My Extership Rocked. (and Now I Wait for My License)

I have never had, in my entire life, a better 160 hours than I did in my time at Peninsula Community Health Services. In 160 hours of free working time, I discovered:

just how much I really love being in the pharmacy
my first real experience in pharmacy work
PDX is a software program of its very own uniqueness
PDX is quite maneuverable once you figure it out
the desire to beat PDX sometimes comes quite often
different pharmacists function with different work habits, but still get everything done
brand new sharpie markers do not leave the desired dark X on bottles
older, blunter sharpies leave a beautiful, dark, bold X on the bottle
some patients can really try a person's patience
keeping your patience with patients who are trying your patience causes said patients to leave a pharmacy counter with a very open jaw
how blessed I am to have worked with former pharmacy tech instructors
how blessed I am  to have worked with the pharmacists that I did
160 hours of full-time volunteer work comes as fast as it goes

To the Pharmacy of Peninsula Community Health Services:

Thank You for the best 160 hours I have ever spent working on a volunteer basis. I have now worked with the greatest people I could ever have been with. Thank you for the support and encouragement.

It's Over, (And Now I Need a Job)

So the last post I wrote was at the start of my last 20 hours in class. Well, I have to admit that 20 hours was over only a month ago. In those last 20 hours, I took something like 10 tests, including the glorious lab final, intended to give a presentation on Congenital Indifference to Pain, and put in my fair share of time studying for the PTCB.

Much to my reassurance, I did not throw IV syringes as if they were darts in the hood. I was looking forward to the dual mix syringe work in the final. The assignment: pull 3ml practi-powder solution into the syringe. Then add 7ml sterile water into said syringe without backwashing the yellow solution into the bottle of sterile water. All while simulating working in a vertical flow hood.

Prevention of shadowing in a vertical hood isn't as easy as it sounds. Sure, everything is held so the airflow of the hood hits the top of the syringe, and vial, and everything else in the hood. Holding all that stuff so the air actually can hit the top of the syringe, vial, and everything else isn't so easy. For the most part, proper vertical technique looks something like what my dear friend, and model for this photo, Shevy, is doing here.

Of course, the ONLY Power Point I out together during the entire 9 months, not related to any of the assignments in the CORE module, was finished, but never shown. To make that situation even more annoying, the flash drive with the project on it disappeared. For Your Information, presenting Congenital Indifference to Pain with nothing more than the internet as a research option and NO cash available to purchase medical journals is nothing close to easy. Some of my best information, pictures included, was in the form of TV articles I found on YouTube. Basically, after I spent the many hours pouring through google searches, videos, and maveuring through Power Point 2007, all I had to turn in was the outline.

I managed to pull through the last three of the generics tests with decent scores. Thank you to my good friend, Shevy (yes, the model of vertical flow) I somehow managed to cram master 20 generic drugs relating to diabetes, put in some PTCB practice tests, and manage to pull off a test on human hormones.


Somehow, I still managed all A's in the final module.  WOW.

20 Hours

This is a magical number for me today. As I currently stand, there are 20 hours left in school. Twenty hours begins with the Lab final, in which I will not throw syringes as if they are darts. Those twenty hours end with a comprehensive test in generic drugs for diabetes.

I would say that I will not know what to do with my time, but that has no reality what so ever. After taking the usual day off, I will begin a new venture in my journey to Certified Pharmacy Technician. I am required 160 hours of extenrship, aka free labor, to a pharmacy.

Am I excited, if I were to think not, I would have to rename myself Pinocchio.

Will Someone Please Move Their Jeep?

WASHJAM is a big camporee, a scaled down version of National Jamboree for Boy Scouts put on by Chief Seattle and Pacific Harbors Councils. Troops from all over WA, OR, ID, MT, UT attended the first one five years ago. The first WASHJAM was expecting about 1500 youth and adults but by registration close there were only about 1000 registered but by Saturday, there were over 2000 in attendance.

This WASHJAM was attended by the above 5 states as well as a troop from Canada. The word put out was to expect about 3000-4000 youth and adults. On Saturday night at the Grandstand, it was announced there were over 5000 of us and at one point the figure of 5500 was given. As you can see, this is not a small event.

Bigfoot, EagleMom, and That Weird Woman attended WASHJAM. They were invited by an Asst. Scoutmaster to have dinner with them as there would be a lot of food. The 3 had planned to have hot dogs from the back of the van in the parking lot. That Weird Woman asked how many total were in the troop and since they had 10 it seemed a good idea to offer the hot dogs as a bonus to the meal. They had taken 16 hot dogs for the 3 of them.

As everyone was just hanging out until the chili and hot dogs were done, the boys from the troop got some TP from one of the Asst. Scoutmasters and covered a Jeep as much as they could. This Jeep was parked in their camping area but did not belong to any of them. No vehicles were allowed in the camp area, gear trailers were. A Ft. Lewis Security man came around trying to locate the owner. He was asking the troops next to the Jeep if it was theirs. They said no but thought the man had gone over into another camp area when he got out. The Security man told the Scoutmasters he did not care what happened to the Jeep as long as it was not scratched, dented, damaged in any way but if the boys wanted to TP it, cover it in plastic wrap etc, he saw no harm in the prank as it was just "protecting" the Jeep from bird droppings, dust, etc. Boys being boys heard this and you know what they did! They got TP from an Asst. Scoutmaster and covered it. Someone took a picture of them doing it and turned it into the Sub-camp director.

Dinner is over and the boys are playing with another troop in an open field. The Sub-camp director came over and had words with two of the Scoutmasters from the next troop over. It was getting a little loud. The Scoutmaster from the troop we were with went over and calmed it down a little. Another Scoutmaster from the troop on the other side was called over. He backed up what our Scoutmaster was saying about the OK to "protect" the Jeep. Our Scoutmaster went and removed the TP before That Weird Woman could get a picture of it for the newsletter. The Sub-camp director said it was teaching the boys to be disrespectful of others. As far as any of the Scoutmasters, and Asst. Scoutmasters were concerened in the 3 troops involved, it was a harmless prank. The Jeep was not damaged in any manner and it may have taught a lesson the man who parked it illegally in the first place. You follow the rules and DON'T MESS WITH SCOUTS.

In the Name of Coffee...

Our compounding lab work got stuffed in a drawer at the end of our lunch break today. In the name of needing coffee, or anything in my stomach, I ditched my friend today. I would say I ditched her during lab, but this was almost 30 minutes after lab and we still weren't finished.

Thank you to the morning Pharmacy Tech class, Jill and I made a pretty green pain relieving capsule. Measuring out the sprinkles, fine. Measuring out the acetaminophen; run the calculations and crush tablets to smithereens. Measure out 18 grams of baking soda, and you get an hour long fight with a delicate piece of crap we call the scale. Or, according to our lead program chair, a balance. Either way, the thing is a countlessly broken piece of DELICATE EQUIPMENT.

Since the majority of our 90 minute lab session was spent on measuring out baking soda, the punching of #2 size capsules went well into our lunch break. Our entire lunch break.

And good-ole-I-haven't-eaten-since-nine-this-morning was working with the ever so dilligent I-always-study-Jill, I left her for something in my stomach.

In the name of coffee, our lab work was set in a drawer with our names on it, to be finished tomorrow.