Your's Health

[florida80]

HƯỚNG DẪN SƠ CỨU (FIRST AID)
KHI BỊ CÔN TRÙNG, ĐỘNG VẬT VÀ NGƯỜI CẮN TRONG LÚC SINH HOẠT NGOÀI TRỜI Lynn Ly phỏng dịch theo "The Everything First Aid"


Những hoạt động ngoài trời như làm việc, vui chơi, giải trí, du ngoạn ở trong một số hoàn cảnh , khí hậu , và thời tiết . Khí hậu nóng và lạnh đều có thể gây ra những hệ quả đối lập (adverse consequences), và những sinh vật (critters) sống bên ngoài thỉnh thoảng gây dị ứng (ngứa ngáy khó chịu) hoặc tổn thương . Cơ thể bị thiếu nước hoặc ở cao độ (thí dụ lên đỉnh núi) và ở trong một số điều kiện ngoài trời khác cũng có thể làm bạn cảm thấy suy yếu đi .

Cho dù không có vấn đề gì khi bạn hoạt động ngoài trời, nhưng thật quan trọng bạn biết làm gì để chăm sóc hoặc trợ giúp những người bị chấn thương, bị bệnh tật bất ngờ .

I) BỊ CÔN TRÙNG, LOÀI VẬT VÀ NGƯỜI CẮN

Nhiều loại côn trùng và các sinh vật khác, bao gồm cả con người, gây ra các vết cắn và vết châm chích có thể cho cảm giác không thoải mái hoặc đe dọa tính mạng từ nhẹ nhẹ đến trung bình. Điều quan trọng là biết làm gì, làm thế nào để trị liệu, và khi nào thì cần tìm kiếm đến trợ giúp từ chuyên gia y tế để trị liệu bất kỳ thương tổn tàng ẩn bên trong.

1) BÒ CẠP CẮN (SCORPION BITES)

Bò cạp là loại côn trùng nhiều chân có hình dạng giống tôm hùm (lobster-like arthoropods) nằm trong xếp loại côn trùng có nọc độc (arcahnid class, cùng loài nhền nhện = spider class), có một ngòi / kim xoăn ở phần cuối nơi đuôi, và chúng thường được tìm thấy ở vùng sa mạc phía Tây Nam của Mexico (nước Mễ Tây Cơ). Những vết chích / đốt của bọ cạp dường như không có khả năng gây tử vong và dễ dàng điều trị, nhưng lại nguy hiểm cho trẻ nhỏ và người già hơn . Những triệu chứng bao gồm đau nhức ngay lập tức (immediate pain), nóng rát (burning), sưng tấy chút chút (minor swelling) và cảm giác tê (numb) hoặc ngứa ran (tingling sensation).

Những buớc sau đây cần nên thực hiện để trị liệu vết bò cạp cắn:
1. Rửa vùng bị bò cạp cắn bằng xà phòng / xà bông và nước

2. Dùng túi trườm lạnh đặt lên vùng bị bò cạp cắn trong vòng 10 phút , nếu cần thiết thì lập đi lập lại việc trườm lạnh vùng bị cắn với khoảng cách giữa các lần trườm lạnh là 10 phút .

3. Gọi điện thoại đến trung tâm kiểm soát chất độc (the Poison Control Center), hay đi bệnh viện khi có bất kỳ triệu chứng nghiêm trọng gì

2) BỌ VE CẮN (TICK BITES)

Những người sống vùng rừng cây hay đồng cỏ, hay những người dành thời gian vui chơi giải trí ở những khu vực này thì dễ bị bọ ve cắn . Loài côn trùng nho nhỏ này sống bằng cách hút máu các loài động vật có vú (mammals) thí dụ như hươu nai (deer), loài gậm nhấm (rodents), thỏ (rabbits) và có thể truyền bệnh từ động vật sang người .

