Heading Home

After a great month in BG, I'm heading home. I've really enjoyed the time I got to spend in Bowling Green with my parents. It actually went by really fast. I'm already finished with my first rotation, which in itself seems unbelieveable. I loved being able to walk every afternoon with my Mom. Believe it or not, I actually started running some. I've never been a runner but I've been running parts of my 2 mile walk at the Waterpark..I'm up to almost a mile. So I'm proud b/c I used to never do anything exercise wise. I ended up losing a little over 5 pounds while being at home. I love it. But I'm ready to be back at home with my best friends. I can't wait to be near Adam so that it's just a 15 minute drive to his house instead of 2 hours.

So Leigh and I think we've found a townhouse for next year. I'm pretty excited and hope it works out. They are building them brand new. Hopefully they will have an opening for August..if not, then they might have an opening for September. They are 3 bedroom, 2 1/2 bath townhomes. The bottom floor has a living room, dining room, kitchen w/ island, laundry room, 1/2 bath, and a patio with individually fenced in back yards. The 2nd floor has the master bedroom, bath, and closet (which will be mine) and then two bedrooms and a full bath that will be Leigh's. She's going to make the 2nd bedroom like a sitting room and extra closet thing. We get to use the neighborhood pool and fitness room and there is a walking trail around the property. I think that we even have covered parking spots. I am pretty excited. I hope it works out...and it seems like more of an adult place to live!

4 Day Weekend!

Tomorrow is my last day at MedCare pharmacy. It's kind of bittersweet. I really liked the people there and the actual rotation, so I will miss them. But I'm so excited to be finishing my 1st rotation. Only nine more to go. I called the preceptor of my June rotation today after work. He told me not to come in until Tuesday since he was off on Monday. I don't have to work Friday b/c Melissa is off and didn't want me to work on my last day by myself...so 4 day weekend! Woohoo!

So I'll have a whole 2 1/2 days in Lexington to get my room all tidied up and groceries moved back in the fridge. I'm going to miss my parents but I'm all ready to move back up to Lexington and be near Adam. I got used to him the 4 days he was in BG and I want to be able to see him everyday again.

Quarter century old

So yesterday I turned 25. I don't feel any different...haha..except sick. Yesterday I got a stomach virus...on my birthday..yay. I tried to go to work this morning and drove all the way to Glasgow. Once I got there I felt like crap and could barely stand up, so I came back home after 45 minutes. But hopefully I'll feel better by tomorrow. I've been in bed all day and I think that was the best thing for me.

I had a great birthday weekend. Adam came into town on Friday. Saturday and Sunday we went to the waterpark and ran/walked together. Saturday we ran some errands and then Mom and Dad took us to Wah Bah. That place is really good. I finally tasted steak that was medium rare. A little scary for me, but it was delicious. But I thoroughly enjoyed my barbecue chicken on the grill. Sunday we had my family cookout. It did rain, but at least cleared up a little bit so that people could go out on the deck. Most of my family came and I cherish each and every one of them that came out for me. I have the best family in the world.

I'm watching Kris Allen on Ellen and I love him even more now. He's so adorable!

Nursing Homes

I don't know about nursing homes. The facility I was at today had really good staff that cared about their residents, but with my current rotation this month, I have seen some facilities that tonight offer great patient care. I am scared that one day I will end up in a nursing home...and I'm scared. I especially feel sorry for those residents that have a normal mental status and are around a lot of those that have behavioral problems and yell out and act up. I just hope that I never come to that. I do like consulting at nursing homes though. I am learning so many things about medications in the elderly. I did not take the geriatrics elective in pharmacy school so I am getting to learn some things hands on. I'm going to be sad to leave this rotation. I've had fun at home this month with my parents and will be sad when I leave, but I'm going to be so glad to be able to see Adam again. Distance does make the heart grow fonder even though I know how much he means to me when I get to see him everyday:)

Braves bust

So this weekend we went to Atlanta to watch the Braves play..except we went to Atlanta and didn't get to see them play. The game on Sunday got rained out. Boo. We went down Saturday and went to the Braves store in the CNN center for me to buy things and then went to the Spaghetti Factory. So that was fun. We sat in Turner Field for 3 hours and got a Turner dog..and that was fun..and then the game got postponed b/c for the entire time we were in the ballpark it didn't stop raining. But Mom and I stood in line and got 3 more tickets for a Saturday game in August against the Marlins. The ticket girl we talked to was really nice and we ended up getting 10 rows closer to the field than these tickets were, so we're field level on row 11 now. Whee haw. I'm still going to see if Adam can go with me to Cincinnati in June and scalp tickets to the Reds game. It's really easy to get good seats at Red games by scalping b/c they're not sold out as much as Atlanta games.

I'm excited that Adam is going to be coming in on Friday. He is staying all weekend for my birthday weekend. Friday I want to take him to Wah Bah b/c I think he would like the whole manly steak and potatoes thing. I want to go to the Franklin Drive In too if it's not raining. Then we have the family cookout Sunday and my real birthday Monday. So much busy stuff to do. I only have 7 days left of my first rotation!!!

Halfway

So I am over halfway done with my first rotation. I really love this rotation. I like consulting at the vartious nursing homes across the state. So far I have been to Glasgow, Barren Co., Owensboro, Henderson, Hartford, and Elkton. Then starting next week I will be in Hart Co and Paducah and other places. I feel like I've learned a lot, and each day I am getting better at finding problems and notifying the pharmacist of what I find. And then they send notes to the doctor's to ask for changes. It is so neat. I feel like I am making a difference.

I have found how much I dislike Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. It seems like such a waste to me. They are giving people who barely have anything before these huge extravagant houses. Don't get me wrong. I think it is a good cause, but I believe they could do so much more for so many more people than wasting so much money on one house.

