It's been a while

Hi all,
It's been a while since I've updated you all through our blog. We have had alot of exciting things happen recently! Since I left off, I passed my licensure examinations and am now a real live pharmacist! Sometimes (ok most of the time) I go into work and I still feel like the real pharmacist is going to show up. When patients walk up and ask to speak to the pharmacist, I still feel like a little ol pharmacy intern. And it never fails, I always get the same response, "NO WAY! You are too young to be the pharmacist!!" I'm always asked how much school did I get through, an AA? I say nope I have my doctorate. And they just look at me like I'm crazy and just pretending. Its kinda funny. People have no idea what pharmacists really do. Along with my normal everyday tasks in the pharmacy, it's now flu shot season!! I'm really enjoying it more than I thought I would. It gives me more time to sit down with someone and talk with them, whether it be about their life and what they are going through, what questions and concerns they have about the influenza vaccine, or just questions in general. It's also fun to see everyone's different beliefs and perceptions about the flu vaccine and to be able to provide them with more information than what they came in knowing. I really do have an awesome career!

So what else is new with our family?? Well we are going to be going from a family of 2 to a family of 3 in March! Lord willing. I had contemplated not bringing this up on facebook/blogging because it is such a special time for our family and we don't like to share every detail of our lives over the internet. And also what if something goes wrong. But I'm also reassured God is Sovereign and He is in control. It's not about what I think, or hope for, or if I just have enough faith God will bless me with what I want. It's about making much of Him, and He does as He pleases and whatever happens, was already planned from the beginning. But we are hopeful for a safe delivery of our little bundle of joy :) I have already had 2 ultrasounds and it is the most amazing experience I have ever had apart from being saved from my sinful self and marrying my best friend! During our first ultrasound the only thing we were able to really make out on the screen was the little tiny heartbeat. I was only 9 weeks along and it was beating like crazy! It was so surreal. When we had our second ultrasound, I was about 13 weeks, just out of the first trimester and we could see the baby move and jump around, and see the arms and legs move around and see the heartbeat still pumping away! I am now 14 weeks and loving the second trimester. I have my energy back and only feel nauseous when I haven't eaten in about 3 hours. From about 7 weeks to 12 weeks I was so nauseous and so tired. All I did was come home from work and sleep on the couch. I didn't want a whole lot to eat and just wanted to sleep the whole time. I haven't really had any strange food cravings but I cannot stand the smell of garlic or meat cooking and I have not wanted anything sweet. If you know me, you know I love my sweets, thanks to my papa. I have however, wanted to eat Mexican food, especially the cheese dip, like everyday. But that's not really anything new, we've always loved Mexican food! I also had to get David to go to the store and get me some unscented deodorant. The smell of my other deodorant just made me want to barf! And though I haven't had the food cravings, I've certainly had some drink cravings. When I first found out I was expecting, all I wanted was Sierra Mist. The carbonation really helped with being nauseous. Then I didn't want that at all and I moved to orange juice around week 10-12. I would go through like 3 jugs of orange juice a week! Now I don't want orange juice at all but I can't get enough of unsweet tea. It so weird cause before I got pregnant all I ever drank was just water. Even in restaurants. All we ordered was water. Now it's kinda frustrating cause ordering drinks in restaurants are ridiculous. It is so expensive! I could go buy a whole gallon from the grocery store for the price of one tea in a restaurant! Anywho, I'm not sure how many baby updates I will do, you will just have to wait and see.

Baby White at 13 weeks



We have also really been enjoying leading a small group in our home. We've been hosting a small group for close to 2 years now (maybe a little longer). David is such a great teacher and he knows so much about God's Word and can break it down so well when he explains it. We really enjoy our church family at Celebration. We have met so many awesome new friends and enjoy spending time with all of them! We've also been attending a class being offered at our church on Sunday nights called Systematic Theology. I have learned so much. The messages are uploaded here if you care to take a listen and learn:

http://experiencecelebration.com/#/media/systematic-theology

Well I think that's all for now. Dave is home watching lectures and studying for an upcoming PTX exam and I'm off to Walgreens for the closing shift tonight.

In Christ Alone

So I just had to share the lyrics to one of my most favoritest songs. I was playing Pandora on the way to Walgreens the other morning and this song came on 2 times in row. Right after another. This song just gives me the goosebumps.

