Time to start blogging again!

I don't know if anyone reads this anymore, but I figure I can use this as a journal... my brain's not getting any younger and I worry I may start to forget things that I've done.

What I hope to do is one day compile a list of things I want to do (and aim to do them) before I die :P

I guess this will also be a way for me to vent about my life... but I warn you, 99.9% of my current gripes are related to my job. If I didn't have to work I'd be perfectly happy... but then there's the problem about paying the bills and putting food on the table.

Till next time!

Jan

Baking Cheesecake!

Hey Y'all,

It's been a while since I've posted. It's probably because 1) my life is pretty boring and 2) I can be lazy at times. *gasp* Jan, lazy?!

I baked a cake with the bf a few weeks ago and was very satisified with the taste. I thought I would share the recipe with you guys =) If you're a cheesecake fan, read on! If not, well.... at least there are some pictures to go with it!

I usually use allrecipes.com for all my recipe needs, and I base my choice on the ratings and on how many people have reviewed it. The following cheesecake recipe is called "Chantal's New York Cheesecake'' and has a 5 star rating with 2205 reviews!!!

INGREDIENTS
15 graham crackers, crushed (I just estimated with graham cracker crumbs)
2 tablespoons butter, melted (I used a bit more than this)
4 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese
1.5 cups white sugar
3/4 cups milk (I used skim)
4 eggs
1 cup sour cream
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup all-purpose flour

DIRECTIONS
1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease a 9 inch springform pan.

2) In a medium bowl, mix graham cracker crumbs with melted butter. Press unto bottom of springform pan.

3) In a large bowl, mix cream cheese with sugar until smooth.


4) Blend in milk, and then mix in the eggs one at a time, mixing just enough to incorporate.


5) Mix in sour cream, vanilla, and flour until smooth.










6) Pour filling unto prepared crust.


7) Bake in preheated oven for 1 hour. Turn the oven off, and let cake cool in oven with the door closed for 5-6 hours; this prevents cracking. Chill in refrigerator until serving.

**NOTE** Even though I followed #7, my cake still ended up cracking =( We ended up going to Loblaws to buy some fruits to hide the cracks, but it still tasted AMAZING nonetheless. Cheesecake was made using the KitchenAid Accolade 400 Series mixer (which is pretty amazing). Thanks to the bf for taking pictures and helping!!!

And VOILA! We have the finished product =)

Every female should take Wen Do!

The picture says: "April 5, 2009 Janet smashed this board with her right tetsu! Congratulations! "instructor's name" "Wen-do symbol"

This past weekend, I had the opportunity to participate in a 15 hour Wen-do Workshop that spanned over 2 days. It took place at York University and was sponsored by SASSL(thanks SASSL!) so that it was free!!! (instead of the 100$ regularly). The course left me feeling more confident about myself, and about being able to protect myself.

The instructor was amazing and very enthusiastic about what she taught. She taught about 1) Awareness 2) Avoidance and 3) Action. Awareness means to always be aware of your surroundings and those around you. Be aware of places that are safe/not so safe in your neighbourhood. Recall places that may be open 24/7. Avoidance Get away as soon as possible when you sense danger. (eg. Yell, cross the street). Action Use your voice to assert your rights, and to protect yourself. If you need to hit, use all the power in your body and voice, and keep going until you get to safety.

We learnt different types of strikes: Hammer's Fist, Eagle's Claw, Inside Knife Hand, Zipper Punch, Outside Knife Hand, Wen-do Fist, Heel Palm, Web Hand, Side and back elbow strike, upper elbow strike, cross elbow strike, front and back kick, upper and lower blocks, front and back choke releases, wrist releases, Amateur Knife Defense, Professional Knife Defense, Back Knife Defense, Bed Techniques (if attacker is at the door, beside the bed, on top), etc. The instructor taught us a lot in 2 days, but she gave us a sheet so that we can review the different techniques learnt. In addition to physical defense moves, she taught us to also practice verbal self defense. She told us many success stories of how women were able to talk themselves out of dangerous situations.

Most girls would think that they would only need to use self-defense if they were attacked by a stranger on the street late at night. However, this is not true. Here are some facts according to the Worldwide Sexual Assault Statistics:

-It is estimated that 1 in 3 American women will be sexually assaulted in her lifetime.
•89% of sexual assaults are committed by someone the victim knows. (I think this is a very scary fact)
•For every sexual assault reported to the police, 3 to 10 go unreported.

