The Crazy World of Pharmacy

I went to work yesterday after an extremely long break and I had almost forgotten how silly some people were! The day was going great until about noon and then it started to get kind of hilarious/annoying/stupid. Here's why -

12.30pm

Customer - Hey I need to get a refill for my mom.

Me- Sure, what medication does she need?

Customer - I dont know. Its a tiny white colored pill.

Me - Umm, Ma'am. There are a lot of white colored pills in this pharmacy. Do you know what its for? Maybe I can look into her profile and see.

Customer - I'm not quite sure. I think its for her muscles.. or her bones.
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1.15pm

Me (on the phone) - Walgreens Pharmacy! May I help you?

Customer - Oh great! Are you guys open today?
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1.40pm

Old Customer (on the phone) - I bought some medications last night and I have some questions about them.

Me - Sure, what can I do for you today?

Old Customer - I got some Ventolin and on here it says "Quantity - 18" but I only see 1 bottle in this bag.

Me - Um, Ma'am. That quantity is in grams. It comes as an 18g bottle.

Old Customer - I see. And then my suppositories. They're not very effective.

Me - Lets see. Are they breaking into pieces or melting before you use them?

Old Customer - Oh no no. Thats not the problem. They're in a single piece and proper shape.

Me - Are there some parts of the foil wrapper being stuck to them?

Old Customer - There's a wrapper around it?!
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3.00pm

Customer - I heard there's a new product, I forgot what its called now.. But if you take it before eating your meal, it doesn't give you gas.

Me - I think you're talking about Beano. Its that little bottle on the last aisle right there. *Pointing to where it is* 

Customer (goes to look for it and comes back to the pharmacy) - I couldn't see a price tag for this. Can you tell me how much this is?

Me - Sure, let me scan it.
Its $6.99 for 30 tablets.

Customer - Pfftttt. I think I'll just fart instead. *Leaves*
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4.45pm


(For about 30 mins around this time, we were having some issues with our insurance transmitter. It was taking longer than usual to bill the patient's insurances. At that time a customer walked in with a new prescription and decided to wait until we solved the problem with our system. 10 mins later, another guy walked in with a prescription)

New Guy - Can I wait for this please? I'm in a hurry.

Me - *explained the insurance transmitter problem to him*

New Guy - Oh, thats fine. My insurance is not going to cover for these tablets anyway. I'll just pay cash for them.

Me - Sure thing. If you wanna have a seat, I can have this ready for you in about 15 minutes.

First Customer - What the hell? If you can fill his medication, why cant you fill mine?

Me - Sir, because he's paying cash for his tablets. We're still trying to fix our system so we can bill your insurance for you.

First Customer - This is ridiculous. I'm paying cash for my medicine too! Just go and get my stuff ready.

Me - Are you sure you wanna pay the retail price? You dont wanna go through your insurance?

First Customer - Just get my stuff ready for me, dammit!

Me - Fine, give me about 10 minutes alright?

(10 minutes later)

Me - Alright sir, yours is ready. Your total is going to be $32.75

First Customer - WHAT? But my co-pay is only $5.00! Why are you charging me so much, Young Lady?

Me - Sir, you just said you wanted to pay cash for your medicine since our system is still down.

First Customer - Yeah! I've got cash. See? *Pulled out a $5 bill and waved it in my face*

Me - *cannot think of what to say to this Dimwit*

First Customer - This is ridiculous! You guys cant do one thing right. I'd rather go to CVS!

*stormed out*

Awesome

All the awesome things have been happening in the last few days:

-Roger Federer won the Men's Final! That man is insane (and a genius, ofcourse). This was his 4th Australian open and he has bagged about 16 Grand Slam titles so far. Damn.

-Aamir Khan and AR Rahman just won the Padma Bhushan award! Ofcourse, Aamir was a previous recipient of the Padma Shri and AR Rahman has won multiple awards in the past, including the Oscar. But I think that the Padma Bhushan is still a big deal for both of them! Congratulations to them :)

-Apple finally introduced their IPad last week! I haven't really had much time to check it out but by the look and sound of it, it's about to become a huge success as soon as it releases in March. Ofcourse, I trust Steve Jobs to come up with something new with every single device.

-My very first SNA (Student Nutrition Association) meeting, earlier this morning. I sort of woke up thinking it would be a drab, but it turned out to be quite interesting. We had the opportunity to interact with a well-known Research Dietitian from MD Anderson and she was the most cheerful lady I have seen all semester!

-And ofcourse, the last thing - My 'Alien' Sketch! (For those of you who dont know, I've taken up sketching to keep me occupied now and then) I dont care if people think it was a stupid idea to sketch an Alien, of all the things that I could possibly sketch. But what the heck, I think my Alien is damn cute! And plus, he has these awesome little horns on his head too! Come on, you've got to love it :)
I'll put its picture up here soon enough!