I am so incredibly relieved my exam is over. I just freaked myself out to discover that the paperwork to transfer my score to my home state (I did it first in the neighboring state, meaning to have both primary licenses) had to be done BEFORE the day I took the exam and is not valid if received AFTER. Done deal. Now I have to wait a year and practice and then apply to reciprocate my license. Maybe God had a reason for inducing my brain fart. Of course, the fact that I had pneumonia when I got the paperwork and signed up had nothing to do with it...:) I'll get over it.
I felt the exam was awful! A few times, I wondered if anyone ever ran from the place screaming. You get thumbprinted, they take your picture and they tape the whole room at all times. But the staff was so nice and had soothing music in the wait room, beautiful artwork and very kind demeanors. All my friends got questions on rarer disease states and said they struggled, so I boned up on those, and health literacy and the usual top morbidities. I had many calculations, which take longer than case questions, drug names and classes. I like them and am usually very good at them, I just think I got an abnormally large amount. I finished with 10 minutes to spare. My favourite question was what is the generic name for … the drug I did my poster on.
ALL my friends from school called the night before. Nana set up a conference call with Michelle to pray with me- incredibly sweet & very appreciated. I emailed out for prayers and received many back- I could feel everyone thinking of me as I worked my way through. Thank you all, it helped me to know I wasn’t alone. Kate met me at home and took me out to dinner at a favourite Mexican restaurant, and we shopped a little for some crafts we are planning. It was a great way to wind down.
In spite of the stress, I am enjoying a beautiful fall. I love this time of year. I am burning apple-scented candles at night with my star lights on, listening to Irish music while the burner kicks in down in the cellar, and the cats find cozy places out of the draft. I have autumn leaves in the vases and they look like fire in the bay window in the pewter vases Buck gave me. I can hear the leaves hitting the windows and sounding like ice. When it rains, the mice try and burrow in and Sorcha stands guard in the cellar. I love the chill even when I have to leave a little earlier and scrape ice off the windshield. After a few days. I'll be used to it and it will be part of my routine, but right now it isn't; it makes me take stock of the fall mornings and notice everything more clearly. I am cooking a bit more, and more nutritiously because I obviously needed it. Michelle stayed with me when we went to a wedding, and we ate our way through the weekend. It's a beautiful time.
Here’s our favourite fall recipe: take a package of cranberries, and pick out all the stems and bad ones, rinse, and put in a saucepan with 2/3 cup of orange juice and two tablespoons of sugar. Bring to a boil, then turn the heat to medium and cook 20-30 minutes until reduced to a nice sauce. Put a wedge of Brie in the oven or toaster oven to warm until it gets a little runny. Then slice up a couple of Granny Smith apples into thin wedges and arrange on a platter. Place a spoonful of Brie and a spoonful of cranberries on top and serve immediately. It’s so pretty and the textures and tastes meld so well. It’s a Kate recipe. Great stuff, and so good for you too. It takes about 30 minutes to make, and looks so impressive. Enjoy!
Showing posts with label friends. Show all posts
Showing posts with label friends. Show all posts
Thursday, November 08, 2007
Wednesday, October 11, 2006
A for Effort and B for Back to Square One
Started my second rotation this week in a large managed care facility. I think I am going to like this one as well.
Wrapped up my first rotation with an A+, which really shocked me since I thought I was awful at all the pharmacy entering and reimbursement stuff on the computer. The things I suck at were not the things Ralph thought would make a good pharmacist-the things I like and am good at- talking with the patients, showing them instead of telling them things, listening- he felt were a lot more important than remembering whether to hit enter, tab or function key. I miss them and know I will be back visiting as well as hanging w Heidi when I can. I will also miss #2 son dropping in for lunch nearly every week.
I had a call from Ditto- our friend who was my niece's college roommate. I used to IM them then we had a chat room they visited me in (hello Riverdance pals out there) so I got to know her and she's just like another member of the family at this point. She wanted to come up and visit for a night with a family member who had a crisis and needed a break. Buck cancelled his plans to go to Oktoberfest and we headed in to Boston. We had a really nice time, just had dinner and then we checked out Buck's apartment before coming home.