In Christ alone my hope is found
He is my light, my strength, my song
This Cornerstone, this solid ground
Firm through the fiercest drought and storm

What heights of love, what depths of peace
When fears are stilled, when strivings cease
My Comforter, my All in All
Here in the love of Christ I stand

In Christ alone, who took on flesh
Fullness of God in helpless Babe
This gift of love and righteousness
Scorned by the ones He came to save

Til on that cross as Jesus died
The wrath of God was satisfied
For every sin on Him was laid
Here in the death of Christ I live, I live

There in the ground His body lay
Light of the world by darkness slain
Then bursting forth in glorious Day
Up from the grave He rose again

And as He stands in victory
Sin's curse has lost its grip on me
For I am His and He is mine
Bought with the precious blood of Christ

No guilt in life, no fear in death
This is the power of Christ in me
From a life's first cry to final breath
Jesus commands my destiny

No power of hell, no scheme of man
Could ever pluck me from His hand
Til He returns or calls me home
Here in the power of Christ I stand

I will stand, I will stand
All other ground is sinking sand
All other ground, all other ground
Is sinking sand, is sinking sand
So I stand

Cardiology Rotation

My very last rotation I had as a UF pharmacy student was cardiology. It was a crazy month! I was able to see and learn so many things! If I explained everything I saw, this would be a very long post. But I will mention a few of the events that stuck out in my mind. During my time there, I saw a case of torsades de pointes, a life threatening ventricular tachycardia. This is a French term that literally means "twisting of the points". Now I'm not that great at reading EKG's but I can definitely point this one out! And majority of the time I can point out when a patient is having an ST elevation myocardial infarction, or just simply put a "heart attack". After events such as these, I always go home a bit disturbed with feelings of amazement at the human body. I see just how fragile the human life really is and also how strong it can be and how people can survive some of the most dire situations. I was able to get a tour of the cath lab, short for cardiac catheterization lab. This is a place in the hospital where a patient is sent when admitted to the hospital for having chest pains and possibly other symptoms and is diagnosed with an acute coronary syndrome (ACS). The patients may be sent to the cath lab for a percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) and have a stent placed. If you don't know what having a stent placed means, you should google it and see how it's done. It is soooo cool! I was able to see several bedside procedures and medications used. Some of these medications are not used very often and was very cool to see. I also had the chance to meet and spend time with one of the best cardiologist of anywhere (in my opinion). In the morning he would spend about 4 hours rounding with the health care team and was such an awesome teacher to the medical residents, pharmacy students, and PA students. I thought at first, "Wow! This is going to make for a really long day, having to round for 4 hours then having to do all of my afternoon assignments!" But the time there flew by, I learned so much and enjoyed every minute of it! After this rotation it almost made me second guess my decision to do retail and not a residency. But looking back now, I'm thankful for Walgreens and glad to be a retail pharmacist.

My life as a student is over...

I'm not gonna lie, I'm kinda bummed I will never sit in another classroom listening to a professor, taking an exam that I've studied endless hours for (ok ok I don't think I will miss that!), seeing all of my pharmacy school family everyday like we had the past 4 years, feeling special walking around the hospital in a white lab coat but being able to pull the "ohh I'm just a student card" when hard questions arise. Now it's over. All of it. High school. Community college. Graduate school. Time to be an adult. Arggg.

Well, since I'm behind on this whole blogging thing I wanted to back up and finish my posts about my rotations. I left you when I was on my January rotation at Atkinson's Pharmacy. This was my geriatrics rotation and the pharmacy I was at supplies medications to nursing homes and jails. I did mostly medication therapy reviews where I looked over patients current therapies and made assessments as to whether or not they were getting appropriate treatment, under treatment or over treatment, whether they had any interacting drugs, whether the drugs were suitable for the elderly population, and also made recommendations for monitoring of drug therapy, for both safety and efficacy. I also gave a presentation to nurses at various long term care facilities about the new oral anticoagulant drug on the market, Pradaxa (dabigatran etexilate). It's a medication currently being used for patients who have a heart condition known as atrial fibrillation. These patients are at increased risk of having a stroke (blood clot traveling to the brain) or a pulmonary embolism (a blood clot in the lung). The risk of having these events in these patients are decreased when they are taking Pradaxa. Its a pretty neat drug to give a presentation on and I enjoyed it.

Well this was my rotation during January. I will talk about my favorite rotation next, Cardiology at Shands Jax!

