my new baby, only silver--mine's kinda bronzy colored, but still purty!
***yea!! got a new laptop, no longer typing away on antique dell!! now have pretty new hp w/ 17 inch screen–love love love!! plus i paid for about 1/2 so it feels more like mine, you know?***
i’m a drug dealer and i’m bilingual. well, i sell prescriptions to the depressed housewives and stressed out businessmen who can’t get it up in lg. and, ok, so i’m not exactly bilingual, but i can understand a second language that most people can’t. that language is part of my job and everyday i get better and better at reading, writing, and speaking it.
the language of pharmacy is based largely on latin and also involves a lot of abbreviations. for example, os means left eye, the “s” stands for sinister, which in latin means left– i think that’s why left-handedness was discouraged so much in the past. in my favorite novel, a tree grows in brooklyn, francie nolan is said to eat and draw with her left hand as a child, but her mother is always switching the sandwich or chalk into her right hand. this was the early-1900’s so the whole left-hand equals the devil and evil and sinister stuff goes back at least that far, probably back to when people actually spoke latin. anyway, that also applies to the ears: as = left ear, aural means ear-related and s means left. so, if i get a script that is for, say, ciprodex ear drops, it may look like so: ciprodex 7.5ml i-ii gtts as prn (translation: ciprodex, 7.5ml=size of bottle (1 ml=1 milliliter, 1 cc= 1 ml; 1 to 2 drops in the left ear as needed). i’m not sure how gtts means drops or how prn means as needed, it just does, again it can probably be traced back to latin.
as an rx tech for the past nearly eight years, i’ve become very accustomed to reading prescriptions as written by doctors who spent $100k for medical school and yet can barely write out a drug order legibly. customers often are surprised i can read chicken-scratch, but it’s like becoming familiar with another language– you can spot words you know no matter how badly it’s written out. most people could do the same if the script were written completely in plain english and if they were used to reading names of drugs, also a skill that takes time to master. figure there are over a thousand drug names, plus their chemical (or generic) names. i will be giving a little abbreviation lesson at the end of this entry…say it together now… yea!!
i’ve learned over the years how to talk to people, how to tell them shit they don’t want to hear without me getting yelled at… most of the time. every now and then you get a customer who maybe feels like shit or is in a lot of pain or just really wants to vent at you, those people refuse any explanation to any problem. like this one lady i had the other day, she came up to my drop off window and wanted us to order her an item we don’t typically stock. from what i got from her bitching, she had already asked for this item and why the hell isn’t it here and what is the problem? why is this so hard? she kept asking. then the best part: she kept repeating, “i don’t mean to be rude,” as she continued being extremely rude and extremely annoying. how many times do you have to tell someone, gee, i’m sorry about that, let me go ahead and take care of it now? when i run into trouble at a store, i allow myself to be satisfied that this person will handle my situation because they don’t want to deal with me a second time. but this bitch just kept going on and on about how someone had screwed up– it wasn’t even an important item–it was some kind of bandage. i told her if it was that important to have today then she should go to a medical supply store, a place much more likely to have that kind bandage than our little drug store. but noooooo. that wasn’t what she wanted and that’s all there was to it. she bitched and moaned until two of us had assured her the item would arrive the next a.m. and one of us would call her when it arrived. it took like 10 minutes, she blocked up my drop off window the whole time, never apologized for being hella rude (so rude the customers waiting behind her were rolling their eyes and sighing and giving me sympathetic looks), then after she got her shit the next day as promised she transfered all her family’s rxs to the pharmacy across the street. let me just say: boo freakin hoo. fyi: if you’re an asshole/bitch to me i’m not gonna cry when you promise to stop coming to my store! those rude-ass people think they’re breaking my heart by leaving, but i’m just glad to be rid of you!
ugh, i could rant all day, so i’ll spare you and just go right ahead with the language lesson…
typical rx (although it looks to me like someone tampered with the quantity & refills...)
ok, so here’s a pretty normal looking rx for lipitor 10mg (it helps to know what strengths drugs come in so if someone gives you a prescription either missing a strength or with an incorrect one, you can get it fixed as quickly as the law and the prescriber will allow) that reads i po qd #200– so the md wants 1 tablet taken orally every day, but most likely the script will only get filled for #30 or #90, depending on the insurance limitations. here are some more abbreviations and their english translations:
numbers for daily doses (ie 1-2 tablets per day) are typically written in roman numerals (i, ii, iii, iv, v… etc.) ud= as directed // sid= once daily // bid= twice daily // tid= three times daily // qid= four times a day // q hs= every night at bedtime //q pm= every evening // q am= every morning // sx= symptoms (can also mean surgery) // tx= treatment // sl= sublingually, under the tongue// wc= with meals // wf= with food // prn= as needed // prn pain, pp= as needed for pain // sp= spray // nos= nostril // pv= vaginally, per vagina // rec= rectally // supp= suppository // tb= tablet // cp= capsule // d= daily // sob= shortness of breath // q _ hrs= every x hours // aa= affected area(s) // top=topically // app= apply or application // uat= until all taken, until gone // diss= dissolve // tsp= teaspoonful // tbl= tablespoonful // gtt(s)= drop(s) // ins= instill (for eye drops) or insert // cwr: call when ready // mg= milligram // mcg= microgram //g= gram (=1,000 milligrams) conversion: there are about 20 drops in each milliliter (ml, cc) // conversion: there are about 5 ml in a teaspoonful, 15 ml in a tablespoonful, so 10 ml or cc is the equivalent of 2 teaspoonfuls, etc. // cII= class 2, schedule 2 drugs– these include drugs like methadone, morphine, percocet, oxycontin, ritalin, etc. and require special, controlled script blanks like these:
controlled rx blank-- for the good shit 🙂
this is a typical controlled blank for the state of california (other states are probably less rigid) and have special security features. they can have watermarks, like money, some have the word “void” hidden in the background so if the script is copied it will say void all over it, and some have little spots that if you rub or breathe on the spot will change color or disappear. very fancy. cIII’s like vicodin, norco, xanax, etc. also have to be on these blanks in order to be filled, but those ones are also allowed to be called in over the phone or faxed in to the pharmacy, whereas the other class, cII, must be handwritten, signed and dated and if any of those 3 are missing than the script is worthless. this poses quite a few problems each week since not all mds remember or know to do these things. it can be a bit of a hassle. to be considered valid the handwritten perfect rx must be brought in in person. very strict. the only way to get around those rules is if you’re literally dying and on hospice care, then the hospice nurse can call in something like morphine for you using an override code that the pharmacist has to write on the rx so the dea (drug enforcement agency) don’t get their panties in a twist.
isn’t my job super interesting? well, now i’ve imparted some of my valuable knowledge to the public so next time you get a new prescription you can look at it first and make sure your md didn’t f-up and maybe make sense of the chemical you’re about to put in or on your body. have fun!
***this entry is dedicated to my friend and co-worker, lucy p. she died on monday from metastatic lung cancer. she was the most outgoing, most friendly, and all around nicest person i’ve ever had the pleasure of meeting. i know all who knew you will miss you (that’s a lot of people!), but i just wanted you to know how much i cared for you and how much i will miss you– you were gone so fast i never had a chance to tell you. may you walk with the angels, and your beloved husband who passed before you. i hope there are “i love lucy” re-runs in heaven for you. goodbye, lucy.***
dans la 408 