Monday was a half-day. We had the morning off, which I appreciated to get some work done. I really only go 3.5 days on and 3.5 days off this entire semester. I am going to enjoy it. The first class of the afternoon was some more pharmacotherapy of dermatology. Just so you know, the answer is always sunscreen and/or moisturize. Has to be. We talked about sunburns which was helpful for our SOAP note due on Wednesday. The Large-group Lab class was more introductory and prepping for the labs this week. There was much concern over how much we needed to learn about how the drugs work. Since it is supposed to be about explaining things to patients, you didn't have to go into too much detail. Instead of "amoxicillin inhibits the penicillin-binding proteins which damages the cell wall and leads to cell lysis due to osmotic pressures", you just needed to say "amoxicillin is a bacteriocidal antibiotic". Done.
Tuesday went back to a full day. We went through some cases (or applications) of tertiary sources in drug literature. The type of question determines the source, but most of the time you should use Micromedex. IV questions go the Handbook of Injectable Drugs. Pregnancy questions go to Brigg's Guide to Pregnancy and Lactation. Otherwise, go to Micromedex. Med Chem was more about receptor signaling. Specifically, about turning off the signal. Cyclic GMP is turned off by Phosphodiesterase (PDE) into GMP. Viagra blocks PDE to keep cGMP on and help with erectile dysfunction. The professor also talked about oxytocin. It is such a weird hormone to me. Oxytocin manages milk production and uterine contractions - both female jobs. But males make it too, plenty of it. That's because it is also related to trust and stress relief. An increase of oxytocin makes us feel more relaxed and the easiest way to release the hormone is through hugging. Which is why a good hug can make all of our problems fade away. After lunch we had more therapy and more about sunburns and sun cancers.
Wednesday is lab day which means dressing up. Or at least I thought so. The number of ties on the male population dropped dramatically from week one to week two. I will continue to represent. We talked about our answers to the SOAP notes about a 20-year-old female with severe sunburn and acne. I felt like I had all of the right answers, but I didn't give enough information. Last semester's intense notes got Eurostile font to give myself more room. I will have to go back to that. Our quiz was straight forward. The drugs aren't that difficult and the calculations are all review from last year. After some other work, we looked at ourselves under the UV light (like the post from Monday). I was scared. I've coached outside through the middle of summer for a long time and very rarely ever used sunscreen. A lot of freckles and clogged pores showed up, but nothing too bad. There will not be a dermatologist trip in the near future. After lunch came Pharmacokinetics and our first quiz - a review of pharmacodynamics. Straightforward. We answered some cases as a group by holding up letters to our choice.
Thursday rounds out the week. Drug lit introduced secondary resources. Pubmed and the Cochrane Review are my favorites. I feel confident searching a database for articles. But the term Boolean search through me off. I could only think of boullion - the cubes of dehydrated meat stock - or boulliabase - French stew. It only means the use of conjunctions to make to search broader. Med Chem dove more into the important GPCR, receptors that make up about 1/3 of drug targets on the market and the most of drugs in the research pipeline. Therapy, after lunch, returned to more about skin cancers. I shared the UV video with the lab professor who sent it to the derm professor, who wanted me to introduce and show the video to the class. Now, we have to get ready for the first exam of the year on Monday. Thirty-six questions about dermatology. That will make up a large chuck of my Friday.
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