who's soonger??

Happy New Year!

Monday, January 1st.

I can't believe it's a new year! Not much going on here. Was working at the local Shoppers Drug Mart by my house ever since I've been back from school. Kinda pathetic considering what exotic places some of my friends travelled to this holiday season. Oh well-- the sacrifice one makes to pay for decent Christmas presents for friends and family...

Last night's festivities was contained at home. My folks decided to throw a family party. I was invited to an acquaintance's place but I declined-- there were so many things that needed to be done here. It was a good thing I stayed home as well-- I had a terrible migraine around 10. I had to snooze for an hour (along with some meds) to keep me from feeling nauseated. When the hour struck twelve, it was anti-climatic. Perhaps it's due to the fact that I'm getting older and such events don't bring in the same joy it once was... what to do?!

What did I do today? I have been logging major hours on Final Fantasy VII. I am determined to finish this game before I return back to Toronto!!! As well, I wanted to finish writing the letters to family overseas... We'll see how much I accomplish before I go to bed.

First placement...

Friday, January 5th.

Well, vacation's over and now I'm busy working away at completing my degree requirements. The first semester was spent at school. Now that those courses are over and done with, I move onto clinical rotations. It's affectionately known as SPEP (structured practical experience program). If you're remotely interested in it, you can visit the official webpage.

Personally, I think it's a good idea to have practical training as part of an applied science degree, but some of the activities they force upon students-- it's a big joke. Perhaps I'm a bit troubled at what things have to be done in the 8 weeks. Let me say the idea is good but some of the application activities seem to be a waste of time. Those wasted activities do have a tendency to take up the most amount of time...

One of the setbacks to my rotation is that I do have to work Saturdays. It's not a huge issue but that's when my preceptor works. The pharmacy is located across town but commuting in Windsor is nowhere near as awful as Toronto traffic. But going to work that extra day cuts into my much-needed sleep time!

So far, it's been a very relaxed, laid-back environment. The pharmacy is located in a medical centre. Four doctors and a walk-in clinic supports the pharmacy. It's in a good location-- on a main service road and easily accessible. The parking lot maybe something worth addressing but otherwise, it's in a good spot. The staff is very proactive towards leading the profession in the right direction. Right now, the biggest issue in Canadian pharmacy is payment for cognitive services-- getting paid to do more than count pills. McGaffey Pharmacy is one of the few places that actually do home visits, medication reviews and other consultations. They also invite fourth year students to do a little PC (pharmaceutical care-- the buzz word in pharmacy schools across North America) at their site. I'm really lucky to have a placement here. Hopefully I don't disappoint-- the previous students my preceptor has taught are really keen and energetic. I work based upon my wits-- not too conducive to PC. It's gotten me by these 3 1/2 years. Wonder how it will help me these next four months...

Who's not watching football?

Sunday, January 7th.

Who's reading this webpage and not watching football?! It's playoff time and everything is on the line. What's the matter with you?! Actually, I'm taking a break from all the hype and fixing up my webpage. In fact, I've uploaded the scans from fourth year. It took me a while to get the roll of film developed and then finally scanned on the computer. I hope you like it.

Anything new and exciting going on? I did have to work on Saturday for my preceptor at the pharmacy. No big deal-- in fact, I completed one of the things needed to be done for evaluation. It was mainly technical work but no complaints. I am slowly becoming familiarized to the Nexxsys computer system. A little practice here and there pays off.

Today, the folks and I went for lunch-- dim sum. Food was pretty good and tasted pretty fresh. We had to hurry so that we wouldn't miss any of the football games this afternoon. The first game is the Titans and Ravens. I think the Titans should pull off the win. The latter game has the Eagles face the Giants. I'm going against Las Vegas and will call an Eagles upset. The SuperBowl is slowly shaping up and it looks quite interesting.

Monday, January 8th.

It was full-day of work. Let me tell you, I felt really tired going through a day of research. My preceptor and a pharmacist had me going over A LOT of material. There were three things I had to look up-- one had to do with a dosage of carbemazepine. We had filled a script 3 times with directions TID. When we called the original prescriber, the specialist, it was supposed to be BID. The family doctor has been filling as per specialist's directions. Somewhere along the way-- either we mistakenly filled it as TID or the family MD accidentally changed directions... somewhere along the way the pharmacist did not spot the change in orders. Luckily, the patient has been taken things BID all this time. She's coming in tomorrow to go over her meds. It's my job to go over things and sort things out.

Secondly, I had to read up on HRT. The OB/GYN course here would have helped. Lucky my preceptor went to a conference this fall in Toronto-- guest speaker was Tom Brown. Know him? Well-- let's say he lectures from his notes. I remember much of the things classmates who were taking the course were studying!

Lastly, I had to see if Micardis causes drowsiness and frequent diuresis. We didn't have the monograph in our 2000 CPS (it's a new Rx) so we contacted the manufacturer for a monograph. It's not mentioned as side-effects so we believe it's patient-specific. We may recommend to switch to another AT-1 blocker (-sartan) like Cozaar.

A big apology to those who aren't in the medical sciences. This day's journal entry was more on the professional side. I hope this does not close down the pharmacy I'm working at!

Saturday, January 13.

