Talk about health

It's easy to get carried away and think that everyone suffers from serious illness. We tend to overlook the fact that for most of us, it's the minor things in everyday life that bothers us.

Over the weekend, I managed to put in a few hours gardening - you know the kind of thing, cutting the lawn, removing a few weeds and so on. But then I got carried away and decided to take a few branches off a fairly large tree to give me some space aroung the base to plant some small things.

I think you can guess the outcome. The dreaded aching back!!!

As I relaxed in the evening, the pain developed... So, for a few days I shall be shuffling around, bent over to minimise the ache.

And, my daughter reported that she had been bitten by some unknown insect whilst she was camping. So, she had a swelling on her leg and couldn't sleep, for the discomfort.

To top it all, my wife has her annual bout of hay fever. Sniffing and blowing of the nose can be heard throughout the happy home.

You couldn't call any of this life-threatening, but together it is a nuisance and disrupts what you could call normality.

The answers to all these complaints are fairly simple. A few pain killers, a hot bath and perhaps a massage for me. An antihistamine and a tepid bath for the daughter, and an antihistamine and a box of man-size tissues for my dear wife.

And given a few days, we shall all be back to health.

In all my years as a pharmacist, a great many of my counter prescribing experiences were just the same - the careless worker, the unfortunate condition and the uncomfortable sufferer.
It's a bit more than tea and sympathy, but it wasn't rocket science either.