An Update On The Fall Semester of My P2 Year.... Good or Bad?

So I started out this semester pretty crippling.  I missed most of my classes only the third week in, because I started throwing up blood (I am totally fine now, thank goodness).  I spent most of that week in and out of my surgeons office (because it was a complication of the surgery I had last year in November) and at home. I went out of town that following weekend (side note: I went to my first dragon con ever and it was SO fun, even though I wasn't 100% healthy)

So because of all of this shenanigans I missed a lot of materiel and fell behind. As any pharmacy student past or present knows, YOU DO NOT FALL BEHIND EVER IN YOUR SECOND YEAR!!!! I have been told time and time again that the second year of pharmacy school is essentially a lonely sleepless hell, and is the hardest year of school you will ever complete (as a PharmD that is)

The week I came back, I had my first test in Integrated Therapeutics I on a Thursday, followed by Immunology and Microbiology  on Tuesday. So I studied hard every day for my IT test, leaving immunology for the weekend. Well this all was a huge mistake.  I BARELY made a C on the IT test and I failed my Immunology test.  As pretentious as this sounds, I am not the kind of person who fails a test. 

So needless to say the professor from immunology made me come to his office and explain why I failed, and made me go over the previous test (that part I didn't mind). But then this professor proceeded to practally demand I miss other lectures (we have a mandatory attendance policy and these would be unexcused absences, and could effect my grades in those classes as well) to review objectives for the next test with them. When I responded I had lecture this professor's exact words were "You don't have my lecture." So now I am mad too because I think this person is a total jerk. Luckily I was able to join another student who was a friend of mine at a different time so I wouldn't have to miss class.

I made a B on my second Immunology test, and brought my grade up.  Currently it is no where where I wanted it to be but a C is guaranteed and a B is possible.

Integrated therapeutics is a whole other story.  I felt really confident before the test that I knew what I was doing, but during the test and after I was like wow, I may not know this stuff after all which totally sucked. Our grades haven't been released yet, but the class average was only a C so I don't have high hopes, which makes me really nervous.

I am kinda freaking out because there are all these programs, and scholarships and residencies that I want to apply for and I am REALLY worried my grades aren't nearly competitive enough. And I hate not feeling good enough which is smack dab in the middle of how I feel. This is awful for me because every mishap is devastating instead of just a simple ok do better next time.  I really have to work on my mood. recently it has not been good. It could be do to exhaustion because god am I tired.  I knew this wouldn't be easy but I feel like I am fighting a battle over here.

Well hopefully everything goes better than I forsee. Maybe I just need a better attitude :P

Stay Healthy Lovelies!

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!

How Pharmaceutics Lab and Emulsions Almost Made Me Cry

This last week in Pharmaceutics lab we made emulsions.  Everything started out fine. I gathered the ingredients mixed them in the appropriate manner and began mixing it immediately.

 My emulsion looked superior from the start. All of the others were lumpy and had clumps and mine was smooth and beautiful.

after Stirring and stirring and stirring mine looked the same. All of the other people's started to look better and mine still looked the same. At this point I am starting to get frustrated.  Soon everyone's is finished except mine, which still looks the same.  My friend Kevin offers to stir mine for a while to see if he can get it. Nope. So I add a bit of water and continue stirring. Soon everyone is finished with their second one and mine still looks the same. At this point I am about to cry I am so frustrated. I am covered in oil, my desk is a mess, and everyone is finishing up and I am still stuck on my first one. So I pour some more water in because what the heck it is probably ruined anyway, and lo and behold, it works an my emulsion is finished.

I then start on my second one. The second one came on perfectly and there was no issue. The first and second emulsions were the same, just different methods, the wet and dry gum methods.

 I was so frustrated this was the only picture of my emulsions finished I remembered to take

Then there was a third emulsion which you took lime water and olive oil and put them in a bottle and shook them up. That was super easy

Here are my finished emulsions

I have zero idea why my emulsion put me in such a bad mood.  It must be all of the stress I am under.  Well the semester is almost over which means SUMMER BREAK!!!  which for me means working but it will still be nice to give my brain a tiny break!

Stay healthy Lovelies!

