Nov. 13/05

The last of my 10 day antibiotic course was choked down last night and I do not have much use anymore for the 2 inhalers that I was also prescribed 10 days ago. My mom has many of the same symptoms so I am saving the inhalers in case she needs them. Yeah, I know, I am going against the advice that I give people all of the time about sharing medication! Besides the lack of energy and the fever, the worst of the bronchitis had to have been the incessant cough. For a few days there, I coughed around the clock despite the puffers and the hit of codeine cough syrup that I would take before going to bed.

I just remembered the pharmacy story that I wanted to share this week. One of the things that irritate me the most at my pharmacy is that people feel free to lean over the vitamins and ask me questions while I am filling prescriptions. It is like they totally forget in their rush to have THEIR question addressed that I might be doing something like filling prescriptions if my head is down. One lady did that to me the other day and then she got annoyed with me because I made her wait until I was done the prescription for a customer who was waiting and then came out of the pharmacy to address her question. She wanted to talk to me over the vitamin shelves even though she was not even as tall as the shelving and I could not talk loudly because of the bronchitis. Then, she asked me a question about one vitamin and before I could spit out more than a word or two in answer, she waved an herbal product in front of me and asked a question about that. My poor exhausted brain could not handle it and my lack of sleep had made me irritable so I stopped and asked her what she was asking me about because they were questions about 2 completely different things. Every time I tried to answer her questions, she kept talking and repeating herself until I finally said, "Look! Here are your options. You decide." and I walked away because I had to cough. I know on one level that it is not good customer service, but I refuse to let the customers run roughshod over me because they feel a sense of entitlement as the customer. They would not appreciate the attitude in return if I behaved in the same manner towards them in their work place.

Nov. 3/05

Being sick these past few days has given me time to think in between sleeping for hours on end. It has also reminded me that I probably will be one of the crankiest people ever if I develop a chronic, debilitating disease. Not being able to function normally for a few days has made me irritable as I consider all of the things I would have been doing if I was not shivering in bed. The worst was not being able to have coffee with my best friend because she is a nurse and does not want to get sick and pass it along to her patients.

The other day, I was reading the blog of the medical student which is highlighted on the blogs of note list and I got to thinking about some of the craziness that goes on in front of and behind my pharmacy counter. My favourite this week was a woman who showed me her patient instruction sheet from her physician. Keep in mind that she has just had a hysterectomy and had developed a UTI and likes to ask questions for the sake of asking questions. The sheet said that she was not to have sex for 6 weeks. In all seriousness, she looked at me and said, "What does that mean?".

My other favourite this week was a woman who wanted to ask some questions about her prescriptions. No problem, until she hauled the items out of her purse and they had labels from another pharmacy.

I was asked to check on drug interactions for one of my customers. I was appalled that one of the manufacturers involved did not bother to do drug interaction studies when they brought the drug to market, especially since it is used for rheumatoid arthritis and anyone who is familiar with RA knows what a cocktail of drugs those patients usually take. Glad to see that HPB is looking out for us.

Oct 18/05

Daylight Savings Time has just been adjusted back to Standard Time here so I am enjoying a lazy morning, chuckling to myself that my sloth is okay even though it is past noon in my biological clock. Oh well, the lazy morning is giving me time to ruminate over my to-do list for today which is not getting done and other little things that are going on in my life.

I recently started reading "Acadien pour de bon", a children's story about living in Acadia. The interesting part for me is that I am reading the french translation which I found recently in the books being donated for the Rotary annual used book sale. Apparently, the six years of french immersion are still stored somewhere in my brain because I am reading it without translating to understand although I am reading very slowly.

One of my neighbours had her house egged last night. I came across one our local RCMP officers who was walking around her property as I was out walking the dog.

My brother, his 2 year old son and I carved some pumpkins yesterday in preparation for the ghouls and goblins tomorrow night. We have not done that since we were kids, but it was lots of fun. I have to assemble a costume for work tomorrow and do some decorating to welcome the little tricksters at the door tomorrow evening.

Oct 10/05

There have been alot of thoughts rumbling around my brain about the truths as we see in ourselves and what we let others see. My pen and ink diary entry last night was an exploration to the true answer as to why I am not married and the answer I give publicly versus the answer I know to be the full truth. Alot of the musing has been provoked by something else dealing with someone else who is unable to see some truths about herself and I was blamed for her current state of unhappiness. Pretty vague in the telling, I know, but.....

Why do we lie so much to ourselves and others? All it achieves for me is a feeling of being twisted up into emotional knots and spending a great deal of time trying to see my way through the self-induced fog. Some one once said to me that with me, what you see is what you get and I took that to be a compliment. Falseness and deception are things that I try to avoid. Most times, it means that I do not play the social game very well, but that is okay if it means that I am true to myself.