Slack Prac

Well.. started the day with pr1103 prac. contrary to what happened two weeks ago, i managed to finish on time!! :) some reasons:

1) i read the lab manual before hand and deciphered the latin prescription. (good boy!)
2) i prepared the worksheet for the charcoal capsules. (ok, being dishonest here, but almost everyone does it?)

yay. made diazepam capsules and charcoal capsules today. DAMN freaking hard to make the charcoal capsules. Didn't really understand how exactly the lab tech filled the capsule (the tail? body?) so i scooped up powder like how those ice-cream vendors give u your cone and stuffed it in the capsule, then weighted it hopefully it would be of enough weight. pretty stupid method.

i actually thought that the ppl will actually lead us to the "capsule machine", say something like, "ok guys, u put your capsules here, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, in a circle, then close the lid and press this button HERE, just press it, don't press in too hard, then wait until the thing goes "ding!" and presto! your capsules are ready, then u put them in a glass container for diazepam..."

damn, how wrong i was.

in the process of making the capsules i spilled the drugs onto the table numerous times, squeezed one capsule into a malformed shape, otherwise everything was ok.

think of the number of capsules that a pharmacist issues to a person every visit: about 20. e.g. mefenamic acid. its like they take about 6 (tid x 2/7) and then leave the packet there...

a hospital sees 200 patients every day.. that's 4000 capsules...

then there's the alternate situation where a kid tries to take a charcoal capsule, then drops it with his butterfingers, then the parent says, "eeeee!!! boy!!! don't eat!!!! DIRTY!!!!!"

grr.. there goes about 5-10mins worth of preparing THAT capsule. just imagine, i spent about 1.5 hours trying to prepare 6 capsules. hmm.