Story of our lives...

If you haven't read this yet, give it your attention. Pretty funny, yet sad, yet true.

http://www.collegehumor.com/article/210525/a-day-in-the-life-of-a-pharmacist

In honor of finals...

boom, roasted.

Tuesday's meme...

credit to /r/pharmacy

Happy winter break...

P4s are currently on rotational winter break til January! Woot!

Also kids, don't use illicit drugs:

Happy Thanksgiving...

At the blog, we are thankful for our reader(s) and the internet!

No seriously, everyone eat up tonight and be thankful for everything we have because there is always someone less fortunate than us. 

So I get this phone call...

Me: Thank you for calling Walgreens, part of the Blue Cross network, this is Anonymous PharmD Candidate, how may I help you?

(ok let's be honest, I don't actually say all that)

Caller: Pharmacist please.

Me: What is the question regarding?

Caller: A diaper rash. SOMETHING YOU WOULDN'T KNOW ABOUT.

Me: HAHAHA YA I GUESS I'M JUST A STUPID PHARMACY STUDENT. HOLD PLEASE.

(ok let's be honest, I didn't overreact like that. But seriously, could the lady be anymore rude????)

How I feel about it only being Tuesday...

Election day...and candy...

I love when Walgreens clearances the candy to the max b/c they need to put in Christmas goodies. Got these at $0.85 a bag!!!

But more importantly...

ALOLlergy wrist bands...

To all my friends with peanut allergies...

...obviously allergies aren't a funny thing...except when a person puffs up all red and needs to use an EpiPen. Well, then I guess it still isn't funny...

Akon's favorite prescription...

Sorry, there's nothing for Young Jeezy though.

Friends at my old rotations...

One is currently in the MiddleofNowhere rotation and sent me the pic of my old recliner!!! I miss this thing so much. If you remember from my old post, I probably spent ~5 hrs a day on this thing...

Next, my other friend is at my compounding site and the first day, he sends me a pic of the chloroform bottle we like to use and play our "game".

Oh how I love the memories of yesteryear...

When I post the blog link on facebook...

...readership goes up exponentially!

1st day problems...

In honor of the 1st day of the 5th rotation...

Pharmacy games...

When we're bored at the pharmacy, we play this game where the last person to pass out wins

Today's compounding lesson...

9 days since the last post. I am failing you readers!!!

Wait, do people even read this??

Anyways, today's compounding lesson is brought to you by Letco, a major manufacturer of powders for compounding.
-Ketoprofen is HIGHLY liable to make you sneeze. Wear a mask!!!

ACHOO

Haven't posted in a while...

By now, you've met the guest blogger from DC. She's one of my good friends at school and agreed to post a few musings from her out of town rotation. Leave her some comments or questions!

Anyways, I haven't had a meaningful post in a while. I'm kinda over posting about food b/c let's face it, you guys don't care what I eat everyday for lunch. But the food is soooooooo good! :)

So 2 more weeks at my compounding site until I go home to the west coast for the next 2 rotations. Time has really flown by at this rotation! The staff is very good to me and I like to think that I am a good worker for them too. I am learning a lot about proper compounding technique and also therapeutics too! My preceptor is a genius and knows a ton about each patient who picks up compounds from the pharmacy. It is very impressive actually and I love asking him questions to better my knowledge base.

Hello from the District!

I can’t believe we’re already at the 3 week mark of rotation #4 – the time is FLYING by! And I don’t know if I’ve ever said this about any school-related event, but I really wish it would slow down. It has been an amazing 21 days thus far – I’ve always loved it out here on the East Coast, and I'm sad I only have 2 weeks left to appreciate it! 

One thing I’ve really enjoyed about my out-of-town rotations is living like a local for 5 weeks. It’s like a test drive of places to possibly live in the future. I’m still surprised when tourists come up to me asking for directions while I’m walking home or going for a run. I’m even more surprised when I can help them instead of, “Sorry, I don’t actually live here!” Although it’s starting to feel like I do, especially after commuting for 2 hours a day. God bless the Metro. 

Everything about this rotation is super chill – the hospital, my preceptor, the other rotations students, pharmacists and techs, the rotation itself; I love it. Up until today, I have been working with 5 students from different schools of pharmacy around this area, and it’s been an awesome experience comparing and contrasting our education and institutions. Today we sadly said good-bye to 3 of them, but there will be new students come Monday! Our preceptor is really cool too. He’s super busy, so, in his words, this is more of a “self-guided” rotation, and he’s not going to watch over us – aka, if you wanna learn something, you’re gonna have to seek it out for yourself. I think it’s a brilliant strategy.

