What’s been going around

Posted by The *Angriest* Pharmacist as Work Sucks

NOTE: Please vote in the poll in the right sidebar (if you care about the theme). I’ll make a ruling (and it looks like be changing the theme back or to something new) later this week. If you have a specific comment, send it to me via the CONTACT link above. Picture of the ORIGINAL THEME!

Honestly, I think this is one of the dumbest things I hear day-in and day-out. “I’ve got a runny nose and cough — ya know, the stuff that’s been going around.”

Ladies and gentlemen, I am a pharmacist. I have my hand on the pulse of the healthcare community. I know when a doctor is seeing patients, because I see 5 straight patients each getting a Zpak (which is fucking stupid) or 10 scripts for 4 ounces of Cheratussin. I can honestly tell you, that something, “just going around” is a stupid attribution that I hear all the time…and for whatever reason, just irks me.

People get sick. Even the healthiest people on the planet are susceptible to disease and illness caused by bacteria and virus — but attributing your illness to “what’s going around” just sounds retarded. Why? Because even if you’re afflicted with vomiting and diarrhea, and I’ve only treated sniffles and sneezes all day, I can bet (with a 95% CI p<0.05) you’re going to tell me, “it’s the same gunk that’s been goin’ around.”

I realize that certain bacteria/virus can run rampant occasionally. A strain of Hepatitis A got loose at an area local high school because some nasty kid took a shit, didn’t wash his hands, and decided it’d be a good idea to lay his fingers all over the drinking fountains. I guess one could say it went around, but I promise you on the days I’m treating all that diarrhea with loperamide/education, someone came in complaining of contact dermatitis and said it was going around…

 Email Post to a Friend

     Or Print it...