I woke at 5 am with my stomach churning- the food I had been served had been tainted somehow with gluten despite my discussion with the server about my food allergies. I was so sick I had to call in sick to work, which I had never done. I was relieved to find that a woman who trained me was on duty and could do the IVs that day. I have been sick since, it will take me weeks to heal. I am glad I went out but wish I had not eaten and I am not in a hurry to eat out again. I am annoyed to lose so much time walking- I had just gotten to a regular schedule. I am glad I didn't lose time to rotation, but my tail was dragging the whole last week. Back to square one.
I asked Buck to come mow my lawn and do some weeding since I was so wishy-washy, and then I pulled my back leaping to yank the cat back inside, so I am a real mess. My next-door neighbor pulled three bags of weeds from my walk, and Buck transplanted two mallows and a catmint to the front walk to help keep the weeds down (I needed some perennials there but can't afford to landscape yet). He mowed and took several trips to the dump with all the brush from all summer's weeding and trimming. I felt guilty not helping so I made a nice dinner. Pharmacy Son came home just as we were eating- and after all the work was done; perfect timing as usual. We watched a movie- I picked up all three Lord of the Rings movies recently as a birthday present for myself.
We went out on the Columbus Day holiday to shop- got Pharmacy Boy some new shoes for his crooked old feet, a belt, new sheets and a Celtics shirt- hey a boy only turns 21 once. He talked a bit about his new job- they have a managed care section so he does blisterpacking of a person's doses in some new machine. Sounded pretty cool.
So now I am in rotation #2 back in Worcester- can't believe it has moved so fast. It's been incredibly interesting so far. I am doing a lot of reading so trying to break it up with some music, brief walks around the office and spending time with the workers asking questions. Met a former coworker this am on my way in- she works on the same floor as me. Had lunch with an old friend from the neighborhood. This is going to be nice.
Wrapped up my first rotation with an A+, which really shocked me since I thought I was awful at all the pharmacy entering and reimbursement stuff on the computer. The things I suck at were not the things Ralph thought would make a good pharmacist-the things I like and am good at- talking with the patients, showing them instead of telling them things, listening- he felt were a lot more important than remembering whether to hit enter, tab or function key. I miss them and know I will be back visiting as well as hanging w Heidi when I can. I will also miss #2 son dropping in for lunch nearly every week.
I had a call from Ditto- our friend who was my niece's college roommate. I used to IM them then we had a chat room they visited me in (hello Riverdance pals out there) so I got to know her and she's just like another member of the family at this point. She wanted to come up and visit for a night with a family member who had a crisis and needed a break. Buck cancelled his plans to go to Oktoberfest and we headed in to Boston. We had a really nice time, just had dinner and then we checked out Buck's apartment before coming home.
I woke at 5 am with my stomach churning- the food I had been served had been tainted somehow with gluten despite my discussion with the server about my food allergies. I was so sick I had to call in sick to work, which I had never done. I was relieved to find that a woman who trained me was on duty and could do the IVs that day. I have been sick since, it will take me weeks to heal. I am glad I went out but wish I had not eaten and I am not in a hurry to eat out again. I am annoyed to lose so much time walking- I had just gotten to a regular schedule. I am glad I didn't lose time to rotation, but my tail was dragging the whole last week. Back to square one.
I asked Buck to come mow my lawn and do some weeding since I was so wishy-washy, and then I pulled my back leaping to yank the cat back inside, so I am a real mess. My next-door neighbor pulled three bags of weeds from my walk, and Buck transplanted two mallows and a catmint to the front walk to help keep the weeds down (I needed some perennials there but can't afford to landscape yet). He mowed and took several trips to the dump with all the brush from all summer's weeding and trimming. I felt guilty not helping so I made a nice dinner. Pharmacy Son came home just as we were eating- and after all the work was done; perfect timing as usual. We watched a movie- I picked up all three Lord of the Rings movies recently as a birthday present for myself.
We went out on the Columbus Day holiday to shop- got Pharmacy Boy some new shoes for his crooked old feet, a belt, new sheets and a Celtics shirt- hey a boy only turns 21 once. He talked a bit about his new job- they have a managed care section so he does blisterpacking of a person's doses in some new machine. Sounded pretty cool.
So now I am in rotation #2 back in Worcester- can't believe it has moved so fast. It's been incredibly interesting so far. I am doing a lot of reading so trying to break it up with some music, brief walks around the office and spending time with the workers asking questions. Met a former coworker this am on my way in- she works on the same floor as me. Had lunch with an old friend from the neighborhood. This is going to be nice.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