The only thing I’m not a fan of is the 7 am report time. For anyone who knows me, I am not exactly what you would call a “morning person”. So to catch the Metro by 6 for my one-way hour commute, I’m waking up at 5 am. That means hitting the snooze at least 3 or 4 times at 4:30, cuz one alarm is NOT enough!

As for my free time away from the hospital, of which I seem to have quite an abundance, I’ve hit up some pretty fun sites. I’ve been here a couple times before, so I’ve already done most of the big museums and such, but I do plan on revisiting a few in the next 2 weeks. So what have I been doing then, you ask? So far, I’ve hit up both professional baseball and soccer games (my first MLS!), went on a 5 mile hike in the Virginia wilderness, and hit up a couple of pretty tasty wineries. And I’ve gotta say, the weather has been PERFECT for doing all of this! This weekend will entail a concert, some more winery fun, apple picking, and any other shenanigans that pop up. 

That’s all I’ve got for now. I think the Starbucks barista forgot my extra shot. So it's time to go get on Facebook/Pinterest/etc and pretend I’m being productive, as I’m not nearly caffeinated enough to actually work. Until next time!

 

The view from the patio of one of the wineries - we could have sat there all day!

3 day weekend...

I sure love me a 3 day weekend. Why did I have Friday off? Just cuz my preceptor is awesome :)

Real life: coming to a theater near you...

So I literally just emailed my Walgreens pharmacy district supervisor regarding "post graduate opportunities with the company". Needless to say...I was damn terrified when I hit send!!! I triple checked my spelling and grammar...and I still hope it was ok. The real world is coming soon...sooner than we would all like it to come! (That's what she said?)

Food status after week 1...

An addendum to the previous food related post. I think I will keep this up for all 25 days of rotation.

Day 1 - Olive Garden
Day 2 - Noodles and Co
Day 3 - Panera
Day 4 - Chinese Buffet
Day 5 - Valentino's Buffet
Day 6 - Noodles and Co
Day 7 - Chipotle
Day 8 - Raising Cane's (a place known for their chicken tenders)
Day 9 - Buffalo Wild Wings

Cynical Wonka...

'Nuff said.

2 days into compounding rotation...

Perks of the rotation:
Free soda at the pizza parlor next door.
RPh graciously buys lunch errday.
Technicians are hilarious.

4th rotation...

Hi ho. Hi ho. Off to fourth rotation we go. Sorry I cant whistle the rest

Football Sundays...

In honor of NFL Sunday, here is a photo of the recliner I spent many hours in during my last rotation



How many hours do you say? Well, let's break it down:
-approx 5 pm - 11 pm from Mondays thru Thursdays (Fridays, I bail out of the town as quickly as possible).
-so 6 hrs per day * 20 days during the rotation = 120 hrs wasted on the recliner. God, I felt really fat just now.

Sad day...

I moved back to my school's town yesterday for my next rotation. Many friends are leaving or have already left town b/c they are doing out of town rotations. It's getting bittersweet as we get closer and closer to graduation. This is a little taste of how far apart we all will be once we graduate...

Sad day

Bittersweet...

While I'm excited for the next rotation, I am a little sad at leaving this one. Yea, the town was pretty boring, but the pharmacy and hospital staff were all fantastic! A little bittersweet...

I leave you with my favorite MiddleOfNowhere place to run. They call it the "rock quarry", but I call it my moment of peace :)

POV photo...

This is my POV while wearing my SARs mask.

ps. I don't have SARs, just a cold. Or do I?

ughhhh...

Don't you just HATE getting sick on the last few days of rotation??? I can't enjoy the rest of my time here in peace...I get to enjoy it sniffling.

I think I'll put a Chinese SARS mask on tomorrow. 

Last week here...

I'm down to my last week at the county hospital. It is going to be bittersweet b/c I love the people I work with, but as you may know many of my days are filled with bouts of boredom. However, FOOTBALL is back!!!!!! This week will go by nicely as I root on my Oakland Raiders tomorrow night!

I don't always...

Just a city boy...

So after dinner today, I looked up the only driving range in town and went for a drive. Somehow I got lost in the town, but I digress. Anyways, pull up to the driving range where there is no one there except for two people working on the property. Here's how the general conversation went:

me: So...you guys look closed
owner: ya, we closed for the season yesterday!
me: ah...ok well that's too bad
owner: ya after Labor Day, people put their clubs away in this town...so where you from?
me: Just a city boy...born and raised in California. I took the midnight train to MiddleOfNowhere to work a few weeks at the hospital
owner: oh ok. Well, we live just up the street so if you don't mind, take me to my house so I can get the keys to the golf shed

That was my first moment of "wow this is a small town..."

