Red was all the rage last friday night! Students, faculty members, all pitched in prizes, bought raffle tickets, or just enjoyed the show. The big event that was held friday by the pharmacy school was the UCSF Red Dress fashion show benefiting the American Heart Association. Dr. Cocohoba, who is on the UCSF Faculty and practices at the UCSF Aids Clinic, was modeling a traditional southeast asian dress for the show. Dr. Joe Gugliemo, chair of the department of Clinical Pharmacy, also participated as a model. Jen Yang, first year pharmacy student, was loaned a dress from designer Jessica McClintock.

After finishing 3 midterms in the past week, we could unwind a little before the next midterm Biochem midterm on monday. Last night, several 1st year pharmacy students attended a panel to answer questions from interviewees and those interested in attending pharmacy school at UC Berkeley. Even though the commute was long and it was pouring throughout the bay area, we managed to attend a dinner in Wheeler Hall with about 50 students. After some spring rolls, we talked about the different pathways at UCSF, small close knit community here in like the 2 buildings where we have our classes, some undergrad classes like pchem, or physiology that may help, getting recommendations from professors who we did research with, and clerical positions in pharmacies to improve their application. Some students were asking about whether they should attend UCSD. The main problem with UCSD that we had was the fact that UCSD was denied accreditation this year and no one knows when they can grant a Pharm.D. degree. So the 1st graduating class is in limbo and they currently can only work as a graduate intern. This caps their income since they cannot get the 80-100 grand salary that registered pharmacists can recieve. Along the walk back to our car, we grabbed boba with a few undergrads who still had questions, and then headed home.

UCSF has ties to berkeley through the Pills program which hosts mock interviews, essay editing, and social events where undergrads can get some help during the rough interview process. We are seeing a lot of john smith style black and white suits marching across campus since it is quickly approaching prime time for interviewing for the incoming class of 2011. Wow, I cannot believe that I was in their shoes only a year ago. I have really delved into the health professions, seen so much, gotten to know new and old groups of people. It has been quite a ride so far and a quite a distance from the sunny shores of the La Jolla beaches back in june.

Our class fundraiser at Club Rouge raised almost 1400 dollars, which is a large amount for a single fundraising event. A small portion of it was spent this morning in the form of doughnuts and juice. I think the rest of this money will be used to fund our graduation party, gifts, banquet, photos, caps/gowns, and class gift. We have to pay for all these ourselves. It is astronomical that it will cost about 36 grand for this event. I was a little confused why our class president and the cabinet brought this to our attention in the first quarter of our first year. I suppose it is better to start planning sooner than later. UCSF only pays for the reception and graduation ceremony itself.

In CP112, we are starting on pain topical and systemic pain medications and probably continue this section through next week. I think this is a major field for us to familiar ourselves with since so many pain medications are OTC, so it is up to us to make good recommendations and prevent people from overdosing on them. Only 4mg/day would cause serious toxicity in an adult.

On a side note, orlistat, has just become over the counter recently. Orlistat reversibly inhibits gastric/pancreatic lipases and cholesterol esterase to decrease fat absorption. Therefore, orlistat is indicated to treat obesity and high cholesterol. We already finished lipid metabolism and synthesis in biochemistry; now we are finishing heme metabolism. Sharon Youmans, who taught CP111, held a clinical correlate to review a case of a 9 month old baby with anemia. She tied the symptoms of jaundice (yellow skin/sclera) and bilirubin accumulating from red blood cell breakdown.