Although now I am a Clinical Pharmacist where I no longer working within a retail or community pharmacy, at the beginning of my career I did. Anyone who has worked in retail can tell you that you have up and down days. Days that can be hard both physically and mentally. There are also some of the most rewarding days where you have had the opportunity to literally help change someone's life. We love those days. Some of the most rewarding days is helping people take their feelings of helplessness and turn them into action. To help them learn to manage their individual disease states or for me I have also had the privilege of helping patients come off of opioids. I never thought that this could be rewarding until I did it. Taking patients who feel trapped and handcuffed by these opioids to a new place where we are able to taper them to off thus allowing them to reclaim their lives. An amazing feeling. Or helping a patient or loved ones in their final weeks and days. I seriously could go on and on. That is why I became a Pharmacist is to help others. There are many of those stories that I could talk all day about. I can tell you that I have truly loved my 16 plus years as a Pharmacist. I have many stories that I can point to that would show you why I still practice as a Pharmacist today.
So let me tell you about one of the funniest moments. Now let me first give you a little bit of a background. I was not a traditional student in the sense that I was married and had 2 children when I decided to go back to school and become a Pharmacist. Then I had my 3rd child in my third year of Pharmacy School. So when I started my first day as a Pharmacist I already had 3 kids and was a full blown working Mom. This is also another story that I can go on and on about but imagine not only navigating a new demanding career but at the same time learning what it takes to navigate the many challenges of being a working mom.
Getting back to this funniest moment came after I had been working for a few years and we had decided to have another baby. So my story occurred during this pregnancy and I was about 7-8 months pregnant and very much showing. I was huge! I was working long hard days on my feet for 10 hours a day in a retail pharmacy. Imagine working a very high stress, highly demanding work schedule with no breaks and lunches. Battling the pregnancy requirements of the need to continually pee while working retail was a legit challenge. Sorry, back to my story...
Needless to say I was working and tired. It was a busy day and I was out of sight from the patients, around the corner at my computer (what we refer to as the verification station). My technician was at the counter. As a Pharmacist you not only are working your station but you are always alert and aware of your technician up at the counter. You always have an ear or an eye on them listening for times if you need to step to the counter to help. I could hear that someone had come to the counter asking for PlanB. (This is also often referred to as the morning after pill. This is not an abortion pill) PlanB was kept in the pharmacy so to purchase it you had to come to the pharmacy. So as this patient asked for PlanB to purchase, my technician proceeded to grab a box and tell the patient the price. PlanB is fairly expensive. At the time it was about $45-50. The patient was concerned with the price and starting to question whether they should purchase it. I hear my technician ask them if they would like to talk to the Pharmacist because she could help answer any questions. I hear this and immediately step from my out of sight position and into view. This patient sees me and their eyes instantly got big. They see my huge pregnant belly and says "Forget it! I'll get it!" The next thing I did was counsel and discuss PlanB with them to ensure that they had any questions or reservations addressed. I discussed how it worked and any side effects, where they then proceeded to purchase it.
Seriously 14+ years later it still makes me smile and giggle.
**Please take note, my views are my own and are not associated or representative of my employer(s). This website and its associated platforms are for education purposes only and not medical advice.
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