So after she gives me a bucket of balls, she says "well if we're done with the yard work before you're done hitting around, will you close the gate up for us?"

That was my second moment of "wow this is a small town..."

After I hit around like a champ, I go to find the owners to give my thanks for letting me hit around after they were closed. They go on to say "well if you ever wanna do this again, our number is on the sign. We'll come down to get you a bucket of balls".

And that was my third moment of "wow this is a small town..." Pretty cool experience!

I'm the only one on the driving range:


A petting zoo on the property:

So long nature...

Well, labor day weekend 2k12 was pretty fun. I spent the weekend up in Minnesota with some p4 classmates and a few stragglers. Got to experience the good ol' outdoors!

View from the dock:


View from the cabin porch:


Alas, now we're back to reality. And reality means MiddleOfNowhere, Midwest. At least half the week is already over!

E-Value...worthless?

A sample question from my mid-point self evaluation on E-Value for my HOSPITAL rotation:

...seriously?

Faith in drug companies restored...

So until today, I was like many people.
"Drug companies charge too much"
"All they did was tweak one little thing and now they get to maintain their brand status"
"Forget this, I'll just use ibuprofen"

Many of those thoughts are true. There has been many a time where I felt bad for dispensing medications to a patient b/c the cash price was so ridiculous and the insurance only covered so much of the cost.

However, today my faith was restored. We have a patient (call him "Joe") who is not in the best financial situation nor do they have insurance. Now, this is not a discussion as to why Joe does not have insurance. This is not my business nor should I pester them about getting insurance. Anyways, my rotation partner and I were given the duty to optimize this patient's meds. So we went up to talk to Joe and figure out if he was compliant, if he was refilling on time, how was he actually using the meds. After seeing what the next steps were for therapy and doing some $4 list research, we determined that optimization was still gonna cost a pretty penny :(

Then my Asian side kicked in. I started looking for coupons for the various medications and here is what I came across:

http://www.proairhfa.com/pdf/TEVA-Patient-Assistance-Program-Application.pdf
http://www.bridgestoaccess.com/

HUZZAH!!! Later we went and talked to the patient and gave him the packets of information. We ran through the list of requirements and we're pretty confident he qualifies for the assistance programs. Next step is for the doctor to prescribe the meds he needs that are made by the corresponding manufacturer and I think we're in luck...

A good critique goes a long way...

My little brother who goes to KidsGetRapedInTheShower University had this to say about my blog:

"YOUR BLOG IS SO ANTI-CLIMACTIC

THERE'S NO STORYLINE

NO WEAVING NARRATIVE

IF YOUR BLOG WAS A MOVIE

IT'D BE LIKE BATTLE: LA IN TERMS OF STORY

AND MARLEY AND ME IN TERMS OF GRAPHICS"

Thanks bro. 

success kid meme

I do what I want!

i was training my new rotation partner today. i was saying how when i make IVs, i like to listen to pandora or have netflix on. needless to say, my preceptor wasn't thrilled when she heard that...whoops! i promise it doesn't compromise my ability to make antibiotics :)

anyways, the hospital has a system like walgreens where if you think someone did something nice, you write them a golden ticket kinda thing. the cafeteria had some BOMB DIGGITY broccoli salad today and i gave them a golden ticket. yes, that was my day today. 

oh, and i finally met up with HR 3 weeks into the rotation

I'm flossy

My Kappa Psi chapter had bid acceptance this weekend. And boy, did we celebrate the new pledges! Maybe celebrated a little too much...but I digress. Looks like the new class is about 40 large, which is pretty good considering the pharmacy class itself is about 115 kids. I'm not sure how much my liver is enjoying my "celebrations" considering it didn't have to process alcohol for the past 9 months.

New roommate just moved in to the apartment. He's from another big time mid-west city and has joined me in MiddleOfNowhere, Midwest. He's a PDC member though, so I've already drawn the battle lines in the apartment...just kidding. I wonder how soon he'll realize there is nothing to do in this town?

Last bit of randomness: I flossed today for the first time in 4 months? Let's just say that a few hours later my teeth are killing me...maybe I will rub some rum on it like little kids get.

Diabetes. Diabetes.

When your blood sugar's low and you're feeling comatose, diabetes. Diabetes.

i don't think this is what darwin had in mind...

That is a "hipp-horse" as my pharmacy technician likes to call it. Obviously, that is two animal crackers stuck together and trying to mate to create the next level of evolution. I didn't even know horses went for hippos...

i'm getting too old for this shit

all in all, the birthday was pretty swell. i thought i was going to spend it secluded in my room, but my roommate decided otherwise and baked this!

the day at the hospital went very smoothly and i got a cake to top it off! not a bad day at all :)

don't you really hate it when...

