More On Strep

When the doctor told me Nick has Strep, he handed me a prescription for The Pink Stuff.

Side Note: prescription is always spelled wrong. It should be spelled perscription. the end.

I wanted to fill the prescription right away, so I drove to the store. Not the drugstore, even though there are four of them clustered around the pediatrician's office. The drugstore usually takes about forty minutes to fill a prescription, and waiting around a stupid boring drugstore when you don't need anything is torture when you have strep throat and you're six and you just want to be in bed at home.

No, I went to the grocery store. Because that way, while we were waiting, we could pick up some ice cream, some ice pops, some ginger ale... and a new toothbrush.

We parked the car, and I coaxed Nicholas out into the wind. We walked in through the big doors and then wandered around to the pharmacy... and it was closed.

Closed because, apparently, every day the pharmacy closes for lunch. At 2pm.

I wasn't sure what to do, and I was so irritated that I wasn't thinking clearly. I could hear them back there, doing whatever it is that pharmacists do. I don't know what it is, but I'm sure it's very difficult and specialized. Because I think it takes Special Training to be a pharmacist. What do I know - I almost failed high school chemistry because the math was too complicated.

Anyway, I didn't want to leave. Going back to the drugstore would mean dragging Nick back to the car, driving back where we came from (10 minutes?), dragging Nick out of the car again, and then waiting another forty minutes. The lunch break was 30 minutes, the sign said.

So we stayed.

We shopped for the non-meltable items. And then we camped out by the door, waiting for the pharmacists.

Who took their time, I have to tell you. It was closer to 2:45 when they finally opened the window and took the script. Then we had to wait for them to fill it.

What is it, exactly, that pharmacists DO with these scripts? I used to get a birth control pill filled out every month, and it would take 30 minutes for them to hand me the pills once I showed up at the window. But then pills were pre-packaged! All they had to do was located the stupid pills on the stupid shelf! Right? No?

The same goes for antibiotics. There is a powder in a bottle. They add water and shake it, and then paste a label on the bottle. This, apparently, takes 20 minutes. They seem to be doing something. They go to a shelf, take something from the shelf, walk it over to a computer, type for a few minutes, walk over to the shelf again, move some papers around, go back to the computer, consult with a co-worker on something, go back to the computer... I swear, she's just updating her facebook status. What could she be DOING? I know I don't know what I'm talking about, but when I'm there waiting, a sick child crying into my jacket, I just want to barge back there and say "Gimme the bottle! I can add water to it MYSELF because I was born with my Very Own Brain Cells, Thanks you very MUCH!"

Anyway, it only took fifteen minutes once we handed over the script. And Nick has been on The Pink Stuff for a few days, and he seems fine now.