Studying

I keep telling myself that the next time I'll be studying this hard I'll be preparing for my Board exams to get licensed. I tell myself this is the last time I'll ever suffer through a final exam week.

It helps.

Swine Flu for Dummies

If you're like me you're tired of hearing people panic over the swine flu. So here's a few basic facts for those too inhibited by fear to look it up themselves:

• The swine flu does NOT equal the Plague
• Pandemic stage 4 means a confirmed person-to-person spread of a new influenza virus able to cause “community-level” outbreaks. (from the CDC) It does NOT mean that everyone is going to die.
  
• The flu is not a new thing. It's been around forever and has made people really sick for decades. It kills people every year, and no one freaks about that.
• If you have a runny nose or the sniffles, this does NOT mean you have the swine flu. Or any flu. You're probably allergic to tree pollen, like the rest of us.
• Influenza is a virus, which means antibiotics WON'T work. There ARE anti-viral drugs which work against the flu and even the swine flu. See? Not a death-sentence.
• Flu symptoms usually include things like headache, aches and pains more severe than considered usual, nausea and vomiting, and often fever.
• ANY flu can range in severity from mild to serious, not just the swine flu.
  
• Most cases of the flu go away on their own with good nutrition, lots of rest, and plenty of fluids. If you have a severe case, it would be best to go to your doctor because the faster you receive antivirals, the more likely you will be to not get any worse.
  
• If you get the flu, swine or otherwise, it's recommended you stay at home until it passes to prevent spreading it around.

I'm not trying to make light of the flu. It's a serious illness that is no fun at all to suffer through. But honestly, there is just no reason for all this panic that I keep witnessing. Practice healthy habits like covering your mouth when you cough/sneeze, washing your hands often, and avoiding other sick people. The swine flu is not some sort of SuperFlu, it's just this rouge strain which the CDC couldn't predict, so the vaccines don't work. But it's 100% curable. Worst case scenario, you get sick and have to stay home from work a few days until it's over. You might feel like complete crap the whole time, but cry me a river, seriously. We've all had the flu before.

4th Year

Well, after waiting for a month past the promised release date, my classmates and I finally know where our 4th year clinical rotations will take place. And because I know you all must be on the edge of your seats for such an epic announcement, I won't keep you in suspense!

• August & September: Internal Medicine, Hurley Medical Center, Flint. Preceptor: Dr. Hagerman
• October & November: Ambulatory Care, Family & Child Health Clinic, Essexville. Preceptor: Dr. Covyeou
• December: OFF
• January: Advanced Community Pharmacy, Meijer #048, Bay City. Preceptor: Ms. Kaminski
• February: Managed Care Elective, Health Plus of Michigan. Preceptor: Ms. Peery
• March: The Apothecary Shoppe (Elective), Midland. Preceptor: Ms. Ellis
• April: Healthway Pharmacy (Elective), Saginaw. Preceptor: Mr. Collins

So that's my fate from now until the end of my grad school career. My first rotation begins on August 1st, and my last ends the last week of April, 2010. 3rd year is "over" a week from this Thursday, but once I finish my last final exam I'll be up in GR for stimulating 5+ hour orientation for 4th year. After that I have an award ceremony in Big Rapids on Friday morning, and then moving home as quick as possible. The Monday after finals is finished (May 11th) I begin my Institutional IPPE rotation at a hospital in Saginaw for three weeks. After that *pauses to breathe* I start up my internship again at Kroger Pharmacy. With only two measly months to earn some green, I'll be tight for cash all summer, unfortunately. :(

Oy, it's crazy. I'd rather be planning my wedding.

This weekend was filled with horrible studying, naturally, but Mike took me to a great Lugnuts baseball game on Friday night and I had a great time! They actually won too, so that was a bonus, but Lugnuts games are fun either way. :) Saturday we spent most of the day in Ionia at Mike's school working on stuff, but had a nice dinner in GR before getting nailed with the worst thunderstorm ever. Oh man. I'm glad he was driving.

I can't wait to not study. I can almost feel it coming now... just one more week of this bull. >_<

WMU, I heart you.

Dr. Feucht brought brownies to class today. And on my way home from class, once again, the free hot dog stand.

So I took another one. ;)

P School in a Box

Well, it's that time of year. Time for studying finals, which always destroys another small part of my soul, and time to start packing. As it is, move-out for my apartment is April 25th, and class doesn't end for me until May 7th. My apartment managers have been kind enough to let me stay, but I pretty much have almost no time to move after exams. Uuuugh. So I've started packing early, and last night I even managed to shove most of my pharm school notes into one box, except for this semester and some other random notes which I haven't yet organized. Moving is always sort of depressing for me. I hate seeing my apartment(s) empty and void of all my things, which only serves to remind me that every place I live in is still temporary. I'll be moving home for my final year of school, and the next time I move will be after I've graduated and gotten married, into a place with Mike.

