A guy called the pharmacy today. "I just picked up a prescription for erythromycin for my 20-month old son. He has a fever of 103º. Can I give him something for his fever, like children's Tylenol or something?" Great question! I don't feel like I'm strong enough with pediatric medicine to give advise, so I ask the pharmacist. "Can you give a 20-month old taking erythromycin an analgesic? Err, I mean, antipyretic?" She looked at me for a second and said that it should be fine.
Twenty mintues later, a girl with an updo and makeup but clearly dressed down came up to the counter. "Can you recommend anything for nausea?" I asked how old the patient was, and what she thought the cause might be. She said it was for a 20-year old who was going to be in a wedding who thought she might be coming down with her sister's cold. Great question! I didn't know the answer, so I went to ask the pharmacist. "A 20-year old patient with a cold is in a wedding today and wants a recommendation for an antiemetic. What would you recommend?" She looked at me for a second and recommended something on aisle eight.
Later the pharmacist told me, "I really don't care for all these big words you're using." Apparently no one calls the pharmacy asking for an analgesic, antipyretic, or antiemetic by those names. I told her that I was surrounded by pharmacy professors and I couldn't be held liable for my speech patterns.
Hmmm... that sounded like a much better story in my head...
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