The majority if violence against women cases is not the scene you see on TV. Usually on TV, the girl is out late at night, probably dressed in some scandalous clothing. Some stranger (usually sketchy looking) comes up and lifts her and tries to carry her away. The girl in turn starts to scream "You bad man..." and starts pounding at his chest (which is not a very vulnerable position). The reality is that women are most likely to be assaulted at home by someone they know. If they are in an abusive relationship, then they are at the highest risk of getting killed right after breaking up with the abusive partner.

If someone tried to assault you, (eg. your neighbour, friend, husband, boyfriend, ex-partner, a complete stranger) would you be prepared to use hard or soft wen-do? Would you defend yourself? I would, because I'm worth defending!

Some girls may think they never need to learn self defense because they won't get themselves in a situation where they require it. It never hurts to learn how to protect yourself and it only takes a few hours of your time. We are all human beings and we never deserve to be assaulted, or harassed in any way. In today's society with increasing rates of violence, I think every female should take the opportunity to equip themselves with the skills they need for any situation which may require them to defend themselves.

I am definitely interested in continuing on to Intermediate classes come September. Who's with me?

What I Can't Live Without

HOT WATER. Simple as that. Today my house didn't have a trace of warm/hot water. I thought it was only my kitchen but I guess I was wrong. Needless to say after my Legs & Back + Ab Ripper X P90X workout I HAVE to take a shower (since I plan on going shopping later today) and I'm sweating like a pig. But it was VERY difficult to take a shower today =( I usually like nice hot showers, but this water wasn't even lukewarm or room temperature. This was icy, cold, "I feel like I'm going to get hypothermia" water. I tried to take a bath but my toes felt like they were going to fall off even when I just submerged them in water. In the end I opted to take a very QUICK shower that was set at low pressure. I couldn't even think of washing my hair with this ice water!

Being the Chinese people we are, we have a hot water dispenser. So I took a bucket from the basement and filled it with some cold water. Then I also filled the bucket with hot water. Cold water + hot water = warm water that is acceptable to wash my hair. Then I dragged the bucket up to the bathroom and used cup by cup to soak, wash and rinse my hair.

I hope I never have to go through this again. I don't understand how people can swim in the lake during winter. They have guts (or they're just crazy).

P90X - Day 17/90

There's still a long way to go.... but I can definitely sense an improvement over the past couple of weeks. Will I last till day 90? I'll keep you posted :P

No, I will not grovel at your feet

RANT 1
I'm not going to grovel at your feet when you threaten to 'never get your prescriptions filled here again.' I don't want your business if you can't respect me. The I in IVR (filling your prescriptions via the phone) doesn't stand for immediate/instant. If you refill your prescription via IVR, please allow at least 24 hours to have it filled. It's not going to be ready if you come in 10 minutes after you IVR'd.

I have no problems apologizing to you if it's my fault. However, if you're just going to come in looking all pissy at me because you used the IVR while you were driving down to the pharmacy I'm not at fault, and I am not going to beg for your forgiveness when it's not filled yet. When I'm the only person working in the pharmacy (with no assistant on Sunday mornings), I can't fill your prescription in FIVE minutes when I have to answer the phones, enter in prescriptions, make recommendations, count, check and COUNSEL on prescriptions. I only have 2 hands and 1 mouth, I'm not Bodhissattva (thousand hand Buddha).

RANT 2
Are doctors in hospitals completely oblivious to the concept of LU (Limited Use) codes? I called St. Mike's today and the nurse I spoke with thought I was speaking alien. "What is this code you speak of? Why does this patient need this code? If I figure out the code can I tell you what it is?" She probably doesn't really care whether the drug is covered by the patient's drug plan or not.

Later, when a doctor was finally reached they called back and said the patient did not qualify for any of these LU codes in order for the Fragmin to be covered by ODB. Lucky the patient didn't mind paying cash for it. But what about those 80 or 90 year old patients who can't afford that specific medication? I wish people in the hospital would be more considerate and didn't write the first drug that popped into their head. They should think about the patient's economic status as well as put that into consideration. Fragmin is used very frequently in hospitals, but community pharmacies do not regularly stock this medication.

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Can I see myself doing this for the rest of my life? I dunno man.... but I'm sure it's better to be the pharmacist than to be the pharmacy assistant. They deal with a ton more crap than I do. Man, I'm only in my 2nd month working as a full time pharmacist and I'm already getting bitter... it's not a good sign.

What your pharmacist does

A lot of people don't really know exactly what a pharmacist does, and I think everyone in my profession feels my frustration when I tell them 'No, we do not (just) count your pills!' If that's all we did, why don't they just hire chimps instead??

