Athens Pharmacy

Today was a pretty quiet day of rest and recovery. We headed down for a delicious full breakfast then rested in the room while watched some TV. Ev was still not feeling well so around lunch time we went down to a Pharmacy to get more medication. She’d been putting it off for a couple of days because it was a very sensitive and embarrassing issue but her medication was running out. Ev decided that no cultural or language barrier would be too embarrassing if she spoke with a female Pharmacist. Deep breath!... As we walked into the small pharmacy a guy dressed in a t-shirt and shorts in his mid-20’s got up from the waiting seat and casually walked behind the counter with the four staff members in their late 50-60’s and a customer was already being served. There was one woman Pharmacist, few! We walked up to and counter and Ev asked the woman if she spoke English. She gestured no and called the young guy over. Inside Ev was shouting “Oh Shit. He’s not going to want to hear about this!! Shit!!” The young guy came over, so Ev took another deep breath and pulled out her existing medication and spoke about her ‘lady problem’ symptoms. As soon as Ev dropped the ‘V’ word, Dan was out the door and Ev was in it by herself. So the 20yr old was really helpful, but needed to consult one of the older gentlemen in Greek, who consulted with the older lady, who consulted with another older gentlemen who took a look at the medication Ev had shown to younger guy. It was so embarrassing! The ‘Team Meeting’ occurred as they all consulted their medication handbook then sifted through draws of medication boxes behind them and talking across the room with each other in Greek. That’s just Great! Now the other customer knows everything about Ev’s ‘V’ problem too! The younger guy translated that Ev hadn’t used the other medication properly and gave her some new stuff. She picked up the packet, looked at it and said “It’s all in Greek. How do I use it.” After satisfying her questions she bought the new medication and the 20yr old and put the box in a bag. The older gentleman gave Ev a warm smile hand handed her a 2011 Greek Diary and a couple of small tissue travel packets as a gift for her bravery. She kindly thanked the entire Pharmacy team and scraped Danial up from the seat he was well and truly sunken in to. Ev was really grateful the 20yr could translate but there is seriously nothing more embarrassing than having to explain personal issues to a 20yr old, let alone to an entire pharmacy team with a customer still in the store. Hopefully this will never happen again. Good new though, symptoms are less intense this afternoon.

ΕςΕΛΨΝ - Evelyn

Δανίαλ - Danial

 

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