to be fed up with with the chemist

[listentome]

Ok..ill, cranky in a generally bad mood, so don't think IABU, but maybe I am. All of us, me, DH, adult DS, home ill with this misery of an infection/virus going around. Slightly different symptoms, DH fever and stuffed nose, DS throat, ear pain, and cough and me, terrible lingering cough that keeps me up most of the night.

So, I am nominated to go out this morning to fetch basic food provisions and to purchase our medicines of choice. Adult DS has actually been to GP yesterday and given antibiotics but wants Nurofen Plus to kill earache pain while waiting for the antibiotics to kick in, DH wants Night Nurse and I want a night time cough syrup to dampen the cough and let me sleep.

I am at the counter of our local branch of very well known high street chain. Assistant seems to not be sharpest tool in the box had trouble with right and left when I was trying to tell her where medicine was on the shelf and certainly has no idea which cough syrup to recommend. I read a few labels and choose one myself and want to pay for my 3 items.

Cue assistant's cat's bum face. Goes off to talk to pharmacist. Computer says no. I can have the Nurofen Plus and either the Night Nurse or the cough syrup, not both. Explain again that they are for different people and I'm not planning to poison myself by way of over the counter meds.
Tough...not allowed. Choose cough syrup as it is chain's own brand and I have a cunning plan.

Ok, I live in a very big city with no shortage of chemists. Mutter evil incantations at big chain chemist and drag my aching body 100 yards down the road to next slightly smaller chain chemist to buy the Night Nurse. Mission accomplished.

Wonder how folks who live in small towns with only 1 chemist manage. Maybe they actually have sensible staff who can understand reason.

There are rules about what you can buy.

YABU to be fed up with someone following the law.

Would you be fed up in the supermarket if you wanted to buy paracetamol and ibuprofen and lemsip, when the law says you can only buy two things that are painkillers?

At a guess I would say that Night Nurse and nighttime cough syrup both have sedating antihistamines in (diphenhydramine is pretty common) and the law says you are only allowed to buy one thing with that ingredient.

Pharmacists have a duty of care

YABU

But you feel rotten

Best things are olbas oil and steam inhalation for the congestion

I live in a village and have to travel to the next town to the chemist, They have always served me with various medicines as I've stated they are for different people, maybe they shouldn't be

Yabu. They have to abide by the rules.

The issue here is probably due to both products containing pseudoephedrine (Day/Night Nurse contains it, not sure about own brands of cough syrup). A couple of years ago pharmacies were restricted on the amount of this that can be sold to the same person as it can be used to make "crystal meth".

Tbh I would use my common sense when selling two bottles for separate people (i know my regular patients and tend to know which ones wouldn't be buying it for illegal drug manufacturing!!!)

I live in small village and have not had problems - but then the pharmacist does know us all by name, and possibly knows all our personal preferences anyway.

yanbu
the rules are sometimes ridiculous.
when I was visibly pregnant and dh was in bed with swine flu (he couldn't even get to the loo without help) the chemist refused to sell me ibuprofen and nose spray (otriven). even though both would have been fine in pregnancy. went to the supermarket to buy it.

UANBU
You can moan at the chemists assistants it's the law that's an arse.
IMO if people want to kill themselves taking illegal drugs I don't care.
I do care that you can no longer get the one kind of cough medicine that actually worked

trills, but is it law, in which case I will reserve my next rant for the nanny state or company policy?

Sorry that was meant to say you can't moan at the assistants.
Any more than you can about the ridiculous rules about pharmacists being present to sell certain things.
I do moan because I don't see why the pharmacists can't have a sandwich at 11.30 and a coffee and cake at 2 pm and be on duty when over lunch when people can get to the shop!

I had the same experience in Boots. I actually asked if I went out the shop and came back in again would they seel me the other medicine - the answer was no. I asked a friend to pick me up the other medicine.

I understand guidelines and I wouldn't blame the individual staff member; but I am a 47 year old respectable mother of 4. Surely there should be some room for judgements in the guidelines?

YANBU to be annoyed but we do live in much more of a nanny state now than we did.

I remember when you could buy 100 paracetamol in a bottle and also aspirin and ibruprofen to keep the cupboards stocked up.

Now you can only buy 2 days or somethings worth and only certain combinations.

