April 10, 3'4"

You know, it unfortunately a very common occurance for people to come to the pharmacy unable to answer the most basic questions. (I guess they don't know there is going to be a quiz.) "What is the patient's date of birth?" seems to be the most difficult one to get answered correctly. Usually most people who don't know the answer will either say straight up, "This is for my neighbor, so I don't know" or they will make an educated guess - "This is for my wife, I think she was born on January 3 or maybe it's January 4. And she's about 50 years old."

But today my boss told me about a real winner. A guy was dropping off a prescription for his kid, and as usual he couldn't rattle off the date of birth. (A lot of dads seem to have that trouble - maybe that's why one of mu customers had them tatooed on his arm? But I digress.....) My boss asked him for the date of birth and after some thought, the guy came up with a month and day. So my boss pressed her luck and attempted to get a year out of the guy - because it actually is helpful to know if the medicine is for an infant or for a 12 year old. Well, the guy thought about it for awhile and finally came up with an answer. Let's add this to the "now I've heard everything" category - the guy said, "Well, he's about this tall" (indicating a height with his hand.) Huh? Does that mean the kid was born in the year "three feet tall"? Or does it mean that his age is "three feet tall"? My own dad was never good at remembering our birthdays, but at least he had the sense to know how old we were. What the f*ck is wrong with that guy?

Note to my boss: Did I write it good enough for you? ;-)