dangerous job

Yesterday was long as I had to work from 8am till 10pm. It was tiring, I still can feel the fatigue now.. Luckily the 14-hour is just once a month. And normally if one has the on-call 5-10pm at A&E, he/she can have an auto-time off the next day from 1pm-5pm but since today is a public holiday so I don't get to have that special time-off. Well, it's good though as I can keep the time-off and claim it next time. NICE!!

After yesterday, I really find that my job is EXTREMELY dirty and dangerous. Lol.. First thing in the morning, a patient came in with her two 'bodyguard' granddaughters who claimed that I taught the humapen wrongly. She blamed me that I didn't demonstrate how to attach the needle to the humapen. EXCUSE ME! The needle is sterile and you have to do it yourself, how can I, a stranger, who can't even remember what I have touched before fix the needle for you?! Common sense la..'bodyguard' who tried to belittle me. Fine! Then she started complaining that I taught her aunt and grandma the wrong way to use the humapen as when her aunt primed the 2 unit, nothing came out of the needle but when she primed it, then only something cam out. Huh?! And so I asked her how her aunt shook the humapen. She demonstrated a very vigorous shaking and then she said when she shook the pen the 180degree slow-turn, only did the insulin came out. Well, so obvious the first vigorous shaking was wrong and then the second 180degree turn was correct. Like that also want to ask me..aiyoyo..look at the leaflet la.. And she kept telling me how would she know if nothing came out when her grandma injected it into her body and the insulin was not working and stuffs. Seriously...the second time she primed, it came out, right?! So this meant the needle was working perfectly fine!! My god.. Then the next thing she kept pestering me was the quantity of the insulin was enough to last a month until the next filling. She was soooooooo worried that after she primed the 2unit, the remaining was not enough to last for 30days. So, I asked how many units she had to take and where was the prescription cos if she needed to refill, she would have to keep the prescription herself. And the nenek couldn't even find it. And the 'bodyguard' started to bombard me with questions whether if we kept a copy. I had to keep repeating that if the patient needed a refill next month, she would have to keep the prescription herself and not us. And the next thing she said really hurt me, I believe not only me, it would be all of us pharmacists. She said that we are IRRESPONSIBLE as we did not keep a copy of the prescription! I had to control my temper and said if she had lost it, she could ask the doctor who attended to the grandma to issue it again as the doctor kept a copy and we did not cos it was not our job to do that. If we keep a copy of every patient who came to take their medications, I think we would need a REAL HUGE hall to keep them. I held back my temper and said if she had to refill, the refill date was normally on the 27th or 28th so I was sure that the insulin was enough. Urgh~!! Please don't waste my time on such trivial thing that you can actually use your brain to process. Maybe you can try using your brain to think a bit instead of using it to think of a way to taunt me.

Yesterday was a day full of dramas. After the 'bodyguards' case, a patient tried to argue with me about what the doctors told him. He was prescribed with budesonide nasal spray 2puffs BD and the strength of the budesonide nasal spray we have was for 1puff. And when I told him to take only 1puff 2 times a day, he started telling me that I was wrong as the doctor told him it was 2puffs each nose twice a day. So, trying to be patient as there were throngs of patients waiting, I told him it was a new brand and that the strength was stronger than the previous one and so 1puff was enough. He kept saying no no the doctor showed him the bottle and it was 2puffs. So, was it the same brand? It was sooooo difficult to explain in chinese. What's generic in chinese ar?! What's strength in chnese!? The patient then told me he would go back to the doctor to ask him in a tone that he wanted to make me change the puffs to 2 and admitted I was wrong. I braved myself and said 'go ahead and check with the doctor and come back to this counter when you are done, I would like to know too.' He kept repeating he would go find the doc and I had to keep telling him he should. Well, he did go and came back and told me that the doc said it was 2puffs. It was a commotion at my counter and then Chan came in and told the patient with his clear and loud voice that they had already confirmed and discussed with specialists before that it was 1puff each nose and no more than that as it was a stronger dose. The patient was so stubborn and told us what the doc said. Chan said we were the specialist of drugs not the doctors! GREAT!!! Bravo to Chan!! Either the patient did not hear that or what, he kept insisting on what the doc said. And I could see heads were turned to my counter and there was a long queue behind the man. LoL.. Chee Hua could not stand it anymore and came to tell the patient that he should start with 1puff each nose and if he did not feel the effect, changed it to 2 puffs. LOL.. In the end, the patient said, he would start with 2 puffs first and then slowly reduce to 1puff as that was what the doc told him. Well, I have nothing to say to the patient, as long as he does not die, that's fine, but if anything happens, don't come find me. I am tired of explaining and countering their blames.

I could feel that my OCD and paranoia are getting worse at one point that I actually washed my hands 2 times in 30minutes till they are dry and the skin cracking. There was a patient whom I saw used his saliva to open the plastic bag. I was about to offer help when I noticed he was having a hard time and then I saw what he did and I quickly withdrew and payed that he wouldn't ask for my help. Then, after he packed his medications, he gave me another number and told me he would like to take his wife's medications. He put the number slip on the counter and I kept repeating to put it into the small bin on the counter where I put all the slips. He couldn't get it and unconsciously I tried to pick it up using the stapler! Funny... So, I was wondering if I should actually wear glove when I dispense. Seriously..it was all very dirty, I don't even know what they have done to the number slips before and what they have touched before. I even dispensed to a patient with scabies and I could really feel my fingers getting itchy after that. SCARY!!! Perhaps, it was all in my mind..

But I really have to say that my job is not as easy as I and other civilians out there think. We don't only fill and dispense, we are exposed to all HAZARDS be it from the PATIENTS or the DRUGS.