Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Tuesday morning, 1:55 a.m.

Dr. Grumpy: "This is Dr. Grumpy, returning a page."

Mrs. Wokeme: "Yes, I see you for migraines, and I have one. What should I do?"

Dr. Grumpy: "Didn't I give you a prescription for Painbegone? Have you tried one?"

Mrs. Wokeme: "No, but I have the package right here. It says to take as needed for migraine."

Dr. Grumpy: "So take one, if you have a migraine."

Mrs. Wokeme: "Okay. I just wanted to be sure. I thought I once read that 'take as needed' was some sort of medical code meaning I should call the doctor first."

15 comments:

The Plaid Cow said...

Perhaps she thought medical code was similar to wife code. When she said it was fine to watch football all afternoon, what she meant was get comfortable on the couch, you'll be there all night.

Sarah Glenn said...

It must be similar to web code, too. People call me all the time to ask if "Certified for X type of credits" means that it's certified for X type of credits.

Anonymous said...

Migraine = muzzy thoughts; and maybe backwards and forward, and around again. My guess is that the patient remembered that PRN was the special code, and they couldn't remember what else about PRN but they were pretty sure it had something to do with assessing the situation and couldn't recall if they were supposed to assess it or the doctor was. Lucky Dr. G's office is open on a Tuesday morning just at the time when the patient has the headache, or the patient might be out on the road to Dr. G's office in their bathrobe and 30 mph automobile, thus posing a danger possibly to the rest of the non-migraineurs.

Anonymous said...

*head hits desk*

The Mother said...

See, if the bottle said "PRN," I get it. But in plain English?

That said, when I fill out the medical forms for my boy for boy scouts, I generally make sure that all the is, js and ps and qs are dotted, stressed, underlined and appropriately mined.

Because once, they didn't understand the words: "take one every morning with breakfast." And Stretch went a whole week without his ADD meds, and they complained that he was a tad rowdy on the plane on the way home.

Anonymous said...

and dr's get mad at me for wanting more specific directions than "use as directed"

a.generic doc said...

The more surprising thing is that she actually remembered to buy the medication.

ERP said...

Maybe the Rx read "Call MD PRN in the middle of the night"?

mongolian yak said...

poor dr. grumpy, i hope you were able to get back to sleep :p

Kimbra Kasch said...

You HAVE GOT TO BE kidding. No one could be that . . . what's the polite word...? There isn't one.

Elizabeth said...

Sorry but it could not been much of a migraine. I get them and will do or take just about anything to get rid of them.. already having the meds I would not be calling the doc to see if it was ok to take them...

Candice said...

Simple directions are far too complicated for some people.

Anonymous said...

put de lime in de coconut, shake 'em all up....

Kat's Kats said...

::head:laptop:: The only thing worse are those... people... who look at me like I'm crazy when giving a medical history. As in...

Me: "I take Imitrex prn for migraines."

Takesbadhistories: "PRN??"

Me: "Yes, that means I only take it when I have a migraine or I am experiencing the auras which indicate the onset of a migraine."

Takesbadhistories: "Oh! So you take Imitrex when you have migraines."

Me: "Yes." ::nodding head and looking at boo boo head and if said boo boo head is someone I will have to see again, already begin plan to change physician::

TiredRPh said...

Like when the guy asked me does 1 tab 2 times a day mean in the SAME day.

 
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