Rachel Luther, Centre Wellington Remedy's Rx (Ep 02)

In this episode, Elora Fergus Podcast host Ryan Joyce chats with the owner of Centre Wellington Remedy's Rx, Rachel Luther.

Rachel shares two items everyone should have in their medicine cabinet, one thing Rachel would remove from medicine cabinets across Centre Wellington AND which doctor has the worst handwriting she’s ever experienced!

On this episode with Rachel Luther from Centre Wellington Remedy's Rx

• One item Rachel would remove from every medicine cabinet in Elora-Fergus

• The oddest home remedy Rachel’s ever heard that actually might work

• What isolated village without road access was Rachel born and raised

• What doctor’s handwriting who was so bad, Rachel had to call her-out

• The two questions Centre Wellington residents are asking during this COVID-19 outbreak

• Two things Rachel would add to every Centre Wellington resident’s medicine cabinet

• What activities is she doing with her kids?

• Tip for parents who are homeschooling for the first time

• And more...
  

Listen below to Elora Fergus Podcast Episode with Centre Wellington Remedy's RX owner Rachel Luther

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Rachel Luther - Centre Wellington Remedy's RX Watch Clip:

"If you could add something to medicine cabinets in Elora and Fergus, what would add?"

Audio Transcript Rachel Luther (Centre Wellington Remedy's Rx)

Ryan Joyce: You have a superpower, you take like scribbles on pieces of paper and you transform those into lifesaving elixirs. So which doctor has the absolute worst handwriting in Centre Wellington? Rachel Luther: Well they all do computer-generated prescriptions now. So the few ones that I get that are handwritten are actually really like really easy to read. Ryan Joyce: Is that a class in university? Rachel Luther: Well we did have like a talk about how, you know, could help figure it out. Prescriptions, you know, sometimes it helps to ask what the indication is. What did you go for? Take a look at the strength. They can look at them broken while all that type of stuff. I remember first when I started working in pharmacy, I worked up in North Bay and there was a doctors whose handwriting was so horrible. And this was before you really got into doing computer generated prescriptions. I actually wrote her a prescription, um, a message saying like, your handwriting is so bad as putting patients at risk and you really need to start writing nice like legibly so that we can help detect people's lives. And I looked forward to seeing your cooperation and future prescriptions. Did she respond? Uh, no. No. I mean it's enabled understand it anyways. Oh wow. It was really horrible. Her handwriting was really bad. That's why you need to go to the same pharmacy all the time so that they can pick up on these mistakes. Ryan Joyce: Yes. And you're at the North end of Fergus, I suppose, a Centre Wellington remedies with the RX on the end. What is the RX stand for on the website? Medicine at.com they say the symbol RX is usually said to stand for the Latin word recipe meaning to take it is customarily part of the superscription of a prescription. If you could peek into like most of Centre Wellington's medicine cabinets or pantries and remove one thing, what? What would you take out? Rachel Luther: Oh, multivitamin. Oh, is that so? Yes. Molly violin. She needs like you need, most people need vitamin D. Well in a multivitamin, like you'd be better off to go for, keep your multivitamin two kilometers away from your house, walk to get the multivitamin and then walk back home and then they would be useful. Ryan Joyce: That is hilarious. I'm sure you must hear a lot of, um, odd remedies do people probably share their secret can stick out. Rachel Luther: Frugal Labrador. I have a bunch of my own. Ryan Joyce: Is that, so w uh, what's, what would you say one of the oddest home remedies you've ever heard? Or is there something that maybe that you're like, that will never work in it? Surprisingly. Rachel Luther: Oh, were people who actually charm warts off people. They're called wart charmers. But what I usually tell people to do with words, it's put duct tape on it as most people have around their home. And uh, the duct tape Smothers the award and the glue irritates the wart. And then after we give them that touching it, not even you take out the duct tape and the work comes off with the duct tape. It's worked for myself and it's worked for some others, but for some people it hasn't. And so in that case, then spend the money on a remedy. But that's one of the home remedies that I tell people often.

