Fall PY2 - Week 4

Week 4!  The Labor Day Edition.  The week went easily with only 3 days of class and something to look forward to this weekend.  So let's see how it was:

Monday - Labor Day
No classes today which meant some quality time with the wife.  And a little preparation for this week's classes.

Tuesday
Drug Lit actually turned out to be pretty painful.  We were assigned two articles to read and then discuss in class.  The idea was that they were random controlled trials and we would analyze them and discuss how they worked.  But it did not feel like many people actually read the articles as the professor worked to pull 150 students along.  I really liked the step-by-step method of going through the articles from the title to the abstract and then into the body.  There were many layers to breaking down what was in a paper.  In the end, we only got through one of the articles.  It was about the use of long term hypertonic saline in patients with cystic fibrosis.  They thought that their lung function, measured by FEV1, should improve significantly.  It didn't, so the authors added a couple of numbers together to force in some significance.  While it wasn't their goal, they did show that hypertonic saline correlated with less infections in CF patients.

Med Chem was also a difficult class with another new professor talking about histamines.

Diphenhydramine - popular antihistamine

 Specifically at this time we are focusing on the antihistamines that block the H1 receptors mostly responsible for allergic reactions.  Mast cells in your skin release histamine when they sense injury which causes inflammation by triggering H1 receptors.  The first generation of antihistamines do a good job of blocking this reaction, but they can also cross into the brain which also has some H1-receptors.  This makes a person drowsy and we can use something like Benadryll (diphenhydramine) to help people sleep.  Newer, or second generation, antihistimines are designed to stay out of the brain.  Zyrtec (cetirizine) reduces inflammation but is also non-drowsy.

Therapy in the afternoon focused on the management of Type 2 Diabetes.  As it runs through my family, I have an interest in Diabetes.  The first treatment is easy - diet and exercise.  Then you get into the drugs - primarily metformin.  After that, things get complicated.  What do you add and when do you add it.

Wednesday
Lab was also about diabetes.  We checked our feet with a monofilament for neuropathy.  We checked our blood sugars - 95 after breakfast.  And we made an ointment for a foot ulcer.  The product took four hours to produce.  Lots of melting, mixing, and stirring.  Lots of stirring.  I stirred the mixture fairly constantly for an hour.  We had to come back later to package the ointment into a jar.

We didn't do any calculations this week in kinetics, but talked about the concepts of the equations.  I liked it better than the calculations which I could have just done on my own time.  These actually sparked intense discussions within our groups and as a class.

Thursday
Statistics in Drug Lit.  Only an hour going over descriptive statistics like mean, median and standard deviations.  A quiz determined if you needed to come back for the second hour.  Since I got all six right, I could go work on other things.

Med chem focused more details on the structures of first-generation antihistamines.  I had read the book on the section and felt a little lost.  But class really helped focus on the important details.

Therapy wrapped up the non-insulin portion of diabetes.  Start on metformin, add another drug, add another drug, start on insulin.  There are a lot of choices when it comes to diabetic meds and a lot to consider.

So that's the week of class.  I actually did a lot more for getting ready for next week when we have MTM, SOAP note, diabetes quiz, kinetics homework, kinetic quiz, lab preparation, and exam #1 for med chem.  My wife and I head to New York for our anniversary so I won't be doing to much school work.  I got many things done, but next week might be rough.  Until then, Have a great weekend!