Yeah, whatever…….
Pharmacy should come with a warning for future students. I think something along the lines of this would be good:
"WARNING: Pharmacy is NOT as lucrative as it appears. The ones who have the money are vindictive bastards, governments, or cold high-street or supermarket chains who will flog your acquired knowledge, skills and will test your patience. Pharmacy is not a career option-it is a lifestyle. If you embrace it, you are embracing a 24/7 job, with limited opportunities (unless your dad owns a pharmaceutical company) and shite pay. Your health will always be at risk from the infected, the mentally ill, the addicted and vindictive old women.*"
*Pharmacy will turn you from a person with ideals and values, into a person with IBS and dissatisfaction. Ulcers have been reported.......
I wish someone had told me about the health risks involved when I took on the notion of being a "respected" pharmacist (hahahahahaha) 10 years ago as I was making my career choices in school. I was....enamoured by the thought that I could be in control and still have a life-working 9-5, having holidays, getting paid well and all for giving advice and handing out drugs.....
10 years later. I'm 27 and already varicose veins are showing from years of standing, running and jumping to attention <Heil Mein Patient!!!>., Everywhere I look, GPs are immortal, nurses are queens (I don't envy them, sometimes they get it just as bad as we do) and I am the patients' (NOT customers!) worst enemy. But enough about my dissatisfaction with pharmacy in general-I have found a shining light, and hopefully this time next year I will be an expert in the field of diabetes-and a supplementary prescriber, prescribing set drugs within a budget for certain patients.
Anyway, to the title of my blog. A patient, in her 70s, is quite able to move around (this pisses me off as she gets deliveries of drugs free to her home EVERY week). So much so, that she was able to manoevure her way down to the pharmacy to have a go at me yesterday. (Brief history-she's a right royal pain in the hole that my predecessor nannied, which I have no intention of doing-I prefer "tough love").
So, she says "why isn't the senna in a box?" . Me " It only comes in tubs now Mrs S."
Mrs S "Why?" Me "You'll have to ask our wholesaler that Mrs S. I can't dictate what they send in."
Mrs S "Well, what about this then? I always get paracetamol (acetaminophen) capsules"
So, I went, dug out the prescription, and showed her that the GP had prescribed TABLETS, and that 1) I can only dispense what the GP tells me to, and 2) that her problem was with the practice, not with me. I think it's one of the few times I have actually been pushed to the point of actually wanting to physically throw a patient out. She is the most horrible old doll in the universe-and as she left I said to my assistant "I wish she'd get flattened by a bus or drop dead". Her attack on me led me to forget the more important stuff-luckily I sorted out scripts for my three patients on palliative care (i.e. death row), but forgot to get the methadone/physeptone ordered in for this week. I can do it tommorrow-it'll just be tough dealing with grumpy addicts until after 4.30pm....<sigh>
I am anticipating something will happen to her-I'll probably walk into work tommorrow and hear the news that she DID drop dead....but then I'm not that lucky......
It's only my duty to help her to extend her life-though why should I when there are so many others who are in real need? She needs a dose of reality. I may have been baptised a Catholic, I don't go to mass, and I may not believe in God....but I know right from wrong-and yet....I can do nothing..but dish up that cantankerous c**ts cocktail of drugs until the day she leaves.
At the end of the day, when MY life span is up and the reaper comes, I want to be able to look back and say "Yeah, I was good at my job. I had a life and made a difference in others too. I wasn't a bad person, but I was tough because I had to be. And at least I made a difference in a good way-not sniping or being rude-for in the end I am only human."
"yeah lil' laura....whatever....."
Rant over.....now.
"Omnipotent" Assholes and Dirty Ol' (wo)Men….
This post comprises of the last few weeks of work, which have been unusually uneventful for me.... I start to worry as NOTHING EVER goes quietly for me. I couldn't write as the last post dive bombed, so I'll see how this goes, and if I cock up, I shall blog no more.