Việc sơ cứu (first aid) những vết bọ ve cắn bao gồm loại bỏ con bọ ve đang bu bám ngay lập tức để tránh những phản ứng từ vết cắn và giảm thiểu tối đa các loại bệnh nhiễm trùng do bọ ve gây ra thí dụ bệnh Lyme, bệnh nóng sốt Colorado bọ ve (Colorado tick fever), bệnh nóng sốt được phát hiện ở núi đá (Rocky Mountain Spotted fever)

Để tháo bỏ con bọ ve bu bám trên người , hãy làm như sau:
1. Dùng cây nhíp (tweezers) hay cây kẹp nhỏ nhỏ cong cong hay thẳng thẳng (small curl or flat forcepts) kẹp lấy đầu con bọ ve và càng cận sát nơi da đang bị con bọ ve cắn càng tốt, rồi nhẹ nhàng kéo ra, đừng bóp nát hay xoay vặn con bọ ve

2. Rửa vùng bị bọ ve cắn bằng xà phòng / xà bông và nước.

3. Bôi thuốc Antihistamine hoặc loại 1% hydrocortisone cream (loại kem chứa 1% chất hydrocortisone)


Cần phải có sự chăm sóc y tế chuyên nghiệp , nếu con bọ ve cắn quá sâu và bạn không thể tháo gỡ nó ra được, hoặc bạn đang ở trong khu vực được thông báo là có nhiều nguy cơ bị bệnh lyme, hoặc bạn có triệu chứng nóng sốt hay triệu chứng cảm cúm , hoặc bạn có trải nghiệm bắp thịt trở lên suy nhược, tê liệt (paralysis) , hoặc nổi vết tròn đỏ trên da gọi là "phát ban mắt bò" (the bull's eye rash) là đặc chưng của bệnh Lyme .

CẢNH BÁO !!!
Đừng bao giờ bôi petroleum jelly (vaseline), rượu cồn ( alcohol ) ahy ammonia lên con bọ ve - chúng sẽ cắn chặt sâu vào da hơn. Nếu bạn đang ở trong vùng cảnh báo có nhiều nguy cơ bệnh Lyme mà bị bọ ve cắn, bạn nhất định phải phone báo bác sĩ để được tư vấn và ngay lập tức được chăm sóc và điều tri bao gồm việc sử dụng thuốc kháng sinh

Pharmacy error leads to fatal medication mix-up

David B. Brushwood

































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Pharmacy errors can occur in many different ways. A recent case from Missouri reviewed several key sources of pharmacy error and eventually restored an aggravating damages claim in a pharmacy error case.




Background


According to the court, a patient was discharged from a hospital, and a nurse phoned prescriptions to the patient’s pharmacy. The prescriptions were received by a pharmacy technician who had no formal training and had worked in the floral department before being transferred to the pharmacy.

The technician made many errors transcribing the prescriptions. The most significant was confusing once-daily methotrexate for the metolazone that had been prescribed. The pharmacist approved the once-daily methotrexate, later explaining “for some reason I didn’t recognize the weekly versus daily. It didn’t click in my mind.” The pharmacy’s computer system did not flag the once-daily methotrexate dosing schedule.





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The patient’s husband picked up the medication. He was asked if he had any questions, to which he replied no. No additional patient education was provided. The patient used the methotrexate daily as instructed on the label, and she died less than 1 month later from the effects of the drug.

A lawsuit was filed against the pharmacy. The pharmacy admitted negligence, and the jury returned a verdict for the plaintiffs in the amount of $2 million. This was reduced to $125,000 based on statutory damages caps. The plaintiffs claimed additional damages for “aggravating circumstances,” but the lower court granted a pharmacy motion to deny these damages.

From this ruling, the plaintiffs appealed.




Rationale


In reversing the lower court, the Missouri Court of Appeals cited four factors that would support an award of additional damages based on aggravating factors.

First, the court noted that in the absence of a computerized “hard stop” for once-daily methotrexate prescriptions, it is imperative that pharmacists conduct their own personal verification of prescriptions. A pharmacy corporate representative testified that, based on her analysis of the facts, “the pharmacist really did not perform a medication review of this drug and of this patient.” The court was skeptical of the pharmacist’s claim that he had reviewed the prescription and concluded that the failure to perform such a review could justify a finding of aggravating circumstances.

Second, the court was critical of the pharmacy technician receiving a new prescription over the telephone. Although the court cited evidence that Missouri is one of only a few states allowing this practice, the court noted the pharmacy’s own policies and procedures that state only pharmacists are allowed to accept prescriptions over the phone.

Third, the court was critical of the pharmacy’s failure to provide patient education when dispensing a high-risk medication like methotrexate. An expert witness for the plaintiffs testified that simply asking if the person receiving a medication has any questions is inadequate. He testified that it is “absolutely inadequate and absolutely deadly in the case of high-alert drugs to not do that counseling.”

