I'm in the start of week three of rotations. Time has FLOWN by. As you probably realized, I titled this post "alphabet soup" because oncology abbreviates everything. Most chemo regimens have little names for them, IE, FOLFOX, FOLFIRINOX, CarboTaxol, ABVD, VIP, etc.
I do a lot of topic discussions with pharmacists and go to presentations so last week I learned about melanoma, pancreatic, and breast cancer.
Melanoma can cause some pretty nasty skin break down. I had no idea that it could look so disgusting.
Pancreatic cancer has usually metastasized by the time it is diagnosed. This means that the cancer has spread to different parts of the body. This is why pancreatic cancer often has a poor prognosis. The treatment for pancreatic cancer is usually either Gemcitabine or FOLFIRNOX (5-FU, leucovorin, oxaliplatin, irinotecan). The major issue with the FOLFIRINOX regimen is the toxicities that occur. Irinotecan is also known as "I ran to the can"... it causes excessive diarrhea. 5-FU can cause mucositis, which are mouth sores. Oxaliplatin also has side effects.
Breast Cancer has different markers that can lead to the use of different drugs. If not treated, it very commonly metastasizes to the lungs.
... I won't bore you all with more details on different cancers.
I really enjoy the pharmacists that I am working with. One of the pharmacists is trying to get the cafeteria and patient food to be improved. She is hilarious, she took a plate of eggs to some of the "head honchos" to make them smell them. When you take the lid off, they smell like sulfur (so I've heard). Which, if you have people who are already nauseous and then you give them horribly smelling food, they will probablyyyy vom.
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For Memorial Day weekend I met up with a few people from Drake in Clearwater. Traffic sucks going there! But, the beaches were beautiful. AND, since I work at a cancer center, I made sure to wear sunscreen and reapply. ((I couldn't show up sunburnt!)) We all drank lots of beer and just hung out on the beach all day. I am convinced that people from the Midwest know how to party more than other parts of the country. Most the people in the group were from the Midwest and it was a blast.
I managed to go to the beach twice and a baseball game (Rays v White Sox) during the weekend! Solid week followed by a solid weekend.
xoxo
Tuesday, May 29, 2012
Friday, May 18, 2012
Poop Police
I finished my first week of rotations. Crazy. It has been a LONG week. I feel like every patient we get has metastatic cancer. This means that their primary cancer has spread to other parts of the body- which is not good. These patients sometimes get chemo or experimental drugs to see if something helps or to just make them not feel so "crummy."
I wake up around 6 am if I am feeling up to running. Running around the campus has been the best way for me to get the "lay of the land." After getting ready and packing my lunch, I walk about 15 minutes to my rotation site. Depending on the day, I try to get there anywhere before 7:30-8:15 AM. First thing I do is work up patients. Working up patients means that I go through patient profiles and look at their vitals and medications. One of the preceptors refers to us as the "poop police." Most of patients with cancer are on narcotic pain medications such as oxycodone which can leave patients very constipated. Actually I had a recommendation this week to add Senna S (stimulant laxative) to a patients profile. I'm pretty sure we spend most of our day talking about bowel movements. We ask every patient, everyday.
At 8:30 AM I meet up with the physician, physician's assistant, nurse practitioner, and my pharmacist preceptor for rounds. We fill the physician in on the patients and what has been going on with them and any recommendations we have. After talking about all the patients on a floor that are ours, we go into their rooms and talk to them. We usually finish this around 11:30 AM.
At noon, I usually go attend the noon conferences. Noon conferences are presentations that are given to the medical residents. I go because I am still trying to learn about different types of cancer. This week I have learned about breast cancer, non melanoma skin cancer, and lymphomas.
The afternoon is usually spent making sure everything that was discussed in the morning rounds was done. If there is not much to do on that, I work on my activity logs and write my interventions. Everyday I have to write what I did during that day and grade myself. Additionally, I have to write two interventions. So, when I recommended that Senna S be added to that patient's profile, it counted as an intervention and I had to write about it. I also have topic discussions with pharmacists. Earlier this week I learned about Melanoma and today I talked about Anthracyclines, ifosfamide, and cituximab/rituximab/Hertuxin (all different drugs used for cancer).
Basically by the end of the day, I just cook dinner and lay around my apartment doing nothing. It is nice to not have tests and exams- nice, but weird.
Welp, hopefully the weather holds up so I can be a beach bum tomorrow :) (probably bad timing since I just learned about melanoma and non melanoma skin cancer, but oh well.)
xoxo
Sunday, May 13, 2012
A long journey...
After five years at Drake University, I have finally made it to Rotations!!! Immediately following my last final, I met my parents at Gazallis (if you have never been there- GO!). After eating my last yummy spicy chicken pita for a while, I moved all my stuff out of my apartment. Luckily, I am the youngest of 3 so my parents are crazy fast at moving. Within a few hours, all my stuff was loaded up in my Dad's truck and my car. After a 5 hour drive, we unloaded all my stuff in the kitchen. THAT was overwhelming. Sitting in the middle of a sea of my stuff, I almost had a meltdown! Then, my dad did what any caring parent would do- handed me a beer. After consuming that, I gave up and went to bed. Sadly since I went home immediately following my final, I missed out on what was apparently was a crazy, celebratory P3 (I guess it would be P4?) Booze Cruise. But, I spent ALL Thursday unpacking, repacking, organizing, and of course the most important thing... got my hair dyed.