So in addition to leaving dress clothes at home, I also realized I left my golf clubs at home. The driving range was going to be my friend for the next 4 weeks...looks like it'll be the next 3 out of 4 weeks as I will have to get them during the weekend...

*SIGH*

Great way to start the bday...

don't you hate it when...

Today was the end of a good weekend at home. My gf came into town to surprise her family (who were in town to help the little sister move in as a freshman in college) and to celebrate my bday weekend. It was a great weekend with her and everyone else we spent time with!

So don't you hate it when you forget something at home for your trip? Well, upon arrival to MiddleOfNowhere...I figured out that I completely forgot to bring a new set of dress clothes with me!!!!!!!!!! Looks like the pharmacy and hospital staff will just have to assume that I am a poor schmuck and can't afford more than 5 dress shirts and ties...but I promise that I shower everyday.

The reason I go "home" on weekends...

But let's be honest. Even if the internet worked, I would still go home on weekends anyways.

Live-abetes part II

So my last rotation was an academic/ambulatory hybrid rotation which essentially focused on lifestyle modifications. One of the biggest learning points was treating diabetes liveabetes through non-pharm methods. My co-preceptor (we will call her Dr. Black) taught me all about healthy eating and working out to sensitize the body to insulin. On my break today, while other members of the pharmacy got cookies and snacks, I opted for the vegetable tray with ranch dressing on the side. Ally, my rotation partner, snarkly said that the ranch probably negates all the vegetables. Whatever. Then yesterday, the whole apartment (me, Ally, and Michael [PT student]) went for a run around the pond system. I think I ran about 3 miles and I was dead tired. But at least I got my physical activity in for the week.

I want to imprint "LIVEABETES" on yellow wrist bands. Do you think the uniballer himself would have a problem with that?

Live-abetes

My rotation partner is extremely witty and showed it off today. For anonymity's sake, we will call her Ally. First, we started saying "well if Ally ran the hospital...". An example of this was when she found a discrepancy in the meds officially administered  and what was in the care notes. So she said, "well if I ran the hospital, the forgotten charges would come out of the nurses paychecks!" We kinda kept this up all day making up random ways to make the hospital "better" haha.

Then at some point, we started discussing diabetes. She mentioned how "die"abetes is just depressing and that she wanted to rename it "live"abetes. haha, so witty! Live-abetes is just more positive about the situation.  This reminds me of how people don't like being called handicap, but rather handi-capable. Whatever floats their boat. I don't care if you have diabetes or liveabetes, just get that blood glucose under control!

2 rotations down, 6 to go...

1st day (working) of 3rd rotation

The first day was pretty chill. Got a tour of the hospital, which is only 2 floors. Amazingly enough, 2 floors can still be a little confusing...wish me luck figuring out the maze. I briefly learned about the computer system and kinda what a day in the pharmacy entails. Then we had orientation, which was obviously boring...but we got free lunch, which was hospital Salisbury steak. I don't think I've had a Salisbury steak since elementary school, but it was kinda tasty. Finished out the work day for a couple hours looking over the patient census with my rotation partner, then we went home at 4 pm. Home is across the street from the hospital, so the drive home was pretty quick. Just kidding. We walked obviously. Random musing: the towels here are kinda crunchy...so I will be bringing one back when I go back home. I found out that there indeed is a driving range in town. Other than that, I haven't had the motivation to drive around town. I will let you know when the motivation comes. Until next time..

Day 0, rotation 3. Middle of nowhere.

MiddleOfNowhere, Midwest (day 1 of the 3rd rotation). I left my midwest city around 730 pm. Got to MiddleOfNowhere in just about one hour. The hospital is kinda just in the middle of nowhere, next to a Hyvee and a Walmart. I suppose I will explore "the city" tomorrow. I have moved into a fully furnished apartment. My roommates are a PT student and a doctor...so we should just open up our own clinic in the apartment. Hard to complain about the accommodations, since there is internet and cable. I wish it was an HD tv though...oh how life with Marty has spoiled me with brand new appliances every week. I took a look at the chamber of commerce website for MiddleOfNowhere...it's not looking promising. Seriously though, I'm trying to figure out what I'm gonna do for the next 5 weeks. I did some late night grocery shopping at the Hyvee. Note to self: never buy pre-bagged fruit again because sometimes the fruit at the bottom of the bag is gross... Anyways, enjoy this post because I'm not sure how many updates there will need to be to inform you of how bored I am. Cheers.