Fourth, the court noted that the pharmacy “had made no meaningful changes to its procedures as a result of [the patient’s] death.” The pharmacy corporate representative testified that the pharmacists as a group “have had an in-depth conversation about being more conscientious than we already were, you know, just trying to be more safe in everything that we do.” The court was not impressed.

For these reasons, the appellate court reversed the lower court’s dismissal of the aggravating circumstances claim.




Discussion


This case is a classic example of how pharmacists can be set up to fail by a dysfunctional system. This error did not occur because pharmacists weren’t conscientious and weren’t trying to be safe. Remedial measures after a fatal error of this type must go beyond a platitudinous pep talk.

Computer systems must be designed to implement a “hard stop” when a lethal prescription is entered into the pharmacy computer. Pharmacy technicians must be adequately trained and forbidden to perform functions for which they are unqualified. Patient counseling is absolutely mandatory when dispensing a high-alert drug to a patient for the first time.

I work in a pharmacy where the prescriptions are printed with the time the customer expects to pick it up (or when the computer expects us to have a new prescription from the md ready... sure we can fill, dispense, and check all 50 prescriptions sent in during the office's lunch break within the hour). I was working with a pharmacist once who would refuse to check any prescription other than those marked as "waiter" or with a printed time outside 60 minutes after the current time. No past-dues, nothing for later in the day. They would hand all the past due ones to the secondary checking pharmacist, and if there wasn't anything due in the next hour, would pop a squat on a stool. If anyone came in early, they made us redo the prescription and change the time to a more current one. Meanwhile, we still had about 150 prescriptions in the queues we were furiously working to fill.

They worked an overnight with me one night, and when all of the automatic filling prescriptions dropped, I was working my butt off to print and fill and stack prescriptions to check. The prescriptions print with a due date of midnight the next day, and when I left, they were all still on the counter. I didn't work the next two nights, and when I worked during the day, all of the automatic fills had been left there both nights. All ~200 of them. To fill along with the ~800 we do during the day.

Worked with a pharmacist who would leave the pharmacy for smoke breaks. Leave us to do the work while he bummed cigarettes. Would close at the end of the night with 30 unchecked orders. Tell people we didn't have stuff when we did because he didn't feel like doing anything over 4 scripts per order. Ended up getting arrested for stealing ambiens and practicing pharmacy under his dad's license, his was suspended a year prior. Ended up killing himself

My pharmacist got arrested for selling drugs on the street. Here's the strange part, he wasn't caught selling narcotics. He had been stealing albuterol inhalers for months and selling them uptown on the street. Kind of a stupid move, our store didn't find out until his arrest and he was immediately fired. Our lead tech said it all clicked once we heard; for months we kept having inventory discrepancies.

Other stories, well I worked with a total sociopath of a pharmacist for a whole day, and never went back. He would lie to patients, would call the Quality Assurance hotline (the phone number at the bottom of the receipt to leave comments or complaints) from various phone numbers and pretend to be customers and praise the work he did. A nice old lady dropped off a Z-pack prescription, I filled it in under 2 minutes and handed it to him. "Make her wait," he said, and hid the bag under the computer for 10 minutes. I was schocked and asked him why, and he said he didn't want people to think short wait times were a habit or routine. I still feel bad about not reporting him somehow.

I worked with this girl who graduated pharmacy school like 4 years before. She's floated at my store a few times, and she calls the doc about EVERYTHING. Rx for losartan says "1t qd"? She has to call to verify its by mouth. And we all know how often docs don't put route of administration, because we as a pharmacy team KNOW that these certain drugs are always done by mouth or by nose or whatever. She was literally on the phone the whole time, even when all the other techs were telling her she had to verify faster. It's like all the things she learned in pharmacy school were just forgotten and she didn't use any prior knowledge or instincts when working!

work in an inpatient psychiatric hospital, and up until recently, we had a really terrible pharmacist. She was over 70 and either unwilling or unable to learn the computer system. But what made her terrible was her disdain for actual medicine. She didn't think that our actively psychotic population of patients needed anything other than vitamins and coconut oil. I mean, I get not believing in medicine, but then why become a pharmacist? Why, if you must be a pharmacist, work in a situation where not medicating patients is absolutely not an option? It just blew my mind.