Friday, May 11, 2012, I left Janesville, WI with my mom to head to Tampa. I hate driving, so I convinced her to come with me. I learned along the way that Illinois may be the worst and longest state to drive through... EVER. I believe it took over 8 hours to make it through the state. Somewhere in Illinois or Kentucky, we saw a sign for a winery and decided to stop to take a break from driving. As we pulled up to the winery, we both said out loud that we had been there before. Turns out, four years prior we had stopped there on our way to the Florida Keys. Apparently my family enjoys wine!
My mom and I switched driving every few hours. After driving through the mountains, she needed to rest her "balls"... eye balls that is. I had a very long laugh over that statement- partially because it was probably midnight and because it was hilarious to hear my mom say balls. I had the lovely job of driving through Atlanta. The Lucacris song- "Goin' hundred on the highwayyy, if you do the speed limit get the **** out of my way!"... is an accurate statement to how people drive in Atlanta. Only, I was not doing hundred on the highway, so people wanted ME out of their way. Needless to say, I'm glad it was somewhere around 1 am that I drove through there, rush hour has to be TERRIFYING.
After switching drivers again, we were both really tired somewhere around 4 am, so we stopped and slept at a rest stop for a few hours. Once we got to Tampa, we then had the joy of attempting to locate the building that I had to check in at. Only, my phone died literally 10 minutes before getting to the University of South Florida campus so I was unable to bring up the address to type in the GPS. After locating it, I was given directions to the apartment that I will be living in for the next 5 weeks. I expected it to be just like West Village, which it is similar... only with ants (thanks humid, Florida weather). After unpacking, we decided to try to find a beach to try to sleep on. SURPRISE, just because I'm in Florida doesn't mean I am close to a beach, sadly. So, I googled beaches trying to find the closest one. I entered the name of the beach in my phone on the GPS and we started driving. As we got off the highway, my phone died, AGAIN. My charger in my car apparently does NOT work anymore. So, we were in the middle of Tampa with no directions to the beach. Of course, I could not remember the name or address of the beach. I brought up the GPS and tried to give directions based on what I could see on the map. We stumbled upon a random little beach, not the one we intended, but whatever, there was sand, sun, and water.
After leaving the beach and cleaning up, we decided that we should eat seafood. After utilizing handy google.com, I located a restaurant called Captain Just Crab Shack that had 4.5 stars. We went there for dinner. YUMMMMMMMM. It was AMAZING. We did not do too much the rest of the evening.
Today, Sunday, May 13, 2012, I drove my mom to the airport. I need to figure out how long it will take me to walk to my rotation and what is around USF.
xoxo
Friday, May 11, 2012, I left Janesville, WI with my mom to head to Tampa. I hate driving, so I convinced her to come with me. I learned along the way that Illinois may be the worst and longest state to drive through... EVER. I believe it took over 8 hours to make it through the state. Somewhere in Illinois or Kentucky, we saw a sign for a winery and decided to stop to take a break from driving. As we pulled up to the winery, we both said out loud that we had been there before. Turns out, four years prior we had stopped there on our way to the Florida Keys. Apparently my family enjoys wine!
My mom and I switched driving every few hours. After driving through the mountains, she needed to rest her "balls"... eye balls that is. I had a very long laugh over that statement- partially because it was probably midnight and because it was hilarious to hear my mom say balls. I had the lovely job of driving through Atlanta. The Lucacris song- "Goin' hundred on the highwayyy, if you do the speed limit get the **** out of my way!"... is an accurate statement to how people drive in Atlanta. Only, I was not doing hundred on the highway, so people wanted ME out of their way. Needless to say, I'm glad it was somewhere around 1 am that I drove through there, rush hour has to be TERRIFYING.
After switching drivers again, we were both really tired somewhere around 4 am, so we stopped and slept at a rest stop for a few hours. Once we got to Tampa, we then had the joy of attempting to locate the building that I had to check in at. Only, my phone died literally 10 minutes before getting to the University of South Florida campus so I was unable to bring up the address to type in the GPS. After locating it, I was given directions to the apartment that I will be living in for the next 5 weeks. I expected it to be just like West Village, which it is similar... only with ants (thanks humid, Florida weather). After unpacking, we decided to try to find a beach to try to sleep on. SURPRISE, just because I'm in Florida doesn't mean I am close to a beach, sadly. So, I googled beaches trying to find the closest one. I entered the name of the beach in my phone on the GPS and we started driving. As we got off the highway, my phone died, AGAIN. My charger in my car apparently does NOT work anymore. So, we were in the middle of Tampa with no directions to the beach. Of course, I could not remember the name or address of the beach. I brought up the GPS and tried to give directions based on what I could see on the map. We stumbled upon a random little beach, not the one we intended, but whatever, there was sand, sun, and water.
After leaving the beach and cleaning up, we decided that we should eat seafood. After utilizing handy google.com, I located a restaurant called Captain Just Crab Shack that had 4.5 stars. We went there for dinner. YUMMMMMMMM. It was AMAZING. We did not do too much the rest of the evening.
Today, Sunday, May 13, 2012, I drove my mom to the airport. I need to figure out how long it will take me to walk to my rotation and what is around USF.
xoxo
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