RM3
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04:21:59 pm on February 1, 2011 |
What/Who: The local pharmacy / cold & flu virii / western civilization
Where/When: Across the street / today
Event: I’ve come down sick. Again! (after being run over by flu before Christmas) My partner’s mum rang up last night, all soothing and encouraging, said go to the pharmacy and speak to them about a cough mixture. Get the right one, she said, because they all do different things. My friend’s daughter works in a pharmacy, she said, and they’re always going on training courses so they can recommend the right stuff. They’ll know what to give you, she said.
So today I went across the street to the local pharmacy. Girl behind the counter just stood there. I want to say lady, or even gal, but I’m pretty sure she was a girl. (I feel badly about that, and am beginning to lose how to measure people up now that I’m 36.) But she was in pharmacy whites, so I said, “Can I talk to you about cough mixture?” She said yes, but in a way sort of like “you have questions about cough mixture?” I explained the ways in which I felt poorly, and ways in which I didn’t feel poorly, and please could she recommend something; so she came around to browse the shelf. She regarded the products in a way sort of like “Well this one comes in a red box… and it’s tall and narrow… whereas this one comes in a green box… and it’s shorter and fatter…” She eventually chose one.
Then she said something about taking paracetamol or ibuprofen, so I asked if she could suggest whether I should buy the regular strength Lemsip or the extra strong Lemsip. She regarded the selection of Lemsips and said, “Well some come as tablets… whereas these ones are sachets…” Then she said that Lemsip contained caffeine so don’t take it before bedtime; take a regular paracetamol capsule instead.
I chose a box of regular sachet Lemsip (black currant yum yum) and took the cough syrup she recommended, bought it, and came home.
Water in kettle, switch on, examine box of cough syrup. Open up bottle, pour spoonful, put spoon in mouth — PLEEAACCHH! There’s a market for this stuff?!? It’s Meltus. I haven’t had Meltus before. I won’t be buying it again.
Kettle boils. Wonder about sagacity of consuming caffeine. Examine box of Lemsip. “Active Ingredients:” the outside says. It lists paracetamol and Phenylephrine hydrochloride. “Also contains aspartame and sucrose” it advises. No mention of caffeine. But it contains vitamin C, right? That’s why it says make up with hot but not boiling water, right? This stuff has vitamin C in, which makes it marginally better than taking paracetamol tablets, right? No mention on box. Hmm. If the box doesn’t mention vitamin C, maybe it doesn’t mention caffeine either. AAAAArrgh how am I supposed to know what’s in these damn sachets if the box won’t say!! This is a pharmaceutical product for gods’ sakes!!
Open box. Find paper insert. “Each sachet of powder contains…blahblah gory detail…and ascorbic acid (vitamin C).” I was right. Plus one (1) vitamin C. No mention of caffeine.
Grrrrrrr Lemsip is a standard UK product! Everybody takes Lemsip! Should not a pharmacist know whether the damn stuff contains caffeine?!
And shouldn’t they know how to recommend a cough mixture?? They shouldn’t look at me like I’m some kind of idiot. I don’t have a rare disease nobody in Britain has ever heard of. I have flu/cold! EVERYBODY has flu/cold right now. This is not rocket science.
And why didn’t the box of Lemsip explain itself fully on the outside! Am I expected to stand there in the store and open the box up, like some dodgy “let’s poison the bottles of Tylenol because we’re still in the pre-safety-seal era” sociopath?
I am grouchy that products don’t do a thorough and complete job of explaining themselves on the outside.
I am grouchy that people recommend and encourage you to talk to medical professionals, and then those professionals turn out to be idiots and I could have figured out the same thing by myself.
I am grouchy that I’m sick again!
*bursts into tears* >wail!<
Grrrometer: 5 plus tissues
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