“Expecting to much of people?” NOT!
Several days ago I went to my local CVS to pick up a prescription I had filled, I asked the technician what the half life of the drug was (A quick layman’s definition would be A medication’s half-life is the time it takes for the plasma concentration of a drug to reach half of its original concentration. More simply put, the half-life of a drug is how long it takes for half of it to be eliminated from the bloodstream.) I already had a basic idea as I am familiar with this drug but I wanted to check my info against theirs.
The tech looked at me and said "Do you mean when does your prescription run out?" To which I replied "No I want to know what the half life of this particular drug is, could you find out for me please?" After standing there with a blank look on her face she says "I’m sorry I don’t know what you mean" I explained what the terminology meant at which point she still looked befuddled and ran into the back and came out with the Pharmicist the Pharmiscist looks at me puzzled and says "So you want to know when this medicine expires?"
RIght about now I felt the pressure in my head building and out of fear that my head would explode I again explained what the terminology meant, at which point the Pharmacist obviously struggling began the double speak of a politician to talk but not actually say anything in order to apeaze me, I just said "Thank you and walked away"
I later verified my own answer and I was correct but shouldn’t we all be confident that a pharmacist should be able to answer such a question?
Mostly I am just venting a bit but wow if niether one of them knew the answer then what else may they have fudged a answer too that may have seriously impacted someone’s life?
Take care and do your research ask questions until you are satisfied that you have the correct answer, Medication is serious business.
October 2, 2009 at 12:39 pm
Great blog! You are so right.
Wendy
October 2, 2009 at 12:53 pm
Nursing student here, .knows that’s very important.
Scary they didn’t know!
October 2, 2009 at 12:59 pm
Thanks for the responses I hope my entry plants a seed in a few people’s head, I have a fairly extensive medical background and health and Fitness is my business so while I may be more apt to ask these questions unfortunately it is not commonplace enough for the majority of people to ask, but it is so very important it could literally mean someone’s life.