Still Alive and Thriving

I have continued to obsessively check the blog for peoples' updates, but this past month I simply haven't felt I've had anything worth sharing. I'm living in La Crosse, WI and haven't made many friends here. For awhile I was able to hang out with a couple pharm girls from Drake, but their time here already ended and now I'm alone. A few classmates are in the area, but I'm not close to any of them and so haven't seen them outside of the hour-long weekly seminar. I joined a gym when I moved here and thought I could meet people at fitness classes, and once went kayaking with a group organized by a local outdoors store, but the only women in my age bracket I met have been married 5 years and have 2 kids. Today I then went to church because it was recommended as another place to meet people. The saddest thing is that I'm not actually lonely. In fact I'm frustrated with myself that I have no problem being without friends here.

My first clinical rotation is in the hospital with one of the general medicine teams. Acute care drugs are not my strong area, nor the mechanisms of actions of some of the common ones. Physiology has always been a little hard to conceptualize. I've made a lot of improvement since I've started, but my preceptors often look like they're a touch disappointed in my knowledge. It's not that I don't try, it's just that it takes me awhile to get into the groove. Luckily, I only have two more weeks in the hospital, then I start in the clinic/ outpatient pharmacy of the same health care system.

Back to my free time - the gym I joined is nice, but doesn't have a pool. The only gym in this town with a pool is the Y, and that was the most expensive membership so I had to do without. There are several outdoor community pools, but weather here has been difficult (random torrential rains). Kayaking was a lot of fun, but they only have trips Monday and Tuesday nights, which makes a long day by the time I get home from it at 9:00pm. I get up at 5:30 for work, so early bedtimes have been the norm this summer. I finished a pillow (hawaiian quilt style... see pic) that I started last August but hadn't had time to finish. The next day I started a quilt for Mary. It'll be a large throw, 65"x75", as a graduation/ birthday gift, but probably won't be done until end of summer (or end of fall if it's not done before I leave for Hawaii). It's going slow but well, and unfortunately I can't share any details except that it's a Julie original design, because Mary has to be kept surprised.

This weekend I've been trying to get a lot of pharm work done so my 4th of July weekend is totally free (I'll be going home to hang out with the fam minus Mary). Tomorrow I have to present a case presentation about complications with an intrathecal pain pump to my "colleagues" and not quite done preparing for that. It's been difficult finding pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic information about most of the drugs used in the pumps, because only the use of morphine in them is FDA approved. But I have to figure out if other drugs could interact with them, since there's apparently no systemic absorption. THEN I have to write a short research paper on use of sodium bicarbonate vs. other oral hydration for the prevention of contrast-induced nephropathy. My research for that is essentially finished, so hopefully it'll just take a few hours of focus this week to get that finished up. So then all I'll have to do is pray to the weather gods for a gorgeous weekend.

I'll stop typing now. Ironically, I could probably keep typing. How about I just write shorter, more regular blog postings?

Ashley, your bloggings have been lovely. It sounds like you've had a wonderful summer so far!