Sometimes it’s just more fun to observe the pharmacy world day-to-day and let the posts write themselves 😀

1) ‘uid’ vs. ‘od’

When I started as a pharmacist in New Brunswick a decade or so ago, we had a family physician who probably graduated med school not long after the Second World War. To say his style was old-fashioned was definitely an understatement. One of his quirks was that he exclusively wrote ‘once daily’ as ‘u.i.d.’ Just try to Google it…you won’t find much. My best guess is that it was an extrapolation of the Latin abbreviations b.i.d. (bis in die = twice a day), t.i.d. (ter in die = thrice a day), etc. The Latin word for ‘one’ is ‘unus’ so perhaps this kindly gentleman wanted to differentiate his abbreviation from ‘u.d.’ (ut dictum = as directed). I don’t know how many phone calls he fielded, but as a new relief pharmacist, I thought I was losing my mind.

On a sidenote, the French way to write for ‘one tab orally once daily’ looks like ‘1 co po die’. The first time a doctor ran that together on a script, it took me 10 minutes to figure out what a ‘copodie’ was.

2) I had a good chuckle with a doctor a number of years back when I questioned why he was calling in ‘Trazadone 50mg, same as before, sixteen years refills’.

It didn’t immediately occur to me that he meant, ‘sixty, and a year’s refills.’ Say it fast, you’ll notice it sounds very similar.

3) Auxiliary labels come in a variety of colors and serve to remind consumers of more common instructions or warnings for their medications. Unfortunately, limited colors mean that in a pinch, users may on occasion grab the incorrect label for the prescription in hand. Not to make light of human error, but I would sincerely hope that proper counseling would cause someone with a chest infection to question if their clarithromycin prescription was ‘for rectal use’.

4) Erectile dysfunction is a sensitive topic but an important one. It predominantly affects older males, though sexual dysfunction is also diagnosed in women more often than people think. Common prescription medications used for depression may also create these problems. Even after practicing all this time, it’s difficult to know just how comfortable someone will be discussing their affliction the first time they pick up a prescription therapy. I give you a few simple ‘Do’s and Don’ts’ that I believe to be helpful from MY past experiences.

DO

– Treat as any other prescription: respect confidentiality, offer to counsel and answer questions.

– Offer a phone consultation if that would be more comfortable for the patient

– Ensure that they have discussed risks with their doctor with respect to cardiac troubles.

DON’T

– Get caught in a counseling session with a pen that looks like this:

(Image courtesy of http://www.custom-product.com/)

I wish I was making this up.

I was running out the door for an errand and as the only male pharmacist on staff that day, a patient requested I counsel him on his new ED medication. Since I did not have my lab coat on, I happened to seize a novelty pen dropped off on a recent drug rep visit on my way. The patient’s comment was something like, ‘looks like the pen needs this more than I do.’ We both had a great chuckle, though my embarrassment was definitely apparent.

Oh, the world of pharmacy…do we ever run out of stories?

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any agency, employer or affiliation.