At the pharmacy and in an emergency (recepta, przeziębienie, pogotowie)

At the pharmacy

prescription (na receptę: prescription-only)

recepta — prescription. A medicine is na receptę (prescription-only) or bez recepty (over the counter).

medicine, drug (short form of lekarstwo)

lek — medicine, drug — the short, everyday word; lekarstwo (which you know) means the same. Note the Genitive plural leków.

The everyday illnesses

a cold (illness)

przeziębienie — a cold — with cough

kaszel (cough) and runny nose, head cold

katar (runny nose). All three are used with mieć: mam przeziębienie, mam kaszel i katar.

to treat, to cure (leczyć się: to be treated)

leczyć — to treat, to cure — what the doctor does; leczyć się is what the patient does (to be treated, to recover).

Emergency services

ambulance service (pogotowie ratunkowe)

pogotowie — the ambulance service (in full pogotowie ratunkowe); karetka is the ambulance itself. fire brigade

straż pożarna — the fire brigade. You call them with dzwonić po + Accusative: zadzwoń po pogotowie!

first aid

pierwsza pomoc — first aid.