Believe it or not that customer statement cleared up a lot of confusion on my part. I couldn't for the life of me understand why this man cared so much where his cephalexin came from, but the second he heard it was made by Teva, he hit the roof. This kind of thing usually only happens with the narcotic seekers.
But Teva, you see, is headquartered in Israel. A country that can ignite passions stronger than even an opiate addiction. This is why I don't have cable my friends. I was witnessing a combination of CNN and Comedy Central right in front of my eyes for free.
Except the cephalexin was prescribed to treat his daughter's ear infection. Which made the episode a little tragic as well.
So anyway, according to Abdul the Arabs are done with my store. Somehow we'll just have to get by. I hear the Jews have all the money anyway.
From knowing too much for your own good to not knowing nearly enough. Feeling generous, I asked the nice old lady customer if she would like me to ring up the other items in the cart behind her along with her prescriptions.
"I don't know" the nice old lady customer said. "Is that my cart?" She seriously had no idea. Cart determination took a good 5 minutes. That was the reward for my generosity. Lesson learned.
About an hour later a man came up to the counter with the cotton part of a Q-Tip stuck in his ear. Deep into his ear. Evidently I was the only Emergency Room in his PPO network or something.
The next person told me they needed a 20 inch Ace bandage and asked if the one labeled "Fits 18 to 21 inches" would work. One extreme to the other seemed to be the theme of the day.
Around midday a customer told me there was once a NASCAR driver named Dick Trickle. I didn't believe him, but I thought it kinda funny anyway. As the usual assortment of prior auths, refill too soons, and why is my copay so highs piled up, as I spent my day with three people simultaneously demanding my immediate attention while my own dick yearned to trickle, every once in awhile, I would think of a race car driver named Dick Trickle and chuckle. I just looked up Dick Trickle. He is real, and after the morale boosts he gave me on Friday, I cannot help but to believe he is a force for good in this world.
Of course the day ended with a customer dropping off a prescription at around the 11 hour and 59 minute mark. "The nurse at the emergency room said I should come here because the wait at Walgreen's is always so long." Such was my reward for not being a fuckup.
I thought of Dick Trickle, and ended my shift on a note of happiness as I dispensed the last of the day's Jewish antibiotics.
13 comments:
Giggling always makes it worse when you gotta go.
Monday started out with a woman accompanied by her husband, in her outstretched hand, a full weekly prescription pillbox. While her husband looked on, she had me explain to her three different ways how it was that with an increase in dosage how her box could have two 30 mg XL on Tuesday and one 60 mg XL on Wednesday.
Later, there was the tottering elderly man with elderly wife, both hard of hearing yet no visible sign of a hearing aid between them--the kind of couple that appear fragile, yet are in their 90's still driving their old Studebaker, yet have given a great-grandniece a Tercel for high school graduation so that she can commute toe community college 30 miles away, and he was asking advice for a cream because he was itching all over. After repeated and loud short replies to questions, the underlying message was delivered--'see your doctor for diagnosis'. He came back with a script for 'QUELL' for his wife. With lindane over $100.00 an ounce, we felt compelled to advise that safer (though the stuff does well for the tomato plants) Elimite or another permethrin over the counter might be in both husband and wife's best interest, no matter what generic Kwell we filled the script.
As the $4 dollar store we did a lively trade with filling and transferring scripts with the icing on the cake a 55 minute wait for RxExpress--they could've used an espresso by the time we finished with them. There were 35 scripts to be checked by the time I left and I stayed over an hour at the end of my shift. I know, I know, it's not my fault I had to leave so much for the next shift--rather their company policy for scheduling and hiring, retaining.
Chick Pea (pharmacist)
Did the shopping cart belong to the old lady? Details, man, details.
Would he have been offended by Ranbaxy cephalexin? Or did you not have a single bottle of brand Keflex? For some reason, every pharmacy I've worked in has had an abandoned bottle of Keflex gathering dust. Although if it was for his daughter, maybe it was suspension, who knows.
(But what kind of doctor writes for cephalexin for an ear infection?)
There is nothing wrong with Keflex for otitis media. Probably the second best choice after 80-90 mg/kg of amoxil.
Yeah, I had this Arab family, whose grandfather had Parkinson's disease, come in asking for Azilect (they'd read about it somewhere).
I thought it was a reasonable request, so I gave them samples, instructions, and an info packet.
They were back within the hour. After reading the info and learning the manufacturer's headquarters was in Israel, they threw the samples at my secretary, accused me of pushing a "Zionist agenda" and said they were going to find another neurologist.
Somewhere in there they completely ignored the fact that I'd only given them a medication which THEY had requested.
We have had many Muslim (not all Arabs are Muslim) demand that we never give them a Teva product. If that's all we have, we tell them they can go elsewhere. It's pretty disgusting, but we are seeing more and more of this behavior from Muslim customers...
George RX, NY
Dick Trickle.. what a name.
Damn, now I have to pee.
I wouldn't label the guy's boycotting of Israeli products "anti-semitism"... it's just like boycotting e.g. Nike, for whatever reason (likely political in this man's case). Anti-semitism would be if he went on against Jews/Arabs/Assyrians, etc (yes, the latter two are also of the "Semitic" race).
Compare this man's behaviour to the many practicing Muslims who take heparin, without knowing where it comes from. Incidentally I am both Arab and Muslim, and get an amusing response when I tell family members how heparin is made.
IMO, each to their own preferences; just wanted to clarify the "anti-semitism" claim. Love your blog btw!
Oh no, there is more to Dick Trickle than just his name.
He used to wire is own cigarette lighter in his race car and drilled a whole threw his helmet so he could insert a cig, light it and keep racing at 200mph.
He also once ate a full course meal: ham, mashed potatoes, gravy, corn and milk, during a race once.
Dick Trickle is a God.
Have you taken a look at where West-Ward's cephalexin is made?
Saudi freakin' Arabia, that's where.
Haven't had any complaints from my Jewish customers yet...
True, they universally refuse to accept the West-Ward amoxicillin, but that's because it tastes like crap, not because it happens to be made in Jordan. These days it's a toss-up between Austria and India, depending on which wholesaler gives me a better deal this week.
(Incidentally, the term anti-Semitism was coined as a more genteel euphemism for the older German term Judenhasst, or Jew-hatred, which is a term that says exactly what it means. It's never used to refer to anyone but Jews, and is something of a misnomer in any case as some of the most virulent Jew-haters in today's world are themselves descended from Semitic peoples.)
"If the Arabs didn't have anger, they would have only sand."
--Persian proverb
(Have you noticed that any culture with high anger is doomed to poverty?)
...And not all Muslims are Arabs.
Anywho, a joke:
An Irish wife says 'buy Viagra!'
A Jewish wife says 'Just buy Pfizer...'
Zing! Take that, pharmacy/ethnic jokers!
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