not quite what they meant

[cellio]

I know that medication instructions are intentionally terse. There's limited space on the label and they have to assume that the person reading them is dumb, or confused, or too doped up to think straight. And I know that "we all know what they mean" trumps accuracy in that case. Ok, fine.

But even so, I cannot shake the two immediate reactions that "take one pill twice a day" always provokes in me: (1) recovery and reuse sounds icky, and (2) then why did you give me more than one?

Comments

[metahacker.livejournal.com]

Ooh, sorry. Didn't mean to stump. b.i.d. is bis in die, i.e. twice in a day, (qid is four), p.o. is per orem, by mouth. So, same thing as your directions.

[jerusha.livejournal.com]

Grr. We spend a fair amount of time drilling the abbreviations into our pharmacy students, for just that reason. You're not supposed to have to translate it; you're not even supposed to see it!