if only i knew. i wanted to help but.....

Pharmacist is the most accessible first line healthcare professionals to the public; there is no appointment needed, no consultation fees charged and sometimes no respect is shown. Little appreciation is shown - most of the time pharmacists are expected to finish any dispensing at light-speed, such is the high bar of the public. There is absolutely no reason for their scripts to take such a long time to be ready.

Abusive and/or customers are a common sight in a community pharmacy, nice friendly regulars too present each day in the very same exact place. There is no way to tell the former or the latter is greater in numbers but one thing for sure, most of the customers are in between both extremes. They could be one of the one-time- customers in your pharmacy, to purchase a specific product they already have in mind. They just need a means - a pharmacy to get the medication.

Prices are generally not a concern of the locals around here, many would not mind paying a higher price, such is a phenomena I seen far too many times, the same thing at a much cheaper price available at supermarket a stone throw away and yet they chose to shop in the pharmacy. Having said that, once in a while, someone of a tighter financial background, struggle to make ends meet would walk into the pharmacy. Every penny matters for this group of community and if they need two different medications, more often than not, they could only settle for one.


She came in, looking to get something to "cure" the fever and runny nose of a child. On questioning, she gave the child paracetamol the night before and it stops the runny nose and the child shown some improvement before reverting back to the same symptoms. Well, paracetamol is not supposed to have any vasoconstriction effect. My pharmacist recommended two different products, one for the runny nose and the other for the fever.

She settled for the one to dry the nasal passage. She ran out of paracetamol the night before. I would have persuaded her to treat the fever instead.

It is really not up to us sometimes, not everyone is born with a silver spoon, how true is that. We wanted to help but.....

She came in, wanting to buy ibuprofen for a 5 years old child. Fever and diarrhea are the two major symptoms. The ibuprofen is intended to reduce the fever and she wanted something to stop the diarrhea.

The only preparation I know, loperamide 2mg is not intended for use on child under 12 of age. I tried recommending Oral Rehydration Therapy (ORT).

She has a feeling that the child would not take it and declined.

I was trying to convince her to make a switch to paracetamol as anti-pyretic for fear NSAID ibuprofen would irritate the gastrointestinal more.

She did not take my advice, apparently the child's grandma would only swear by ibuprofen.

I was trying hard to recall if my lectures did mention any treatment for child under 12 but to no avail. Bulking agents did not come hit me in the head. The other person in the pharmacy, my pharmacist is busy serving other customers and the lines behind are getting long.

Many of those who present themselves in a pharmacy with diarrhea would expect an instant cure. I have failed so many times to try to convince them to get ORT; to be honest, I have yet to succeed once.

We learn the ideal treatment during lectures but things have their own way in a real world, there are simply too many factors we could not control, such is with our life too.

Clinical management of acute diarrhea - here - World Health Organization and UNICEF recommend the usage of 20 mg of zinc daily to reduce the severity and duration of acute diarrhea.

If only I knew. I wanted to help but.....

you bitch!

That was on my mind.

I do not have any problem with customers but sometimes they do with me, when I do not comprehend them. Language still is an on-going issue for me, although not that frequent. It is that simple.

She came in two weeks ago, old, grumpy and with his son always by her side. I could tell her son could not take her either. She wanted paracetamol, ibuprofen, bisacodyl suppository, diclofenac sodium gel and few others things. She is old, I know, but she is demanding. I am demanding too at times, I am fine with that.

The problem is, she has difficulty swallowing large tablets, something I perfectly could understand, because she is old. Your body just have to remind you about your age, how you are not as fit, your health is deteriorating, you getting less sleep, fatigue kicks in even before you complete a simple task. Everyone will age, I understand.

The thing is, she does not know that being the most famous brand does not mean that they have the smallest dosage form available, and I am talking about the size of tablets. I was merely exploring the options of generic, not that I did not get her.

She has one sole purpose, to locate the smallest tablets and she would be very happy. So there I was, tampering with the packaging so that she could have a look at the size of the tablets herself and decide whether she would be able to get those tablets down her throat. It was not a single pack I messed with, I opened a few boxes knowing that I should not have, the thing is - she is old. Tamper evident packaging will have to come after her old age. She is old, she is old, she is old.

She was losing her patience when I showed her the size of Nurofen tablets, not that I am involved in any way of coming out with those insanely huge tablets she could choked on. She settled for liquid capsules at the end of the day and I did not told her that the capsules are likely more difficult to swallow. I just want to cease the interaction. She was getting on my nerve although she is old.

