BRAUNGIRL

Pharmacy school can be tasking as well as boring. While I was a pharmacy student, I lived a circular life ; hostel, class, library then back to hostel. I could almost predict my next day activity. Similarly,  as a Pharmacist,  my work can be monotonous at times except for some unexpected days. Well, don't get me wrong, I am not complaining, I love my profession as a Pharmacist and would chose Pharmacy over and over again. Just that some days can be unpredictable Last week Thursday was one of such 'untypical' days. As I alighted from the taxi just a few metres from the Pharmacy ( I always stop before The Pharmacy so I can walk some distance as form of light exercise),  I noticed a small crowd in front the pharmacy. My heart skipped a beat as I wondered what could have caused that. Many scenarios  flashed through my mind , could it be a fight , an accident or worse still a mob waiting for me to come . Well,  I increased my walking pace and I realised my hands were shaking . 

His heart was failing him as he clutched his chest in pain. Tiny beads of sweat dropped from his dark forehead onto the bedsheet followed simultaneously by frothy saliva from his mouth. "I cannot die like this"  he mumbled. Chief Okeke must pay for his crimes. He shifted his somewhat heavy body, gasping for air with each movement.' Nurse Angela was supposed to be here, where had she gone," he wondered in frustration. His aim was to collect the small brown medicine bottle on his bedside cupboard.The label on the bottle was worn out and he could only read few inscriptions on it as the name "......dinitrate". The pain has spread to his shoulder travelling down to his arms. Mustering the last of his strength,  he reached for the bottle which was to be his only saviour and with a shocked and defeated face, he realised the bottle was empty. Nurse Angela was about reviewing the medication charts when her alarm sounded. It was time to visit her patient in

One of the goals of clinical therapy is to improve patient quality of life, however in some cases more harm is done than good. This is often the case of overtreatment and "too much medicine". overtreatment and polypharmacy "too much medicine " in the elderly with multiple chronic diseases have been shown to contribute greatly to serious negative effects such as adverse drug effects, falls, increased cost, frequent emergency department visits, hospital admission and on very severe cases, death. Older patients with co-morbidities are often loaded with too much medicine which is driven by strict adherence and reliance on clinical therapy guidelines most times.  Most patients older than 70 years old with multiple chronic diseases such as hypertension and diabetes take upto six or more medicine where some of them are not relevant or are inappropriate. Take for instance,  a study conducted in a rural tertiary hospital in Nigeria by Dr.Fadare and colleagues shows

I was in a sour mood as I walked into my office at the Pharmacy this morning. To be honest, I could not exactly pinpoint why I was not happy, maybe because I didn't get enough sleep the previous night or I missed my usual early morning bus. Well, some days are just like this. Immediately, I sat down in my office, Janet, the pharmacist technician walked in to announce that Mr.Kenneth wants to see me. Oh God! It seems today really will be a bad day. Mr. Kenneth is one of our patients who refills his anti-diabetic medicine with us. The last time,  we spoke,  it didn't end so well. That was three weeks ago when Mr. Kenneth vehemently refused to take his medications even with his FBS value at 12mmol/L and after series of counselling. He claimed he had gotten a herbal medicine from the village which will treat the diabetes and therefore do not need his refills. While pondering on the last encounter with Mr.Kenneth, he walked into my office.  Mr. Kenneth looked unhappy, pale

As a community pharmacist, I see a lot of 'error free' prescriptions and 'not so good' prescriptions. If all things are equal, medicines are grouped into prescription only medicines POMs and over the counter medicines OTC in Nigeria. In simple term, POMS are to be sold with a physicians prescription and OTC can be bought by a patient without seeing a doctor. Unfortunately that isn't the norm here (not good). People work into a pharmacy or perhaps a chemist and buy POMs with no restrictions. Oh well, try and stop them or even refuse to dispense to them, then get ready to be out of business in 2 or 3 months.  As for me, I have set my own rules, I don't ever dispense Opioids and sedatives without a physicians prescription no matter the pressure. If you are not happy with it, it's your choice. On such occasions,  I try to explain to the patients the implications of taking these medicines because you like them or without a physician telling you to take them,

Read my post on bellanaija website that won N10,000 on day 9 of  #EMILINKS my door story. Emilinks Nigeria is a global manufacturer of word class furnishing products such as doors, beds, dining sets,kitchen, wardrobes and shelves for homes, offices , hotels, royal palaces, presidential lodge, honeymoon suites and luxury villas.  'It was the shrill cry of my baby that woke me up from my afternoon nap as I sleepily touched the side of my bed only to find out my baby wasn’t there. Immediately the sleep vamoosed from my eyes. I quickly climbed down from the bed and rushed outside as I continued to hear the cry of my baby. So many thoughts went through my mind as I ran from room to room searching for him. I hope he had not crawled to the store, I said to myself. The door to my store room was badly damaged and needed urgent replacement. We had repaired it countless tines but it still wasn’t good. The two door hinges has fallen and now been held by a long nail so that the door wouldn