Quandry

Trigger warning: here's a discussion of pregnancy loss and probably rape. Feel free to skip this post if you aren't in the right headspace for it.

See? Lime Cat (who is more accurately wearing a pumelo) is not amused. Trigger warnings are serious stuff yo.

So in the realm of "awful things we get to do as the pharmacist," there are two or three that come to mind. One is telling someone how much their life-saving medicine will cost and then watching their face fall because it is too much. This one doesn't happen too often, and when it happens and the patient gets super mad but has a carton of cigarettes with them, I get a wee bit cynical.

Two is talking to a hospice caregiver who is just starting out with hospice. The caregiver is stoic but has a deer in the headlights look the entire time. It is a lot to switch mindsets from "s/he will get better" to "s/he will die soon but comfortably."

Three is a rape victim who hopefully is getting the full rape STI prevention cocktail and not just looking at the Plan B shelf in a terrified manner. The only part of having it sitting out on a shelf that worries me is these ladies, who really need a referral to the victim support system in the area (and yes, probably the Plan B as well). If they can just cower and grab the thing off the shelf, how will they get that referral to get a rape kit so the bad guy gets caught? That cocktail of meds has a number of serious side effects and it's a lot to keep track of it all (some are taken four times a day for quite a long time).

And fourth is the woman getting medicines for dealing with a miscarriage. I haven't had this one happen while I was working yet but I would totally cry while explaining the medications. I will. I suppose that makes me more personable or human and not healthcare mystic than anything I could say.

So, dear readers, what would you want to hear from your pharmacist if you were in one of these positions? If you have been there, what insensitive thing did someone say that could be avoided? Today one of my classmates is curious but I am too. I can share my experience with loss a tiny bit and my experience with hospice and affording meds as well, but the rest? Maybe you all have some ideas. Maybe my brain is just too tied up in dosing vanco right now to think this through.

What do you wish you had heard from your pharmacist? What would you like to hear in the future? About any sensitive and icky topic, IVF meds included for sure.