part of my world
Sunday, September 10, 2006
It's been a week since.
Work was fine.
In TDM now and will be for a month or so.
Was panicky initially as I do not remember any of the calculations at all and all those pharmacokinetics gibberish. Then I found out I have to run the samples too! My clerkship at HKL didn't prepare me for that. I thought they would be run by a separate lab with technicians like what is happening at HKL. So that's not the case here. Then that's where the very much disliked subject like Pharmaceutical Analysis which I skipped through most of the lesson becomes so darn useful. Now.. only now.. I understand why the uni made us learn subjects like that and throw us into the labs for hours to fiddle with machines that could very well buy you a bungalow. So that we would know how to use those microliter pippettes (which I had tremendous fun ejecting the used components) and know what a centrifudge machine looks like. And most importantly, press the correct buttons!
Thank goodness for the senior who is very helpful and willing to teach me step by step. Got the hang of it and it is fun I must say. I remembered telling my classmates back then during the final year first sem that I don't mind being a TDM pharmacist and here I am.. my first rotation in TDM =) Did I say it was fun? Haha.
The scary part was writing the doctors love messages suggesting to withold dose and all and getting my name signed there. They will come hunting for you if a patient dies of nephrotoxicity from gentamicin *shudders*
The amazing and exciting part is that everyone there was telling me that there's a reason why I was posted to that department first. Since most of the PRPs are finishing their training in a months time, I would then be routed into the on-call duties since I would have finished my TDM rotation by then.. and supposedly well trained enough to come to the lab in the wee hours in the morning to run samples of paracetamol and salicylates toxicity. Let's just hope that when it's my turn, no one decides to kill themselves with 500 Panadol®. Use other methods yeah..
Ironically for a person who is afraid of blood, in her very first rotation, she is handling blood samples and surprisingly, she didn't feel nausea or anything. Guess I could handle blood samples.. in a few mililitres. Haha.
But it wasn't all fun to handle these samples when the diagnosis is RVD or something like that. I have to be really really careful. No open wounds.
Realised that the clerkships that we had during our final year was really really valuable. It did give me an idea of what to expect in each department and the little ability to decipher those medical jargons and THOSE handwritings.. I tell you, I could write better with my left hand! So who said that what you learn in class is not applicable to the working world? It does apply.. a whole lot too! Really thankful now to Ms Hong for that TDM clerkship. She thought us exactly what we will encounter now.
Will need to study up pharmacokinetics this weekend before I kill anymore people.
Anyway, that was work.
Last Monday, SK invited us over for dinner. I was astonished as I only met her the day before. She was really nice. Insist that I come over and my friends are invited too. Said she wanted to cook us some home-cooked meal since we are deprived of that or even proper food over there. She came all the way to pick us up at our place and drove us to her very very lovely home. I didn't expect that area to have such nice houses! Hehe.
She cooked us a feast! A whole three course meal! We had garlic bread and cream of mushroom for starter. Then seafood spaghetti for the main course. Fruits and sparkling juice for dessert. My oh my.. and she served such a big serving that all of us could not finish.
Was really touched by her hospitality. It kinda changed my stigmatised mind from 'that town is hopelessly gone case' to 'not exactly gone case yet'. This reminds me of Joshua 1:5. Wherever God sends you, He already has it all planed out for you. So I kinda quit questioning already.. just submit and let Him worry for me. He didn't promise a bed of roses nor life without hills and mountains, but He did promise to be there with me all the way...
Thank you all for your prayers and concern. I'm fine.
To all who are constantly checking on me to see this city girl through the week, it means a lot over there. Thanks!
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And dear PS made mashed potatoes! Wohooo! I have dinner!! I'm so blessed. The moon was lovely that night, woman!
posted by Charis at 12:50:00 am
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