Things I learned on my first rotation, part 2!

I finished my nuclear pharmacy rotation yesterday! As first rotations go, I really couldn't have asked for a better experience (minus the crazy schedule). My skills have definitely improved a lot over the last four weeks. My preceptor and everyone at GE was wonderful and so very patient with Courtney and me as we went from raw beginners to semi-competent nuclear pharmacists.

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At the half way point of my rotation, I talked about some of the things I had learned thus far. Now I'm here to share a few more things that stuck with me from my experience.

Thing #1: Muscle memory is the real deal.

Previously, I discussed the physical challenges of nuclear pharmacy, and I'm happy to report that I got much better at manipulating heavy objects with just my fingers. I could see my muscle memory developing, and by the last week, I was able to do tasks much more accurately and quickly than my sad attempts from the first few days. I was by no means as fast as the pharmacists and techs who had years of experience in nuclear, but I could hold my own without causing everything to be late.

Thing #2: Being on rotation with a friend makes even the worst nights better.

On our second to last day, Courtney and I arrived at rotation for night shift to find that the tech was ill and it was just going to be us and our preceptor getting everything ready in time for the first delivery run. We looked at each other over our masks in a panic like "oh snap there is no possible way this is going to end well." Then, we said to each other, "We can do this." And we rocked it. We got those kits made and those doses out and felt like competent pharmacists doing real work. Having Courtney there made the rotation so much better. We laughed, we encouraged each other, and kept each other sane at 3am when the rest of the world was asleep. I can't imagine what it would have been like to have been by myself or been with someone I didn't like for the month.

Thing #3: Always remember your person.

On our second or third day, we were practicing drawing doses and learning what the margin for error was for the doses (nuclear is not an exact science). The tech who was working with us had been a nuclear medicine teacher for years, and she told us something that I will carry with me for the rest of my life. She looked us in the eye and said, "Girls, I want you to think of the person who is the most important in your life, the person you love the most and can't imagine anything happening to. Now whenever you are not sure if the dose you've drawn is good enough, think of that person, and imagine that they are in the hospital and are about to receive that dose. Would you be comfortable with what you drew being administered to your person?" This might be the best advice I have ever received in my time as a pharmacy student. Think of your person. Would you be comfortable with your person receiving the drug/IV/care that you are about to give?




 February is my didactic month, and I only have class three days a week. Hello four day weekend! I'll pretty much be working or reading all month. It will be such a nice change to be back in the land of living and be able to do fun things! I should probably start training for the half marathon again, too.

February in a nutshell

Soundtrack Saturday: Here Comes The Sun - The Beatles

I'm coming up on the end of my second week on my nuclear pharmacy rotation. I've got 7 night shifts behind me and 6 more ahead of me, plus several very early days before this is all over. Every weekday since I've begun this adventure, I've seen the sun rise from my desk at the pharmacy. So I figured this classic song would be more than appropriate.

I've learned a couple things about myself in the past two weeks. 

1. I am still not a morning person

I've been waking up at 11pm to go to my night shifts, and somehow that is still better than my usual wake up time of 6am. I'm less tired, more alert, and I only need about half as much coffee as on a normally scheduled day. What's even more funny is that I find myself getting the same kind of tired at around 5:30-6am as I was when I was waking up at that time. 

2. Physical coordination does not always translate to manual dexterity

One of the challenging things about nuclear pharmacy in particular is the amount of manual labor involved. In a hospital, if you need to draw up a dose of a drug, you just grab a syringe and a vial and pull it up. Because nuclear deals with radioactivity, every thing we work with is lead shielded, and therefore rather heavy. I would consider myself to be fairly coordinated, but the amount of dexterity and hand strength required to manipulate a pound or two of lead had me fumbling all over the place. 