She was actually pretty crazy herself - I've heard stories about how she followed people home from work and threatened to kill herself in the pharmacy, though by the time I met her, she had called down a lot. She was still doing the pretty shit, though. Like, I'd put a medication in my section to use and if she got mad, she'd come and hide it so I'd have to get more and then the rest would show up days later. She used to hide work things life printer ink and personal things like the pictures we have on our desks. And food, she hid food all the time. No one could prove it was her, but everyone knew it was because she made a habit of staying late or sneaking back in when she thought everyone was gone.

She started to decline; forgetting things and messing up so that our boss had to double check everything she did, and was eventually put out on medical leave. She retired, much to the joy of all of us in the pharmacy and the nurses that had to deal with her on a daily basis.

That's almost sad. You have to wonder if even early on she was in beginning stages of dementia. Maybe she was legitimately misplacing stuff but couldn't remember where or why she moved it. Lashing out can be very normal reactions to confusion.

If that was the case, it's pretty terrifying that she was a pharmacist.

She was getting very forgetful so I wouldn't doubt it, but she did all the things before she started forgetting things. She worked there over 20 years.

She voluntarily retired, but only after being forced to go out because of her mistakes. She was never really mean - just annoying and petty. We threw her a retirement party and she seemed happy

One time we had a float (hired only to go to different stores in our company, so she should know how to use the company's software the same as EVERY. OTHER. PHARMACIST.) who started screaming when one of our staff pharmacists asked her to help fill, because she "only knows how to do data verification and product verification and doesn't need to know the stupid filling process".

She doesn't float at our store anymore.

One of our staff pharmacists, I'll call her RPhNaz, seems to go out of her way to make more work for people. Two weeks ago on Friday was a perfect example.

She got a call from a patient, talked to them for a few minutes and then asked me, "Have you ordered any Drysol?" I said no, because it was backordered. She talks with the person on the phone some more, puts the line on hold and goes on with her work. RPhNaz mentions to me that the woman is crazy, telling her that someone named Stephanie said they would order Drysol for her. There's no one in our store named Stephanie. I agree that it is odd.

After about ten minutes I ask what's the deal with the line on hold and RPhNaz says it is for me, the lady wants to know why her order for Drysol hasn't been filled. I tell RPhNaz she never told me the lady was holding to talk to me. RPhNaz says she did tell me to talk to her. I ask the patient's info so I can at least look at her profile and try to see what's going on but RPhNaz backed out of the profile to keep verifying and doesn't remember the patient's name.

I brace myself and proceed to spend the next fifteen minuted getting yelled at by this woman who is seriously pissed that she was on hold for ten minutes, insists it was someone in our store who ordered the Drysol her and won't believe me when I tell her that the prescription is at another store entirely where it is very likely that someone named Stephanie ordered it for her.

I finally get off the phone and ask RPhNaz if she told the patient that the prescription is at another store. She says the patient didn't believe her. I asked her why she though the patient would believe me, a tech, over her, a pharmacist. She proceeds to lecture me for five minutes about how I don't know what my job is, all I ever do is stand there and fill. A tech's job is more than filling, sometimes I will have to order things, type prescriptions and ring.

At this point I make the tactical error of engaging with her. I make the point that I told her Drysol was backordered, that I knew this because I had tried to order it at numerous points in the last week for several different customers. Just not this one in particular. I advised her that I was fully aware that I was required to ring and type, both things that I did when there was an actual line. I advised her that I did the outside vendor order three nights a week and that I was not the only one who was supposed to order things from that vendor. We are all supposed to be able to do it. That it was in fact quite simple, much like ordering products online. Because that is exactly what it is. She replied that I was lazy and irresponsible. I told her she was a gigantic pain in my ass.

Not my best moment.

No one likes working with RPhNaz. She will only verify and consult. She will fill if there is a lot of typing. Her idea of covering drop off is to ask when a patient when they want to pick up a prescription, write that time on it and drop it in a pile for the techs to type. She spends the better part of her time while she is verifying talking on the phone in Farsi to what I can only assume are her friends because if a new script or consult comes in she will put them on hold, take the call and then go back to talking to them. She won't refill cells in the ScriptPro but will instead fill it from one of the stock bottles on the shelf. If there isn't a stock bottle on the shelf she will tell the patient we are out even if the cell has tablets and the cell just needs to be shaken to loosen the pills. She once told someone we couldn't fill their prescription because the machine was broken. It was out of labels. This wouldn't be an issue except that, as a tech, I could get fired for refilling cells in the ScriptPro. She is blatantly racist towards Asians. If one of the Asian techs asks her a question RPhNaz will make them repeat it at least once because she "can't understand what the question is." Once she has answered the question she will turn to whichever tech is closest, this is usually me even though we don't like each other, and talk about how stupid the question was and how the Asian tech doesn't know what they are doing.