The blister pack is creamy in color thus, size of tablets or capsules is not visible unless I popped one out.

She had a script to be filled. It is not my fault that Ducolax ran out of stock, it has been a few weeks. I told her that and offered her alternative. She settled for my choice and being a nice old lady, she told her son in front of me that I do not get her. She must be happy because she managed to get all the stuff she wanted except Dulcolax because I was certainly not.

Some people just need to work on their mannerism, you do not talk bad about strangers in front of them. No excuse even when you are old. Being old does not mean you are pathetic superior. I should probably have mentioned that the combination product for cold, flu and cough your son bought is only to be used on dry cough but I could not be bothered. I just want to cease the interaction.

I was not sure why was I angry but I just need to get it out now.

The bottom line is, when I do go extra miles for someone, they should be a little nicer - reciprocal favor. I was trying to be nice over there. Of course there are many nice customers out there, but bad experiences do carry more weights and customers are going to lose out on valuable counseling points.

If your attitude defines who you are, then by definition I hate you. You were a bit** that day, you accused me.

underworld elixir, toilet trips, throat slap

She came in complaining of a chesty cough, green phlegms and sore throat. She then asked for my recommendation before requesting an ammonia and senega mixture. I did not even have the chance to finish my Q on nasal congestion.

Now, the tricky part. Do I say
A. "oh hey, that is good shit yea, it works like magic cure."
or
B. "I don't know much about that, happy to assist if you are considering other products."

I am still not in favor of the efficacy of the product, not I am being bitchy but just practicing evidence based approach. If you have a product in mind, go ahead and request it, that makes two happy person instead of me doing futile effort trying to identify a suitable product for you.



She came in complaining of a tight chest with little to no phlegm. I grabbed an mucolytic and suppressant combination.

"I would definitely recommend this, pholcodeine to suppress the constant urge of coughing and bromhexine to loosen the sputum making them easier to cough out."

"Is it suitable for asthmatic?"

*RED FLAG - suppressant and asthmatic*

Before I could say anything, she reads my face and insists that she will take it.

"Is your asthma well under control?"

She ignored my Q and proceed to grab her purse.

"Make sure you monitor your asthma condition."

He came in asking for Stingose -treatment for insects bite; active ingredient - aluminium sulfate.

"Well, we have spray, gel, big bottles, small tubes."

"All the same?"

"Same stuff in it. Is it for insect bites? I would suggest you go for Paraderm Plus instead - with the antiseptic, local anesthetic to numb to pain and an anti-inflammatory to help with inflammatory, it is way better than Stingose as Stingose needed to be applied to affected area as soon as possible for it to work, preferably within 20 minutes."

He still bought Stingose after much consideration. Grrrrrrrrr..........



He came in asking for diarrhea treatment.

"Is it for you?"

"Yes."

"How long has it been?"

"A week or so."

*My eyes were wide opened*

"Traveled anywhere recently?"

"Not for the past three weeks."

"I have GastroStop for you and it is basically Imodium with a much cheaper price."

*Both contains loperamide*

"I just want it to stop, price doesn't matter.So, which of them work better?"

"Same stuff in it. Take two immediately and they should stop your diarrhea, if not take another one for each subsequent loose motion"

"How many can I take a day?"

*Shocked by his Q*

"Normally you won't need more than 3 or 4."

"I will see a doctor on Monday if it doesn't helps."

I think I could have done better with advice of letting the diarrhea continues, you do not want to treat a diarrhea unnecessary.



She came in looking for cheapest paracetamol.

"100 of them for 5.95, definitely a deal."

"What? You can get 100 tablets over here? We can only get a pack of 36 back home. What are people using them for? This is insane!"

"Remember not to exceed 8 tablets per day."

"Yes yes. I knew about that."

He came in with a bad one-week sore throat (RED FLAG), complained about difficulty in swallowing (RED FLAG), pain, loss of voice, Strepsils not helping, took some pain killers etc.

I grab Strepsils with local anesthetic and Betadine sore throat gargle.

"This will helps with the pain and this will helps to get rid of the sore throat."

"Don't you think your sore throat is serious?"

"Yea, but I have been drinking as well."

"Okay, you must not exceed 8 lozenges per day and make sure you are extra careful with hot beverages. The lozenges will numb your whole mouth so you won't feel anything until the beverages is down your throat burning it."

Assistant 1 later commented that someone asked her before if taking a shot of vodka would help to kill the germs.

"Why he doesn't think his sore throat is serious?"

"Guys just drag along basically?"

A day in a pharmacy.