Quite a day for me. It was tech work at the pharmacy. I do have a follow-up for a person on Tegretol for this Friday. Interesting case (or what little I know about it.)

This afternoon, I didn't do a heckuva lot. My uncle helped us hang a painting in our kitchen. It's a Michaelangelo fresco from the Sistine Chapel-- where God creates Adam. (the one where they are about to touch index fingers...) It looks nice in the kitchen but I'm starting to feel as if my house is becoming quite over-stuffed with murals and furniture. What to do when you have parents who do not like to part with things?

Wednesday, January 17.

I'm not feeling well right now so I think I may retire early this evening. Not so good considering I have to prepare for my speech tomorrow! It's basically done but I would like to go over the material tonight a couple of times as well as finalize my notes. What talk? Well, an activity I have to perform in these 8 weeks is to talk to either health care professionals or the general public about a pertinent health issue. My talk: Myths about Aging. I am speaking at a retirement centre.

Since I got back from work, I went over to the post office to send off my SPEP stuff. Also picked up my T4 slip for working over the holidays as well as my vacation pay.

Instead of doing work earlier in the evening, I watched TV. Saw Dawson's Creek-- it's about Pacey's 18th b'day. It was a pretty good up to the sappy ending. Why is it that I have to live vicariously through television programs starting white people?

Royal Rumble!

Sunday, January 21.

It was a nice day for me. Went for dim sum with my folks then went to Wal-mart to pick up the pictures. Friends of my mom came over. They entertained-- Rex entertained the kids. I showed them pictures from the Autoshow (they went as well). So all afternoon, I've been fixing up the webpage and adding more stuff. I have almost run out of webspace.

This evening, we stayed in for supper. Then my bro and I got ready for the Royal Rumble. It was pay-per-view so we went to SilverCity. It was well over 3 hours long. It started at 8 and ended at 11. It cost $23 to get in! (Taxes included) Let me say it was somewhat disappointing. The first couple of matches were okay-- I am not big fan of the Dudley Boyz (they won the tag-team titles). Chris Jericho won the Intercontinental title from Benoit (that was an entertaining "ladder" match) But HHH lost to Kurt Angle for the WWF championship because Stone Cold interfered at the end. The actual Royal Rumble-- 30 guys enter the ring every 2 minutes (the only way to be eliminated is by being thrown over the top rope out onto the floor) until there is one man left. The Rock made it to the final 3, along with Stone Cold Steve Austin and Kain. The Rock was eliminated by Kain but Steve Austin won it at the end. PATHETIC! Now Stone Cold gets to challenge Kurt Angle for the WWF title at Wrestlemania. Quite disappointing but very predictable. I may have to go see Westlemania to see if HHH will have his vengence against Stone Cold (I have a feeling that he'll take back the title at Fully Loaded...)

Monday, January 22.

Work at the pharmacy has been productive. Even though I don't feel like being productive. Guess I'm in a mini-rut right now. Hopefully things will change in the very near future.

What are the plans for the next little bit? Fix this page up as well as do a little spring cleaning. Looks like I have about 1 meg to play around with on Geocities.

Friday, January 26.

What a week it has been. Been trying to complete as much of the SPEP work while there is still time (and staff). Next week, two of the pharmacists are on vacation and we will essentially be understaffed. Looks like I'll be a tech / quasi-pharmacist for Monday and Tuesday. Then on Wednesday, I'm off to Saskatoon for PDW (Professional Development Weekend). Basically it's where pharmacy students from across the country meet at one place for a few days, party, and go to talks for a couple of days. (In that order.) Friends who I haven't seen since the end of December will be there and it will be great hearing from them after all this time.

What else is going on? Nothing much. I have been keeping in touch with friends all over Ontario. Receiving reports about the Ottawa area from three people. It depends on who you talk to about the weather and their clinical rotation. Each has their own take of things (as I would expect). Also getting reports from the Toronto area-- nice to hear from Jean, Patrick and Steph. There are two friends in satellite communities, Peterborough and Burlington, who contact me as well. Let me tell you how convenient and efficient e-mail and ICQ are. If you haven't used ICQ, I would strongly recommend you and your faraway friends use it. Not as personable as the telephone or handwritten letter but it's a inexpensive, practical, realtime way to communicate. (Typing proficiency is a prerequisite.)

Superbowl Sunday

Sunday, January 28th.

Well... it had to come-- Superbowl Sunday! I'm somewhat excited, even though it's the last day of football for the season. What do I think of the game? It will definitely be a defesive battle. Whomever turns over the ball will lose the game. I think one play will make the difference. It will be a close game. The 3 point Las Vegas spread sounds accurate.

What have I done so far today? Well... my folks went to see the Mel Gibson movie, What Women Want this afternoon, leaving home alone. And my dog, Rex, is under the weather, I am left to fix up my webpage. (Not as if that's a bad thing.) In any instance, I'm doing some early spring cleaning by updating some of the things I have stored here. I dumped those parody motivational posters I had for the longest time to make room for some more scans. Let me tell you that 15 megs isn't that much space at all!

I'm also cleaning up my various e-mail accounts. Some of them are close to the quota. So I had to purge! Not much else going on. I might as well write some friends while I'm at it.