Level 12 Diabetes

A woman came to the counter today with a gallon on GatorAde fruit punch. She wanted to know if it was good for her diabetic husband to drink GatorAde all day. I scanned the ingredients...water, high fructose corn syrup, sucrose syrup. I say no, that doesn't sound good for a diabetic. She challenged me, "since I am the pharmacist".

Suzy Q:"He has gone from a level 4 diabetic in June to a level 12 diabetic now so he needs to drink electrolytes. What exactly are electrolytes anyway?'

Oh my, so many many things wrong with these questions. I know this discussion will end badly.

Me:"Has your husband been sick? Did your physician recommend electrolytes?"

Suzy Q: "Everybody needs electrolytes".

Kudos to the great marketing team of GatorAde, they have earned their salaries.

I quickly skim over the basic science and again ask her if her husband has been sick with the flu, vomiting, diarrhea?

Suzy Q: "He has level 12 Diabetes"

Me: "I'm not familiar with that terminology. What were his last few blood sugar levels?"

Suzy Q; "Oh, you don't know anything about diabetes?"

Sigh. Maybe she is a friend of The Channeler. Remember him? He told me that aliens whispered the cure for diabetes to him in his dreams. He has a huge volume of information to share with the world. Nobody can read it because it's written in the alien language but he's working on a translation and will bring it in when he is finished. Maybe he gave Suzy Q a copy of the translation. So I guess that I don't know anything about diabetes after all. And I'm still waiting for my copy.

The Pharmacist (1946)

Video courtesy of the Prelinger Archives.

My favorite part is the line that "women make good pharmacists" but the film shows a woman mixing what could be cake icing. They are hoping that a woman who looks like she's in the kitchen will be more acceptable? ANYway, this film is a quaint ode to pharmacy, a field that serves all humanity.