Friday, September 19, 2014

Fall PY2 - Week 6

It was another crazy week, so I apologize for failing to post this week.  Let's get right to it.

Monday
The first test of the week happened after lunch.  I had the joy of coming in early to remake my Coal Tar solution.  My first attempt had too many particles in it, so I spent an hour with two spatulas and yellow goo.  Then came the Diabetes test.  I did not do as well as I thought that I should have.  That came from complacency.  The dermatology test was so easy and my team tied for first in diabetes jeopardy, so I went into the test expecting it to be easy.  But it was much more about memorization than rationalizing.  The questions I missed were bullet points on the different drugs instead of other parts.  It is completely my fault.  I definitely should have studied much, much more.  Now I will have to make up for it on the test test.

Tuesday
Norepinephrine
The second test of the week happened first thing in the morning.  Exam #1 for Drug Lit was a mystery to me.  I did not really know what to study for it.  I decided to go back over the objectives, and I felt that it went much better than the previous diabetes test.  I still don't know how I did, but I felt pretty good about it.

Med chem has changed from histamine to adrenaline.  We reviewed the structure of norepinephrine and epinephrine.  This section will really get into all of our heart medicines.

Therapy was a divided class that began with more medicinal chemistry related to sex hormones.  Afterwards we started the next unit about contraceptives.  Lots about contraceptives.  In the remaining 30 minutes of the class, we flew through 90 slides about contraceptives.

Wednesday
More contraceptives.  Lab started by reviewing the brand and generic names of contraceptives and looked at two bags of examples.  I had to explain the advantages and disadvantages of Plan B and Novum.  Then we went to compound misoprostol vaginal suppositories.  Used to induce labor, the compound might have been the easiest formulation yet.  You just had to wait for the base to melt, mix and harden.

Kinetics went through the concepts related to multiple dosing.  If you don't know, steady state concentrations are reached within 5 half-lives.  If you have any doubt just multiply by five.  It was less about actually calculating things and more about the concepts.  Change the clearance, what do you expect to happen.

Thursday
More statistics for drug lit.  This time about risk assessments.  The students succumbed to a common mistake.  Would you take a drug that increased the incidence of something bad from 2 in 1000 to 4 in 1000?  Would you take a drug that doubles your risk of an adverse reaction.  Most people would say yes to the first but a definite no to the second.  Except the two are exactly the same.  Doubling your risk of something of something incredibly rare doesn't put you at a lot of danger.  Statistics are fun.

Med chem went into more about adrenergic receptors.  I like the new professor, but I could not understand him a few times.  He was very funny and trying to engage the students.
Norepinephrine in the binding pocket of its receptor.

After lunch, we had a professor from Asheville to come and talk to use about Contraceptives.  Instead of a lecture about the different types, we did a case about a patient who wanted to start using something.  We went through each category to see which would work for her and which wouldn't.  You do have to be careful.

Thursday night was a scholarship dinner at the Alumni Hall.  The Chancellor spoke to the crowd, the food was great, the conversations were better.  I don't know how you get on a board for a foundation, but I would be interested in doing something like that.  Overall it was a great evening celebrating the scholarship recipients and their donors.  I was most excited by meeting with the Chancellor.  I made sure to go up and talk to her.  She is incredibly nice and enthusiastic about Carolina.  She's doing a great job.

I had one last event on Friday.  As a Recruitment Ambassador, I gave a tour of the pharmacy school to prospective high school students.  They came from all over the state.  We gave them a quick tour and taught them how to take blood pressure.  That's it for the week.  No exams next week, but two quizzes.  I should get to do some relaxing this weekend.  We;ll see.

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