It's been a shamefully long time since my last post. I blame insane classes, high work schedule, and the fact that I've been basically dropping comatose into bed when I come home. It's been a hard semester. We're wrapping up the cancer module right now - this post is a brief break in the sea of ridiculously hard to spell drugs I'm adrift in. I'm having a difficult time forcing myself through this last push of intensive studying. It doesn't help that I tanked one of the exams and am therefore on the borderline of two grades, or that I don't want to specialize in oncology.
Thankfully spring break is in two days and I'll be able to relax then. We'll be between modules so unless I want to read ahead on GI/hepatic stuff, I'm free from studying woes. I also have most of the week off from work, so I plan on playing video games, reading through a stack of books, and playing my accordion. There may be a road trip with Dan in there as well.
As I haven't updated in forever, I also haven't mentioned my current boyfriend. His name is Dan, and he's a good mix of nerd/outdoorsy. He enjoys discussions of chemistry and video games while at the same time taking me longboarding and snowboarding. Having a boyfriend who lives a block away is very strange. Pleasant, but strange. We can have dinner together at the drop of a hat, or he can stop by and play some Modern Warfare with me, or any number of things I'm very unaccustomed to.
One last thing before I dive back into the world of cancer and pain treatment - Pi day was this Sunday and I managed to convince my fellow students to participate. I made blueberry, chocolate truffle, and lemon meringue, while two others made pecan and banana cream. It was a delicious success. I'm not counting my mental block regarding all things lemon that ended in the lemon meringue resembling more neon yellow goop than anything in pie form. I can't make lemon bars either . . . it's a citrus-y tragedy.
There will be more posts from now on as the next module is rumored to be the easiest we have and I'm planning on actually using my camera more. And playing/recording the accordion playing. Now that I have a full size I'll be able to expand what I can do (if my arm holds up, that beast is heavy).
- SqueezeBox
Thursday, March 18, 2010
Saturday, December 12, 2009
Adventures in Compounding (and other things)
Today was another one of the compounding Saturdays of doom. I went into work (running on very few hours of sleep, thanks to the inane urge to watch Watchmen at midnight last night) and was presented with twelve IVs, 50 syringes to put 0.1 mL of a drug into, and a stack of things that needed to be made. I spent two hours in the hood -which is pleasant enough at first, but soon it becomes a sweltering nightmare in which you're focusing so hard on tiny details that you start to forget big picture things. Like the fact that I still have one more exam coming up, or that you should probably remove surgical booties when out of the hood so you don't walk around looking like an escaped mental patient the rest of the day.
It wouldn't have been such a bad day except that we finally got the H1N1 vaccine in and another shipment of the seasonal flu vaccine. The other intern essentially had to spend the entire day in the blood draw room sticking needles in people while I ran back and forth from the compounding room to help the pharmacist out during rushes, usually whilst covered in whatever cream I'd just spilled. An observation of note: wearing a surgical mask, even if it's just to prevent yourself from breathing in hormone dust, freaks patients out. Moreso when you burst flailing from the room and trip over the rug while trying to wipe a concoction of testosterone off your arm before it absorbs enough to cause some rather unpleasant changes.
I ended up making something like 600 mL of a stock cream and filled well over fifty syringes with the stuff. The true trial of the day, though, came in the form of a thyroid capsule that for some unfathomable reason contains olive oil. I have no idea why anyone would put olive oil in a gelatin capsule, but I valiantly attempted it with the assurances of the lead compounding tech that she'd done it before and it works pretty well.
I don't know to which dark gods she has been sacrificing sheep to be able to make that work, because I spent two hours trying to coax the oil/pig thyroid/silica gel mess into those capsules. It smelled terribly, looked like death, and refused to cooperate. I gave up when the syringe I was using exploded the vile mixture all over the window and wall, and vowed to steal the dark secrets from her on Monday.
Also, I recently gave in to a two-year wish and bought myself a squishable. It's amazing. That's him above. I dubbed it Worthington and promptly spent the afternoon taking pictures of him attacking various things and being quite the intellectual. The afternoon would probably have been better spent studying for the dosage form and design final I had Friday, but everybody needs a break, right? And that particular final turned out to be ridiculously easy.
The aforementioned projects are still in the works - one of them involves setting up a program that would allow a group of people to see what their friends are reading and connect to other people who read the same things. I can't do it by myself, so the ever-awesome Cody will hopefully be helping me iron it out when we both have some actual time. I got the idea from him, as he has been talking about keeping track of everything he reads, and I think it'd be a neat way to connect with your friends and with other people.