The pharmacy manager once texted me that she couldn't count on RPhNaz to do anything right

At my last store there was a pharmacist who had apparently opened the store once upon a time - she's a bit of a workaholic, but after going on convalescence after a surgery and getting a divorce, she had stepped down. The current pharmacy manager is younger than her, much less of a nazi about the rules, and most importantly, a PharmD, whereas said pharmacist is only an RPH with a bachelors. She was the sweetest person to all of the patients, always smiling and making pleasantries and being ridiculously cheerful. She stuck to the rules religiously, to the point where she had us double counting tramadol before it was controlled because "it ought to be" and fioricet because "it's controlled elsewhere." When I first met her, I liked her, she was always nice to me and complimented me because I always did things just so and by the book (I'm kind of anal about my job), but one day I overheard another tech saying that that pharmacist made her want to quit. I didn't get it.

Until one night. I closed with the pharmacist, and when it was late and all the other techs were gone, she proceeded to talk all sorts of shit about our rxm. She talked about how she'd "make deals" with longtime patients to keep their c2's in stock, how she hired shitty techs, how in HER day, the pharmacy was always clean and blah blah blah. She insinuated to me that the rxm was somehow in cahoots with the druggies that frequent the town's pill mill, that she was keeping ludicrous amounts of methadone and oxycodone in the store for no good reason, that she heard her dad used to work for a methadone clinic and that now she was continuing his work in servicing the same clientele. I was trapped with this woman basically trying to tell me my boss was doing things that she could lose her license for, things she should never, ever share with a subordinate.

After that, I noticed more about how she would turn to me and make comments about other techs and how incompetent they were for no good reason.

I ended up telling the rxm about her comments and how uncomfortable she made me. Nothing came of it. The pharmacist is currently working 4 days a week desperately pursuing a master's, because she thinks she's gonna be replaced by a younger PharmD who will work for less. I kinda hope she's right.

I've been a pharmacist for over 20 years, and worked in pharmacy nearly 30. Oh the things I've seen. I've worked with outright incompetents, but by far the saddest case was my partner at a busy physician owned clinic/pharmacy. She was a sweet lady, but always very...jittery. Her handwriting would progress from legible to downright Parkinsonian over the shift. Hands trembling all the time. Often her eyes were glazed and her mouth agape by noon. A chronic insomniac that needed 20mg Ambien to get a fitful night's rest.

And she was the PIC.

She'd been hired on after getting in trouble at a big chain for stealing meds. She was on probation with the state board and knew that all eyes were on her. I was asked to be her probationary supervisor in a meeting with her, me, and the rxm. It looked like she was turning over a new leaf.

But addiction is one hell of a monkey. So one afternoon I get a call at home from my rxm. I immediately think, oh shit - what did I do? Nope. My lead tech reported that midshift, homegirl straight up made a beeline to the fast movers and popped a few Soma and Vicodin right in front of her. This was last straw time.

My rxm asked if I was willing to work the full 12 hr shift since I was already opening. Sure. She comes in for her afternoon shift and the phone rings. It's our rxm asking her to come to his office. It was so sad to hear her ask in a pathetic voice, "am I in trouble"? Breaks my heart to this day thinking about it.

She was shown the video footage and fired. Ended up losing her license. I worked nearly 2 months open to close, 7 days a week until we found a decent replacement.

At least I'm happy to report that she's still alive and seems to be doing better 4 years down the road. I think about her all the time. I've lost a brother and a wife to pills and booze and suicide. I don't know if she's a Redditor, but if you're reading this, I'm glad you got the help you so desperately needed and I'm rooting for you still.

Worst tech was a young lad I worked with, he lost scripts but wouldn't ring the doctor to get a new one, ordered the wrong items in but instead of returning them he hid them in various places around the pharmacy. He was a lovely lad, but just so overwhelmed all the time. He was slightly OCD about his hands and would spend 40mins every morning putting plasters on his fingers.

