I don’t mind posting this here, since it’s already been on national television. One of my family members recently took a picture of their prescription label and sent it in to Jay Leno for the “headlines” segment. Not only did Leno use the picture, but it became the talk of the town in Seminole, Okla., the next day.
It even made the front page of The Seminole Producer (which has gone decidedly downhill in the past couple of years).
(2 images after the jump)
(I’ve blurred out the patient’s name from the above image, but did it differently than Leno or the newspaper did to show that I did indeed have the original image.)
The funny part is “one suppository per rectum”, implying that the patient has more than one rectum. In the newspaper article (see below), it’s claimed that this is standard language for prescriptions. For me, this casts even more doubt on the intelligence of the industry.
Note: if you are a multi-rectum individual, please say so in the comments below, to help restore my confidence in the pharmaceutical industry.
Note two: I also found it funny that the TV show blotted out the address and phone number of the pharmacy, information that is not only freely available in the phone book (and online), but also nearly irrelevant in a town the size of Seminole.
Note three: I also believe this is my first use of “rectum” as a title for a blog entry.
Addendum, Jan. 18, 2012
It’s been pointed out (both in the comments below and in a private email to me) that “per rectum” is meant here as “by way of the rectum”. However, alternate definitions of words are often used less frequently as another definition becomes more common. Surely pharmacists and doctors must realize that most readers understand “per” to mean “for each”, as in this example: “The weapons were distributed, one per soldier.”
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My mom just told me about this yesterday. Too funny.
@Cassie: Did she know whose it was? ;-)
One definition of “per” is “by means of” so this actually makes sense, but as we don’t normally use it that way it is still pretty funny.
@Shari:
True! But often we must eschew a particular definition of a word because of common usage. One meaning of “gay” is happy, but we now shy away from saying “my son is playing gaily” because of the more common usage of the word. ;-)
Surely pharmacists/doctors must realize the more common usage of “per”, which implies to most readers “for each” (one for each rectum).
Yes, she did. :)