Back to work!

Hello all! After a busy weekend, it was back to work this week. On Monday, we went to Moorabbin, where we were supposed to shadow an oncology pharmacist, but she was off for the day. We ended up working in the oncology outpatient pharmacy filling prescriptions, which wasn't too busy at all.

Yesterday, we were supposed to have pain rounds with the pain consultant (attending physician), but they didn't happen, so we had the morning off. We went to a cafe to have a nice real breakfast! It was yummy! :) I had a ham and cheese toasty and a scrumptious hot chocolate! We ran to the grocery store to stock up for the rest of the week and came back for our afternoon assignments. I worked in the outpatient pharmacy yesterday afternoon. Luckily, I had worked there once before because they were shorthanded and it was really busy!

Today, I was in the sterile room for the morning with the TPN (total parenteral nutrition) pharmacist. We went on nutrition rounds this morning and then came back to the sterile room and I watched them make TPN. I about fell asleep because I had a full gown on, hairnet, booties, a mask, and I was double-gloved!

This afternoon was especially interesting as I went to a community clinic was a Chinese pharmacist. Her family took me out to lunch in a Vietnamese community where I was the only Caucasian person and there were no English words in sight in the entire community! Luckily, I love Asian food and we had a great lunch!

At the clinic, we dispensed medications to and counseled Hepatitis B and C patients and liver/gastroenterology clinic (I couldn't counsel much because I know absolutely NO Catonese, Mandarian, Vietnamese, or Cambodian. They would start speaking to me and I would just shrug my shoulders!) Only a few patients could speak English, but I had fun helping to prepare the prescriptions and playing with the children of the families. Once everyone found out that I was from the US, the staff went and found all kinds of Asian snacks for me to try. The first one was this peanut cookie type thing (and for those of you who don't know, I hate peanuts and peanut butter!) I said "no thank you", but that wasn't good enough, so after a back-and-forth, I ended up eating it! :) I had special tea, mints, and chilis! It was actually a very interesting afternoon!

Only two more days and we are off on our next trip. We are going with the French girls to Tasmania this weekend. We will go to several national parks, historical sites, and the CADBURY factory, with all-you-can-eat chocolate samples! :) I will try not to make anyone too jealous, especially my Dad! :)

I hope everyone is doing well. My prayers go out to everyone at Virginia Tech! It's a different perspective being away when things like this happen. I was studying abroad in Holland during 9/11 and you always remember where you were when you hear news like this!