for to making sleepy

I enjoy getting to use my nursing knowledge in a variety of ways here. Most of the time it’s about diarrhea, vomiting, runny noses, rashes, dehydration, etc. But occasionally it’s buying (mildly) controlled substances that aren’t controlled here. The other day I walked into a pharmacy and bought Xanax for mere pennies. Not for myself, don’t worry. I’m not abusing the system (or rather, lack of one) that they have here. I just realized how many rules I’m used to when it comes to giving people medicines.

I walked into the pharmacy thinking, “Oh gosh, are they going to ask questions? Of course they are. Are they going to want a paper from a doctor saying I can have this? Does ANYONE come to this pharmacy empty handed and come out with benzos? Eeek.” I asked for the generic name and asked if they had it. They repeated the name a couple times, and the boss man told the other where it was. The boss man smiled at me knowingly and said, “Ah! For to making sleepy!” as the other guy was getting the pills. I laughed. “Yes, for relaxing and sleeping. But not for me.” I wondered if this gave the impression I was going to crunch up the pills and dose some unknowing soul to make THEM sleepy.

I’m a little self-conscious every time I see the Pharmacy Boss Man. I have had to buy some rather embarrassing medication more than once, sometimes for myself, sometimes not for myself from this man. Every time, he gives me this knowing smile, and I am mortified about the various things India can do to one’s body and that I have to indirectly admit this to an Indian man who knows absolutely nothing else about me. Oh well, that’s life here, I guess.

Even though there are some drawbacks to a free for all system when it comes to prescribing medication, I’m really going to miss it. It’s so nice to decide, “Enough already. I’m starting myself on Cipro.” Or usually I’m starting other people on Cipro, Flagyl, Tinidazole, Amoxicillin, etc.

The other night after teaching English in the slum, we noticed a boatload of people crammed into a house right across from the classroom. We didn’t have to wait long to find out what was going on. Indians love to share (I love this about them!) and pretty soon we had the whole scoop, minus some cultural misunderstandings. By this I mean we were told this guy’s diagnosis was “water on the spine.” What does that even mean? We all technically have “water” (CSF) on the spine, without it we’d be dead. That’s not a diagnosis. His current complaint was that he was suffering from "suffocation problem."

We were promptly ushered in. After some assessment, I concluded this guy was having a full on panic attack and not true difficulty breathing related to a respiratory issue. I understood a little more about the panic attack as there were around 30 people clustered into the room and immediately outside the door. It was a warm evening and the one room house was sweltering with all the people and lack of moving air. When Indians are sick, people cluster around. It doesn’t matter what they’ve got going on, they’re not going to be alone even if it’s a nasty bout of food poisoning. Why would you want to be alone when you could be with other people?! We prayed with him and promised to come back the next day. I came back armed with Xanax (and brownies) just in case, because if he was still in panic mode even intermittently, he was going to need something.

When we returned, he was much better. No more panicking. And they forked over his medical records which let me see that he did not have meningitis as I was semi-suspecting, but is instead being treated for TB. (Not sure if he’s really got it as the medical records didn’t confirm it. He wasn’t coughing but oddly had basically every other symptom). Excellent. And now us and the rest of the neighborhood have likely been exposed to that lovely mess. Not the first time or the last time that’s going to happen, I suppose. Good thing getting a Mantoux test was already pretty high up on my priority list upon returning to America. This is just confirmation that it needs to stay there.