PHARMACY TELLTALES 101: 📖 CHAPTER TWO

By: MIYINGO Ivan, MPhil, B.Pharm, MPS




📖 CHAPTER TWO: THE TIME BEFORE THEY COME

There is a period of time you never see.

It does not happen inside the pharmacy.
It does not happen under fluorescent lights or between shelves of labeled medicine.

It happens before.

Before the questions.
Before the prescriptions.
Before the quiet negotiations across the counter.

And yet, that unseen time determines everything.

No one wakes up and immediately comes to the pharmacy.

Not at the beginning.

At the beginning, people wait.

It starts small.

A discomfort that is easy to ignore.
A headache that feels ordinary.
A cough that sounds familiar.

Something that does not yet justify concern.

So they continue.

They go to work.
They cook.
They laugh.
They sleep.

They tell themselves:

“It will pass.”

That sentence is one of the most powerful forms of hope.

And one of the most dangerous.

Because sometimes, it does pass.

And that memory—those past moments when pain disappeared on its own—becomes evidence.

Evidence that waiting works.

So the next time something begins, they wait again.

Not out of ignorance.

But out of experience.

Days stretch.

The discomfort becomes more noticeable.

Not enough to stop life—but enough to interrupt it.

A pause here.
A wince there.
A moment of stillness where there should be movement.

But still—

They wait.

Because waiting is cheaper than action.

Waiting does not require money.
Waiting does not require explanation.
Waiting does not force confrontation with what might be wrong.

Waiting is safe.

At least, it feels that way.

Then comes the second stage.

Self-treatment.

A tablet from a previous illness.
A recommendation from a friend.
Something left over in a drawer.

Medicine without diagnosis.

Hope without certainty.

In many ways, this is the most human stage.

Because it represents something deeper than treatment—

It represents control.

To take medicine on your own is to say:

“I can handle this.”

“I understand what is happening.”

“I don’t need to go further.”

And sometimes, for a moment, it works.

The pain reduces.
The symptom fades.

Just enough to reinforce the belief that the situation is under control.

But control, in this context, is often temporary.

And temporary relief can be more misleading than no relief at all.

Because now the illness learns something too.

It learns that it can exist quietly.

That it can retreat and return.

That it can stretch itself across time without being fully confronted.

Then comes the third stage.

Adjustment.

People begin to reorganize their lives around the problem.

Not consciously.

But gradually.

They eat differently.
They move differently.
They avoid certain activities.

They adapt.

This is where illness stops being an interruption—

And starts becoming a background condition.

A man who used to walk quickly now walks slowly.

A woman who used to eat freely now selects carefully.

A child who used to play loudly becomes quieter.

And life continues.

Not as it was.

But in a modified form.

This stage is dangerous because it creates a new normal.

A version of life where discomfort is expected.

Where limitation is accepted.

Where suffering is integrated.

And once something becomes normal—

It becomes invisible.

The final stage is the hardest to define.

Because it is not triggered by the body alone.

It is triggered by something else.

Fear.

Not the small, manageable kind.

But the kind that interrupts denial.

The kind that forces attention.

A symptom becomes too intense.
A moment becomes too alarming.
A story is heard—someone else, something worse.

And suddenly, the balance shifts.

What was once tolerable becomes urgent.

What was once ignorable becomes undeniable.

That is when they come.

Not at the beginning.

Not when it was small.

Not when it was manageable.

But when something inside them says:

“This can no longer be ignored.”

And by the time they arrive—

They are not just bringing symptoms.

They are bringing time.

Days of waiting.
Weeks of uncertainty.
Months of quiet progression.

All compressed into a single interaction.

Behind the counter, you are expected to respond quickly.

To assess.
To advise.
To act.

But what stands in front of you is not a moment.

It is a timeline.

A story that began long before you were involved.

A story shaped by:

  • Belief
  • Experience
  • Fear
  • Money
  • Culture

And now, in a few minutes, you are expected to intervene in something that has been unfolding for far longer.

This is why outcomes are unpredictable.

Not because medicine is uncertain.

But because timing is.

Two people can have the same condition—

But different journeys.

One comes early.

The other comes late.

And that difference, though invisible at first, changes everything.

Behind the counter, you begin to understand:

You are not just treating illness.

You are entering stories mid-sentence.

And sometimes—

You are already too late to change the ending.

That is the weight of the time before they come.

It is unseen.

Unspoken.

Unmeasured.

But it is always there.

Shaping everything that follows.

And once you recognize it—

You can never look at a patient the same way again.


ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

TellTales from a freelance pharmacist and Atiah Miyingo's daddy documenting the unseen human condition through illness, survival, music, and truth.




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