You would come down to grab an item and would get caught up in his mess and spend at least an hour and a half dealing with irate customers.

Worst pharmacist ever was..I just don't know...she was a whirlwind of stress and confusion. She wouldn't do anything, she left a mess of messages and a line of furious customers that made the lunch cover pharmacist cry. Somebody handed a script in for one inhaler and said he would be back in ten minutes.

He came back after one two mins and she made him wait a whole ten minutes. It was sitting on the side for him!! She would question everything, even things that the other pharmacist had checked.

I refused to ever work with her again, my nerves just couldn't take it

few of my classmates would talk about this super sweet, but very incompetent elderly pharmacist that was known in their WAG chain as 'slow-Joe'. Apparently he was verifying prescriptions when a patient asked to be counseled on a new drug that came through for them, 'Seroquel/Quetiapine 25mg QHS #30 , 2 refills'. This was completely new to the patient. Joe walked over to counsel, and began with 'oh I can't remember what this drug is for.. hold on one second...'

A lot of you veteran techs and pharmacists can probably guess where I'm going with this by now...

He returns to his terminal to pull up Lexi-comp where he spends the next five minutes trying to figure out what Seroquel is for. In an epiffany upon finding the indications section he, very loudly proclaims over the heads of the pharmacy staff and patients in line "Ohhhh! It's for your psychosis!" And no, the patient in question did not have psychoses.

I am a pharmacist at a retail chain that has float pharmacists and float techs. For a while we kept getting this float tech scheduled at our store. She was obese to the point that she could barely walk across the room to help customers. As you can imagine, her customer service skills were pretty low. Its hard to be upbeat and helpful when you can barely breathe. Then she would lean over the counter in one spot and wouldn't move. She was slow, rude, and pissed off customers. I couldn't stand her and had her banned from my store.

We had a floater a while back, smart guy, very smart, actually invented things on the side and made millions. But man was he also dumb as a rock. No common sense at all. He would verify things so fast that I am sure he didn't actually look at hardcopies at all. He also would not consult. Every question was met with, "Go to Webmd". He couldn't stand still either, always fidgeting like a crack head. I have been a tech for eight years. Luckily most of my pharmacists have been great. But ninety percent of my tech coworkers have no work ethic, or just plain cannot figure out how to do the job efficiently. It is extremely stressful, most days I feel like I'm the only one working. I do 75 percent of the work from 8-4 even though there are three other techs with me. In a 3000 a week store, I'm headed for either a stress leave or heart attack.

The Pharmacist Calls The Shots

Pharmacy | Perth, WA, Australia | Working | November 7, 2013


(I have numerous health problems, and have to take 10 different prescription medications. Because of the risk of drug interactions, I don’t take as much as a vitamin without running it past a pharmacist. I’m in the pharmacy to buy an over-the-counter drug allergy tablet.)

Me: “Before I get that, I’d like to speak to the pharmacist please.”

Assistant: “The pharmacist is very busy. What’s the problem?”

Me: “I take several prescription drugs. I’d like to make sure this tablet’s not going to cause a bad interaction.”

Assistant: *rolling eyes* “I shouldn’t think it would.”

Me: “I would like to speak to the pharmacist, please.”

Assistant: “The pharmacist is very busy. I’m sure I can answer your questions.”

Me: “I’m concerned about drug interactions and I WOULD LIKE TO SPEAK TO THE PHARMACIST, PLEASE.”

Assistant: “Well, it’s just Lipitor or something, isn’t it? That’s no problem.”

(Instead of answering, I place on the counter the bag I carry my meds in; I bring it to new pharmacies so there’s no possibility of mistaken dosages or anything forgotten. I open the bag and begin to take out my various medications, including the injectible, and the ones plastered with warning labels. The assistant’s eyes get bigger with each new box.)

Assistant: “…I’ll just go get the pharmacist.”

Me: “You do that.”

Drive Flu

Pharmacy | Austin, TX, USA | Right | October 30, 2013


(I work at a pharmacy that has a drive-thru. We do flu shots and they are in high demand. We have never administered a flu shot at the drive-thru. A customer drives up to the window in her mini-van.)

Me “Good afternoon! What can I help you with today?”

Customer: “I would like to get the flu shot. Can you hurry because I have things to do.”

