A Drug with No Antidote / Uphill Battle

Wednesday June 22nd -
Today was presentation/projects day meaning at 2pm we headed to the conference room at the AFB to show our IM and SQ injection videos to the the other students and pharmacists from the base. It was hard for me to watch/hear myself on screen but they all seemed to like the videos. After the other students presented, Captain brought us cake to celebrate and our Sargent agreed to teach us a dance (apparently from some childhood show I did not watch). We have video and pictures of this floating around somewhere. Overall, it was a fun and random afternoon at work.

This evening we went to Kinley's Restaurant and Bar for a Pharmaceutical Rep dinner. Here, we were educated on Pradaxa (anticoagulant drug) which after his presentation I'm still weary of. There is no known antidote to the drug unlike Coumadin/warfarin which has Vitamin K as an antidote. Regardless of the presentation, the steak I enjoyed was delicious. We also had crab cakes and bacon wrapped dates that were also quite tasty. After dinner, Captain took us out to play foosball, billiards, and table shuffleboard. Mallory and I dominated at shuffleboard probably out of pure luck rather than actual skill. It really was a great night to spend outside of work with the other interns.


Thursday June 23rd -
Today Becca and I had the day off, so we decided to hike Mt. Baldy which was recommended to us as a fairly easy hike with some harder spots. Since our classmate Kyle has a rotation here in July, he flew in early to explore Alaska, so he also came with us on our hike. Boy, we didn't know what we were getting ourselves into. It was an uphill battle that I was not ready or in shape for. Kyle, on the other hand, had no problem traversing the side of the mountain. Last month he spent some time in Utah hiking the Blue John Canyon same place Aron Ralston, 127 Hours, was trapped and had to amputate his arm. Therefore, he was more prepared than Becca and myself. When we finally made it to the top, the view of Eagle River was beautiful! I still like when we hike further away from the developed cities where you can't see/hear the highway though, but it was still nice. We went beyond the peak some to Blacktail Rocks where we abandoned the trail to play in some snow. I pitched Kyle a couple of snowballs and he used his walking stick as a bat. After that, we decided to go back a different way than we came up the hill, so we found a downhill path that was pretty fun for trail-running. By the end of the hike, I was really ready to rest my legs while working on a paper for my Honduras trip.

Ducks, Dogs, and Bear-Dogs

Our preceptor gives us each a day off during the week, so that we can explore and enjoy Alaska. Majority of people have Friday or Monday off and get 3-day weekends. Becca and I have Thursdays off which I was honestly pretty bummed about at first. But then we realized our weeks consist of: 3 days of work, a day off, then only 1 day of work before the weekend - not too bad to have the week broken up a bit.

For our first Thursday off Becca and I planned to sleep in and then go for a hike! I learned this morning that sleeping in is harder for me to do than I thought while in Alaska. So after waking up at 6am, I forced myself back to sleep for a couple more hours. After enjoying a leisurely morning of getting ready, we jumped in the Escape and did just that. We headed up North past Palmer to Matanuska Valley in order to hike Reed Lakes Trail. Unfortunately, the road to that specific trail was closed for another couple weeks. Therefore, we ended up at the next trail over called Golden Mint Trail. We started hiking around 1:00 with no real idea where this trail would take us as it wasn't in our initial plan. The first couple of miles were rather easy and the scenery was beautiful. We enjoyed the lunch Becca made us next to a great part of the river where the rapids pushed the crystal clear water right by us. We both agreed that we wanted to swim in it, but after testing the water temperature realized it was a cold idea. So we continued on the trail passing a few people as we went. After reaching the 5th mile it started to get pretty muddy and at the 6th mile the trail was pretty overgrown. I was really happy to have my Columbia pants on in the overgrown parts, but I was not as fortunate to have my running shoes on when we reached the mud. I really need to buy some hiking shoes/boots while I'm up here. After completing our 7th mile it was time to turn back in order to make it to the car and then drive in to town for dinner. Our roundtrip hike of 14 miles took us 5 hours which was pretty decent. 

