Thursday, July 23, 2009

My Readers Write

Wick, one of my readers, was kind enough to send in a story for a prescription recently handled at his pharmacy.

It was for the Nuva ring, (a rubbery ring with birth control hormones, that's placed intravaginally once a month).

The script was written for Nuva Ring, 1 po qD (that means 1 ring taken BY MOUTH each day).

What's scarier is that when Wick called the GYN's office to clarify this, the "nurse" there (could also be an MA or secretary for all I know) argued with him about how the Nuva ring should be used.

I can picture this happening:

Jenny: "Hey Suzy! What are you chewing?"

Suzy: "It's my new birth control gum!"

Jenny: "Wow! I had no idea there was such a thing!"

Suzy: "Yeah. It's kind of rubbery, and you wouldn't believe what the pharmacy idiot told me I was supposed to do with it! Good thing I called to ask my doctor's office what the right way to use it is!"

10 comments:

Disgruntled Druggist said...

We had a call at the pharmacy from a young man who had swallowed his girlfriends Nuvaring. HOW is that possible...maybe I don't want to know. But for more pharmacy craziness check out my new blog disgruntleddruggist@blogspot.com
Love ya Dr Grumpy. Hope you don't mind the link I put up to your site.

Anonymous said...

Maybe it was a medical assistant that the pharmacist spoke with not a nurse. Big difference between the 2. Not too many nurses work in doctor's offices nowadays.It's mostly MAs that man the doctor's office. Just because a girl in scrubs works in a doctor's office does not make her a nurse. Either way, who ever answered the pharmacist at that doctor's office, nurse or not, is a dummy. Love your blog, by the way. Keep it up!

Anonymous said...

Hahahah!!

Gotta love the argumentative "nurse".

Hahah!

Anonymous said...

You must of heard about the folks that got pregnant despite daily use of contraceptive jelly....










Turns out that they were using it on their toast. They also didn't think that Kentucky jelly taste any better.

Rx Intern said...

Haha, nice one...

I've actually seen a physician's order that read:

Cipro 400 mg PO Q12
Maalox 30cc IV Q6 PRN

The best part is, someone actually had a syringe full of milky fluid laying around in the ER when this happened. Someone *actually* though that Maalox was going to be given IV...le sigh...I'm positive that resident was hellishly tired, and whoever drew up the Maalox needs to go to school again.

Anonymous said...

My favorite Ob/Gyn Rx mistake was "Orthro Vera 1 tidx3". Apparently the nurse in question MEANT Ortho evra, apply 1 patch per week for 3 weeks" but had a cow when the pharmacist called to clarify. "Well how *else* do you use it?" Not the way you wrote it out, woman... Close second was the OB's LPN that wrote Premarin instead of Prenate caps for a woman in her second trimester.

ER's Mom said...

O.M.G.!!!!!

I'm scared. And amused. Maybe I got get more folks to use the ring if I told them it was bubble gum!

John Woolman said...

The most idiotic prescription story at the moment must be the way in which BritGov is dealing with the doling out of Tamiflu. Members of the population who think they have swine flu have been told they "must" not go to a family doctor or ER. Instead they have to ring a freephone number (0800 1 513 100) or log onto a web site (https://www.pandemicflu.direct.gov.uk/). You are then taken through a self diagnosis algorithm by a call centre assistant without medical training. If at the end of the process your self diagnosis of swine flu is confirmed you are issued with a number. You then have to send someone to a collection point to get your free Tamiflu.

Readers of this blog are going to be educated well enough to see the holes in this. For some of those holes click on http://tinyurl.com/mne5bq

Unlike most of Dr Grumpy's stories, which make you cry with laughter, this one can only make you cry.

Anonymous said...

hey grumpy.. i can beat this one.. once in a store, someone came up to me and handed me the dessicant he found in his pill bottle.you know, the stuff that keeps the moisture out.. it says right on it "do not eat". he of course asked me if he could eat it..

Michael Guzzo said...

The funny part is that it will still be almost 100% effective. Who's going to have sex with a woman chewing a Nuvaring?

 
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