Me: “I’m very sorry, but you will have to come inside for us to administer the shot. It won’t take more than five minutes.”

Customer: “No! I don’t want to get out of my car. I’m in a hurry; I’m the customer and you have to do what I say, so you have to do it from here!”

Me: “I’m sorry, but it’s against the rules to do it at the drive-thru. I don’t think it would be very sanitary and I wouldn’t even be able to reach you from this window. You will need to come in. I promise it won’t take long.”

(The customer puts her car into gear, so I figure she is coming inside so I close the window and walk away. As I walk away I hear a blaring car horn so I go back to the window.)

Customer: “You have no right to deny me the shot! Are you trying to kill me? What if I get the flu and die? It would be your fault and you will go to jail for MURDER!”

Me: “I’m not denying you the shot, ma’am. Like I said you will have to come inside; it’s the rules. Please move so I can help the other customers.”

Customer: “NO, B****! I WANT THE SHOT RIGHT NOW AND I’M NOT COMING INSIDE! I’M NOT MOVING MY CAR UNTIL YOU HELP ME! WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU? YOU ARE WASTING MY TIME! I HAVE THINGS TO DO! I AM THE CUSTOMER AND YOU HAVE TO HELP ME! GIVE IT TO ME NOW YOU LAZY B****!”

Me: “No, you need to come inside. We can not administer a shot at a drive-thru window. We have never done it that way. If you come inside I will be able to help you and it will only take minutes. Please move your car so I can help other customers.”

Customer: “NO! I’M NOT MOVING AND YOU BETTER NOT HELP ANYONE ELSE! I WAS HERE FIRST AND I DEMAND YOU GIVE ME THE SHOT FROM HERE! IF YOU DON’T GIVE ME THE SHOT I’M GOING TO HAVE YOU FIRED AND I WILL MAKE SURE YOU NEVER GET ANOTHER JOB IN THIS CITY!”

Me: “For the last time, NO! If you don’t move your car, I’m going to call the police.”

(I start helping the other customers. The customer continues to yell, flips me off and hits the gas. That’s when I hear a loud crash. I look to see that she had put her car in reverse by accident and slammed into the car behind her!)

No ID, No Idea, Part 13

Pharmacy | Drexel Hill, PA, USA | Right | October 3, 2013


(I have recently been hired at a pharmacy a few towns over from mine. It’s my second day as cashier, when a teen girl comes to my register. I’m 22 and wearing a name tag.)

Customer: “Hi, I’d like a pack of [Brand] cigarettes, please.”

Me: “No problem. I just need to see your ID.”

Customer: “Oh, well it’s at my house and I don’t have time to run back and get it. Can’t you let me go this time?”

Me: “Sorry, it’s not worth my job.”

Customer: “But you know me!”

Me: “I can’t say that I do.”

Customer: “Dude, [My Name], we go to high school together.”

Me: “Oh, really? What high school do you go to?”

Customer: “[Local High School]. We totally have English together.”

Me: “Yeah, no. First of all I went to [Rival High School]. Second, I was in AP English, the scores of which I used to go to [University], which I just graduated from. So, no, I don’t know you. Show me ID or move along.”

Customer: “You suck.”

(She left and asked the next few visibly older customers to buy her cigarettes. No one bought them, and one even threatened to call the cops if she didn’t leave!)

Let’s Hope This Negative Becomes A Positive

Pharmacy | NY, USA | Working | October 3, 2013


(My sister and her husband are having trouble conceiving. It’s been four long and emotional years for all of us. She forgot to buy pregnancy tests last time she was out, so I offer to get some on my way over to her house. I hand over my items to the cashier.)

Cashier: *picking up pregnancy test with a gleeful smile* “Oooh! Is this a good thing or a bad thing?”

Me: “…what?”

Cashier: “Are you hoping you are or hoping you aren’t?”

Me: “That is a pretty personal question.”

Cashier: “Yeah, but I’m stuck here all day with nothing to do. So I’m thinking you cheated on your boyfriend and hope you aren’t carrying some random guy’s kid!” *huge grin* “Am I right?”

Me: “They’re not for me, but that’s really none of your business.”

Cashier: *offended and hostile* “Y’know, it’s people like YOU who make the world a terrible place! Try being friendly instead of such a b****!”

Me: “Just finish ringing me up, please.”

Cashier: “I HOPE YOUR B****** KID HAS A.D.D.!”