This happened in the early part of Dr. Dev's (Fictional Name) career. Dr. Dev had done Barron’s band ligation for hemorrhoids (piles) in a patient. Along with laxatives and antibiotics, Dr. Dev had prescribed tablet Paracetamol 1 tablet SOS (to be taken only when having some problem and not regularly). Dr. Dev informed the patient that he had written a pain-killer tablet to be taken only when he felt pain.
One week later, when the patient came for the follow-up visit, he complained to Dr. Dev that he had not written any medicines for pain relief but wrote unnecessary medicine for fever which he did not had even a single time.
Surprised, Dr. Dev checked the previous prescription. It was clearly written there, Tab. Paracetamol (500mg) 1 SOS. On pointing out this, the patient exclaimed, “What! That was for pain relief? When I asked the dispensing chemist (pharmacist/medical shopkeeper) which medicine to take for pain relief, he told me that you had not written any medicine for pain relief and to take this tablet when I am having the fever.”
Though tablet Paracetamol has both analgesic (pain-relieving) and antipyretic (fever-reducing) properties, the drug is mainly used in India as a drug to reduce fever. Although quite effective for mild to moderate pain intensity, its use as pain relieving drug is not common. Its advantages as an analgesic over other drugs are that it causes less GI (stomach) upset and does not increase the tendency to bleed, which is very important after any piles treatment.
The chemist with his limited knowledge, following the common prescription use, misguided the patient who had to suffer unnecessary discomfort even when he was having the medicine with him.
Tip: Next time when Dr. Dev prescribed any medicines for an uncommon indication, he made sure to tell the patient, that this medicine is normally used for this purpose, but I am prescribing you for that purpose, so that there is no confusion in the patient’s mind and he will take the medicines as prescribed and not get ‘(mis)guided’ by the chemist or some other person.
Tip for Patients: If you think that the doctor has made a mistake in writing some medicine, it is better to meet the doctor immediately with the prescription and the medicines rather than modifying the treatment according to you or the chemist’s advice or waiting for the next visit.
(Based on true incident)
— ND© Author. All rights reserved.
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DISCLAIMER: This article is intended only for fun purpose. The author does not promote or recommend any behavior illustrated here or claim it to be useful. Use of the information herein is at you one's own risk. Before trying to emulate or follow anything the reader is well advised to take into account ethical, moral, legal and other considerations. The author recommends that Medical Practice should be of the highest ethical and moral level keeping in mind the interest of the patient as foremost.
DISCLAIMER: This article is intended only for fun purpose. The author does not promote or recommend any behavior illustrated here or claim it to be useful. Use of the information herein is at you one's own risk. Before trying to emulate or follow anything the reader is well advised to take into account ethical, moral, legal and other considerations. The author recommends that Medical Education should be of the highest ethical and moral level keeping in mind the interest of the patient as foremost and according to MCI and other Board’s norm.
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