Whyalla - Day 3

Yeah, I figured that I would not want to write some nonsensical stuff on my blog every single day, and make you guys die from boredom when you read it. So I'll only post interesting stuff when there's something interesting going on.


Day 2 was basically nothing much. Just went to do imprest at the surgical ward, then the rest of the day was spent picking up meds for scripts, unpacking and checking meds that just arrived + labeling them and putting them on shelves, and then counting pills! :D

When I got home, Tristan (the med guy), told me that he saw me for about 5 seconds in the hospital while I was doing imprest. I asked him was he near the theatre, and he replied, 'I don't know! I was just following someone around.' XD
Anyway, he also told me about an interesting patient. (Well, fairly interesting if you consider that Whyalla is a slow place.) Someone came in with a burn from molten metal from one of the smelting factories. Apparently it was quite bad and it was all over 1 side of the face, and he was totally concious. They flew him to RAH in the end.

That's about it for day 2. Boring huh? -_-


Day 3: Chemo!!! Whee!! (This part actually happened in the afternoon)
Well, I didn't get to go see the chemo patients in the end as John the locum relief pharmacist told me that he's quite confused himself, as he isn't a permanent staff at the hospital and he doesn't really know much about the patients and other staff. Oh wells, I hope I'll manage to do it next week when my preceptor comes back from Canberra (renewing his visa).

So all I got to do for onco today was going through the patients' files and listing down the chemos that needs to be ordered for next week. Apparently no chemo drugs are prepared in this hospital at all (coz they don't have the facilities). All are made in Adelaide and transported to Whyalla. But I did learn that not all chemos are diluted in saline. Some needs to be diluted in dectrose 5%. No idea why. I asked John but he doesn't know about it, so I'll have to ask my preceptor when he returns next week. o.o


Before doing the chemo in the afternoon, my morning was spent repeating what I did yesterday: packing meds in boxes/bottles for the wards. Until John came around and saw the pile waiting for him to get checked. He then came to me and said, 'If you ever want some variety, there are some new boxes of meds that just arrived. Now, I'm not ordering you to do that, but if you ever want some variety..' I burst out into laughter at this point. XD So after I finished the meds that I was doing, I proceeded to do those newly arrived stock. Only managed to do the items that needed to be refridgerated, and then it was time for tea. :D

While having tea, the staff were talking about how one of the patients was making a fuss at the supplies department of the hospital, trying to get her soap enema (for constipation). However, it's not manufactured anymore so they can't get it supplied, and then she got into a huge fit and said that she'll make a complain, yada yada. Anyway, the interesting part was, right after tea, there was a Code Red (Fire) at supplies. Everyone started laughing and wondering if said patient set fire to the supplies department because she couldn't get her enema. It turned out to be a false alarm in the end, and everyone was relieved that said patient wasn't desperate enough to set a fire just to get her enema. XD


So after tea, I continued unpacking and putting away all those meds. @_@ Also learnt that there are many many weird formulation of meds that you'll never guess. That and many of the patients in this hospital are either suffering from nausea and vomiting, or constipation. (So many metoclopramide and domperidone in various formulations, as well as senna coming in!) But we can't really blame them. Many of the patients are on opioids for surgery or cancer.

After doing everything (6 invoices worth of meds, with more than 10 boxes in total), I continued doing the meds packing, with some scripts and imprest in the middle. Until it was time to get off work.


And that's all till now. o.o Phaik Wen is currently at her colleague's house making 'Char Siew Pao'. She asked me to go with her but I'm too tired to move. My feet hurt so bad. >_<

So yeah, probably gonna watch Masterchef while having cookies for dinner and then go to bed.

So long for now! :)