061

Back in the pharmacy after a much needed and well-deserved break. To my surprise, I had a very good day because Gregg wasn’t there to ridicule and squash my self-esteem. In fact, it was very much the opposite today. Since Gregg is on vacation, a floater RPh came in to cover. He introduced himself as Gamal and instinctively I asked if he was Arabic and sure enough he is AND he added that he’s Egyptian! I think my eyes lighted up right there and then. Of course I shared with him how I went to Egypt the summer before and what I did there. Any free moment I had, I would drop as much Arabic I could member and Gamal would just laugh, I am pretty sure he was thinking, “who does this Asian girl think she is speaking my language?” I would like to think his incredulousness quickly turned into admiration because he even commented how good my accent was. Aaaw yeeyeaaah.

My ego inflated even more as the day progressed especially after this conversation.

RPh: On the phone talking to someone, “Yes, thank you Gameel” Hangs up the phone and turns to me, “Do you know what that means?”

Me: Gameel? Yah, it means beautiful.

RPh: I bet you got called that a lot while you were in Egypt.

I just laughed and this picture ran through my mind.

With my confidence reaching o infinity and beyond, I decided to be more assertive today. Whenever the tech would call for a consultation, I would just walk on over to the consultation window and do my intern thang. I was making calls like crazy while printing and filling. I was a multi-tasking machine. I had a new experience today too! AN ANGRY CUSTOMER! A customer called in today to see if we had an item in in stock. Unfortunately, I could not find his full list of prescription under the name he was providing me. I told him I would call him back because I was taking awhile (CVS computers are very slow). Even after searching and asking for help, I couldn’t find his prescription in the system. I called him back asking if he had called at a different pharmacy. With a huge exasperated sigh, he said “I’LL BE OVER IN TWO MINUTES”. At first I felt like an ant embracing its untimely demise under a large shoe but then I told myself, “NO, ANTOINETTE. YOU ARE DA BOMB TODAY!” Sure enough, in about 10 minutes, the customer came into the store and the tech calls my name, “Antoinette, you are being requested” I strut over (more like politely shuffle to the register) and offer my assistance to the customer. To make a long story short, he went by a different name in the system, the misunderstanding was resolved and we became best friends forever. He got his meds that he needed and he did not yell at me at all! The power of effective communication!

044

Yesterday I gave my first consultation at the pharmacy. It was a prescription for amoxicillin for a little boy named Jameson. After I went through the consult, he cutely and politely said, "Thank you!" I think I just melted right there because I felt I made a difference in the world. Haha. It was a long 8 hour day. My preceptor got me to do reconstitutions, consultations, filling, answering OTC questions and galore. He gave me some homework to do too. Out of the three erectile dysfunction treatments (Cialis, Levitra, and Viagra), which one has the greatest bioavailability and longest half life? I've only had 6 classes of pharmacokinetics since the semester started and we just started talking about drug elimination and distribution. I feel stupid most of the time because of my lack of working in a pharmacy experience but I have a feeling I will be learning so much from my preceptor.

I've also noticed that my comics are slowly showing more personality than the usual formless blobmen that I draw. Hurray for creativity!

043

First week of class came and went. With it came new rules and expectations. I will seriously come to the PHRM 121 final naked...if given a million dollars haha but seriously, the rules are so ridiculous.

Also, yesterday was my first day of IPPEs at CVS Pharmacy in Elk Grove. My preceptor, Gregg, is a man jaded by the evils of CVS. Despite his less than optimistic outlook for the future of his pharmacy, his stern and strict attitude is going to keep me on my toes and I have a feeling my experience in a real pharmacy setting will be positive. First day, I got to do everything: work the register, scan waiting bins, dispense prescription, administer flu shots, guide customers around the OTC section, I even would have had the opportunity to consult if I was more confident in my abilities - but for now, I am going to listen and learn.

036

Preet and I watched Inception last Thursday at our school theater. In addition, last week's PHRM 111 quiz was on the gastrointestinal system. In a fit of extreme nerdiness and geekery, I spawned this ridiculousness. So what if no one with a medical background might not understand this or if they haven't seen the movie. Their loss.

Dr. Guire is a great professor, but I would totally pay more attention of Leonardo DiCaprio or Joseph Gordon-Levitt was teaching the class, lol.

035

Dr. Jasti teaches a portion of our PHRM 114 class and the content of his lectures mainly consist of drug history, patenting, formulation etc. In his words, "The topic is rather dry, but I'll do my best to juice it up, ok?"

One of the ways he's attempted to liven up the class is through the use of an online tool called Poll Everywhere. You basically text or instant message an answer to the corresponding number that is given on the screen and the class can instantly see the results. On the first day, Dr. Jasti made an open poll where the class could submit ANY answer. After that, he stuck to 4 multiple choice. Haha, pharm students are so mature...

I would really like to see Dr. Jasti teach me how to dougie.

031

This past week in my Nonprescription Therapy - Self-Care class we discussed oral pain such as recurrent aphthous stomatitis which is the fancy word for "canker sore". Interestingly enough, canker sores have no known cause while cold sores are caused by the herpes simplex virus-1, the same virus that can be found around your "hoo-ha" if you're not careful or are into that sort of thing.

As of now, I now know how to screen for cholesterol, blood-glucose, blood pressure, bone density, am CPR certified and am able to administer immunizations. It's only been a month and I can only imagine what other cool things we're going to learn in the coming months.

028

Dr. Chan is a beast. He teaches my Molecular Cellular Biology class. This man speaks a billion words a minute, never seems to make a mistake, and knows all there is to biochemistry. At the same time, he looks like an Asian Mr. Rogers.

Midterm for this class is probably going to be killer but I'm a champ just like Chan. Let's do this.

026

Ever since my freshman year of undergrad, my engineering friends would always poke fun at us pre-pharms. I recently took my written test to see whether I would be certified to administer immunizations to patients and I feel pretty good about it. This one is for Todd, who's having a blast at NASA right now.

025

It's almost 2:30AM here and I just covered material on acne and fungal infections for my OTC and Non-Prescription Drugs class for...this morning. It's funny how stress is a factor in worsening one's acne. And then you stress out on your appearance and then you stress out how to cover it up and stress out more about the other 4 quizzes and exams you have this week and when you go about treating the problem, the darn acne just flares up again because you're cold and clammy from malnutrition and in an attempt to keep yourself warm and comforted, you rub your face with your nasty hands that's taken out the trash and the P. acnes are just having a ball with all the buffet of contaminants that you just served them. It's a vicious cycle I say and I don't think I am making a lot sense right now because I would prefer to be snuggled up in bed with my pillow pet. But here I am, drawing a comic about acne when I have an interview in about 5 hours. My roommate is beside me and she just asked me something about undecylenic acid and I think I just drooled from staring blankly at her.

In other exciting news, I took my skills assessment test today where I injected my partner with saline solution and I passed. Hip-hip-hurray!