Making a Quick Trip to a Mexican Pharmacy? Maybe, Maybe Not
My book How to Save Your Money, Sanity and Quality of Life by Living in Mexico Part-Time was written with two goals. The first was to proffer a realistic concrete task list and timeline for those considering life in Mexico.
The second goal was to do it without boring readers to the point of wanting to saw their wrists with a dull steak knife like some instruction manuals I read at the beginning of my journey. To that end, I added anecdotes and graphic illustrations of my personal experiences to every chapter to make the point, as I’m going to do here.
Mexico has no shortage of pharmacies, big ones like Farmacias de Guadalajara and Farmacias Familiares, and the tiny ones that open to the sidewalk. In spite of the sheer number of them, I still have a favorite. It’s next door to another favorite of mine, the ATM.
The tiny pharmacy is air conditioned to an unheard-of 60 degrees in the summer (I audibly groan in pleasure each time I walk in between April and December).
Another positive feature is that the pharmacist is a woman about my age and usually no one else is in line at the pharmacy counter (including the young handsome Mexican men who always seem to be right behind me in other pharmacies).
Being accustomed to having the place to myself, it surprised me one day when a fellow expat charged in and up the merchandise aisle to the counter, sweating and heaving in her house dress, to abruptly ask the assistant for a medication for a friend that “can be used for your liver.” She demanded it loudly and in English, as if we were all standing at a Walgreens’ in Dallas.
In itself the exchange wasn't odd to me. I have at times in Mexico forgotten to speak Spanish, so absorbed as I’ve been in whatever little personal drama was playing out in my head that day. The license to be oblivious to our surroundings is reinforced by the fact that Mexicans will often nod as if they do understand when they don’t, driving us on to repeat the behavior. Mexican service providers will even apologize for not speaking English (I bet the French don’t do that).
No, the odd thing was that she gave me not so much as a nod. The entire pharmacy isn’t much bigger than a living room. She stood two feet beside me on the right, me in my blond hair, pasty skin and disgusting workout clothes that only a fellow expat would wear outside a gym.
I probably should have spoken up, offered to help, but I was transfixed watching the exchange play out, me quedé sin palabras. The scene only lasted a minute before she stormed out, without any prescription.
It would be easy to chuff about the aggressive English and stop there. However, I know what it’s like to be frustrated by the language barrier, hot, tired, and stressed. When you don’t speak the language it’s easy to get jumpy and anxious. Most expats want to conclude business as fast as possible and get out.
Life’s tedious errands don’t stop when you travel or live in another country. Prescriptions need filling, bills have to be questioned and tires rebalanced. There are steps to take that lessen the inevitable anxiety that comes from transacting daily life in a foreign culture, whether it’s shopping for light bulbs or finding cough syrup.
The steps to take in a Mexican pharmacy won’t make the anxiety won’t go away entirely, but they’ll make it more likely that you get your medication without having a stroke (while you try to get the medicine to prevent you from having a stroke).
Conduct some homework
Look up the drugs scientific name. Look up the generic scientific name of the drug you’re looking for. Many of us use brand names unaware that they’re not the chemical name for the drug (like my beloved Lunesta). You can only count on pharmacies in Mexico to know chemical names. Look up the non-proprietary name in Spanish. Write it down.
At times, the exact drug may not be available. If you see a doctor in Mexico to get a new prescription, make sure he/she provides a generic drug. If you happen to get a prescription for a Mexican brand name, the pharmacist will only fill it in that brand.
Medicine inventories in Mexican pharmacies are very thin to begin with. Don’t tempt fate by limiting your options to a brand. You may find no one in town carries that brand, necessitating another doctors visit.
Do a little internal role play.
Quick private role play before your errand. Think of phrases and words having to do with the task, such as dosage, affects, liver. What is the service provider likely to say? What would he say at home? Look up those words too, words such as No hay (There aren’t any), Puedo llamar otra farmacia. (I can call another pharmacy.)
Use Google Translate various features
Use Google translate for phrases and pronunciation. Google translate really is a powerful tool. you can both look up translations in Spanish for entire sentences and questions and click the speaker icon to hear them pronounced. Practice hearing and repeating the words until they approximate what you hear. Back this up by writing everything down. If you go blank you can simply hand your question to the pharmacist.
Even if you speak Spanish…
Even if you speak Spanish, it’s helpful to think ahead about the vocabulary you’ll need. Invariably you’ll have gaps between what you know and specific vocabulary you rarely use. One day I went to the hair salon. Feeling pretty cocky by that point about my Spanish, I got lazy. Once there, I lacked almost every key verb I needed, like “straighten” it with the iron. Don’t “curl” it, “Angle” up the back high on my neck.
Even after I looked the words up for the next visit, I forgot them immediately and wished I’d written them down. They were words I never practiced so they escaped minutes after looking them up, each time resulting in not such a good look. Now I keep a little cheat sheet.
Worth the time investment
Routine tasks can rack up more anxiety than you’d ever expect at home when you’re conducting them in a foreign culture. Taking 15 minutes to prepare may seem like a lot of effort, but not doing so will likely cost you much more in time, energy, and frustration. It might even cost you more than just a bad haircut.
About the author
Kerry Baker is the author of books for people considering expat life, whether full time or a “mini life”.
If Only I Had a Place is the absolute guide to renting in Mexico - far different than you’d think. Don’t be fooled by realtors. The Mexico Solution: Saving you money, sanity, and quality of life through part-time life in Mexico, tells you how to set up for part-time life and the cultural surprises you will encounter along the way.
Her most recent work, The Lazy Expat: Healthy Recipes That Translate in Mexico is a cookbook for travelers, snowbirds and expats. In Mexico, you must cook to maintain a healthy diet. This book shows you how.