{"id":71,"date":"2007-10-20T19:39:34","date_gmt":"2007-10-21T01:39:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jen.jllocke.com\/blog\/2007\/10\/20\/sniffles-and-cranky-pharmacists\/"},"modified":"2007-10-20T19:39:34","modified_gmt":"2007-10-21T01:39:34","slug":"sniffles-and-cranky-pharmacists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/jen.jllocke.com\/blog\/2007\/10\/sniffles-and-cranky-pharmacists\/","title":{"rendered":"Sniffles and Cranky Pharmacists"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ever since pseudoephedrine went behind the pharmacy counter, I’ve been trying to do everything I can to not buy it.\u00a0 There are a couple of reasons for this, the primary one being that I don’t want to be on some list of people who take a particular drug . . .\u00a0 and therefore suspected of running a meth lab.\u00a0 The other reason, which is sometimes even more important than the previous one, is that pharmacies are not always open (unless you happen to live near a 24-hour pharmacy), and that makes the purchase of pseudoephedrine difficult when your head is congested at 1 AM.\u00a0<\/p>\n

I understand that, in this less-than-perfect world, the government is trying to do something about the meth problem, and I’m willing to help.\u00a0 I know many people have a problem with the “war on drugs” and this particular law regarding the retail distribution of pseudoephedrine.\u00a0 I respect that, and share some of those concerns.\u00a0 But I’ve got more pressing issues to deal with, like when I figure out that I’m having pretty severe\u00a0sinus problems at 11 PM.\u00a0 I’ve been to the nearest 24 hour pharmacy for Sudafed before when other pharmacies weren’t open.\u00a0 Those pharmacists\/techs treat me like a full-blown addict, even though I’m standing there sniffling while holding a tissue up to my nose to try to keep the runny nose at bay.\u00a0 So I do all that I can to avoid that.<\/p>\n

I’ve tried the phenylephrine products and I can’t even tell that I’ve taken any medication.\u00a0 Then I find out that the efficacy of phenylephrine is in doubt<\/a>.\u00a0 No wonder it doesn’t work on me.\u00a0 I’ve talked to others, and mostly they say, “It works for me.”\u00a0 I walk away feeling like my body is abnormal and doesn’t respond correctly to medicine.\u00a0 But now I am vindicated.\u00a0 It doesn’t work for everyone.\u00a0 I just happen to be one of those people.\u00a0 So I am giving up on phenylephrine.\u00a0 I’m done with buying a product that doesn’t work.<\/p>\n

I gave in and bought some Mucinex D today, which is just an OTC version of a decongestant my doctor has prescribed for me successfully in the past.\u00a0 I walked up to the pharmacist and asked him for it by name, and I quickly located it on the back wall visually.\u00a0 The pharmacist, who I had interrupted while he was reading, began to tell me to look on the shelf, when he said “D – oh that’s back here”.\u00a0 He condescendingly asked me which size box I wanted.\u00a0 I asked for the larger box, hoping that I won’t need it all, but preparing for the possibility.\u00a0 He brought the box to the counter and asked if I was 18.\u00a0 Me.\u00a0 I’m eleven years past that.\u00a0 I know I look young, but I seriously don’t look that young, even if I am dressed only in jeans and a t-shirt.\u00a0 At this point, I feel like he’s just trying to make me feel uncomfortable to creep me out if I am trying to get it for meth.\u00a0 I shove my driver’s license at him, and he doesn’t make any more remarks.\u00a0 I pay and leave.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Most of the time when I buy my pseudoephedrine products at this particular pharmacy, I get sympathy from the employees.\u00a0 This is usually because, like I was today, I’m sniffling, sneezing, have a red, irritated nose, and in general look like I need medicine.\u00a0<\/p>\n

I happily comply when people of authority ask for information from me.\u00a0 I don’t want to be suspected of anything and I have nothing to hide, so I see no point in putting up a fuss.\u00a0 But the funny part here is that pharmacists (and others employed by pharmacies) are supposed to help people get well and keep them healthy.\u00a0 Now that they are law-enforcement as well, they (sometimes) turn into this kind of suspicious, cranky controller-of-pseudoephedrine.\u00a0 My point:\u00a0 I shouldn’t feel like an outlaw for buying the only OTC medicine that will help my condition.\u00a0 And if you’re going to make me go to a pharmacy to get it, you should make all pharmacies 24 hour operations.\u00a0 Period.\u00a0 No exceptions.\u00a0 Medical conditions don’t read clocks.\u00a0 They don’t care about business hours.\u00a0 And I should be able to make myself feel better with legal medications whenever I need them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ever since pseudoephedrine went behind the pharmacy counter, I’ve been trying to do everything I can to not buy it.\u00a0 There are a couple of reasons for this, the primary one being that I don’t want to be on some list of people who take a particular drug . . .\u00a0 and therefore suspected of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[35,44],"class_list":["post-71","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-ethics","tag-health"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3aAvV-19","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/jen.jllocke.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/jen.jllocke.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/jen.jllocke.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jen.jllocke.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jen.jllocke.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/jen.jllocke.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/jen.jllocke.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jen.jllocke.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jen.jllocke.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}