3. The "Do Not Disturb" setting on the iPhone is a beautiful invention

On days before I go to rotation for night shifts, I typically go to bed around 2 or 3 in the afternoon. As it turns out, I can go to sleep at just about any time, but staying asleep can be a challenge. Especially when everyone else I know is keeping normal hours. So every afternoon before I go to bed, I flip on the Do Not Disturb function on my phone. This keeps me from getting woken up by calls/texts/emails - no dings, no buzzing, no lighting up, nothing. When I wake up in the evening, I have a nice collection of communications waiting for me.

4. Breakfast food > all other food

As I mentioned before, I wake up at either 11pm or 4am depending on my shift. And when I wake up, I eat breakfast. Well, after I've been awake for several hours and start to get hungry again, it's still technically "morning" even though I'm on my second meal. So I eat more breakfast food. And then when I get off of rotation, the clock still says AM, so it's breakfast for dinner, too! I love me some breakfast food, so this has worked out pretty great. 

I've still got two more weeks of this lovely mess of a schedule. February is an easy month for me though, so there is some light (and a more normal sleep cycle) at the end of the tunnel. 

Soundtrack Sunday: Colder Weather - Zac Brown Band

There's a cold front blowing through Memphis right now. The temperatures are dropping down into the teens tonight. It's going to be the coldest it's been in the last 15 years, or so I read on the news. So in a literal sense, this song is perfect for today. It also happens to be my song, my favorite song. I know all the words, I sing it in the car, in the shower, and sometimes just when I'm alone and bored. I never get tired of it, and whenever I hear it, the melody resonates within my soul.

When I listen to "Colder Weather," or when I sing it to myself when no one is around, I always hear it as a duet. Though the harmonies are what drew me in initially and are a big reason why I like Zac Brown Band as a whole, I feel this song was meant to be sung by a man and a woman, each telling the other's story. It is both hopeful and terribly sad, a tale of love and loss and impossible dreams. I love the words at the end, the idea of feeling someone's presence even when they are not there, whether it's someone who has died or who is just very far away. I feel like I'm taking a risk by sharing this song with you all. It's like I'm bearing part of my soul to the world. I hope you feel even a little of what I feel when I listen to this song.

Four Days into 2014

I was actually going to write a nice Happy New Year post, full of thoughts and feelings and hopes and dreams. I was typing it up on New Year's Eve, in between putting on my makeup and doing my nails, but the post I wanted wouldn't come out of my brain. All that I could think about was that on last New Year's Eve, I got a phone call that one of my sorority sisters was killed in a car wreck. Whenever I tell people this, they all automatically assume that it was a drunk driving accident, because it was NYE. But no, reality is sometimes even worse than imagination. Jennifer had been diagnosed with thyroid cancer earlier in 2012, and was on her way to her oncologist to find out if she was truly cancer free. And she never made it to her appointment. 

My ADPi pledge class on Bid Day, 2011

So instead of the usual "OMG yay its NYE!!" posts all over social media, my facebook, twitter, and instagram were peppered with posts remembering Jennifer's life and missing her on the anniversary of her death. What struck me was not only the content of the posts, but the bond of sisterhood within my sorority and how we comforted and loved on each other, even when we are spread out across the country. 

My own New Year's Eve was spent with a bunch of friends, having fun, dancing, and nearly freezing to death because it was super cold outside. I had to work New Year's Day, as I have for the past two years. And that was my last day of work for the month of January, because I started my nuclear rotation on the 2nd. Our schedule is just as terrifying as I expected. Starting next week, we are doing mostly overnight shifts, going to class during the morning, and sleeping in the afternoon and evening. Needless to say, I won't be posting very often this month. Also, I might turn into a vampire.

I am not really the New Year's Resolutions type - they just seem so cliche. I do, however, like to make goals for myself, although not necessarily tied to a certain day of the year. This year especially, making resolutions on January 1st seems a bit pointless, since my January schedule is so demanding that any goal I set will fall by the wayside as long as I am nocturnal, until February rolls around and my sleep cycle returns to normal. So we can talk about goals and resolutions later. The month of January, I have only one goal: Survive!