I also got my haircut this week! I've been growing my hair out for three years now, and I was just getting so tired of looking at the same thing every day. I decided to get bangs because I've pretty much always had bangs, except since beginning pharmacy school, and ever since then I've been wanting bangs. I was a little anxious but I did it anyway and now I love them. :)

Today in lab we went over contraception, from condoms to pregnancy tests, and it was all kinds of awesome.

Dr. Bailey: Did you just drop your condom on the floor??
Jerry: Five second rule!

While walking home from lab I passed a girl on campus who was handing out free M&Ms. Then, while walking past the bookstore, I noticed a stand that said "Free Hotdogs." Not only were the hotdogs free, but so was the popcorn and pop. So I got to eat lunch on my walk home. ;)

I should go to bed now. Clearly this day could not become any more awesome.

26!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MY LOVE!!!
:D

:-* :-* :-*

IMA BADASS

Today was a better day for sure, compared to yesterday's losing my student ID by 9 AM, not submitting my presentation slides on time, and getting irrationally mad at the Walmart Vision Center employee for not filling my contact lens prescription over the phone. And I started my period. Yeah, I totally just went there. :D

Today I kicked ass at my presentation, got a 92% on my Therapeutics exam, ordered my wedding rings, and checked my FSU email to see this waiting for me:

"You are invited to attend the College of Pharmacy Honors
Convocation/Luncheon to be held on Friday, May 8, 2009. You have been
selected by the College to receive an academic excellence award. The
luncheon will be held at the Holiday Inn Hotel & Conference Center in the
Ballroom commencing at 1:00 p.m. with the awards presentation to follow."

OMG I DON'T SUCK AT SCHOOL AS MUCH AS I THOUGHT!!! :D

*SQUEE*

Jumping the Hurdles

Mike and I are creeping up on the one-year-until-the-wedding mark on the good ol' calendar, but the closer it gets the more I fret about all the stuff that I need to accomplish in the meantime. And I don't mean wedding planning stuff--that's a lot of fun and I could seriously do it all day. No lie. It's all the other stuff, and mostly school. School for me is going to END before I get married, and although that may not seem too dramatic to some, for me it has always been difficult to imagine life After School. I simply have known nothing else. Ever.

This time next year I will be a very small handful of weeks away from graduating, FINALLY. As I've already mentioned in previous blog posts, the thought of that day is both exhilarating and terrifying, but mostly it's terrifying. The gap between Amanda the Student and Amanda the Pharmacist seems simply impossible to close at this point, yet somehow it will be done in the next 13 months. And that's what I keep thinking about--before Mike and I can get married and party, I've got to close this F-ing gap. How?? How will I ever pull it off? How will I make it through another year of feeling cramped, confined, temporary, money-depraved, and desperate for spare-time? How will I make it through another year of long-distance from Mike and friends, and from the Rest of My Life? Will I have the money to pull it off, the time to plan my own wedding, and most importantly, will I be ready to take it on when they finally give me my license and set me loose on the world?

I just don't know. All I really know, all I can think about, is that Mike will be waiting in his tux at the finish line. There are moments when I'm so mentally exhausted that picturing him in that chapel is the only thing that keeps me jumping the hurdles.

Dear Hannah Montana

Nobody fucking cares about you. Either of you. Why would anyone want to watch a movie (or pay actual money to watch a movie) about your so-called life? My life is more exciting, and not to mention authentic, than yours and that is saying something. Oh and by the way... all this bull about your movie being the "biggest of the season?" Wtf were you thinking?? Here's a bunch of reasons why you aren't the biggest movie of the season:

• Star Trek
• X Men Origins: Wolverine (infinitely hotter than you, oh yes)
  
• Transformers 2
• Angels and Demons
• Harry Potter #6
• Terminator Salvation
  

I would seriously enjoy lighting you on fire. Please go away.

----------------

On Easter break and lovin' every minute! Happy bunnies and jelly beans to all my beloved readers. ;)

Another Useless One

While eating ice cream in my car....

Mike: Did you have a girl you went to high school with whose nipples were just always hard?
Me: Mike.... wtf??

Highlights from My Thursday Night Studying Action

On Gtalk....

Me: you know it
Shruti: i know everything
Me: if you have any fault it's modesty
Shruti: that's better than arrogance
Me: this is true
although that was very sarcastic
Shruti: haha, i know everything, remember?
Me: that must be quite painful
Shruti: just to my left eye
Me: lol your knowledge is trying to OOZE OUT
like Reye's Syndrome
Shruti: HAHAHAHAHHAHAHA
HAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHA
omg it's only 12am
Me: only
Shruti: knowledge shouldn't be oozing out...yet
Me: I MUST KNOW
Shruti: UNTIL IT OOZES
moto for studying: KNOW UNTIL IT OOZES
Me: like a nasty P. acnes infection

<3

"Look into those eyes so deep in love
And drink it up
'Cause that's the good stuff"
--KC