Spring Fling

We were all just itching to be finished with finals yesterday after a week of 4-5hrs of sleep a night and apologizing for dissappearing from our internships to fit in late night cramming sessions. I went with a group of my classmates to catchup while indulging in Irving's very own pepper steak submarine sandwiches, fries, and then finishing it off with Holy Gelato spumoni italian ice cream. We were able to finally catch some sun that I have missed ever since leaving La Jolla while attending UCSD.

I am looking forward to enjoying Spring and summer in San Francisco, which has weather comparable to the soft rays and cool breeze in France. I am only referencing the climate in Paris or particular south of Paris near Versailles, since I just saw that Marie Antoinette movie directed by Sofia Coppola. Besides appreciating the painstakingly crafted costume design (a well deserved Oscar won this year), I also became nostalgic about how gorgeous it was the last time I went to Europe.

Our class has been flooding facebook with wall posts and ongoing conversations and groups in order to still stay connected on top of all the other responsibilities. We even set up a group for the 2011 incoming class to try to welcome the new students.

I've been really busy organizing the Tabula Art Show that is coming up on April 11th. I guess my motivation just comes from a disatisfaction with the fact that there is so much good work produced by UCSF students but no venue for them to put it on display or where the sunset community can come and view them. Apparently, there has always been an annual Faculty and Staff Art show but have never had the capacity to display student art work. So when our editor suggested that we may be able to organize it ourselves, I kind of took the reins and got funding from the office of student life to set it up. There is this Performing Arts Fund for UCSF student events that is essentially an untapped resource since most of the events held here are related more to health promotion.

I am actually really excited about this because I can really make this a classy event with prizes, refreshments, and a mixer for faculty and students. If I can put a little more effort into it, then I can even create a fundraiser by selling art prints and donating proceeds to a charity. I even thought of having students do poetry readings as part of a contest with gift certificate prizes of course. I am having trouble getting enough poets and artists though :( but there are plenty of photographers happy to share their work. They are all so enthusiastic with their own unique vision that I think we can really pull something off. And it would be a good way for the new editor of Tabula for 2007 to recruit new submissions. I could go on and on...

Life is good now and I guess I am just enjoying the simple things before I really have to grow up...

Mosaic Variety Show

I actually really enjoyed the clinical correlate given by Dr. Keyser about hemostasis. A real patient came and described an episode of heparin induced thrombocytopenia. Basically, we were supposed to retain that heparin is infused into patients to reduce blood clotting. This ties into how the pharmacodynamic effect of these drugs work by inhibiting clotting factors along the coagulation cascade. For some reason, the drug had the reverse effect on this particular patient. Anyways, there is much to learn if I ever want to work in an anticoagulation clinic.

Last weekend, Monica Iskandar threw the AIDS Mosaic Variety show to finish off the AIDS action week series of lunchtime lectures. We even had our biochem professor perform in one of the hip hop numbers. Check it out below on youtube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ix3CUd5EVZs

Today, we had one of the authors of our Pharmacy Law book (Bill Marcus) come and give a review for our CP115 final. A tip for any of you who need to buy this book next year, the book is available at a signifigant discount from the california pharmacist magazine; it is sold by CPhA. So check out the pharmacist organizations for better prices for new textbooks than the bookstore.

Dr. Marcus actually did a pretty good job reviewing the main points that we should take with us. The legal ratio of pharmacy interns to techs to licensed pharmacists working at the same time, the special exceptions for a CII as opposed to CIII-V drugs when filling a prescription, all the DEA forms necessary in the transfer, dispensing of controlled substances, and information that a pharmacist can correct but not enter on a prescription, legal importation of drugs, etc. So much material that I am dreading to have to memorize for the boards 3 years from now. And apparently, there will be new serial RX forms that can be issued for patients to fill CII drugs at a later date legally. Currently, it is illegal to refill a CII drug like ritalin or oxycodone.

Time to stop procrastinating and start studying.

School Elections

We have had a flux of lunchtime informative lectures held by clinical pharmacists, all organized by CSHP. Pharmacists specializing in infectious disease even gave a lunchtime lecture this week. Since it is also AIDS action week, sessions were also held by pharmacists working in an AIDS clinics, sexologists holding discussion panels about HIV prevention, or other experts in HIV awareness.





Also, we held elections for CSHP and APhA for new cabinet members since all the second years will not be able to continue their positions. It was a pretty tight race between all the candidates since many of them have been involved in all the health fairs, attended the conferences, and are actively participating in the Medicare Part D, internship accredidation, and legislative day projects.

This is the last of my collection of visits to Laguna Honda Hospital.

I wandered all over Claredon Hall looking for Robert. Not in the day room, the lunch room, the lobby, nor in his bed. Just as I was about to give up, I spotted a 6 foot old Irish man with stooped shoulders and wearing a tan jacket and a SF giants beanie pulled over his head. It was easy to find a man with his gait walking slowly with his feet turned out. He was among a few friends all standing outside the ramp leading to the hospital entrance. I approached him not knowing whether this time he would remember me or not.

“Hi Robert.”

“Robert. Dobert Schlobert. Mobert,” he mumbled back at me in a half sarcastic, half comedically indifferent tone.

I took it with a smile. I inquired how he was doing, but he seemed more interested in finding a cigarette than chatting with me. There was a strange mix of warm air flowing out of the hospital pushing back to winter chill. The residents must have deemed this their smoking spot since they could smoke outside and still manage to stay warm.

He clenched his fists as if the motion would suppress the gnawing itch of his mind for nicotine. Attempting to divert his attention, I tried to see if remembered my name. Even though he could not recall it at the moment, after I repeated it to him, he did at least remember my face from the previous week when I visited. Progress at the very least.

He continued to talk to me about his “hot shit” 1000 cubic centimeter piston bike. Gas with at the left handle, brake the front wheel with the right hand, and brake the back wheel by stepping on the right pedal.

That made me remember how my friend recently lost his bike after just parking it in the lot one day in San Diego. Then I asked him what happened to his bike in the end. Apparently, he sold it after he broke up with his ex-wife. He recalled how they broke up in New Orleans and he fled the city to go back to Chicago after that.

There’s not a city like Chicago. There was not supposed to be a large metropolitan in the midst of all that wind.

This was in contradiction to the story that he told me previously about breaking up with his ex-wife in Colorado. Even after the fourth or fifth time around, I still find myself having trouble piecing his life together.

He needed to head to the dining room for lunch, so I escorted him down the hall. Like every visit before, he commented about how much he liked the hospital and all the nurses whom served him. No pharmacists mentioned by him. At least not yet.