Thursday, May 28, 2009

sorry but i just cant get enuff of pharmacotherapy workshops

WARNING: Read only if you are super bored otherwise you will be wasting your time. Wikipedia might be helpful in some cases.


Name: Mrs JP
Age: 52 years old
Weight: 75kg



Presenting complaint:
Mrs JP comes into your pharmacy and complaining about heartburn, abdominal pain and bloating, and she wakes up quite frequently at night due to gastric pain. She says she normally manages her pain with antacids and Nurofen (ibuprofen), sometimes eating would also ease her pain. She was not worried about it until she experienced persistent vomiting and occasionally vomitting out some blood for the past one week. She also mentions that her stools appear to be a darker colour than usual. She reported an unexplained weight loss of 12kg over the past 3 weeks.





Past Medical History and Medications:
Diclofenac 50mg bd for arthritic pain
Aspirin 100mg bd
Ramipril 10mg d
Verapamil 80mg d
Glyceryl trinitrate for occasional angina
Simvastatin 40mg d for high cholesterol
Metformin 1000mg d for type 2 diabetes
Fluoxetine 20mg d for depression
Allergic to penicillin


Family and Social History:
Divorced, living with 2 children
Works at a coffee joint where she gets free flow of coffee and tea everyday. She gets her coffee fix of 3-4 cups a day.
Social drinker, enjoys 2-3 glasses of wine after dinner, sometimes inviting some friends over during the weekend for dinner and some wine
Loves Indian food - enjoys it spicy and fried
Dad passed away due to stomach cancer
Mum alive, survived from a heart attack 2 years ago


After visiting the GP, she was found to have low haemoglobin levels, positive urea breath test, positive faecal blood occult test, and tested positive for H. pylori.


*yawn*

Questions.


What are the alarm symptoms of peptic ulcer disease? Outline the alarm symptoms that Mrs JP may be experiencing.

Identify the conditions that predispose patients to peptic ulcer disease when taking an NSAID.

What is the first line treatment for eradication of H. pylori in Mrs JP's case?

What options would be considered if the first line treatment fails?

As a pharmacist, what counselling information would you provide for Mrs JP?

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

RANDOM STUFF.

I am currently stuck in the library. For the past 8 and a half hours to be exact.
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EIGHT AND A HALF HOURS PEOPLE!!
I am still trying too hard to concentrate studying. And my eyes are gonna pop out anytime soon, its not even funny.

Exams are in like 12 days to be exact. And seriously I am still slacking since the day I had my Chemo exam (which was like what, 2 and a half weeks ago?)
I seriously have to get my A** back in focus for finals... after running in the field 873 times and jumping up and down 2038 times to get my blood circulation going again. Gahhhhhh! *drowns*



As some of you girls know, Libra brand sanitary products have a very interesting feature - instead of the normal pattern printed adhesive linings, their adhesive linings are printed with random facts. I thought it was interesting how when a girl sits in the toilet, and feeling all pain and cramped up, there is something entertaining to read on the sanitary pads before putting them on.


One of the most random facts I came across was: Tuna suffocate when they stop swimming.


Gee.

Thursday, May 14, 2009

through a fisheye.

Chemo exam was over last Friday. Not so looking forward to Compounding Exam next Monday as well as Dispensary Exam. =( Sigh. The pressure of repeating these exams again is tremendous. I remembered I did super badly in Chemo exam last year (I left most of the answer sheets blank) but thank God, I dunno was it because God decided to be super merciful to me, almost half of the paper was the same as last year's. Whee! But. I didnt quite nail it. Oh well.


I just stumbled upon this ilecture thingy for Pharmaceutics and the main topic was about generic medicines and patents.. Well from what I know, back in where I work at in Gosnells Pharmacy, these fussy and whiny oldies would come in asking for THE BEST BRAND or THE GOOD BRAND. Come on. Generic medicines are equally the same! Same active drug, same strength, same dosing, and even the same tablet excipients. The only difference is the brand. Yet they are much cheaper than the branded ones. Sometimes we try to sneak the generic medicines into their lot of tablets and get away with it (HA-HA) so it would be much affordable for them, but yet, some of them make a big fuss when we switch them to the less expensive brand (cuz they all want THE GOOD BRAND) and yet complain about how they always spend so much on medicines.


Speaking of Pharmaceutics, this year's lectures are so much different from last year's. More theory, less calculation. Good or bad, I cant decide either. LOL.


I finally managed to scan a copy of the pictures I took with my fisheye camera Bernice gave me on my 22nd birthday. I honestly think that the pictures in the 2nd roll of film looks better than the 1st. Hehe. Here's some: