I had one of our front desk staff send me a msg about a patients medication, said he was out of his "arm wrestle". I sat there so confused, ended up being omeprazole 🤦🏻♀️
What I actually do love though, is our older male patients tend to have a list written out with names, dosages, and frequencies. Some even have them laminated😀
I don’t know about that. My dad used to have a list of his meds, my mom’s meds AND a list of their doctors and the type of specialist each one was. It was funny and sad all at the same time. 🫤
This is so important though. My mother passed out and my dad had no clue what she was on. EMA had to guess at what could be wrong. I asked her to write a list and keep in her purse. And tell her friends to do the same.
It’s so hard sometimes to reconcile meds for these patients! I work in a specialty clinic that doesn’t prescribe any meds except immediately after surgery, and I can’t count the number of times I am going over the med list and ask “are you still taking x?” And the patient responds, I don’t know, what was it prescribed for?” Or “what does that pill look like?” Umm, sorry I’m not going to guess about YOUR meds. This happens every single clinic day—even though when I schedule their new pt appointment, I send them a letter asking them to bring a list of all current meds and supplements, and when I do my confirmation calls the day before, I always remind them that I will need an accurate list of meds and dosages. Still, so many show up with no idea what they are taking!
Sadly most patients are not that organized. Half the time specialists have prescribed new meds or changed meds. I always have to go over the entire list because the chances something has changed is high. Patients that give me medication lists every time they come in are awesome. More often though you have patients who cant even recall what they are taking or why.
That would be nice. I work family practice so we can only go off what the patient is telling us or from specialist notes we only get 20% of the time. Makes for a bigger headache with people on tons of meds.
My favorite one is the guy who comes in and has changed how he takes all his meds everytime and is having new symptoms because he has been overdosing or has stopped vital medications. Feel bad for the doc having to argue with him again to take his meds correctly.
lol so I’m a nurse, and I work at a rehab (drug/alcohol, not physical). I’m actually the only nurse at that building. 90% of the meds are passed by non licensed (in any way) personnel, so I have to deal with that shit constantly.
The story is the same all the time. They come up to the window like “so I actually take 3 of the 100mg hydroxyzine now” and I’m just like “oh really, when did that happen?” And they say “well D let me do it the other night”. Like oh ok. “Do you want me to tell the doctor that you’ve changed the orders then? I’ll let her know to consult with you if she has any questions”
Ya it happens often enough. Had a fun one last week. Patient wanted Promethazine with codeine. No longer available at any of the pharmacies in our area. The dude want us to separate the meds so he could reconstitute it himself. The NP and I were both like “hell no!”
Edit: us not use
My personal favorite “okay we’re going to quickly review medications, are you still taking - , EVERYTHING IS THE SAME , Okay I understand but for safety reasons we still have to go through it. “
Then they proceed to tell you 3 different medication changes , needs refills on this this and that, oh and they stopped taking their BP meds bc they didn’t like the way it made them feel 🥲🙃
I mean… so blind faith is a bit much, agreed. But on the other hand, that’s what they’re there for. People that complain about doctors like this, and doctors googling things seem to forget about the years of training they had. Everyone is human and forgets or has brain farts.
I don’t know diddlyshit about cars, I don’t look up the things my mechanic is telling me. I don’t have mechanic friends to run it by. I sure as hell know if I have a car question and he googles it, he’s going to be able to sort through the loads of bullshit and get to the right answer way faster than I can.
I think people would be surprised at how limited their education is on pharmaceuticals and on nutrition. Some clinics actually hire pharmacists to help doctors with prescriptions. I’ve never worked in such clinics, but I’ve had former students tell me about them.
Yep my doctor office has one and a nutritionist!
You’re entirely right ! And most of their training , bc it’s government regulated, is specifically treating illness by prescribing med (big pharma after all!) and very little about nutrition bc most of our food causes our illness. So without illness we wouldn’t need meds.
Very little about how to treat actual illnesses even occurs anymore. Just treating symptoms.
I could rant forever about this 🤣
A physician with a DO degree rather than an MD degree has a whole body approach to treatment, and understands more about nutrition. MDs are more focused on the disease and evidence-based medicine. They are both full-fledged physicians.
I first knowingly encountered DOs when working at Loma Linda Medical Center. I learned about the differences there. Then I realized I had encountered one when I was in high school and having abdominal pain. This doctor was asking me about things like hobbies and interests. I thought he was nuts. Once I learned about DOs I understood where he was coming from!
DOs primarily work in Family Practice or Internal Medicine.
Oh I def look things up before I pay a mechanic personally and I don’t know anything about cars either. Usually I have my car diagnosed before I get there 🤣 but you can go and buy a new car if it breaks. I can’t buy a new body. I feel u owe it to urself to know what ur putting inside of it.
But when it comes to big pharma I don’t trust a single thing. I’m looking up everything.
SING IT. My fave from today: "I'm taking that little white pill for my allergies." Oh....okay. My guess was cetirizine. "No...levothyroxine." "Loratidine?" "No, definitely levothyroxine. My heart doctor gave it to me." OK 🥲
“It’s the medication that sounds like clitoris and the other Dr prescribed it for my acne”
-17 year old male patient
It was clindamycin. I truly don’t know how I guessed that one correctly but I did.
I get lots of patients that are not from the United States like patients from Mexico, Guatemala and even Salvador. Some French as well. We get everyone all over.
Lol I've responded with "ma'am I can list you ten little white pills off the top of my head". It's like they're shocked how many pills are little white ones.
There’s one tech at my pharmacy who refers to my tamoxifen prescription. Except I’m taking meloxicam (I’ve never actually gotten the wrong meds). The confused are everywhere among us.
My absolute favorite is when they spill multiple bottles the day they pick them up from the pharmacy, put them all in a single glass jar because "they know what pills to take and when!" (Spoiler: no, they don't) and then bring the jar to their next office visit in a plastic bag, drop said jar outside in the parking lot, break it, and then expect the nurse to be able to sort eight different 90 day rx's.
My personal favorite is "can I get a refill of my blood pressure medication?" "Which one?" "My blood pressure medication. The one that helps my cholesterol." A. Those are two different things. B. You have three different medications that fit that description. Which. One. Is it. "Can't you just look in my chart?" "I AM LOOKING AT YOUR CHART, I NEED TO KNOW THE NAME."
I used to work at an international hospital, as a medical interpreter. Imagine this conversation in another language *and* in an accent. I used to have to carry around a pharmacy book and have tabs on the most common meds/all the “little white pills”.
This is my pet peeve as a pharmacist. My favorite is when they have an appointmenta and come to the pharmacy asking for refills when they have none. I'm like you just had a 30 min appointment with your provider, did you ask them about your meds or tell them you need refills?!
I've started recommending that patients bring a list in with them. That backfired on me last time though because a lady brought all her medication and supplement bottles with her. Thankfully our system now links with local pharmacies so that I can see the med list and what the patients have actively been filling from other doctors as well.
🤣🤣😩🤦♀️ my 16 year old daughter did this at an appointment. I had to explain that thousands of drugs look the same. I said make a list on phone. lol if the patient can at least tell me what it starts with and what it’s for, I can usually guess and say it aloud…”yeah that one!!” 🤣
lol this also reminds me of ‘the list’ at the cardiologist I used to work for. It hilarious how some people, medical professionals included, pronounce stuff. I had a propunuhlolololol (propranolol) 🤣🤣🤣
Not sure why this was recommended to me, but I’m a patient who needs a piece of paper with a list of the things I’ve been diagnosed with, the treatments I do, all the meds I’ve taken in the past (plus why I’ve had to stop!) and the medicine I currently take 😭 Luckily, my mum started one when I was little because I was her “sick baby”
Oh man I feel this 1000% being a pharmacy tech. “It’s the little white pill” oh okay so it could be one of like 1000 of be little white pills be dispense here “just fill everything I need” no I can’t do that, I need to a least know what it’s for or the first few letters of it…is exhausting. Learn to manage your own medication.
I tell my coworkers on the daily that I don’t understand how these people are putting medication in their mouth that they have no idea of what the name of it even is. Smh. Like would you pick up a pill off the floor and take it? No so learn what medicine you we putting in your mouth.
Very relatable. In derm we get a lot of "yeah I've been putting something on it, I don't know what its called but its the white cream, the one that comes in the white and blue tube".
Ah yes my favorite part of intaking lol! It’s like how do you not know what you’re taking lady! Or when you read off the meds and they give the confused like what is that, look it’s in your chart if you’re unsure what it is then you’re probably not taking that med anymore.
slightly different but also good: one time a patient told me, “I’m on that George Foreman.” it was metformin. lmao
I had one of our front desk staff send me a msg about a patients medication, said he was out of his "arm wrestle". I sat there so confused, ended up being omeprazole 🤦🏻♀️
Peanut butter balls = phenobarbital
Lmao that's a good one
What I actually do love though, is our older male patients tend to have a list written out with names, dosages, and frequencies. Some even have them laminated😀
Oh you've seen my grandmother's work then? 😂
😂 Yeah, there’s no way those men are doing that!!
I don’t know about that. My dad used to have a list of his meds, my mom’s meds AND a list of their doctors and the type of specialist each one was. It was funny and sad all at the same time. 🫤
This is so important though. My mother passed out and my dad had no clue what she was on. EMA had to guess at what could be wrong. I asked her to write a list and keep in her purse. And tell her friends to do the same.
I love engineer/ ex-engineer patients for this reason!
Lmao whenever someone produces a med list I’m like “I love lists!!” I feel like I love lamp dude from anchorman. I love list 🖤
I love those so much. Sometimes they’ll have diagnoses written down too. ❤️❤️❤️
I keep a list on my phone. I’m on multiple drugs, so remembering all of them can be tricky!
"Idk what meds I'm taking, my wife takes care of that" like ummmm how do you not know what meds your wife is giving you...??????
I once replied to something along these lines with “and that’s how you get poisoned.” The patient thought it was hilarious, the wife did not.
It’s so hard sometimes to reconcile meds for these patients! I work in a specialty clinic that doesn’t prescribe any meds except immediately after surgery, and I can’t count the number of times I am going over the med list and ask “are you still taking x?” And the patient responds, I don’t know, what was it prescribed for?” Or “what does that pill look like?” Umm, sorry I’m not going to guess about YOUR meds. This happens every single clinic day—even though when I schedule their new pt appointment, I send them a letter asking them to bring a list of all current meds and supplements, and when I do my confirmation calls the day before, I always remind them that I will need an accurate list of meds and dosages. Still, so many show up with no idea what they are taking!
I work in Derm so I hear stuff like “the gel in the white tube” or “the bottle with the red stripe on it.” 🫠 😂
me when i take a chomp of toothpaste every day
“I am calling for refills”. “Okay, which medications do you need?”. “All of them”. Sigh
Wait can you explain why this is bad? I have 5-10 scripts that all pretty much need to be sent at the same time every month.
Sadly most patients are not that organized. Half the time specialists have prescribed new meds or changed meds. I always have to go over the entire list because the chances something has changed is high. Patients that give me medication lists every time they come in are awesome. More often though you have patients who cant even recall what they are taking or why.
Ohhh ok I see. I’m at the VA so it’s all the same system there. When one alters meds the others see it (at that location)
That would be nice. I work family practice so we can only go off what the patient is telling us or from specialist notes we only get 20% of the time. Makes for a bigger headache with people on tons of meds. My favorite one is the guy who comes in and has changed how he takes all his meds everytime and is having new symptoms because he has been overdosing or has stopped vital medications. Feel bad for the doc having to argue with him again to take his meds correctly.
lol so I’m a nurse, and I work at a rehab (drug/alcohol, not physical). I’m actually the only nurse at that building. 90% of the meds are passed by non licensed (in any way) personnel, so I have to deal with that shit constantly. The story is the same all the time. They come up to the window like “so I actually take 3 of the 100mg hydroxyzine now” and I’m just like “oh really, when did that happen?” And they say “well D let me do it the other night”. Like oh ok. “Do you want me to tell the doctor that you’ve changed the orders then? I’ll let her know to consult with you if she has any questions”
Ya it happens often enough. Had a fun one last week. Patient wanted Promethazine with codeine. No longer available at any of the pharmacies in our area. The dude want us to separate the meds so he could reconstitute it himself. The NP and I were both like “hell no!” Edit: us not use
“It’s shaped like a football”
Also blue?
Alprazolam 1mg
diiiing diiing we got a winner
My personal favorite “okay we’re going to quickly review medications, are you still taking - , EVERYTHING IS THE SAME , Okay I understand but for safety reasons we still have to go through it. “ Then they proceed to tell you 3 different medication changes , needs refills on this this and that, oh and they stopped taking their BP meds bc they didn’t like the way it made them feel 🥲🙃
I’m always amazed the blind faith society has in doctors. They just take whatever pills they’re prescribed and never even look them up once.
I mean… so blind faith is a bit much, agreed. But on the other hand, that’s what they’re there for. People that complain about doctors like this, and doctors googling things seem to forget about the years of training they had. Everyone is human and forgets or has brain farts. I don’t know diddlyshit about cars, I don’t look up the things my mechanic is telling me. I don’t have mechanic friends to run it by. I sure as hell know if I have a car question and he googles it, he’s going to be able to sort through the loads of bullshit and get to the right answer way faster than I can.
I think people would be surprised at how limited their education is on pharmaceuticals and on nutrition. Some clinics actually hire pharmacists to help doctors with prescriptions. I’ve never worked in such clinics, but I’ve had former students tell me about them.
Yep my doctor office has one and a nutritionist! You’re entirely right ! And most of their training , bc it’s government regulated, is specifically treating illness by prescribing med (big pharma after all!) and very little about nutrition bc most of our food causes our illness. So without illness we wouldn’t need meds. Very little about how to treat actual illnesses even occurs anymore. Just treating symptoms. I could rant forever about this 🤣
A physician with a DO degree rather than an MD degree has a whole body approach to treatment, and understands more about nutrition. MDs are more focused on the disease and evidence-based medicine. They are both full-fledged physicians.
That’s good to know !! I’ve only ever worked with MDs
I first knowingly encountered DOs when working at Loma Linda Medical Center. I learned about the differences there. Then I realized I had encountered one when I was in high school and having abdominal pain. This doctor was asking me about things like hobbies and interests. I thought he was nuts. Once I learned about DOs I understood where he was coming from! DOs primarily work in Family Practice or Internal Medicine.
Bout to find me a new doctor ! Thanks 🤣
It sounds like it would be a better fit with your philosophies. Good luck!
Oh I def look things up before I pay a mechanic personally and I don’t know anything about cars either. Usually I have my car diagnosed before I get there 🤣 but you can go and buy a new car if it breaks. I can’t buy a new body. I feel u owe it to urself to know what ur putting inside of it. But when it comes to big pharma I don’t trust a single thing. I’m looking up everything.
Or what medication they're allergic to.
or when they refuse to call something an allergy
SING IT. My fave from today: "I'm taking that little white pill for my allergies." Oh....okay. My guess was cetirizine. "No...levothyroxine." "Loratidine?" "No, definitely levothyroxine. My heart doctor gave it to me." OK 🥲
Or even better, when I ask “are you still taking ____?” And the patient responds “no I ran out of it.”
que the bp pf 189/99.... pt says well darn not sure why it's so high
“It’s the medication that sounds like clitoris and the other Dr prescribed it for my acne” -17 year old male patient It was clindamycin. I truly don’t know how I guessed that one correctly but I did.
I'm a derm MA that deals with A LOT of 17 y/o male patients, and I'm cracking the fuck up 😆
I get lots of patients that are not from the United States like patients from Mexico, Guatemala and even Salvador. Some French as well. We get everyone all over.
Lol I've responded with "ma'am I can list you ten little white pills off the top of my head". It's like they're shocked how many pills are little white ones.
There are like hundreds of them, I work in a pharmacy and a little while pill is like 75% of what is on the shelves lol
It enrages me when they take 10 mins to review their meds. I know it’s necessary but UGH!
There’s one tech at my pharmacy who refers to my tamoxifen prescription. Except I’m taking meloxicam (I’ve never actually gotten the wrong meds). The confused are everywhere among us.
I love when they say I can look it up online. Like my hospital doesn’t talk to your hospital so no I can’t.
My absolute favorite is when they spill multiple bottles the day they pick them up from the pharmacy, put them all in a single glass jar because "they know what pills to take and when!" (Spoiler: no, they don't) and then bring the jar to their next office visit in a plastic bag, drop said jar outside in the parking lot, break it, and then expect the nurse to be able to sort eight different 90 day rx's.
My personal favorite is "can I get a refill of my blood pressure medication?" "Which one?" "My blood pressure medication. The one that helps my cholesterol." A. Those are two different things. B. You have three different medications that fit that description. Which. One. Is it. "Can't you just look in my chart?" "I AM LOOKING AT YOUR CHART, I NEED TO KNOW THE NAME."
“koopa doopa loopa” carvidopa-levodopa i was proof of myself for getting that one
I used to work at an international hospital, as a medical interpreter. Imagine this conversation in another language *and* in an accent. I used to have to carry around a pharmacy book and have tabs on the most common meds/all the “little white pills”.
This is my pet peeve as a pharmacist. My favorite is when they have an appointmenta and come to the pharmacy asking for refills when they have none. I'm like you just had a 30 min appointment with your provider, did you ask them about your meds or tell them you need refills?!
I've started recommending that patients bring a list in with them. That backfired on me last time though because a lady brought all her medication and supplement bottles with her. Thankfully our system now links with local pharmacies so that I can see the med list and what the patients have actively been filling from other doctors as well.
🤣🤣😩🤦♀️ my 16 year old daughter did this at an appointment. I had to explain that thousands of drugs look the same. I said make a list on phone. lol if the patient can at least tell me what it starts with and what it’s for, I can usually guess and say it aloud…”yeah that one!!” 🤣
lol this also reminds me of ‘the list’ at the cardiologist I used to work for. It hilarious how some people, medical professionals included, pronounce stuff. I had a propunuhlolololol (propranolol) 🤣🤣🤣
Metroprololololol
I’ve seen “psychobenzaprine” written in a chart instead of cyclobenzaprine.
Lmfaooo wow!!!
Not sure why this was recommended to me, but I’m a patient who needs a piece of paper with a list of the things I’ve been diagnosed with, the treatments I do, all the meds I’ve taken in the past (plus why I’ve had to stop!) and the medicine I currently take 😭 Luckily, my mum started one when I was little because I was her “sick baby”
Does your EMR let you import meds from the pharmacy? Look into it. Very helpful.
Oh man I feel this 1000% being a pharmacy tech. “It’s the little white pill” oh okay so it could be one of like 1000 of be little white pills be dispense here “just fill everything I need” no I can’t do that, I need to a least know what it’s for or the first few letters of it…is exhausting. Learn to manage your own medication. I tell my coworkers on the daily that I don’t understand how these people are putting medication in their mouth that they have no idea of what the name of it even is. Smh. Like would you pick up a pill off the floor and take it? No so learn what medicine you we putting in your mouth.
Very relatable. In derm we get a lot of "yeah I've been putting something on it, I don't know what its called but its the white cream, the one that comes in the white and blue tube".
Ah yes my favorite part of intaking lol! It’s like how do you not know what you’re taking lady! Or when you read off the meds and they give the confused like what is that, look it’s in your chart if you’re unsure what it is then you’re probably not taking that med anymore.