Nerding Out

Last night I played a game of DnD for the first time ever. and it is official, I am a nerd. I totally loved it! It was a TON of fun.  Thanks to my friend Laurel for introducing me. I have created one of my 2 needed characters and I love her! I wrote the back story and all that Jazz today. In addition, I bought some pretty girly Dice so I can play.  I am excited!! Looks like my Tuesdays are full now! :D

Also, I totally made a 96 on my last Physiology and Pathophysiology test. This leaves me with an A in the class and I am so happy about that.  Now I just need to pull my grade up in Biopharmaceutics, and Pharmacy Administration, and I MAY be able to get all A's! The pressure is on! Now that I know this is a possibility I know I will obsess over it.  Thank science for anti-anxiety medication! I might not make it through otherwise.

I currently have approximately an 83% for biopharmaceutics, (not taking into account any weighting) if I make a 95 or higher on the next 2 tests I could make an A. We have only had 1 test in pharmacy administration, so I can't currently make the same hypothesis.  I really hope I can pull this off. I need a good grade!

Lazy Ol Weekend

Thankfully I don't have a test this week. So I took this opportunity to spend the weekend doing something that I love to do but have been missing out on, SLEEP!! god how I love my bed, with it's fluffy down pillows and plush blankets. Sigh, I miss it now! It is my cocoon of comfort, warmth, and love!



Also I got to spend some time with my best friend Friday night and work out some problems we had. It is so nice to know that he is willing to work through things with me and remain friends.  I mean we have been friends since we were 14! That is about 12 years now! I can't believe I have even had a friend that long haha

Even though I spent a great deal of time loafing around this weekend I did get some studying done for my next test coming up. So it wasn't all a waste! I am going to spend all my free time this week catching up on all of my classes. I feel guilty for wasting so much time this weekend, and really need to do some work

I also have made a sale off of my side business! I sell handmade hair bows of of etsy and facebook. I do custom orders and when I have time I pre-make things to sell. I got into that because I love wearing hair bows! I sold my most expensive order ever this weekend! The girl ordered 3 of my more expensive Bows! The only problem is she lives in England, and I had no idea how much international shipping cost, so I way undercharged, and half of my profits go to shipping. but oh well. people are wearing my creations overseas! If you want to check out some of my work you can check it out here
https://www.facebook.com/allysbeautifulbows?
https://www.etsy.com/shop/AllysBeautifulBows

In addition to hair bows I plan to make flower vases with interchangeable bows, lanyards with bows, earrings with bows, wine glass markers with bows, and anything else that comes to mind! I think I will have to wait until summer to start those projects, as well as work on my crocheting.

Later this week (Tuesday to be exact) I will be playing my first DnD game ever and I am excited! more about that later.

Now off to learn about schizophrenia!

Stay Healthy Lovelies! 

Physiology And Pathophysiology II and Neuroscience

Tomorrow I have a test in Phys and Patho II and it is all about neuroscience.  This is a particularly difficult topic and covers a wide range of materials. these materials include but are not limited to: vision and hearing, nociception, motor control, headache and migraine, Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, stroke, seizure, epilepsy, stress, depression, and anxiety. and it is pretty in depth.  After taking the practice tests yesterday I am FREAKING OUT!! I don't feel like I know or understand all that I am supposed to. I studied for 12 hours last night and after I get out of lab today will study almost as long.  I just hope I can get it all shoved in my brain by 8am tomorrow haha.

It looks like I will for sure be moving into my cousin's townhouse.  Which is awesome, it is so close to campus, I can use the gym at school and cancel my LA fitness membership. (I have lost 50 pounds in the last 5 months, so I need to hit the gym hard to keep it up!!) I will have to have a roommate which makes me nervous. I have had the crazy roommate that had to be included in everything in my life, followed by the crazier roommate who pulled a gun on me and moved out without paying rent (causing me to later get evicted), followed by the guy who didn't like my friends so he got his mom to kick me out, (grow some balls guy, you could have just talked to me). Since then, I have lived alone until I moved in with my aunt when I got into pharmacy school. So having a roommate makes me nervous, which I think is justified. I am hoping that because we are all professionals it will work out fine.

I also met someone who was a manager of a pharmacy, and offered me a job! It is likely to pay more than my current job, and is a whole different environment. I will keep both jobs, because I have 10 years with kroger, and can't leave it behind just yet. I know I get so attached to things. But I am really looking forward to this learning oppertunity! I hope it all works out!

That is all for now
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!