Ryan Joyce: And you've already alluded to the fact that you are an a Fergus, a lower born, but you are a reserved here now you're from a laboratory. How did your start from Labrador end up in Fergus?

Rachel Luther: So I um, graduated high school from our very small isolated community. There was no roads in the community. The only way in was by twin Otter plane or by coastal boat in the summertime and screw in the winter. So it was a very, very isolated community. But by the time I had done my first year of university, a made a road to my hometown. So my hometown isn't the same as it was when I grew up. If Coleman was happening back when I drew up, it wouldn't have mattered cause we knew who came in and out of the Harbor cause there was only one way the males with the heart. But now we have a role. So a little over a hundred. I grew up there. It was in the heyday of the fisheries, the tree. So there was about a little over 300 people there. So we did all of our schoolwork by distance education. Really. Like I had dance man, physics, chemistry, French that we all did distance. So this whole e-learning thing, Ontario 20 years ago we were doing that in rural Labrador. Well really 15 because my brother and sister also 25 sorry, my brother and sister also did it. So. wow. Is any of the other family members in your industry, are there any of them pharmacists? No. No. He was the only one. Was that an interest from, from being from Ryan Joyce: a child or was it like you had to make a decision? How did that Rachel Luther: remember like and Halloween times when you would get those cammies that were called rocket? Yes. I always used to pretend that they were pills, but where I grew up, there was no pharmacist, but I always pretended that they were pills. We always like that Bob and ed was coming. The nurses was the health practitioner we had access to as a nurse. And so, um, I became a pharmacist because I went away. I had done two summers working in a chemistry lab when I was a high school student. Yeah, I had done, I applied for this program and I got to live in residence and when I was from at grade 11, I think I was like 15, 16, I went to live in st John's for the summer into the big city. And um, I really liked chemistry and I, and I liked sciences, but I really also like French. And so my mom always makes fun because I, every single day I'd be calling home saying I'm going to do something else different. Oh, one day I was going to be a French high school teacher. The next day I was going to be a biologist and then I'd be a chemist. So I had lots of varied interests. And after, during a semester of French, um, when I first went to university, I realized that I was more geared or sciences. So I got it in the sciences, but then I realized, you know, I'm not really cut out for field work. I did a summer job or I worked watching birds for summer and looking at their meeting habits. And um, this was a bird site that had been watched for 30 years. So we were looking at the success of couples over 30 years in well nude. The efforts sometimes make it that long. I didn't know until I did this job. So after that job I realized that I need to switch gears and do something that's science and also includes people. So I, um, started to get into, do all the prerequisites to get into pharmacy school. And I, luckily that was a year that we did interviews to get in and I can talk to off anybody. So once I knew there was an interview process, I was very like, I knew that I had a good chance to get an in, but I had to go just on my, like average. Plenty of other very smart people who also wants to be pharmacists. But if you don't communicate well, it doesn't matter how smart you are. Right? Ryan Joyce: Yeah, that's, that's good. Practical advice for everybody. But specifically or in your industry? Communication is kind of key. And so I heard North Bay in the mix. Was that after st John's or how Rachel Luther: yeah, yeah. I got a scholarship from shopper's drug Mart and, um, they, they, I, they gave me money and I said, you can send me wherever you want in Canada, pay for moving. So at that time we had the negotiating power to do that. Mmm. Our industry has since changed. But, uh, I went to North Bay and I worked there for two years and then when my contract was done, I ended up moving to Ottawa because for some reason every single time I went through Ottawa, it just, it felt like home. Like I felt like I needed to be there and I don't know why because there's nothing about Ottawa that really screams rural Labrador, but I really felt like good there. So I moved there in 2008, uh, after my two years spent in North Bay, not knowing anybody. And, um, the only job that was available was a manager. Yeah. Pharmacy management jobs. So I went into management after two years of working as a staff