I recently watched a commercial for a toenail fungus remedy where the “doctor” described her medication as containing “Trickatones” her pronunciation of triketones. I can’t imagine any doctor so ignorant of elementary organic chemistry (a basic prerequesite for medical school) that would pronounce it that way.
Then I watched the same fake doctor give a half hour lecture on a new nail fungus and pronounce it wrong again. Let me show off a bit. A ketone is a basic group in organic chemistry – a carbon atom “C” with a double bond to an oxygen “O”. It would be represented something like C=O. The simplest ketone is acetone which everyone knows is nail polish remover. Acetone is a simple single ketone.
Now, if you string three carbon atoms together C-C-C (I don’t have to explain that tri means three) and attach an oxygen to each with a double bond, guess what? You have a tri-ketone meaning a triple ketone.. Pronouncing it like Trickatone would be like pronouncing the word tricycle as “trisacle. ” So logically, a biketone, more frequently called a double ketone, is not a bickatone anymore than a bicycle is a bisacal or a motorcycle is a motorsacal.
These kinds of faux pas interest me so much that for any TV drug advertisement, I always read the small print on the bottom of the screen. Interesting things are written like the casual mention that a side effect can be death. If it doesn’t stay on the screen long enough, I try to take a photo of it so I can read it carefully. I have had such bad experiences with prescriptions that I trust none of them without researching.
My latest one, a cancer med, I researched and was convinced that the dosage was financial not medical, something that seems to be a typical ploy of the drug companies. The retail cost was about $15.000 a month. (The VA doesn’t charge me that) I convinced my doctor that I should try half the dosage, to cut the cost and minimize the side effects, and see if it works. After two months it became very clear that it worked fine at half dosage. Maybe quarter dosage would work too. That’s for another day.