The *Angriest* one's funniest post to date (IMHO) comprised of a complete arse of a "pharmacist" (no way was that real) trying to communicate with a patient (which makes me think it is a couple of medical students taking the piss out of our profession-because doctors don't know or care how the drugs work).
There are two types of medical students-the chilled and relaxed (the minority) and the stressed and partied out (the majority, that become "omnipotent" assholes). So unfortunate that my little sister will fall into the latter category, though my blog is fast becoming an icon amongst the med students in her class-not quite what I intended!! Though a few have decided to try dentistry instead....as they now fear the wrath of the pharmacist!!
Omnipotent....used when describing a god because they are faultless and are never wrong, they know everything. Doctors may play with lives and like to play god, make mistakes like all humans do (otherwise they'd never learn ANYTHING-and usually we pharmacists are their reference guide) yet know FUCK ALL. I always laugh when a patient says they'd rather take their doctors word for it....because the very next week they are banging down your door because the doctor couldn't be bothered with them! For example, yesterday I had to call for an ambulance for a patient who was suffering from severe dehydration after a bout of food poisoning-which the GP dismissed as "hyperchondrical".....(fucking knob).
A local doctor (the same one as above, ahem) made the mistake of missing a patients adverse drug reaction to ibuprofen (Advil). I spotted it, reported it and did my duty. The doctor said to just dispense the prescription ("omnipotent" asshole). I told the patient that if he had any further trouble to talk to the doctor, as I was overruled. Like Pilate, I washed my hands....
Now, for the Dirty Ol' (wo)men. Now, you'd think that for all the censorship, rules and regs we have to face in our personal lives, that those that set the standard originally would adhere to it-apparently this is not the case in Bonnie Scotland....
Last week, a woman, in her 70s asked to speak to me. In front of other customers, she proceeded to describe how itchy her lips were and that the doctor had given her a cream for them. I could see nothing wrong, until she uttered the words that nearly put me off sex for life "NO, not those lips dear. The lips DOWN UNDER" and pointed. Nice. Then there's the "confident" (i.e. limp) men over the age of 60 getting Viagra for free, and they ALWAYS wink at me when I hand them their items (shudder). The worst has to be a man in his 90s (yes, over NINETY YEARS OLD), telling me that my name was very "Victorian" and he imagined me in a corset and crinoline dress... Never have I felt so used....
I think as a pharmacist you develop immunity as you always have to appear professional. When it happens to my staff though, I really laugh. These are women 20 years older than me, and they still get embarrassed, even though they've probably seen it all before! A member of my staff got very embarrassed the other day as she was witnessing a man take his trousers off-she froze and didn't know what to do! Thankfully he had another pair on under them! HAHAHAHAHA! I stood watching her face getting redder and him wrestling with his trousers in front of a shop full of people. Fair enough, I probably should have intervened, but I couldn't. (Probably the reason why I have an impacted wisdom tooth now, and am on antibiotics-which means that the alcoholic beverages are out for the next week, and the pain of it makes me VERY bitchy.Karma).
TAestP Twitter
- Does anyone else find it sickening that more than 1300 people give a shit what my thumbs say here? I'm proud and amazed. 10 hrs ago
- Another show that I think is funny: MTVs "I just want my pants back." So, I'm 18. Fuck me. I just like the show. Watch it. Or don't. IDGAF. 10 hrs ago
- Anyone that doesn't love #TheFinder GFY! 1 day ago
- "I'll do anything! I'll get in my bra and you can throw nails at me..." 4 days ago
- I don't know exactly why but I fucking love #FranklinAndBash 5 days ago
- Ok. I'm thoroughly impressed with #TheFinder on Fox Thursdays -- everyone should watch and/or DVR. 1 week ago
- Bitches be triflin'! That bitch said she wanted some. Then what happened? I had a drink and she fell asleep! Bollocks I say!!!! 1 week ago
- It does wonders for my funny bone. 1 week ago
- More updates...
Loading ...
^ Use this image to advertise this site! ^