This summer I collected DS's perscription of chrlorphenamine (puriton) and needed to buy myself some cetirizine tablets. I couldn't buy the tablets as can't get 2 different antihistamines at the same time.

I can get DS ceterizine, chlorphenamine and epi-pens all at once though as prescribed.

Hope you all feel better soon. I've had the earache, throat cough combo this Christmas and it's still lingering now!

Which cough medicine is that, startail?

YANBU to feel irritated or that the rules are silly.

YABU to have a go at someone for following rules they did not make themselves.

YABVU to have a crack at her intelligence (and the left/right thing is especially low).

Independent chemists are a lot more sensible about this. I stock up before we go on holiday each year - soluble paracetamol, Calpol, paracetamol caplets, etc, all for different members of the family. I just explain and the chemist has no problem with it. In fact on one occasion he was right out of small boxes of soluble paracetamol so he sold me a box of 100 instead!

YABU to buy children's cough syrup when some hot lemon juice juice with honey in it would do a much better job.

But there are strict guidelines on what you can and cannot buy together.

I had exactly the same issue.

DP, my mum, my dad, our lodger and my younger brother were all ill last February. I practically crawled to our local Tesco because I was 6 months pregnant and looked like the back end of a bus, but was the only one mobile.

Paracetamol, ibuprofen, chesty cough syrup, Strepsils, Lemsips, Cold + Flu all-in-one, Nurofen, olbas oil, Night Nurse and voltarol gel. I looked like I was stocking up my local pharmacy!

Get to the self-scan tills and start putting things through. Two at a time because I know what the limitations are it's easier to do about 12 transactions than to argue the toss with a bloody machine.

Staff member comes over, clocks my belly and the fact I'm buying for the 5000 and starts wittering on about how none of these are safe during pregnancy and how I'll murder my baby.

Red mist descends. I go ballistic and explain that not only are none of them for me but I resent the fact that she thinks I will put my child at harm deliberately just for my own wellbeing. She sort of whimpers and scampers off to get her manager. She comes over. Looks at me, looks at my medicine, looks at the staff member, then back at me. Asks who they are for: I explain. She says "Fair enough". I grin like a cheshire cat, pack up and leave as dignified as possible.

The law, as they say, is an arse.

The law is not only an ass, it doesn't work as proven by the OP going 10 feet down the road and buying what she wanted anyway.

If they truly want to regulate it they need to do what the US does for pseudoephedrine and put your name into a central computer database accessible by all pharmacy staff any where.

They are following the rules. The rules may be stupid but nevertheless, they are rules and the pharmacist / assistants are just doing their jobs.

They are following the rules. The rules may be stupid but nevertheless, they are rules and the pharmacist / assistants are just doing their jobs.

Trouble is we live in such a society now where there is blame culture and folk are suing left, right and centre. Plus you never know when you are gonna get a mystery shopper in and before you know it you are getting a flaming in Which? Magazine or some other publication for breaking the law, selling inappropriate quantities blah blah blah. Can't really win on this one!

Like a lot of areas, common sense has been replaced by laws which treat people like they're stupid. Having to explain one of the latest pain in the arse regulation change about not being able to sell Tixylix to under sixes when thousands of parents have used it for years without any problem is a bloody nightmare challenge for all concerned....especially this time of year!

it does seem silly I know but not everyone understands that over the counter stuff can be dangerous if misused or taken with other medicines, it could be a disaster for someone if they were able to buy everything they wanted and TBH just looking at someone does not tell you their level of understanding or literacy levels. a case of having to treat us all as if we are a bit clueless just to cover things for those that actually are.

and what Ecclescake has said as well!

I live in a city so have a choice of chemists anyway. However our local (nearest) chemist, is run by a woman who keeps a small note pad behind the counter.

Buy, or attempt to by anything stronger than a bottle of milton and your name goes in the book.

Obviously she has a lot of fictitious names in there.

She no longer stocks items like Co-codamol I'm told. Too dangerous for a lay person to buy. Apparently.

She has lost a lot of custom. The next pharmacy is about 3 mins down the road from there. Here you can buy what you need, with friendly guidance from the pharmacist. Obviously she isn't going to sell a potentially lethal mixture of over the counter drugs, but she explains things, suggests alternatives and doesn't keep a book like Miss Whiplash.