pharmacist and um, yeah, I like being a manager. I, I'm, I'm naturally a leader and so yeah, I enjoyed it. But aye, I realized that in corporate worlds you're only as good as your last mistake or your last whatever else that they asked of you to do. So there is no continuity or Goodwill that's kind of built up there. You're only useful to them while you're useful to them. And that's it. It doesn't really matter after that. And I felt like I couldn't practice pharmacy the way that I wanted to. So, um, I worked really pharmacy for an independent, so that's almost like a substitute teacher. So yep. I uh, did relief pharmacy for an independent and I liked working for them. They had the right type of philosophy that I liked. And then I had a friend who worked in the government has sidewalk. And so I worked at the government for a year and I realized that I'm not really cutting the government work. So that's when I thought, if I'm going to work hard, am I going to with myself? And that's how I ended up coming to North Bay. Oh yes. That are in the same time target was coming to Canada. One of the executives that used to work for Rex Saul had and hired by target. So I reached out to them on LinkedIn and he connected us and Mmm. And I came to Fergus because Fergus was a place that they were looking for somebody to come. And I thought, well, I want to be in a smaller town when I raise my family. So that's how we ended up here in Fergus. Ryan Joyce: And um, what did you think initially and what do you think now? Rachel Luther: Well, I thought a place that had a restaurant called the Goofy Newfie probably would be a good place for me. Ryan Joyce: Oh, that's great. Yeah. Oh, perfect. Yeah. So you felt welcome. That's originally were in the target originally, but then obviously that all ended. And so how did, did you end up, Rachel Luther: Oh, well we had no idea that target, um, was going to leave. We had no idea at all. In fact, I was seven months pregnant and on my way to the airport, um, when the announcement came that target was leaving, I was in a car driving to the airport and I heard it on the radio at the same time that everybody else had heard it on the radio. Um, so I, by the end of that day, I went to Ottawa. I flew back to Ottawa that same day. I have meetings set up with other business people and, um, real estate agent and we had started looking for, and I was involved with the rotary club. Um, yeah, so, uh, Don McEwen, who has since passed had told me about this, uh, place to rent. And so we, um, started working on it right away and I honestly chose remedies RX as our banner because it has the colors that were opposite on the color wheel from target. That's a great little nugget. That's lovely. His target was all like, they were so sticky over there, red and whatever, and right in khaki. And I was like, okay, I'm going to go with blue and green and white and they're Labrador flag colors. Anyways, so these connections to home. Yeah. And so you actually, your location is, I mean given the times it's perfect because you have like a drive through. Yeah. And now that's like the only option which is in your case, perfect benefit. I'm curious, you must be hearing all sorts of things from people and asking all sorts of questions. Is there one or two questions maybe that everyone seems to be asking more than when is all this going to be over? A lot of people, a lot of people are, so like our pharmacy is more, um, we talked to people a lot. We will have conversations with people in Frenos two hours later. Like we, we, we are a chatty bunch and everybody who works for me are chatty, right? Like that's just how it is. So, um, we find that a lot of people are missing us and we're missing them. And the other question that people have is, um, in the beginning people are wondering like, is this really true? Is this really real? And yeah, it's really true. And it's really real. Like this is a big deal. We've not seen anything like this, like in my career. Uh, Cyrus kind of happened a little bit before I got into practice. Mmm. But yeah, this Cohen is certainly different, but what I find interesting about it all, just how we all are having a sheer shared experience like Newfoundlanders are a tight knit group, right? Because we all have to toil with the weather. This whole, um, is going to make everybody more tight knit because we all have the same, well, I'll be able to have, um, share our experience. It's kind of like, Oh, the weather was horrible. Yeah. Yeah. Like we all, like, we all talk about it. Hope it would also be that way. Ryan Joyce: Yeah. There seems to be some benefits for everybody not flying in planes. I will never miss Rachel Luther: flying in a plane, in a plane. So I, I'm very, very happy those toxins going into the air and that'd be an ozone layer being