I'd like an order of Humble Pie please...

Since I have been in Niger, I have been working in the pharmacy.  Great place to work… especially since a large portion of that work happened to be in the ‘cold room.’  A very lovely little corner of paradise… where it is almost a requirement that you wear mittens if you are back where the injectables and lab supplies are stored!

I’m usually a pretty sharp cookie… years of nursing shorthand for charting may have screwed up my grammar, but I am usually pretty good at picking things up quickly.  A good skill to have when working in healthcare constantly throws curve-balls at ya.

Today I was asked to help start with the monthly inventory.  No problem, done it before lots of times, in fact, I got a 104% on my ARV inventory final – talk about wacky rules and regulations – NGO’s are great for that!  And really, how hard could it be?  

It was explained to me once…

Then twice…

Then I started on the 3^rd drug… ran to ask a question and was walked through the process again… and again for the 4^th drug… and the 5^th.  I started to sing to myself “I feel pretty, oh so pretty…” except that I changed “pretty” to “stupid.”  The last time I felt this completely lost on a concept was at the beginning of a chemistry class and Dr. Ali was trying to explain conversions.  I just couldn’t get it!  Just picture me with a glazed look in my eye and my mouth open, drooling… not a pretty sight!

I had to laugh at myself… I knew the drugs upside down and backwards.  I could tell you what they were for, the side effects, the dosages and alternate names.  I could tell you what labs you should be watching when giving the drug and even the costs of some of them… but for some crazy reason, I completely froze up and try as I might, I could not wrap my brain around their inventory process.

Mr S, the nurse who is acting as pharmacist and is an amazing Christian, was so worried about me that he came back to the cold room to see how I was doing… by then I had figured it out but I just had to laugh.  I mean, I can’t be perfect at everything… I needed something to keep me humble!