To think this was poor from the pharmacist?

[Pharmacy1one]

6 weeks or so ago I got two cartilage piercings in my left ear, tragus and helix.

I kept irritating them by turning over in my sleep and my toddler has knocked them a few times too so I was getting those annoying irritation bumps which were tender. I haven't had any pus coming from them, no temperature or discharge, just a bit of clear fluid when i removed them which I know isn't that abnormal.

I went to the chemist and asked to speak to the pharmacist, receptionist asked what the problem was and I briefly explained and said I want to buy something for the inflammation but was hoping the pharmacist could take a look first.

Receptionist relays that to the pharmacist and the pharmacist decided, without looking or even speaking to me at all, that it's infected and I need to go to A&E and get antibiotics and sprays would be no good.

She had her baby with her strapped to her back so I don't think she could have sat down with me in the consultation room in the first place.

I'm a bit miffed as we are routinely encouraged to see a pharmacist for minor ailments to take the strain off of GP's and hospitals, but this is the response I got for trying.

I have PTSD after having sepsis so now I'm scared about an infection that I didn't feel I had in the first place 😔 I can't just rock up to A&E for something like this surely, and there's nobody to have my children anyway.

Do you think I'm being unreasonable for thinking her response was poor?

One of her key problems is that the pharmacy she could alternatively use is closed on the weekend but she couldn’t get there during the week … however the piercing shop is also closed on the weekend and she was somehow able to find a weekday to go there. So why can’t she find a free weekday to go to the other pharmacy (which seems to have the same opening hour structure) if it’s so important?

Okay let me try this again

On a random Wednesday 6 weeks ago she booked a days leave, or was on her day off, and went to the piercers to get her ear pierced

Now 6 weeks later on a Saturday she's woken up with it red and sore and she wants to get it seen that day

Both her usual pharmacy and her piercer are closed on a Saturday so she goes to a different pharmacy which is open on a Saturday.

Are you suggesting she should have waited until Monday? Or are you suggesting she should have known on the Friday she was going to wake up on the Saturday suddenly with a problem?

It's the weekend and it's infected now though. She can't go before she knows its infected.

I’m trained in doing piercings, do them regularly when working. Have you been applying the aftercare for the piercing? I would personally (if you don’t already have some) buy some piercing aftercare (Superdrug sell an advanced piercing solution) it’s amazing and sped up my healing process for my cartilage! I would purchase that or something similar and apply as much on as you can.. if it doesn’t improve I would go to a different pharmacy on Monday x

Very true (and obvious) but we don’t know OP went to the pharmacy today do we?

Well you should do by now 😂

By this, I mean that the piercing took place 6 weeks ago & we don’t know how long she’s been in pain.

I'll take a look, thank you 🙂

I'm hoping that now they're out the healing will be straight forward. My tragus is completely painless now and whilst my helix is still tender, i think it's largely because of how difficult it was to get it out my ear. It took quite a while and hurt like a bitch 😬

Ohhhhh your posts make more sense now

I mean they are still somewhat wierd given it appears clear to everyone else the OP went today...

But even then - the OP has said the pharmacy she went to isn’t the one she’d normally attend.

I have wasted too much time on this. Hope the OP is ok & can manage a day off in the week to find a pharmacy who will help.

Yep and back to making absolutely no sense again

She did say, I'm pretty sure that she would try the other pharmacy on Monday.

@OnGoldenPond My mistake, I'm confusing pharmacies with enhanced consultation services with those offering 'standard services'. It appears all are NHS funded for some services.

I found this useful explaining current pharmacy services - others might too.
https://www.kingsfund.org.uk/insight-and-analysis/long-reads/community-pharmacy-explained

Then she isn't capable of doing her job, is she? A baby doesn't belong in a workplace, how unprofessional.

Your posts on this thread have just been horrible and totally uncalled for. But hey as long as you got 25 thanks doesn’t matter if you’ve maybe annoyed another person who’s obviously having a shit day and was worried about her ear.

Truly horrible and the glee from you is jumping off this page. Hope you feel good about yourself and your ridiculous 25 thanks. What did you hope to achieve from boasting about that and rubbing your hands in glee? Someone mentioned Jekyll and Hyde earlier … spot on 😉

Right I skipped through all the nastiness and judgemental comments. You can sort this out at home no worries - I have three helix piercings, although I got them done in a staggered way so that I could sleep on one side at a time because it is all too easy to catch them and squash them (presuming you have labret fixings and not hoops?)

So:

1. Grab yourself some saline solution and transfer it to a spray bottle - treat your piercings three times a day without fail.
2. Get yourself some camomile teabags - pop one in boiling water, wait until it's just cooled enough so that you can remove it with your fingers and then apply it to the bump like a poultice, hold it there until cold. If there's any gunk it will encourage it to come out. Do it morning and night.
3. If you have a travel pillow, try using this to sleep to help reduce contact between your usual pillows and your piercings.
4. If the piercing(s) gets very swollen around the site (not just the bump) and is red and hot then best to speak professional help in case you need antibiotics, but usually you can stave that off with home care.

I don't know if you've put your piercing(s) back in again or not, but you need to do this sooner rather than later to avoid repiercing. If you can't face it I would book back in with the piercer for them to do it for you. Two of my helixes were fine, but one had a bump and misbehaved for a bit. I would say it took about 10 months for all three to fully heal.

I have never seen anything as pathetic as @Geebray boasting of how many likes her stupid comment got. All that proves is that there is a worrying number of people who are as stupid as she is.