healed. Like it's amazing. They said that wouldn't really be able to happen, but yet, here we are. Ryan Joyce: I asked earlier, what would you take out of people's cupboards? What would you put into people's cupboards or their batteries? Rachel Luther: Contradictory vitamin D, vitamin D in a, in Canadian, whether and where we are in the hemisphere, it's really difficult to get the vitamin D that we need. So if everybody could take 1000 to 2000 international units of vitamin D a day, that would be good. And uh, everybody should have a thermometer. You shouldn't have a pandemic that causes people to get a thermometer. Mmm. That's something that came up down. Like how do people not have the monitor at all? Like what do you do when you get a fever? Are you gonna have one? And, uh, so I would say the monitor and by me are the two things everybody should have in your medicine cabinet. Ryan Joyce: And where should people rely their, get their information. And we're like, how do you find the information that you trust? What are some of the resources that you're using? Rachel Luther: Well, I go to public health agency I go to help Canada. I go to the CDC news, I look up Mmm. In peer reviewed journals. I, um, you can go Google scholar and you can type in stuff, probably good. A better hit than just on regular Google stuff. I certainly wouldn't get it from a YouTube video. And when it comes to your health like fine, if you want to, you know, learn how to paint a specific type of way or I dunno, I've been learning using it to learn how to draw. I can draw very good baby Yoda now. Oh yeah. Sorry. If you want to get an idea on how to build Lego, because I've also been filling up my time with a lot of Lego building. Ryan Joyce: Well this brings me to the other part of this, cause you have children and a lot of people at home are trying to find activities and things to do with kids. What kind of stuff are you doing with the family at home? Rachel Luther: Oh, we made, we uh, we made toothpaste, we made bath bombs. We met are making a lot of Fred. And yesterday my son helped me make bread and we're building a Lego city. And, um, so we have like a big, I would table set out and we got ACE plates down and I made a diner and yeah, we're going to start filling it in. We have a gas station, we have a hostel, little police station. Um, we have also have an airport, but the airport I think that we have for that is too big. Um, yeah. So we've been filling out our time with Lego in the homeschooling. Okay. Verse was very, very difficult because my son was like, why are you teaching me? I don't have a mom at school. Cool. So why are you here? Like he was like was trying to like, I don't understand why you're not at school, so why are you trying to teach me at home? Like that doesn't connect for me. So, um, okay. Yeah, once a week. Bigger Google classrooms and stuff. It is a pretty easy compared to what I thought it was going to be. Mmm not gonna lie. I had an angry cry about it, but the things were better. Ryan Joyce: And so do you have a tip or two for our other parents that might also be listening, going through the same process? Rachel Luther: Well, his teacher had told me that some kids buckets are bigger than others. So some kids well get, it does not take much time, fill the bucket and the bucket is full. Whereas other kids you still need to fill the bucket. Yeah. Multiple times in order for the book have to be filled. But every single time you're doing it filling the bucket. So although it might not seem like you're getting anywhere you are, it just takes longer to fill. And that really helped to kind of change my mindset. Yeah. How to teach and realize that even if he gets it wrong, he still learning something. And even if we have to do it 10 times, whatever, he'll get it at some point. Ryan Joyce: That's really great. How can people follow you and the store? Oh, how can they find you? Rachel Luther: Hm. Well Amanda does our Instagram cause I don't really Instagram. So Amanda is on the Instagram front and I've been posting things on Facebook and typically when Cove it's not happening and it's not on people's minds. I will post about health topics. So if they follow us on Facebook, they can ask or, um, ask for information on a specific health topics. So I might do men's health or November or women's health or about heart disease and blood pressure or when kids go back. Cool. I'll do posts about like common things like that kids get when they start. Cool. So, um, you can follow us on Facebook and learn something along the way. Sometimes I'll do, I'll submit related things. So yeah, that's where you can find us. Ryan Joyce: Rachel, thank you so much for your time. I appreciate your insight and I can't wait to see you in person when we started to open up again. Thanks for taking the time.