Career day!!! My Experience With An Elementary School

I'm sure we all remember career day in elementary school.  People's parents came in and talked to us about what they did and a lot of it was boring until like a firefighter came in and then everyone was so excited! Well It's not quite like that anymore

My school began working with a teacher at an elementary school in the area.  A bunch of us went to a third grade class to tell them about pharmacy and medication.  First, this is a two story elementary school which I have never seen in real life.  The teacher sent 5 students (third graders) down to greet us with a sign that said Pharmacy school. They escorted us up to their classroom.

Once inside the classroom we were told how the students had been taught to shake hands and look people in the eye when talking to them.  I found this facanating.  These kids are definitely on the track to success so early.  We then had a powerpoint presentation to show them.  We each took turn asking them questions like do you know what a pharmacist is? Who should you take medicine from? How can you be safe with medicine? What are some pharmacies you know? These kids knew SO much! It was seriously mind blowing!

The kids asked us some amazing questions such as how do you become a pharmacist? Why are some drugs called drugs and others called medicine? And my favorite, What made you want to be a Pharmacist?

We then took some time and had the children make cards for geriatric patients at Gwinette Medical Center.  They had such a good time and made some really cute cards! It was a lot of fun! I even got to teach a few how to draw flowers.  I had an amazing time and I am so grateful that there are teachers out there exposing kids to other paths other than fire fighter, police officer, and teacher.

Here are some pictures for you!

Pharmaceutics Labs Over The Last 2 Weeks - Powders, Gels, and Eye Lubricants

 POWDERS

In lab this week we made three different powders, individually wrapped headache powders, an effervescent powder, and a calamine dusting powder

Headache powder

My ingredients for the powder

 

Me Mixing and breaking down the particles to a fine smooth consistency 

The measured out dose of the mixture

The next few pictures are of me packaging this powder

Effervescent Powder

The ingredients needed

Me mixing and breaking down the particles.  This powder must be passed through a #40 sieve.

The powder on the sieve

The powder after being sieved

Testing the powder after it is finished.  In theory the patient would add the powder to water and drink it. 

Dusting Powder

This powder contains calamine and is meant to be dusted on the skin to relieve itching and calm the skin.

The ingredients needed

Mixing and breaking down the powders to a uniform consistency via geometric dilution

The finished product in a dusting container

Gels and Eye lubricant

 Ingredients needed

Sifting the methylcellulose

weighing the sifted methylcellulose

The Weighed methylcellulose

Kevin stirring the Gel

Me stirring the Gel

Pictures of our gel

Pouring the gel in the RX bottle

Since this is the last REAL lab day I wanted to take some pictures of all of my work

The creams and a suppository open

Me and my babies.  I am so sad to see them go!

 

 

Getting ready to throw all of my hard work away

Apparently this is what my work is worth! Non-hazardous TRASH!

All in all I had a great time in lab this semester.  I made a lot of things, learned a lot of things, and laughed with friends.  I had some rough times but I adore getting hands on and making something.  I really found this lab enjoyable

Stay healthy Lovelies!

Update On life as Pharmacy Student

Well I have gone to the doctor and got help in the form of a little yellow tablet. I take it at night to help me sleep, and my life has been so much smoother ever since! I am calm, I can focus on my studies, and I don't get distracted by fretting over how much I have to do.

Recently, the option has come up to co-own my cousin's townhouse, because she wants to move in with her boyfriend.  My Aunt is really happy about this because if I am making the mortgage payment then she doesn't have to. However, I cannot afford all the bills on my own, so I will need a roommate. Luckily the house is PERFECT for roommates. each bedroom has it's own full bath, a walk in closet, an extra closet, and is really spacious.  Oh and the house comes (to me) fully furnished, so I don't have to buy any of that.  This is such a great option for me financially, because I can pay off what is owed on the house within 6 months to a year after graduating, and then can focus all of my income into paying off my loans and be debt free in about 3 years. That is an amazing opportunity that I am so grateful for! I just hope my cousin doesn't change her mind about moving haha!

school is going well, so far I have 3 A's and 2 B's. I just took a test yesterday in Biopharmaceutics, that I felt good about before I went into it, but I feel like I failed.  We will see though. I tend to be hard on myself and be kind of a downer on myself when I am perfectly capable of being successful in meeting my goals.  I need to work on that.

I also on a whim decided to get my hair cut this wednesday.
before:

After:

In other news I have been having a lot of fun in pharmaceutics lab

SUSPENSIONS
Last week we made suspensions:

 These are the ingredients for the "white lotion" the yellow/orange stuff is sulfurated pothash. It stunk. It smelled strongly of sulfur. It reminded me of the water at Bonnaroo where we camped the last 2 years it was awful.

close up of my zinc

Close up of my pothash

My dissolved ingredients before mixing

My white lotion all finished and in a bottle!

my next suspension was an aspirin suspension. We had to open up the capsules we made to make the suspension. I felt like I was ruining my work! I am so glad I took pictures haha!

The next suspension was an aspirin suspension made from the tablets we made the previous week. Unfortunately we had to turn in our remaining tablets at the end of this lab :(

my tablets after being crushed up

My three suspensions from the side

My three suspensions from the front

SUPPOSITORIES
This week we made suppositories. I especially enjoyed this lab.

My ingredients for the 2 types of suppositories we made. The first is an aspirin in a Cocoa Butter base and the second is not medicated, and is just Peg.

We had to melt the cocoa butter in a water bath to be able to mix the aspirin and pour it into the mold. We also had to melt our PEG which is the white powder in the beakers in front. My suppository ingredients are the ones on the right.

 This is my melted cocoa butter. with the aspirin in it before pouring into the mold

My cocoa butter and aspirin suppositories in the mold

My aspirin and PEG suppositories in their molds next to each other.


Well that is all for now.
Stay healthy lovlies!