While on the trail, we didn't see many animals except a couple of ducks floating down river, dogs hiking with their owners, and best of all, a Bear-Dog. This "dog" was HUGE! I'm not sure what kind it was, but he was massive. I wish I would have taken a picture of him, but instead I only got his print. This picture doesn't do this print any justice. I should have put a size reference next to it. Just imagine my hand, and it'd be almost equal in size - not joking. 

Bear-Dog

The overall day trip was great, though I'm pretty exhausted despite the extra sleep. Hopefully our Friday at work will go by quickly... I even cleaned the mud off my tennis shoes in the sink tonight, and stuffed them with newspaper to hopefully dry them out before the weekend. Next adventure: 19 hours until we depart for Denali. 

Flick Goes to Alaska

I spent my morning at the base in the Coumadin Clinic with one of the contract pharmacists - aka non-military personnel. She reviewed how the clinic functioned and it's purpose and explained her role in patient care. We met with a couple returning patients and reviewed their INRs and warfarin doses adjusting them according to protocol. For those reading this that think I'm speaking in a foreign language, INR = international normalized ratio. This value is used to determine the clotting tendency of blood. Therefore, in the clinic we make sure people don't develop blood clots (eg. deep vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolisms) by managing their medications, diet, and lifestyle. I really enjoyed this type of patient interaction. The patient's were all motivated to better their health which makes a pharmacist's job a bit easier.

During the afternoon, I worked on our self-injection video project which will instruct patients how to use their injectable medications. Somehow I ended up being the only one okay with being on camera, so I get to inject myself for the videos. After working on that some, our Captain took Jenna (a Hawaii student) and myself on a "field-trip" around base. For some of our rotation activities we must drive to the other side of base which can be quite confusing with how large the base is, and it is also a "joint-base" with Fort Richardson Army Base which we also travel to. Therefore, I wrote out detailed directions and highlighted the multiple locations and routes on a map for the other students. I think I might be developing some organizational skills. It's a weird feeling... I even typed up my handwritten notes from the paste week today. I'm hoping this good habit will stick!

To explain the title of the post:
Flick - my lacrosse stick - traveled with me to Alaska for the purpose of playing in a women's lacrosse league. Tonight I went to the first gathering where I met ladies that grew up on the East coast playing lacrosse and played at colleges in New York and Maryland. We also had a couple of newly graduated 18 year olds that picked up sticks for the first time tonight. Therefore, Tori (coach from Maryland) and myself taught the new girls how to play. It was a lot of fun teaching the first timers the basics of the sport, but it definitely made me miss my high school lax girls who are about to start camps. The last portion of the night we sat around and got to know each other better which I really enjoyed. I haven't been around lacrosse players from across the nation like this since I played on the Midwest Team when we traveled to Pennsylvania. (Laura, do you remember that trip?)

Also, there's a youth boys league going on as well on Monday and Wednesday afternoons, so I was able to meet their coaches and talk to them about how much lacrosse has grown in Anchorage. It was definitely an encouraging time. A lot of the guys that coach the boys play in the men's league, and they invited us to watch the men's games on Monday nights. So you all know where I'll be Mondays. I just can't get enough lacrosse!

Tomorrow, Becca and I have the day off (because our preceptor is awesome), so we are planning to drive North of Anchorage to hike Reed Lakes. I'm hoping my legs won't be too sore from the 7 mile bike ride to lacrosse and 4 mile ride back. Why the difference in mileage to get there? Well I took the scenic route going there which just happened to be the wrong way. Don't worry, I used a Bus Stop map to figure out how to get there. Also, I'm pretty sure I looked ridiculous with my lacrosse stick poking out the top and bottom of the back of my jacket while I rode Celeste's bike.

Anyway, today was a rather surreal day. I never thought I'd have the opportunities - professionally and personally - that I have had experienced while in Alaska. I really can't wait to see what else is in store this next month!