There may be another post up tomorrow. I, in a lapse of judgment, agreed to let the techs take me out to the bars tonight for a few hours. If some other less-than-suave "gentleman" tries to shove his hand in my drink his time, he's going down.
It wouldn't have been such a bad day except that we finally got the H1N1 vaccine in and another shipment of the seasonal flu vaccine. The other intern essentially had to spend the entire day in the blood draw room sticking needles in people while I ran back and forth from the compounding room to help the pharmacist out during rushes, usually whilst covered in whatever cream I'd just spilled. An observation of note: wearing a surgical mask, even if it's just to prevent yourself from breathing in hormone dust, freaks patients out. Moreso when you burst flailing from the room and trip over the rug while trying to wipe a concoction of testosterone off your arm before it absorbs enough to cause some rather unpleasant changes.
I ended up making something like 600 mL of a stock cream and filled well over fifty syringes with the stuff. The true trial of the day, though, came in the form of a thyroid capsule that for some unfathomable reason contains olive oil. I have no idea why anyone would put olive oil in a gelatin capsule, but I valiantly attempted it with the assurances of the lead compounding tech that she'd done it before and it works pretty well.
I don't know to which dark gods she has been sacrificing sheep to be able to make that work, because I spent two hours trying to coax the oil/pig thyroid/silica gel mess into those capsules. It smelled terribly, looked like death, and refused to cooperate. I gave up when the syringe I was using exploded the vile mixture all over the window and wall, and vowed to steal the dark secrets from her on Monday.
Also, I recently gave in to a two-year wish and bought myself a squishable. It's amazing. That's him above. I dubbed it Worthington and promptly spent the afternoon taking pictures of him attacking various things and being quite the intellectual. The afternoon would probably have been better spent studying for the dosage form and design final I had Friday, but everybody needs a break, right? And that particular final turned out to be ridiculously easy.
The aforementioned projects are still in the works - one of them involves setting up a program that would allow a group of people to see what their friends are reading and connect to other people who read the same things. I can't do it by myself, so the ever-awesome Cody will hopefully be helping me iron it out when we both have some actual time. I got the idea from him, as he has been talking about keeping track of everything he reads, and I think it'd be a neat way to connect with your friends and with other people.
There may be another post up tomorrow. I, in a lapse of judgment, agreed to let the techs take me out to the bars tonight for a few hours. If some other less-than-suave "gentleman" tries to shove his hand in my drink his time, he's going down.
Monday, November 30, 2009
Short Update
Well, it's been a while since I've updated. Again, it's been a very busy few weeks - I went to Moscow, got an accordion from a favorite professor, took a few exams, had a very eventful Thanksgiving break, wrote 50,000 words . . .
It's been a long month. I'm not particularly pleased with the NaNo, though near the end it started turning into something that has actual potential. I'm more eager to work on last year's - as in, actually finish it, polish it up, and give it to people to seriously read. A few people are reading it and seem to really enjoy it, which is always quite affirming.
Another thing of note: I am no longer dating ze dutchman. It was a very difficult decision to make, but right now I need to be able to focus on school and not worry about other stresses - it was getting to the point where I was so stressed I was having problems eating. School stress will not change so this was the only thing that could, as regrettable as it is. I'm hoping that, at some point when both of us are a little more stable, we can try again. He's really one of my best friends.
This is going to stay a short, not very amusing update post because I have a final on Friday (the first cardiovascular module final, blech) and need to reread a few papers on drugs that alter metabolism in cardiac cells. I'm pretty wiped from working all break and pounding 15,000 words out in the span of a few days to finish the NaNo. I've got a few projects I'm working on that I'll mention next post - hopefully they're something that will interest people, as I imagine it'll be more fun if others participate as well.
-SqueezeBox
Another thing of note: I am no longer dating ze dutchman. It was a very difficult decision to make, but right now I need to be able to focus on school and not worry about other stresses - it was getting to the point where I was so stressed I was having problems eating. School stress will not change so this was the only thing that could, as regrettable as it is. I'm hoping that, at some point when both of us are a little more stable, we can try again. He's really one of my best friends.
This is going to stay a short, not very amusing update post because I have a final on Friday (the first cardiovascular module final, blech) and need to reread a few papers on drugs that alter metabolism in cardiac cells. I'm pretty wiped from working all break and pounding 15,000 words out in the span of a few days to finish the NaNo. I've got a few projects I'm working on that I'll mention next post - hopefully they're something that will interest people, as I imagine it'll be more fun if others participate as well.
-SqueezeBox
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