Monday, July 9th

Disclaimer:  It has been very difficult to update the blog because at first we didn’t have access to the Internet and now that we do, it has been running really slow. 

Monday, July 9th

Yesterday, we spent the morning in the pharmacy spending more time getting acquainted.  We were supposed to receive our schedules but we had to wait because liberty days (also known as a day off) were being assigned for Vietnam and they needed to work the pharmacy schedule around those days.  The pharmacy personnel are so nice and they all really want to teach us what they can.  There are a lot of students and volunteers in the pharmacy.  There are 3 pharmacist volunteers so far but 2 more are joining us in Vietnam.  We then have 2 technician volunteers and about 6 other students affiliated with University of California San Diego.  They are all either pre-pharmacy or incoming P2’s at the University of Buffalo.  It is a little crowded in the pharmacy now but when people begin staggering shifts and going out on MEDCAPs (medical civil action programs), it will probably be easier to maneuver around and learn more about how the pharmacy runs.  The pharmacy let us go around 2:45pm so I quickly went to do some laundry and then we ate dinner and played some games at night.  I went to bed around 10:30 and I slept like a baby.  I have been sleeping really well ever since the boat departed the Philippines.  The motion kind of rocks me to sleep. =)

           

We had quite a bit of excitement today because we had to do an abandon ship drill.  We had to dress in long sleeves, tuck our pants into our socks and wear a hat.  We looked ridiculous.  We then had to grab a life jacket (which was like a race) and then go up on the flight deck and check in at our lifeboat station to make sure we knew where to go.  We were up there for about 25 minutes in the scorching sun and humidity.  Yes, even in the middle of the ocean, it is ridiculously humid.  It occurred to me to just go running and jump into ocean.  I had a life jacket on and I was sure they would be able to get me back up with a ladder or something.  I then realized that the water was probably just as hot as the air and most likely wouldn’t cool me off, so I refrained.  After that, we went back down to the pharmacy to get our schedules and go over some problems that the pharmacists and technicians gave us earlier that morning.  They were pretty much just examples of prescriptions that have been processed in the pharmacy before and we had to do the calculations and find what was wrong with the scripts.  It was very actually very helpful since I had not seen some of the calculations in a while.   

It was really exciting to get our schedules!  Starting tomorrow, we will be going over to the pier in Vietnam on a boat to begin sorting out the medications.  The Vietnamese government required that we get the medications from them and they won’t let us bring them on the ship.  Therefore, almost all of the pharmacy personnel have to go out all day to sort the medications out for the upcoming MEDCAPS.  MEDCAP 1 begins on Wednesday, July 11^th.  No one will be staying overnight in Vietnam so we will all be coming back every night to the ship.  The first four days, I will be out on the pier sorting medications.  After that I will be working on the last two days of MEDCAP 1.  The next day, I have a liberty day and I will be able to get off the ship.  I think I am going to do a tour that the ship has organized.  I am not sure which sites it goes to yet, but I heard one is a temple so it sounds really great!  After that, I have a couple shifts in the pharmacy, another liberty day, and then I will be going out on MEDCAP 5 for two of the days followed by a couple more shifts in the pharmacy.  I have a lot of days working with my preceptor, which I am really excited about because he is really enthusiastic and is always taking the opportunity to teach us new things.  We don’t have our schedules yet for the Cambodia part of the trip but I am really excited to see how the next 15 days plays out!  I will update as often as I can and take lots of pictures.  I did not attempt to upload pictures this time but Brittany and I have been taking a lot.  I will try to upload some when the Internet becomes more reliable.  So long for now!