A woman came in asking about flu shots. She’d seen our sign outside that vaccines were in stock and wanted to get it done. Her sister apparently told her it was too early, that she should wait until October. But she was worried that if she left without getting it, she’d forget and never come…
My dad got shingles three years ago, and I’ve never seen him in that much pain. He’s the guy who walked around on a broken toe for two weeks before finally going to the doctor, so when he says something hurts, it really hurts. The shingles rash wrapped around his side and back, and he…
Your cat needs daily thyroid medication. Your Lab requires arthritis pills twice a day. The veterinary clinic hands you a bill for $165, and you realize these prescriptions are hitting every single month. Nobody warned you that prescription medication for pets would become a line item in your budget rivaling your car payment. Most Howell,…
The bathroom medicine cabinet seems like the obvious spot for prescriptions. It’s called a medicine cabinet, after all. But that steamy bathroom where you shower every day is actually one of the worst places to store medications. Those prescription bottles sitting near the shower absorb humidity. Heat from hot water damages them. Kids can reach…
Medication errors happen more often than anyone wants to admit. Wrong dosage. Wrong drug. Bad interaction with something you’re already taking. Sometimes these mistakes are minor inconveniences. Other times they land people in the hospital. The pharmacy filling your prescription plays a bigger role in preventing these errors than most people realize. The debate between…
My daughter came home from school last September with a cold. Two days later, my son had it. By the weekend, I was down for the count. This happened three separate times between October and February. I spent half of last winter feeling like garbage. I’m not big on supplements. My kitchen counter isn’t covered…
Every year around this time, I find myself having the same conversation at least a dozen times a day. Someone sits down in my exam room, and before we even get to why they’re here, they ask: “Should I get a flu shot?” I’ve been practicing family medicine in Howell, NJ, for close to twenty…
So my mom had knee surgery last month and literally couldn’t drive for six weeks. I’m sitting there thinking about how we’re gonna handle her prescriptions when she mentions her pharmacy delivers. For free. I was like, “Wait, what? Since when?” Turns out they’ve been doing it forever and she just never needed it before.…
So I’m standing at the pharmacy in Howell NJ last March, already in a bad mood because I just had a root canal, and I just want my damn antibiotics so I can go home and feel sorry for myself. The pharmacist disappears with my prescription for like twenty minutes. When she finally comes back,…
My grandmother takes nine pills every day. Nine. I count them out with her every Sunday when I visit. She’s 82 and lives alone in the same house she’s been in for forty years. Up until last year, she managed everything fine on her own. Then she had that bad fall and everything changed. Suddenly…