Blogposts from pebblepad: It's time to say goodbye!

It was my last day at Terry White Chemist Bairnsdale today. I walked into the pharmacy with a heavy heart and decided to continue packing Webster packs. Although the fumes make me feel dizzy and my fingers ache with cuts here and there, and my shoulders tighten up after packing for a while, I still like doing it. Epilim tablets 200mg and 500mg are enteric coated round purple tablets while the 100mg are crushable tablets. Lovan are bright green capsules. Ostelin capsules look like fish oil capsules but smaller with Ostelin written on it. Ditropan 5mg tablets are light blue in colour. Paxam 500mcg tablets are peach-coloured and they are scored with a cross in the middle, that makes it easy to half it or quarter it. However, they are really hard tablets to halve even with the tablet cutter. I had to use the tablet cutter a lot today because one patient has difficulty swallowing so the bigger tablets like Caltrate and Centrum tablets needed to be halved.

While I was making up this very complicated pack with some needing to be halved, some quartered, some taken two tablets in the morning and two at night, some four at once, I thought about drug-related problems that may occur with the concurrent administration of so many drugs. I wondered if the Caltrate is causing constipation problems resulting in the need for 2 x Coloxyl and Senna tablets every night. I wondered how serious can the patient’s epilepsy be to need 1400mg of Epilim (Sodium Valproate), 100mg of Topamax (Topiramate) and 250mcg of Clonazepam everyday. I wondered how a patient can take 4 x 500mg Diabex (Metformin) tablets which are so huge, all at the same time. I wondered how compliant would a patient be if he needs to take 8 tablets at breakfast, 1 during lunch, 5 during dinner and 2 ½ at bedtime. I wondered how effective is 2 x 5mg of Aricept (Donepezil) tablets in treating a patient’s Alzheimer’s disease.

They bought cake for tea break this afternoon because it was my last day. I felt so hesitant in my heart to say goodbye to all these people who have been so good to me this three weeks. The thought of not being able to walk into Terry White Bairnsdale as if I were part of it makes my heart ache a bit. Not only am I leaving the pharmacy, I am also leaving Bairnsdale. All I could say was “see you if I see you”, knowing very well that it will not be quite possible for me to come back to this lovely place. I made a card for them and bought some chocolates too. What made my day was when the pharmacy owner exclaimed loudly that it was the best present he has ever received in his pharmacy. Just as much as I hope to remember this place, I hope this place will not forget me.

I can’t put down in words how much I have learnt during my 3-week placement in Bairnsdale. Just when I am starting to get used to the routine of waking up, washing up, having breakfast, having lunch packed by Maria, walking a thousand steps to the pharmacy, parting with Maria 2 minutes before I reach my destination, walking into the pharmacy knowing who will be working on that day and wondering what interesting things I may encounter, it’s already time to say goodbye.

Besides all the knowledge and skills I’ve gained, I’ve also truly experienced the ‘community’ in a community pharmacy. Although I have never really seen many of the customers but my heart leaps when I hear a familiar name, be it someone I’ve dispensed meds for or someone I’ve packed a Webster pack for. The staff at the pharmacy are a community by itself but when I see pharmacy assistants calling the customers by name as they walk in, asking them about the latest updates, it just makes me understand what really, is a community pharmacy. One customer may be the pharmacist’s neighbour, another the technician’s grandma. Everybody knows everybody. What impresses me the most is, if the deliveries have gone out at 3pm and some more deliveries need to be made that day, the owner himself will deliver them. Otherwise, another staff will deliver it if it is near his/ her home. This, I guess, is what I truly love about a small place like Bairnsdale.

We will have to take a 4-hour train ride to Melbourne and then fly back to Hobart tomorrow! Goodbye Bairnsdale, goodbye Terry White Chemist Bairnsdale. Goodbye to the beautiful hills and rivers, goodbye to everyone who have been so nice to us. Thank you for the beautiful memories!