what is this? Miami Beach??

Hey guys and girls-

Its been a fun two days- started my first real rotation on the 1^st (Thursday)… turns out they think the best 8 hours for me to work every day at the hospital (a 45 minute drive east) would be from 7am-3:30 pm with a 30 minute lunch… its really almost comical considering my previous sleep schedule of the last few months has been me going to bed no earlier than 2:30am—I mean seriously- that was an early night- not talking weekends- I mean every single day of the week- it was really unhealthy… but honestly- I’m not complaining- that’s how they roll most places such as this, and its nice to be forced into an early schedule- I do appreciate that its good for me. Its almost nice to feel tired by 9:30pm, I mean, most of the good stuff for the day has already happened… and heck- 3:30 and there’s still a lot left in the day to get stuff done- I don't mind it really! Here’s the funny part… Thursday, my first day, it snowed in Memphis and many of the schools got out… so here I am waking up at 5:45am (to get out the door by 6:15 to make it there by 7) and I’m watching the morning news and seeing them say what counties are closed… many were, but our county wasn’t, and our university wasn’t (and as you’ll see later, it didn’t really matter), so ehhh… the roads were only slushy- not too bad… I made it in fine- TODAY- I wake up and look out the window and just see white- everything’s covered- even most of the road… I flip on the news and they are talking about wrecks everywhere because they didn’t expect it to be this bad overnight and to STAY IN- don't drive… even mentioned in particular 2 of the main roads I take to the hospital as having numerous accidents (7 on one of them alone)… they didn’t bother going to any kind of MAP for school closings… “whats closed? Haha!” (like it was a silly question to ask) “well… everything!”… actually turns out that even the University of Memphis and the UT-Health-Science Center (fancy term for the med school we all go to) –scrolled across my screen as being closed… hmmm… I checked the schools website for the bad-weather policy and down towards the bottom read: “Students whose presence is required in clinical or other related programs are expected to meet established schedules.”

Eh… well… it was just funny- the roads were actually really bad- it was 28 degrees when I pulled out this morning and the roads were still covered in snow and stuff.. it was kind of scary… but not many people were out, thank goodness- traffic was going about 25- I got there fine and it was no big deal- just took an extra 15 minutes… I didn’t really think about it much until I went to subway for lunch and saw all the kids playing in the snow- but you know- at the end of the day, I felt pretty good, and felt like I had learned a lot! I had a fine drive home and everything’s been just peachy… I’m sure that many of you have experienced this before and are maybe having a chuckle at my expense and that’s cool, I might too if I were in your shoes. I mainly thought of the times that Dad had to go to work whenever school was closed, it was something I never really questioned, but had yet to experience myself- It wasn’t really traumatic, just kind of funny to see it from the other side.

I’m having a great time getting to know 4 different pharmacists who have really welcomed me into their little family- I always think its so fun to get to share in well-developed work dynamics… these guys have been working together for 15-20 years, and I’ve been there 2 days… its actually an extremely healthy work environment, SO much better than a busy retail place in MANY ways- it almost justifies the 15-20k pay reduction when going from community to hospital pharmacy… and I really mean that. You don't have people yelling at you… you can sit down… its just so much more relaxed and comfortable… Everyone (its an all-male staff) is just so sharp in so many ways- its so great to be surrounded by great minds. I just honestly try to soak up as much as I possibly can whenever there is something to be learned… myself and the other 3 pharmacists are in mainly one area of the pharmacy (and we all have blue scrubs- I’ll have to get a picture) hanging out at computer stations doing various things- I get my own cool rolling chair… the technicians run the filling, counting, labeling in the other part of the pharmacy- the boss actually meets me at the beginning of the day and tells me what to do- as in “today I want you to learn how to…”- he then leaves me and goes back to is office and its more or less up to me to go around and figure it out… I had a couple things today and I learned both of them and could do them on my own by 2 or so… I actually finished the tasks a little early- and after that I kind of sat around with the pharmacists letting them explain what they were doing and why they were doing it… I almost didn’t want to leave at the end of the day… throughout the day one pharmacist had randomly asked me 3 totally unrelated clinical questions, and I had the right answers for him, and that made me feel really good- another pharmacist had warned me that he liked to test the students- I can tell you a lot more about it later- there are some fun things coming up, including going to a big formulary meeting with my boss, and observing some surgeries (any bets on if I’ll get woozy or not?... I’m thinking I’ll be ok)… I’ll fill you in.

and usually i go back and check my blogs for grammatical errors... but i'm gonna let that slide for now-