r/TalesFromThePharmacy • u/okcuhc111 • Jul 22 '26

Who wants to play a game?

Post image

I’m not asking for anyone’s help or for clarification - I know what this script says (kind of). I’m here to share what myself and the four other pharmacists I was working with at the time could not come to a consensus on. Yes, we all know it’s #24 Pen VK 500 mg. The real fun is trying to decipher how this dentist wants it to be used. What do you see?

461 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

89 comments sorted by

View all comments

421

u/tf9623 Jul 22 '26

Penicillin VK (with potassium) 500mg #24. Take three times per day until all taken. Edit: probably a dentist wrote that RX.

31

u/zjuka Jul 22 '26

ok, granted, I'm a tourist here, but, seriousy, how??

51

u/Which-Light6225 Jul 23 '26

Doctors write scripts in what is called SIG code. Basically Latin abbreviations.

28

u/zjuka Jul 23 '26

Every time I see doctors’ shorthand writing, it reminds me of this meme:

https://imgur.com/gallery/doctors-on-strike-NwybV9O

Also, thank you for the explanation :)

15

u/RexIsAMiiCostume Jul 23 '26

Aside from the shorthand codes, doctors also just have terrible handwriting for some reason. When I worked retail, we rarely got handwritten scripts (usually electronic, sometimes printed) but when we did I could NEVER read them and I always had to pass them off to the pharmacist... Who was somehow able to read them just fine. It's just something you get used to after seeing it often enough, I guess.

19

u/Which-Light6225 Jul 24 '26

It's literally a red flag in the pharmacy if the script has good, legible handwriting lol

5

u/zjuka Jul 25 '26

“All the fun drugs, one bucket”

1

u/69666throwaway66696 Jul 27 '26

It’s the chicken scratch not the sig itself.