem to fit the bill. Maybe something like, "Hope you get the answer you were looking for".

It's particularly awkward with nervous figidty boyfriends sent in by their (late) partners and they have a look of apprehension written all over their faces.

Friday, June 19, 2009

Fine-edged sword

Although I must admit, further to the previous post. It is immensely satisfying when you open a box and find exactly the number of tablets you were looking for. Patient getting their meds in weekly phases, opened up the Nebilet and found exactly 7 tablets looking back at me.

Happy days. Up there with hitting the crossbar in terms of satisfaction.

Open boxes

I can't stand having more than one open box of anything in a pharmacy. Had this problem today looking for Diovan. Three boxes on the shelf, two of them open, one of the open ones with just 3 tablets in it.

It drives me ballistic. Now I'm not an unreasonable man (believe it or not), and in a busy shop occassionally you might need to have two boxes open at the same time. But in lots of pharmacies these days you find two or three open boxes as a matter of policy. As far as I know this is a policy designed to annoy me.

And, actually, while I think of it, it is so depressing to go to a box and find one tablet in it. Especially Nexium. You need 30 grab a full box and the open box and then find that there is only one tablet in the open box. So you need to go back and get another box, open it and cut out one. I hate that.

And as for people that leave empty boxes on the shelf. Shoot them. No judge. No jury. No internment. Shoot them, straight up.

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Irish weather forecasts

Is it just me or is are Irish weather forecasts brutal? Watch the 6 or 9 o'clock news for yourself some night and see. Most of it is taken up with a review of today's weather. I don't give a shit. I lived it today - I know what the weather was like.

You then get a couple of seconds on tomorrow's weather. Now they are getting down to what we really want, but they quickly gloss over it and move on. You get a sense that they only have a passing acquaintance with tomorrow's weather rather than knowing it really well. "There'll definitely be some weather tomorrow, we just don't know what it is."

After a token few seconds about tomorrow they quickly move on to the long-range forecast, safe in the knowledge that no matter what they predict for 4 days time, everyone will have forgotten by the time it comes. Again, I don't give a shit. Tell me tomorrow's fuckin' weather please.

They are always clever enough to cover their own asses and predict rain of some sort. The phrase "with the odd scattered shower" is bandied about like confetti at a wedding, just so that from a tropical monsoon to a single drop they can say they have predicted it.

I propose an Irish solution to an Irish problem. The one-word weather forecast. A quick accurate prediction of tomorrow's weather than can be delivered in less than 15 seconds. For the rest of today I predict "Savage".

Medical Card Withdrawn

Just something I have noticed recently that really highlights the welfare society we live in and the 'grab-all' attitude of our citizens. These citizens are the same ones that cry foul at every single whisper of a rumour about corruption.....

A patient comes into the pharmacy. They have had their medical card recently withdrawn and are now a private patient and have to pay for everything (up to a max of €100 of course). But now that they have to pay they will tell you that "I don't really need the first two" or "It's only the fourth one that I actually take". Basically what they are saying is that when someone else (ie the taxpayer) is paying for their drugs they are more than happy to get everything and anything, even if they don't need it. And if they don't take it they will stockpile it in a cupboard.

It never seems to occur to them that the money that they are now 'saving' by only taking the drugs they really need the state has effectively been wasting for the last number of years. But hey, since it wasn't their money why give a shit? And lets not even get started on the future health problems, and costs, that they may be open to by not taking their prescribed drugs.....

Monday, June 15, 2009

Bad reception... or deafness

Quick rant about mobile phones. Why do people talk louder into a mobile phone than they normally talk. In olden times if you wanted to talk to someone far away you had to shout at them, the phone means this isn't necessary. Nevertheless people seem to like to share their conversation with anyone within shouting distance. It especially bugs me when these people talk at a normal level when talking into a landline.

And while I'm on the subject of mobile phones, it occasionally happens that you get a bad connection, or one of the parties has bad reception or even is deaf. In these cases, how long is it polite to shout "HELLO. HELLO. HELLO?" into the phone? How often to you see these goons walking around shouting nothing but "HELLO" into the phone at increasing decibel levels for up to a minute.

Two hellos should be a limit. If you can't hear them at that stage hang the fuck up and try again later.

Saturday, June 13, 2009

Re-dials

Have you ever answered a phone call only to find that the caller has called the wrong number. The apologise, you say that's ok and hang up. Life goes on.



Then 10 seconds later your phone rings again and it's the same muppet. They just hit re-dial.



What kind of a tool are we dealing with here? If it's the wrong number the first time you call it and you call it again it's still going to be the wrong fucking number.



Look at it this way, if they called to a house and knocked at the door only to find it was the wrong house would they walk out the drive, turn around and walk back up to the same door and knock again expecting to find a different family inside this time? Muppets....

Funny stuff

Not a rant here (for once). I recommend that Richard Pryor. What a man. Look him up on youtube if you get the chance. Comedy genius.

Kudos also to "The Inbetweeners". The British comedy on More4. Best comedy from this side of the Atlantic since "The Royale Family". Dead funny.

Some of the progammes on the Channel 4 family are ridiculous. Does anybody really care about these freaks of nature. Most of them are disturbing tv. "Addicted to Boob Jobs" for instance. Last night saw a classic of the genre: "Chopped Off: The man who lost his penis".

Next week is will probably be something even worse: "Can't Smell: The man with the blocked nose"?

Anything seen this week on Channel 4 will soon appear on TV3 anyhow, so don't fret if you missed it.

Phone calls

17:55... 5 minutes to closing time. starting to wrap up. Order sent. Verifying done. Cleaning done.


Beep beep


Phone rings. You think "bollix"


But your duty of care is to the patient so against your better judgement you pick it up and answer, "Hello xxxxx Pharmacy". And if you are really unlucky you will hear the most pointless question of all:


"Are ye still open?"


Are they for real? Obviously we are still open. Who the fuck is answering the phone if we are not open? How tempting is it to hang up at this point?

Early customers

While I think of it, is there anything more disheartening in the world than walking to work, turning the corner and seeing someone waiting outside the pharmacy. Sucks the life out of the day. Especially when they stand behind you as you unlock and open the shutters and then march in the door behind you before you even have the alarm turned off or lights turned on.

Seriously, back off, give me a minute to turn shit on or even scratch myself before you start ruining my day. I could possibly excuse or understand this if it was a serious emergency ie an epileptic mid-seizure looking for a diazepam enema. That's fine. I appreciate the gravity of that particular situation.

But someone looking for the 5 diovan tablets that we had to owe them from yesterday, that they don't even need until 3 weeks time anyway... get off my back buddy.

Public Stupidity

I was hoping to kick this blog off with a chesnut of a story that would fully illustrate the absolute stupidity of the public. One of these incidents that makes me frustrated that their vote is worth the same as mine. Sure enough, today one of these dopes walked into the pharmacy and fulfilled the stereotype.....

Woman walks in with daughter. Apparently the daughter has asthma. Luckily though its not too bad. Unfortunately the "hot weather" has made her feel much worse. The mother wanted to know would it be ok to use her daughter's unopened Ventolin inhaler. She was worried because the expiry date was November 2009 (let's not forget it's now June 2009)...

What a waste of my time. And oxygen. Does this woman walk into a shop with a bottle of milk that expires next week and ask if it's ok to drink this week? Fuckin' hell it's annoying.