Infrequent musings of a meandering mind

Although many women (and couples) tend to wait until the first trimester has ended before announcing news of their impending arrival, there are also those (like me) who choose to let others know a little bit sooner. To have joy, one should share it and even though the stats show that the first trimester is the riskiest in terms of pregnancy loss, the excitement and elation of finding out that you're expecting can be too overwhelming to keep to yourself. Or too overwhelming for even your family members to keep the news under wraps! But although letting others know might bring about renewed exuberance and happiness, it can also leave you with a slightly sickened feeling in the pit of your stomach – "what if something happens?". It's the risk you take... When you let other people know about your budding baby, it's natural for them to ask questions or pass comment (assuming that they are, in fact, interested in your condition ). Unfortunately sometimes these questio...

One late night/early morning experience of debilitating pain, one very stressed out husband, a cumulative four and a half hours of waiting for medical attention and feedback, three doctors, two nurses, three injected drugs, two blood tests and one trip for a X-ray cut short by the presence of two lines on a pregnancy test. It started during the night, a nausea-inducing, vision-blurring abdominal pain. I didn't bother to check what the time was, I got out of bed and let my dogs outside for their "midnight" ablutions and found myself needing to seek the refuge of the couch while waiting for them. Lying down seemed to help so I called them back in and went straight back to bed, not even bothering to reset the burglar alarm. As I tried to fall asleep, I wondered if I should wake Nik up and ask him to take me to casualty at Greenacres Hospital, but decided that if rest eased the pain I would simply go back to sleep and hope it had subsided by the time I wanted to go to gym. ...

Reading news of the utterances of South Africa's president often leaves me cringing. I generally become aware of his verbal spews via online news websites and social media, as opposed to actually watching news or parliamentary broadcasts because actually listening to him speak his usual drivel is often more painful (and a longer process) than reading about it after the fact. From responsibility ducking regarding Nkandla to blaming Jan van Riebeeck for many and more of South Africa's ills and suggesting that warm water from a shower head will help to protect one from contracting HIV, there is very little that this man says that I think is actually worth the breath used to express it.  So aside from dodging more Nkandla-related questioning yesterday, Zuma has, once again, pissed off a huge number of South Africans by stating that teenaged mothers should be removed from their babies and sent "far away" to complete their schooling. If you haven't heard about it, you...

The giant Pillsbury Dough Boy, referring to the Statue of Liberty as a "harbour chick", seeing Rick Moranis possessed by a demon and the simply classic Slimer... I'm know I'm not alone in having fond memories of the Ghostbusters movies. And now that there's a remake that seems to actually be happening, the internet is abuzz with opinion. I've been thinking about who would be good to cast in a remake of these classic 80s movies for a while. Maybe I've just been jaded by Hollywood enough to know that a remake was inevitable since the capacity for original thought seems to be greatly diminished. Either way, I can't say that I was expecting an all female cast. Why? Because a remake would imply that the story is being retold with new actors taking the reigns from the original quartet. That being said, when I saw the news my reaction was one of equal parts cynicism and curiosity. Cynicism because I find revamps, particularly those which involve "rei...

A mishmashed perspective on freedom of speech, conservatism, and a suggestion for how to balance these contradictory philosophies. Never go full retard . A simple enough instruction to live by and one that neither begins nor ends with the headline dominating terrorist activities in France recent weeks. I haven’t extensively researched the matter; I followed the story, read a few opinion pieces and, of course, witnessed the social media explosion of opinions, feelings and rants. This post relates to the Charlie Hebdo-linked murders and the associated freedom of speech debate, along with comparisons between far right- and left-wing philosophies, which all have the same things in common: extremism, often coupled with a gross lack of tolerance. In my frequent moments of pondering, I often feel that a lack of tolerance is responsible for too many of the world’s ills. It seems that the old maxim of “everything in moderation” has given way to the prevailing sense of extremism in l...

If you’ve come to this page hoping to find information to fuel your conspiracy theories about “Big Pharma” and the “evil medical fraternity”, I’m afraid you’ve come to the wrong place. This blog is written by a pharmacist for other pharmacists and pharmacy personnel to make light of some of the issues that we have to deal with when we work in the retail pharmacy sector. But that’s not to say that a non-pharmacist would not to be able to appreciate some of the commentary below, in fact you might just learn something about the inner workings of the mind of your legal dealer and how to avoid annoying, upsetting or infuriating him or her in the future… or at least to minimise such reactions! To my friends and colleagues, I hope you’ll enjoy this posting as much as the last! Now, let’s go through a list of common occurrences which you probably experience regularly and, most likely, do not (externally) express your feelings and thoughts related to such occurrences. Schedule 4 creams ...

The sleepy town of Port Elizabeth, South Africa, is in mourning today. One of our former Miss PE winners passed on after battling injuries suffered during a head-on collision on Tuesday, 11 November 2014. Bianca wasn't just another beauty queen spewing clichés about world peace and ending poverty, she was a remarkable young woman. To use a cliché of my own, she had beauty and brains. But despite her obvious talents and intelligence, she was also humble, kind and motivated. Bianca and I both studied at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, I graduated in 2009 and she in 2010. As a student, I only knew some of the students in other years of the programme and didn't really develop a friendship with Bianca until later on. But she did make an impression on me when she was in her B. Pharm. final year. I was studying towards my M. Pharm. and was working part time for the pharmacy department, with my involvement being in their fourth year hospital programme. I acted as a coordi...