I saw a late showing of the film in the middle of a soul-sucking work weekend, and ended up socializing afterwards, running up a sleep debt I knew would make Sunday morning no fun. Fuck it. The release of a new Michael Moore film is like a holiday for me, and I could handle a sleep debt. Sunday's customers just better not give me any crap.
So naturally there was someone waiting for me to unlock the pharmacy as I drug my seriously sleep-deprived ass towards the happy pill room Sunday morning. I sighed to myself. Then I saw she was crying.
She told me she had been raped the night before, and asked if I sold the Plan B "so I can go home and just make this go away"
Jesus holy shit. Here's the thing. There are people who are trained to deal with these types of situations. I am not one of them. I went to school for 5 years to learn about drugs. This was taking your local community college quarterback and putting him in a game against the Pittsburgh Steelers.
I pulled her over to the counselling area as I heard the phone start to ring. "Of course I can get you the Plan B, but that will only protect you against pregnancy. There are other things to worry about, I can't do anything for you here to help with STD's. You'd need someone with prescribing authority. It would probably be best to go to the emergency room."
She almost visibly winced at the mention of "emergency room" I decided not to play the "preservation of evidence" card. I don't know why. I'M NOT TRAINED IN THESE THINGS!!!!
Was I supposed to call the police? Am I some sort of required reporter? Fuck fuck fuck.....I DON'T KNOW!!!!! I scrambled around in the pocket as Mean Joe Greene bore down to take my head off.
I got the Plan B. I picked the single-pill version. For those of you not in the profession I'll tell you Plan B originally came in a 2 pill pack, with instructions to take one tablet now and one in 12 hours. It was always an open secret, however, that you could just take both tablets at once and not lose any efficacy. So when Plan B lost its patent it came out with a single pill version and got a new patent on that. I knew it would cost her more, but in her mental state I didn't want her to hear one set of instructions from me and see another set printed on the box. I also didn't want her to take one tablet and then flip out for whatever reason and not take the second dose, so the single pill version is what I sold her. I think I completed a forward pass for a few yards with that one, but I'm not really sure.
"I hope you'll still get some medical attention" I said as three phone lines rang and someone was beating on the gate of the drop off window I had yet to open.
"Well, do you think maybe an urgent care?" She asked softly.
"It would definitely better than nothing" I said, and told her how to get to the good one. "It's a little further away, but the staff there is really good" Which was my way of saying I hoped to hell she would avoid the house of quackery that was nearby. "Let me get you their phone number"
Later, I realized that while I was in the phone book, I easily could have found the number for the rape crisis center as well. Goddamn it. Thrown back for a 20 yard sack.
I rang out the Plan B, gave her the paper with the directions and phone number for the urgent care, looked her in the eye and told her it would be OK. I don't know if I'm supposed to say something like that. She said thanks and walked out the door. I have no idea if she went to the urgent care or jumped off a bridge. I'll probably never see her again. The day before I would have told you I've been at this long enough I could handle anything a customer would ever throw at me. Now I was rattled. Totally rattled. My hands were shaking as I finally opened the gate to face the crowd of foaming at the mouth barbarians that had gathered and was now ready to subject me to all the regular retarded shit that goes on in a retail pharmacy. The barbarians would be in a mood fouler than usual because I was not opening on time.
Later that afternoon my District Manager called demanding to know if the monthly controlled substance inventory was going to be finished by the end of the day.
I drank a half a bottle of scotch that night before I fell asleep. That's not an exaggeration.
27 comments:
You did the right thing.
Yep, you did indeed do a good thing. And I'd make friends with the folks at the RCC, they're generally renewing-of-faith-in-humans-type people.
Just want to add how much I continue to enjoy your blog. Thanks!
Hey Drugmonkey,
It sounds like you did a pretty good job given the circumstances. These situations can definitely be tough, especially in a culture that promotes so much shame around sexual assault. I'm a P2, and in our first year of school we had a counseling assessment on Plan B with a "controlled patient" and even in that context there was barely any mention on what to do if a patient says she was sexually assaulted. It's messed up. How difficult would it have been to even just bring up the possibility?
I've been in somewhat similar situations in the past where I wasn't sure how to help someone who was sexually assaulted, and I really wished that I could have done more. At some point I decided to volunteer and go through a (40 hour) training to become a rape hotline counselor at a local sexual assault education and prevention organization. I'm by no means am an expert, but that experience definitely made me feel a lot more competent.
