I Want A New Drug

As promised a quick follow up on prescription drugs.

So we go to the doctor the first time for Cole where they said it might be a cold, an ear infection, or chicken pox.  Refer back to the ever famous saying "French doctors aren't really into diagnosing but they LOVE prescriptions." Although, we had no idea what was wrong with him, we left that doctor with 4 prescriptions.

1. An antihistamine for Cole's "Chicken Pox" itching (even though we told her he was not itching)

2. A anti-inch cream for his "Chicken Pox" itching (wait... haven't we covered that?)

3. A pain reliever and

4. Penicillin for his ear infection.

We asked the doctor about the antihistamine because we wanted to verify that it was just Children's Benadryl because I brought tons of that and I know his dose. We did the same for the pain reliever as I also brought tons of Children's Motrin and Tylenol ("Don't leave home without it," I always say).  It seemed a bit redundant to have her give us prescriptions for things we already had but she still wanted us to have the prescriptions -- guess they really do love them.

So you have to go to a special "Pharmacien" to pick up prescriptions. Now you are thinking, "yeah, just like CVS," but NO. The only things they sell here are apparently somehow all loosely medically related -- i.e. ace bandages, band-aids, baby bottles, formula, head lice treatment (it is going around Ellie's class - keep your fingers crossed) corn removers, cotton balls, nail clippers, etc.  So I get all our bottles, creams, etc. and open up each one to review dose (everything is in milliliters over here). "OK got it...no wait? What is this white powder doing in my son's Penicillin bottle?" She casually explains to me that I have to fill the bottle to a certain line with water and shake.  "Are you kidding, I have to mix this at home?"  She did not seem to care that I had NO pharmaceutical training whatsoever.   Just wing it? Seriously? This is my kid's medication! What I found the most ironic about this is that you apparently need a prescription to get the equivalent of Children's Tylenol and Benadryl, which you can buy over the counter in the US and we already had, but they just give you the unmixed Penicillin, send you on your merry way and hope for the best. Yikes, can you say liability?