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Sore throat? Your doctor might prescribe you a lollipop

BISMARCK, N.D. (KFYR) - Generally, you’d expect your doctor to tell you to eat less candy, but there are situations where they might tell you the opposite. If you have a sore throat or a cough, your doctor might prescribe you a lollipop. But it’s not the same as what you can buy in a store.

Every day, Compounding Pharmacist Stacey Christ goes to Gateway Pharmacy’s compounding lab and mixes medications. Some days she makes acne cream and anti-nausea gel, other days she fills jars and pills with custom-mixed prescriptions. Some of her favorite days, though, are the ones where she gets to make medicinal lollipops. Methenolone Acetate

Sore throat? Your doctor might prescribe you a lollipop

“It reminds me of baking and making candies for Christmas, those kinds of things,” Christ said.

The lollipops include either lidocaine or tetracaine at 0.5 or one percent strength and can be mixed with a wide variety of flavors. Christ said she mostly sticks with traditional fruit flavors like watermelon or cherry, but she does occasionally make more unique flavors like strawberry-apple or root beer-flavored suckers.

Making prescription candy is a lot like making normal sweets. Christ first has to melt the lollipop base into a liquid, then let that cool off to a temperature suitable for the medication. After she measures and stirs in the main ingredients, she adds flavors and pours the liquid into a mold, lets it sit overnight and sends it off to the pharmacy.

“So you’ve got your specific clinics that know a little bit more about them, your pediatric doctors know a little bit more. But it’s a lot of word of mouth or doing things like this that get the word out there,” Christ said.

Pharmacy Manager Pat Brunelle at Gateway Pharmacy North said patients can be nervous, but he reassures them they’re safe and effective.

“There are needs for things like tetracaine lollipops, promethazine gel— just alternative medications that can be used in different ways for the purpose that the patient needs,” Brunelle said.

If you want to try these lollipops, you’ll have to wait until the next time you feel under the weather. You need a prescription from your doctor to get them, and unlike most candy, you don’t finish it in one sitting. Just a couple of licks are all you need, and then you can wrap it up to use again later.

Christ said they make about 100 lollipops at the lab each month. Both she and Brunelle recommend talking with your pharmacist if you have any allergies or other restrictions since they might be able to modify medications to meet your needs.

Sore throat? Your doctor might prescribe you a lollipop

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