Senile Agitation is Alive and Well

Friday, 5:40pm.

A tall, large senior, maybe 65 or 70, wearing some sort of torso strap hands my evening technician a prescription. 

All that is written on the prescription is the word:

ZOSTAVAX

I overhear the guy tell her, "I'll be back to pick this up on Sunday."

The tech, still new to pharmacy, is confused. She brings the script to me and I say to the guy, "This is a vaccination. Did you want to come by Sunday and get the shot?"

Seems like a reasonable question... right?

No. The guy immediately says, "I SAID I WANT TO PICK IT UP SUNDAY."

Perhaps I was misunderstood. Perhaps he didn't hear me. I point my finger at the word "Zostavax" and say, "This is for a vaccination. You can't 'pick up' the vaccination but I can give you the shot in the arm on Sunday if you want." 

So then he gets LOUD and starts YELLING about how he came to the pharmacy to get this and we're not helping him. I dance over to the fridge to get a box of Zostavax. I said, "Here, let me show you..." My plan is to show him that the vaccination says "Zostavax" just like his prescription. 

Before I can show him the box, he purposely turns around so he can't see it and starts yelling, extremely loudly, that I'm "chewing him out" and he didn't come to the pharmacy to get "chewed out." He stomps off, still yelling, at the top of his lungs, that he needs a manager. 

I look at the tech. She looks back.

"What the HELL just happened?" I ask. I'm without words.

The tech just looks at me. She has nothing to say either.

A few minutes later a manager comes up and tells me he tried to talk to the patient but he wouldn't listen to him either.

Zostavax. Now used to treat Senile Agitation.