Pharmacy blues

Ok, so i have not blogged in a long time. Got busy. And the problem with being busy is that you can't get enough time for the good stuff even though all you have to do is to hang around other busy people and do nothing. I have been sitting and staring at books for long hours during my exams, quite happily because the bookworm-chick-next-to-me is the batch topper. I read quite a few novels sitting backstage at the drama practices, when other people were discussing about "Oh no, those guys on you-tube lifted off our story even before we started making it !". I munched away on the chips in lengthy meetings for the college magazine where other people are doing the dirty work. All i had to do was look up from time to time and say, "Yeah you rock buddy ! We should really make the cover in blue". So you got the general idea i guess..

Anyways, this week i got to attend a medical camp in a nearby village. Now there were five of us med-students and two other doctors who decided to take time off their busy schedule for the community service. We were supposed to pick up our favorite job in the camp. I looked around and saw that the only chairs with cushions were in the van carrying the medicines. So i thought.. what the hell ! I passed in Pharmacology this year... didn't I ? Even though i might have read a few dosages here and there from the bookworm-chick-next-to-me's papers. The patients will never know about it !

So yes, that's it folks. The patients started pouring in soon. The doctors were getting all sweaty from shouting, "Didn't i tell you to stay out of the door and wait for the turn !" and, "Please open you mouth wider.. yes a little bit more.. I said WIDERRRRR !!!" And we got 'busy' with our work too. Sitting around in the van, trying to read every slip that had worse handwriting than mine. After poking around for half an hour with a prescription that read something like 'analfin' .. 'altraz' .. 'aletic' ..I walked upto the doctor and asked him why would he give a 50 year old man something that sounds like an estrogen supplement, he told me that i was supposed to read it 'Antacid' ..and by that he means i can give the man any antacid that's in stock. The evening passed uneventful after that, with some astonishing prescriptions like..

Diagnosis: Osteoarthritis
Rx: Paracetamol

Diagnosis: Chronic alcoholism
Rx: Paracetamol, Vit B. Complex
Advise: Stop drinking

Diagnosis: Chronic Bronchitis
Rx: Paracetamol, Cough syrup

That's what you actually have to do when you are providing medical care for free. People actually turn up just because they are curious that something unusual is happening in their small village. There was a husband and wife who were visiting all doctors in turn, giving new symptoms every time. And when i handed them the usual paracetamol for the third time, they looked at each other and smirked with a "see i told you they give the same medicine for everything !" look in their faces. And then there were some more socially responsible people like the man who walked up to me when i was awfully 'busy'..

Nice old man: "Hey, are you doing checkup for eyes too ?"

Mack: "Sir, please talk to the doctor. Maybe he has some charts for testing vision."

Nice old man: "Ok leave that, do you guys do plaster over fractures."

Mack: "I'm so sorry we are not carrying anything for plasters in the van. (I am just a medical student sucker. I was probably sleeping in the OPD when the PG resident was telling us how to do a plaster)"

Nice old man: "Aww, and you got bandages for dressing wounds ?"

Mack: "Oh my God, what happened to you ?"

Nice old man: "Oh, Nothing happened to me. I am just passing time after my evening tea. It gets quite boring in the summer you know."