Transitions

It's currently Spring Break, in which I am spending in a study room of UCF School of Medicine as Errol studies for his exam tomorrow. It's crazy to think that after this week is over, we will be well into March, and less than 2 months away from being the oldest class residing in UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy.

Organizations have a large role in student pharmacist lives. This is the time of year of election season, and officer transition. It's the time when first year students step up and strive to become elected, second year students begin to realize that that they need some leadership to get residencies, and third years start mentally preparing to interact daily with patients.

With two Elect positions (2-year commitments), I started this year wondering how I could possibly take over in my third year. Thanks to great mentorship, I feel confident that next year I will be able to take over and maintain the legacy.

That's all for now... onto trying to survive second year!

Personal Day

Wow, it's really been since September when the last time I posted. And it's sad that the reason I'm posting now has nothing to do with pharmacy school. Instead, I'll take a personal day, with a personal post as I watch Mona Lisa Smile on Netflix and procrastinate studying for the two exams I have next week.

As I try to think of how to start, I just feel silly. So I'll just jump into it and see how it goes.

I'm not sure what it is about this week, but I've gotten tired of the long distance. It just makes me sad. It makes me sad to go through each day without my best friend. Sad to have to deal with conflict and hardships all alone. Sad to have to schedule time just to have a 10-minute chat.

At the beginning of all this, I looked at it as a chance to grow as individuals. Taking the steps we needed to take for our careers before finally reconnecting when we were done with education. Well, it's been almost a whole school year and I feel all grown up now. Can't it just be over? I'm ready to spend each day working towards "we", and not "me".

Sorry for being the debbie-downer. Must be Valentine's Day blues, or the gloomy cold weather.

Pharmacists Save Lives Too

Last night was an incredibly busy day at the CVS where I work. It was only a 5-hour shift, but Mondays are always busy. From 8 to 10 PM, it was just myself and my pharmacist, but we were able to manage decently. It was a few hours before I was able to take a bite of dinner, or even go to the bathroom. But that's the life of community retail.

Around 8:30PM, a mother and her daughter approached the counter asking where the Benadryl was. Before pharmacy school, when it was busy and a patient asked me where something was, I would point them to the aisle and get back to my work. However, it seems that my way of thinking has changed completely from getting tasks accomplished, to maximizing health outcomes. 

We are taught in school systematic approaches to asking patients questions in order to extract the most appropriate information.

Me: Are you looking for tablet or liquid?

Mother: Probably liquid because my daughter says she is having trouble swallowing.

I turn to the daughter, and say: Do you feel like your throat is closing up?

Daughter: Yes

Me: Have you eaten anything recently? Or come into contact with anything foreign?

Daughter: I had something with peanuts.

Me: When did you eat it?

Daughter: About 5 minutes ago

It was at that point I immediately got the pharmacist to assess her. She was unaware she had any food allergy, but it was clear she was going through anaphylactic shock. We offered to call 911 for her, but she was refusing (some sort of psychological trauma from her past, when her grandmother died in an ambulance). Instead, we had her sit in the waiting room for about 20 minutes after she drank 4 tablespoons of Benadryl to monitor her status. 

We debated taking an EpiPen off the shelf to use for her, but my pharmacist wasn't quite sure because she wasn't aware she had any allergy at all. So instead, we called Urgent Care centers to see if they were still open. We found a couple and gave her the phone number/address, and they drove off. 

This may not sound as exciting to you all, but when I think about how I could have just told her where the Benadryl was and let her go off, she could have been in a very bad situation. 

Hey, pharmacists save lives too :)