So, I know I haven't been blogging much lately...like really much, much lately, but WELCOME BACK TO SCHOOL Y'ALL!  I know that for the most part going back to school is not the most exciting thing, but there are lots of good things to look forward to about going back.  I've sorely missed my friends, the city of Cola, and GAMECOCK FOOTBALL to say the least.  The last thing on my mind is studying for tests, although I know I'll have to get rolling on that school-studying-zone, but I'm enjoying that feeling of moving back in and gettting back to the groove of things around here in Columbia.

It's been pretty busy for me lately though.  While others are still trying to sort out furnitures in their dorms and apartments, I have been getting "orientated."  Just like the new incoming USC freshmen of the Class of 2012, my fellow P-1 Pharmacy first year students of the Class of 2012 and I had our orientation these past two days and had our official White Coat Ceremony.

As for y'all avid readers of mine know (and to inform you new readers), I am now entering pharmacy school with 2 years of USC undergraduate studies under my belt.  I have worked hard to get the grades and get the application and interview to Pharmacy school, and now I am really officially a "graduate" student of the South Carolina College of Pharmacy - USC Campus!!!  My friends are making fun of me because with the additional 4 years of pharmacy school, I am just like all of the new incoming freshmen this year.  I will be graduating the same time as them!  I don't mind the extra 2 years that much though, as I will be getting a Pharm.D. by then! 

So, just to get started back up again...Y'all know how much I love taking pictures and sharing them.  So, here are some pictures from my White Coat Ceremony.

This is me with one of my best friends in the Pharmacy school.  Meet Anthony. He and I were being goofy in front of the Koger Center where the ceremony was held.

This is Anthony and I again, but this time with another one of our colleagues.  This is us prior to our white coats!  Meet Jennifer... 

That's me towards the middle during our official USC Campus Class of 2012 group picture.  There is a total of 110 of us students in the USC Campus with an additional 80 students in the MUSC Campus.  Together...do the math and there are 190 of us in the South Carolina College of Pharmacy Class of 2012!!!

This is my friends and I again, but this time with our white coats.  Don't we just look very official now?  We will be your future pharmacists!

Of course, my boyfriend Shawn came for moral support!

And of course, my parents...Don't they just look so proud of me!  I was very excited that they were able to take time out of their work to come see me for the ceremony!

Well, guys!  This will be it for now.  Rest assured, I will be blogging more often.   Look forward to some new posts about my new place, my reunions with friends, and my fresh new start in the College of Pharmacy!  I hope y'all are off to a great start...again Welcome Back to School ladies and gents!

Catch y'all later on the flipside, Gamecocks!

Posted by Kriska at 09:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I know it's the summer, y'all, but lemme give a preview of the kinds of things that I've been learning lately at work.  Try out this quiz...See if you can match the brand name drugs with their generic names (Whoo-hoo, what a fun game, eh?!?  HAHAHA!)  I bet y'all will surprise yourself about how much you actually know about drugs!

SYNTHROID                          Carvedilol

AMOXIL                                Levothyroxine Sodium

COUMADIN                           Cephalexin                     

COREG                                 Amoxicillin

MOBIC                                 Amitriptyline

KEFLEX                                 Warfarin

ELAVIL                                 Meloxicam

So, how'd y'all do?  These seven drugs are perhaps some of the most common drugs that we dispense on a daily basis at the pharmacy.  Every time I see this on a prescription (in chicken scratch manner, of course) I am now able to match up the brand names with their generics.  Of course, there are over hundreds and hundreds of other drugs that I have to really memorize.  Good thing about work though is that there is a computer to look up drugs when I am met with something completely unfamiliar.  Like the other day, a patient came in with a prescription with a generic drug name.  I thought that we had had it out of stock because I looked it up on the computer and it matched with a certain brand name.  I looked EVERYWHERE.  Finally, I just gave up to ask one of our Lead Techs only to find out that for some reason or another the drug was kept another brand name!  It was manufactured in TWO BRANDS!  How's that for confusing?!?

I was talking to one of our pharmacists who is a USC-SCCP alumni.  We joke with each other that I am her little sidekick since I am attending her alma mater.  I told her I just couldn't imagine knowing all of those drugs like the palm of my hand.  I mean, it's not even just that!  You have to know what each drug does, how it interacts with anything and everything, how it looks like, and on, and on, and on!  How will I ever know all of these things?!?  She assured me, however, that I shouldn't worry.  Time will come...and well, I'll be taught certain things in school that I will probably never use, too!  Remember those days in Calculus?  When will you ever use finding the tangent of this and finding the derivative of that unless you were going to be an engineer or math genius?!?

Well, here's to learning many new things!  Boy, is summer really coming and going so fast.  It's almost July, and before I know it, I'll be starting my first year as a Pharmacy student.  Oh, but before I get ahead of time and myself, I will definitely have to enjoy this summer first!

Catch y'all later on the flipside, Gamecocks!

Posted by Kriska at 08:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)