And just to let you know, it's totally appropriate for you to call a rape crisis hotline to process these sort of things, if you feel like you need to. Quite often we would get callers who were dealing with how to support a friend or family member that was sexually assaulted, etc. It's totally reasonable to feel shaken up by the situation. I'd almost say it's a good thing or I'd even be concerned if someone didn't get the least bit upset after interacting with a person who was just sexually assaulted! Your local rape crisis center can also probably give you some general legal information regarding such things as mandatory reporting (FYI, I'm not sure about California, but in the state I live in, if the assault doesn't involve a minor, there is usually no mandatory reporting required). These are good things to know, and as a compassionate and caring health care professional, it's awesome that you actually think of these things. It's fucking ridiculous the minimal amount of time we spend on developing critical empathetic thinking skills in school and/or later on in the profession. Especially considering, as you've suggested, that these interactions are an opportunity to literally save a life.
Sincerely,
A long time reader
Damn. You may not be trained, but at least you said something nice and encouraged medical care.
You did fine, DM. You pointed her to people who could take care of her immediate needs. I'm sure they'll guide her to rape crisis.
You're one of the good guys. You really are. The world would be a better place with more of you in it.
Wow! Thats a crazy story. Good of you to help her as much as you did, most people would not have been collected enough to be as useful as you were. Cheers to ya!
Wow...poor girl. I think you handled it as best you could given the situation. I hope she took you advice and sought out medical attention.
Damn. All the other people said nice things, so I'll just tell you that even if I hadn't wanted to sleep with you before, I totally do now. You're a stand up guy.
The play doesn't have to be textbook to be a touchdown.
Good work.
For what it's worth -- I feel the same about Michael Moore as you do -- only he doesn't have to lose 100 pounds for me. ;-)
PS: You did good with that woman.
Thank you for being one of the good guys. Your help and kindness probably meant so much to that young lady.
Drug Monkey- you showed me a lot of compassion when I needed it- I'm sure you showed her just as much, even if you felt out of your league.
Good for you.
~Maria :)
DM, That woman walked into your path for a reason. maybe it was for you, maybe it was for her, but probably it was for both of you. Thank you for touching all our lives.
This:
"The play doesn't have to be textbook to be a touchdown.
Good work."
Bingo. Thank you so much for having compassion and giving a shit. You made more of a difference to her than you will ever know, and I think it's very likely she DID go to the urgent care place.
You did very, very well. Perhaps you didn't receive any training in this, but you used your brain and your heart.
Thank you!
(I'm hooked on your blog, BTW.)
Holy crap Drug man. And I was worried that a customer accused me of stealing her 1996 cell phone and engaging in a conspiracy with the manager to keep her from it was a bad day.
You did exactly the right thing. Period, full stop, no argument allowed.
Yeah, you could've gotten the number for the rape crisis center, you could've done this, that, or the other thing, but dammit! You aren't trained to deal with that sort of thing. Even *with* training, it's hard to handle.
I'm patting you on the back, virtually, and I wish I could replace that half-bottle of Scotch.
You came through for her, I'm impressed, you are human after all!
...As everyone else has already said, you did an awesome thing for that woman. She needed someone to help then and you did. It doesn't matter what the help entailed. Hopefully she will seek medical advice as well, but she was lucky to have gone to your store. Well done. Not a lot of women actually seek help.... ...I didn't.... and it wasn't easy.
Good job DM. You are a good man.
You rule, I will be better prepared if this situation ever comes up. I work near the campus and sell a shit ton of plan B. It's only a matter of time before one of the 20 for the day is a similar story
With all the crap and nonsense that goes with working in medicine, it's should be reassuring to know that your bullsh*t filters won't keep you from reacting with real human emotions and kindness when someone in legitimate pain and fear comes to your door. Treasure that.
I had a similar sitution the other day. A guy was waiting for the MD to call back his refil. I noticed it was an urgent care doc, so I explained they will not ok refils. He would have to go back. He said he owed them money and couldn't go back. I suggested his regular PCP....owed them money too and was afraid to call. Then he said "I might as well just go home and end it all." WTF!!!! What was I supposed to do???? Call 911? Geez, all I could come up with is "it's going to get better." How retarded!
But don't worry about the girl. You gave her a small light at the end of a very dark tunnel. And the other customers can go to hell. You had more important things to attend to than their stupid atenolol refil that they don't really need for 5 days.
Not only did you do the right thing, but now you know the even righter thing to do the next time this happens. And, it very well may.
You are a good, kind man. I wish someone like you had been on duty at the police station where my dad took me after I had been raped at the age of 16. The policeman who interviewed me treated me as if I had "asked for it."
It's sad that your customers are so rude and impatient. I would like to stand guard at your counter and counsel them on good manners!
The other thing to think about is that you might start seeing more customers like her. If she's a teen/young adult/college student, she will most likely tell at least one of her friends what happened, and you'll be the great guy at the pharmacy who helped her.
Wish you were in my town!
love bites did I introduce you to the drug monkey or did you already know about him?
Speaking as a woman who was raped I think you did OK. You can't make it all better but you gave her the meds to prevent pregnancy.
Perhaps you could have some cards or flyers from the local rape crisis center/women's center/Planned Pareenthood to use in this situation too.
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