The practice of medicine is essentially a quest for answers. Every test they run, every treatment they offer, every medication they prescribe, exists to provide a fuller picture of your body’s inner workings, and to answer the questions of how you can live healthier.
Sometimes these answers are fleeting–sometimes the answers only raise questions. But the pursuit of a healthier life demands that you and your doctor keep asking the right questions.
Pharmacist Rob Vaughn, owner of Bluffton Pharmacy, has heard all these questions. But it’s the questions you might not think to ask that provide the most fruitful answers.
Pharmacist Robert Vaughn, owner of Bluffton Pharmacy.
“There’s really no limit to what we can do here in our compounding lab. And we’ve worked with prescribers on a one-on-one basis to find out what is going to work best for the patient,” he said. “Letting them know what we prescribe from a compounding standpoint lets them understand just how custom we can make something.”
That thorough customization comes from the pharmacy’s compounding lab, a modest glassed-off corner of Bluffton Pharmacy looking right out on Bluffton Road. As small as it is, this lab represents a massive capability–one that you won’t even find at the national chains.
Walking in and seeing the friendly faces of your neighbors enjoying that old school personal service of a hometown pharmacy, you wouldn’t know that its lab is able to concoct custom solutions for just about any malady.
Customization is the standard inside their lab, with the ability to compound medications across a broad spectrum of tinctures, lozenges, and pills to suit the patient.
“We’ve been seeing a lot of people come in with neuropathy pains, who are getting further progressed with their diabetes and experiencing pains in their hands and feet,” Vaughn said. “There is a cream we compound that does wonders for them. It’s just five ingredients, but it does really well. A few have told us we should be bottling it and marketing it nationwide.”
That neuropathy medication is one of a handful that have proven especially popular. The ability to customize medications allows the experts at Bluffton Pharmacy to craft bespoke medications that treat all kinds of issues, from hormone imbalances and acute pains to fungal infections, tailored individually to the patient. That goes for everyone from those experiencing the aches and pains of old age to those undergoing complicated chemotherapy treatments.
“A lot of people who go through chemotherapy get mouth sores, which can be very hard to tolerate,” Vaughn said. “We make mouthwashes that ease the pain for them.”
It’s this last one that underscores the wealth of answers most people never think to seek out at their local pharmacy. Even those going through the agony and uncertainty of chemotherapy, an experience that demands a healthy knowledge of their own medical options, might not realize that a mouthwash can be made to treat those sores.
That’s why Vaughn encourages his customers to start by asking the right questions.
“A lot of people think they have to just power through the pain, but they don’t have to. They can talk to their doctor. They can talk to us,” he said. “We can work with the doctor to create custom formulas, and even come up with something brand new. There really is no limit.”
Bluffton Pharmacy has a variety of medical knee walkers on hand for those who may find themselves in need of mobility assistance.
That customization, Vaughn notes, goes far beyond simply mixing ingredients into a cream. Customization is the standard inside their lab, with the ability to compound medications across a broad spectrum of tinctures, lozenges, and pills to suit the patient. Even those with specific allergies can find a custom solution.
“People are commonly allergic to some ingredients in commercially made products, and we can compound without them,” Vaughn said.
Some facing those allergies might not even realize an alternative exists, which brings us again to the one solution Bluffton Pharmacy prides itself on, even more than its infinite array of custom compounds. It brings us to answers.
“Come on in and ask for me, and I’ll be happy to at least get you started on asking the right questions with your doctor or physician,” he said. “I’m even happy to recommend doctors who prescribe these things and are very knowledgeable about what we can achieve in our lab. Just don’t be scared to ask.”
Whether it’s getting the inside scoop on town happenings from your neighbors or finding a new treatment for an ailment you thought you’d simply have to live with, it starts with asking the right questions. You’ll usually find the answer to both at a place that pairs Old Town Bluffton charm with high-tech pharmaceutical science: Bluffton Pharmacy.
Vitamins are also available for purchase, along with basic pharmacy offerings.