Speaking of houses, everything is getting more real on trying to think of where I want to live after I get out of school. Hopefully Adam will be in the picture. I think I'm trying to envision a spot that is somewhat out of the city but no more than 30 minutes from Lexington. But I would love for my parents to be close to me. I will really miss then if they aren't that close...especially when I decide to have kids....which I know is way far in the future...but I'm almost 25...and I get to thinking.

Dr. Nugget

So Friday night was Adam's graduation from Pharmacy school. It's so crazy to think that he is an actual Doctor (PharmD) right now. He has to the NAPLEX soon (probably in June) to actually be a licensed pharmacist, but until then he can work at a pharmacy along side a registered pharmacist and make half pay. BUT he is taking the next month off to enjoy himself before he has to become a working man. The ceremony was nice..but really long. They had several PhD students in the pharmacy program who graduated, so they were at the very beginning of the ceremony. They even let people walk who hadn't defended their project yet which was kind of stupid. But anyway, tons of people got up and talk...so it was only long because of that. The weather turned beautiful for the pig roast on Saturday. I want to thank all of my friends that came out for that. It was a great time.

I came back yesterday and met my parents in Smiths Grove for the Mother's Day cookout at my aunt and uncle's. I went with Melissa and Jennifer today to Professional Care in Ohio County to consult and review charts. So I'm home early. I love it. But anyway...here are some pictures from Adam's graduation.

Almost one week down

So I am starting to really like my first rotation. So yesterday and today I worked in the pharmacy in Glasgow. It is a pharmacy that packages, fills, and delivers medicine to nursing homes across the state on a daily basis in monthly supplies. It is really neat b/c I never knew how that happened. But there are two people at the pharmacy that pour regular stock bottles of medicines that pharmacies like Walgreens use and individually wrap them in unit does plastic packages. Then we put them in little dispensing boxes and send them out to the pharmacies. It's really neat. Today I went with an LPN named Junior to the Barren home to check medication carts to make sure that nurses aren't giving their residents out of date medicine and also to ensure that they are giving the doses that they are supposed to. It's kind of scary to see that some Depakote was not given correctly since there were way too many left in the package. That is definitely a message that someone is going to need.

Tomorrow I have to be at work at 7:30 to go consult with Melissa at the Barren home. She said we won't be home until around 3:30 since it's a much bigger facility...but I'm driving straight to Lexington to see Adam. I'm so happy he's going to graduate on Friday. Everything is going to work for him and be just fine. I'm so so so proud of him!

By the way, I can't stand the Table of 12 show. They are such a Jon & Kate plus 8 rip off. And their kids are horrible. And they are not much fun to watch. And I still can't get over the first episode where one of the kids was talking about the littlest one with mental retardation and saying well we want to thank her for 'taking one for the team' b/c we all could have been slow. I could not believe it.

1st Day of Rotations

I'm a big girl now...and in the real world. I think I'm really going to like my first rotation. I met my preceptor at the Minit Mart out past the Natcher Parkway on Russelvill Road and road with her to Owensboro. We talked and I got to know her really quickly. She's such a sweet person, and I love working with her. Today we went to a nursing home that mainly had residents with Alzheimer's Disease. It was interesting, to say the least, because we were reviewing their charts at the nurses stations, so we got to see the patients as they roamed the facility. They were walking around and screaming at each other. The patients were claiming they had a room upstairs when there was no second floor of the building. But it was very interesting. We went through every patient's chart and tried to discontinue some of their meds that weren't needed anymore or taper down the doses of some antipsychotics and benzos if they weren't having any more behavioral problems. I will be visiting various nursing homes for 3 days of the week and at the actual pharmacy 2 days a week. Tomorrow will be my first day at the pharmacy, so I will see how that goes. But I have no presentation or project this month, and she gave me off the entire day this Friday so I can go ahead and head to Lexington Thursday night for Adam's graduation on Friday. I think this is going to be a good month:)

PY4

I am now officially in my 4th year of Pharmacy School. My last final exam grade was posted earlier tonight, and I passed. I still don't know if I get an A in lab since my average right now is a 89.4....but he has a slot on Blackboard to add the extra credit for attending Rho Chi convo...so that might push me over the edge. If that happens I will only miss being on the Dean's list by 0.03 points since my GPA will be a 3.47...but I'm proud of that. That's my second highest semester GPA in Pharmacy school...and if I get all A's on rotations then I will graduate from Pharmacy school Cum Laude...which is better than what I graduated WKU with. Kind of sad that I will graduate from a much more difficult program with a higher GPA than my Bachelor's degree...but the amount of effort that I put in here was much higher. I was proud to know that I got a 95 on my practical for lab on Monday. One of the people that grades are labs was at the bar last night and told me that I had one of the few perfect grades on the hospital portion of the practical, so I was pretty excited. I always doubt myself when I shouldn't. Anywho...I'm a PY4. I start rotations on Monday...scary.

Tomorrow (actually today since it is 1:30 AM) is Derby Day!! I am going with Adam and his family and the entire crew again. I'm hoping to have a better time this year than I did last. Seeing as this time I won't be hungover and will be able to enjoy myself much more. I have to be in Versailles at 7:30 so we can leave at 8 AM to get a good spot on the infield. That's right..I will be at derby for approximately 10 hours. We are hard core here. But it's so much fun...and I love to bet on horses. Plus they are such beautiful animals. Adam has rubbed off on me, I know.

I will be leaving for BG on Sunday. Almost an entire month with my parents (except for next weekend when I will be in Lex again for Adam's graduation). I'm excited b/c I miss spending long periods of time with my parents. I like just sitting at home with them. I've learned as I've gotten older what cool people they actually are. So I think May is going to be a good one...not to mention I'm going to turn 25. I'm old.