Under the Pharmacy Act, a pharmacist's scope of practice "is the custody, compounding and dispensing of drugs, the provision of non-prescription drugs, health care aids and devices and the provision of information related to drug use." Simply put, a pharmacist needs to there at your Shoppers/Pharmaplus/Pharmasave/etc in order for it to be open! You will notice that in Dominions, Loblaws, etc, they will have a "Lock & Leave" pharmacy where the drugs are sealed off so that the public can't access it when the pharmacy is closed (usually after 9 pm).

What pharmacists learn in school
I think different faculties may teach the courses in a different order, but the courses itself are generally the same. Human Anatomy and Histology, Micriobiology of Infectious Diseases, Statistics (so that we can analyze the evidence about the efficacy of drugs), Basic Human Physiology, Medicinal Chemistry, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Pharmaceutics, Pharmacology, Pharmacokinetics (how the drug is absorbed, distributed, metabolized, excreted through the body, Toxicology, Pharmaceutical Care (aka Therapeutics - where we learn important information about the drugs we give you), etc are just a few of the MANY courses that we learn during our 4 years in school.

While most students take five 1.0 credit courses during an academic school year, we as pharmacy students take up to 8 or 9 courses/semester that vary from 0.25, 0.5 and 1.0 credits. Tuition is MUCH more expensive (double that of regular arts&sci students) and we graduate with a BSc.Phm (Bachelors of Science in Pharmacy).

What pharmacists (would ideally) do at work
Unfortunately, doctors are not perfect and they make mistakes too! Luckily, we are there to catch them (most, if not all of the time). We also make sure that the drug you're getting is the appropriate one for the right condition. When you come in with a script, we will know the many uses for that drug, as well as appropriate dosing. This is why sometimes we confirm what you're taking it for and what the doctor has already told you. Ideally, we would follow up with you to see if there are any undesirable side effects due to the medication and if the medication is working (eg. has blood sugar, or blood pressure gone down).

If you get a new prescription, we are SUPPOSED to counsel you on its use! If it's a repeat prescription (you've had it before), we're usually ask if you have any questions regarding the medication. When you come in with a question about colds/allergies/rashes/burns/lice/pinworms/scabies/multivitamins/herbals etc, we can answer your questions and make a recommendation about which product would be best for you.

Here is a common example of a pharmacist intervention:
Mrs. X comes in with a prescription for one of her maintenance medications. Usually, she gets HCTZ (water pill) 12.5 mg daily. HCTZ is available as 25 mg strength. Instead of writing, ss (1/2) tab daily, doctor Y has written it as 1 tablet daily. I confirm with Mrs. X to see if she is aware that her dose has increased. She is unaware that there were changes to her medication regime. I call doctor Y and confirm that she is to stay on 1/2 tablet daily.

Pharmacy technician DNE Pharmacist
It always amuses me when patients/clients come up to the counter and start talking about their cold/allergies/rash to the first person they see at the dispensary. After the patient goes on for 2 minutes, the technician usually says "Hold on, I'll get you the pharmacist," and then the patient has to repeat their case to me. Most people do not realize that there is usually ONE pharmacist and one or more pharmacy assistants/technicians, and that legally, only the pharmacist can legally provide recommendations on over-the-counter medications. Usually, person wearing WHITE labcoat = PHARMACIST.

The technician(s) can make or break the pharmacist. I can't tell you how important they are. They can either make the workflow go very smoothly, or slow the pharmacy down tenfold. They can enter in prescriptions, deal with billing issues, count/prepare the medications, answer the phone that rings incessantly, as well as answer certain patient questions (eg regarding billing, location of products). I really really really appreciate my technicians!

Ontario set up a program last year called MedsCheck, which I think highlights the importance of a pharmacist and what they can do for patients! It allows patients who are taking 3 or more chronic medications to set up an appointment with his/her pharmacist and go over their medications thoroughly. During a MedsCheck appointment, patients can ask any questions regarding the use/storage of their medications, and it provides pharmacists with the opportunity to identify and resolve any drug therapy problems. Best of all, it's free for patients (all they need to bring is their health card) and is paid for by the Ontario government! The patient leaves the pharmacy with a complete list of all the medications they are taking (prescription, OTC, herbals), and sometimes the doctor is usually notified of a MedsCheck being performed.

Wow, that was a lot of typing in one day! I hope you enjoyed this special edition of "What your pharmacist does". I like comments (positive more so than negative). Thanks for making it this far