These People Should Not Have Children

You can say I am crass for making such a statement, but I really don't care. This is how I truly feel. Stupid people should not be having children. I don't care if their stupidity harms themselves, but I get angry when I know children who have to rely on adults are harmed as a result of their parents' stupidity.

Case 1:
My patient. Doctor ordered 5mg of medicine C to be taken twice a day. Since there is no 10mg tablet in the market, I told the dad he should give half a tablet twice a day. He left after paying up for the medicine. Came back 10 mins later, claiming I gave the wrong instruction. According to patient's dad, who must have failed primary school Math, 5mg is should be a quarter tablet not half. *roll my eyes*

Told him that 10 divided by 2 is 5, so half a tablet is correct. He then insisted the last time we dispensed 5mg tablets to him and he gave his child half of the "5mg tablet", which I must say again is non-existent in the global market. Guess what, when I checked the history, the patient had always been instructed to take half of the 10mg tablet, so the only conclusion I can draw is the parents have been giving 5mg twice a day, but are hallucinating that they are giving half of the non-existent 5mg tablet.

Anyway, he then argued that we, as in the pharmacist and doctor, were overdosing his son, that the dose should have been 2.5 twice a day and not 5mg twice a day. Kept insisting that he was given the wrong instruction, until I told him to go back and talk to the doctor. That was the last I saw of him on that day. I know the doctor had set him right, but still I wonder what kind of care the parents are giving their son.

Case 2:
My senior's patient. According to my senior, the parents just cannot be bothered and do not understand the severity of their child's condition, and it has been such since the time he was an inpatient pharmacist. As a side note, my senior was an inpatient pharmacist more than 2 years ago.

One of the patient's diurectics need to be specially prepared by the lab into a syrup form for ease of administration. Problem is our lab syrup does not contain preservatives, therefore it is only stable for a month from the day of manufacture. When the parents were reminded that they have to come back monthly to collect the syrup, they never followed the instrutions. According to my senior, they will just let the patient go for weeks without medicine.

In the end, my senior chose to dispense the medicine in the form of tablets; teaching the parents how much water to add to one tablet and then syringing out the required volume for consumption. As the parents look like intellectual low-lives, my senior was sincerely worried the parents will not be doing the dilution properly, but there is only so much we can help the patient.

Something just came to mind. Maybe they are tired of looking after a perpetually sick child, so they decided to slowly "kill" their child by depriving him of the medicines that can stabilise his condition.

Case 3:
A renal patient whose condition has worsened to the extent that the consultant is recommending dialysis. The parents were informed of the consultant's recommendation when the patient was warded, but they told the consultant they needed some time to break the news to their child.

A few months later, they are still deciding whether to let their child go for dialysis despite the consultant telling them their child's condition has worsened. They kept delaying. The reason they gave was this is a major decision so they need to consider and to mentally prepare themselves.

I don't know how long this child is going to last in this world under the care of such stupid parents.

And I Almost Cried

I don't mean cry as in cry with frustration. I really do mean cry as in sad.

See what happened was this old lady came to collect glucosamine and chondroitin for her joint problems yesterday. Unfortunately, the hospital does not stock any generic versions of it so she had to take the branded one. When informed of the price she was flustered because she did not bring enough money. She calmed down after I explained to her that she can collect the supplement by installments. Maybe just take 1 or 2 bottles first, finish up, then collect the remainder.

She followed my advice and took 2 bottles with the promise that she would return soon to collect the remainder. I reassured her that there is no hurry for her to collect the remainder as 2 bottles will last her 2 months, giving her ample time till the next collection.

To my surprise, she turned up at my counter today to collect the remainder from the prescription. However, she must have misheard me from yesterday with regards to the price. She had thought it was just $200 for the remainder when in fact it was actually $240. Something struck me when she tried to pay me. I at least saw a fifty dollar note yesterday, but today, it is all in ten and two dollar notes, and they look slightly crumpled like those were all her entire possession. When she realised she need to pay another $40, she quietly opened her purse and started pulling out whatever money she has to make up the $40; all in two dollar notes if you care to know.

She did not grumble about the cost, and maintained a cheerful disposition throughout. From her looks I know she cannot be well-off. Having to fork out $200+ at one go must really take some effort. When I received the last $40 I can feel a sting in my eyes. Asked her if she still has enough change to get home, she nodded and gave me a wry smile. I know life is not fair, but knowing somebody like her who can really benefit from some financial help and yet not receiving any really makes me want to cry.

7K 7 Days a Week

Sometimes it makes you wonder why people just cannot see the little and most commonsense thing that is making them uncomfortable enough that they had to see a doctor. Take this uncle, for example, who came to collect glucosamine from me.

We went through the usual charade of checking for identification and drug allergies before I start explaining to patient what glucosamine is for and how he was suppose to take it. Talk about not judging a book by its cover, uncle obviously had problem understanding me when I tried telling him the glucosamine is to help build up the cartilage in the joints. He went, "Huh?" and asked me what glucosamine is used for. Duh, did I not just explained? If you're thinking he is some ancient who can probably only speak Hokkien, you are so wrong. I am talking about somebody who can speak fluent English, but the word "cartilage" is probably not in his dictionary. Anyway, I went through a slightly longer explanation about the aging process, wear and tear, and "this gel-like thing" that functions like a cushion for our joints whenever we move.

After that he started asking me if glucosamine will give him cramps. It is very important to him that glucosamine should not give him cramps in his legs as he is an avid jogger. "7 klicks 7 days a week," according to the proud declaration from this uncle. Inside of me I went, "Ah... this explains a lot."

7km 7 days a week. Is this uncle crazy?! Any avid jogger knows that jogging is a high impact sport that puts a lot of stress on the joints in the legs. That is why you do not jog everyday, considering your job is not to run a marathon. Man, you got to have days when you just do light jogging of 2-3km or maybe do some other low impact cardio sports eg. swimming or going on an elliptical machine in the gym. Jogging the way he does is going to wear out his cartilage faster than I do when I was playing softball. And he wonders why he needs to take glucosamine... *roll my eyes*