A Matter of Nomenclature

Whenever Your Sister asks me to pick up medicine on my way home, I assume it's goop for female parts. This has been the pattern for years. She'll rattle off an unwieldy name, and I'll scan the shelves to find it based on phonetics. She and I have bemoaned the poor choices in names for some of these medicines. We have taken the step to rename them with a word beginning with the same first letter so as to be demur in the grocery store. For instance, "I need to get some Voltron."

So when she called me last night to pick up Chlortrimeton, I assumed it was for the lady-garden. It wasn't until she said "I need a decongestant," that I realized it was for the northern climes. It's the only such medicine allowed by the baby book. I scoured the cold/flu/decongestant shelf at CVS. Nothing. I called her to ask for the medical name (chlorpheniramine). Nothing. I called her again to ask what else the book would allow. None, she said. I finally asked a pharmacist, and he bolted to the exact shelf space. In the allergy section. Ah. There's the problem. But she now has the safe medicine to fight the cold I gave her.

My own infected head is clogged, but it's manageable. Feels like it will be gone by Saturday.

Picture of the Day
Now that's a big Wampa.