2011, I've Been Waiting for You

Wow! 2011 is here! I have been counting down to this year since I decided to go to pharmacy school lots of years ago! I can't believe it's actually here and is already flying by! I'm counting down until my January rotation is over (3 weeks), counting down until rotations are over (7 weeks), and counting down until graduation (a little under 4 months)! Like my sister-in-law said in one of her posts as she will be graduating from nursing school this year, "2011 is a year I have thought about for a long time. Now that it’s here I don’t have another year in my head. That is a weird feeling." I couldn't have said it better Hannah!

I'm excited to be a pharmacist, scared to death that I will make a mistake, but I am looking forward to taking care of my patients and growing constantly in knowledge. I am ready to be a better wife, spend more time encouraging my husband, and not be so focused on passing an exam, or turning in an assignment, and preparing billions of presentations month after month.

I havent blogged in a while and never gave an update about my December rotation. It was a great month spent at Target pharmacy! I had a great time with everyone there. I did alot of what I am already familiar with from working at Walgreens. It was just greeting patients, filling prescriptions, calling doctors, taking transfers, and patient counseling. My preceptor did a topic discussion every week about a self care topic. We covered cough/cold, pregnancy/lactation, and a pediatrics self care. I don't think I have ever made so many recommendations before for diphenhydramine, dextromethorphan, guaifenesin, pseudoephedrine, and cough drops for sneezing, running noses, coughs, congestion and sore throats. I'm amazed I did not get any sickness from that rotation. Washing my hands and using hand sanitizer helped I believe.

I just finished my first week at Atkinson Pharmacy for my geriatrics rotation. I will give an update once I complete that one. But I'm having a great time there so far.

House update: It's coming along and feeling more like a home rather than a dirty run down office space...

Demolition weekend: Getting nails out, the gross floors up and tearing off the concrete siding of the house:





Here's the concrete siding! Glad that's off now!





David helping Fred build stuff for the backyard





Outside kitchen area :)



Our pavers!



The windows and doors have all been cut out, this is a view of kitchen/living room area



Our bedroom with the 2 windows and double doors going out to the back yard (It's exciting to see the floor plan that we drew up come to life!)



From left to right: Where our potty and bath tub will be (can't see where the shower is going), our bathroom window (won't be able to see in the glass that's going in), our sink area, closet area, then at the front of house is our office area



More updates to come :)

Thankful

Hi all,
We are sitting here at the grandparents home in Claxton, Georgia. All the family has left and we are enjoying the company of grandma and granddaddy. Just got back from having the usual Friday night Mexican dinner at Cilantro's. We had alot of people here for Thanksgiving and it was so nice to see everyone. I was especially excited to meet my newborn niece Amelia. I still can't believe my brother-in-law Jason is a daddy but she is one adorable little girl.

Here are a few pictures of my beautiful little niece





Last Friday I completed my Drug Information rotation at the Mayo Clinic. The Mayo Clinic is super nice and the rotation was pretty good. I just do not miss the early morning drive to Jacksonville and the long walk from my car to the hospital. It seemed like it was a 5 mile walk every morning. I had to text Dave one morning these pictures just so he could see where I had to walk to, the pictures just don't do it justice...



Getting a little bit closer...



I also had a classmate with me that completed his Drug Info rotation as well. A normal day consisted of coming in bright and early and we would sit at our cubicle desks. Physicians, pharmacists, nurses, and other healthcare professionals would either call the drug info center (me and frank) or send us an email and ask us a question that they need an answer for. We would get about 1-2 questions a day but there were a few days when we were working on like 4-5 questions. We would do alot of research using several different resources (PubMed, Micromedex, Clinical Pharmacology, Facts and Comparisons, package inserts, calling the Manufacturer [my favorite!!], and then google). We also had to complete 2 presentations during our month at the Mayo Clinic. One presentation was a Journal Club presentation and the other was a presentation on one of the questions we had received in the drug information center and we had to describe the process of answering the question. Overall, it was a pretty good rotation. I just didn't like not seeing patients at all and being cooped up in a cubicle all day long with no windows to see the sunshine. But one day we came in to find a gift from the residents...

Reese's for Halloween!!



There was also a day when they were giving treats to all of the workers at the Mayo Clinic. So frank went and got us some of the treats, they were these huge caramel apples with mini M&M's on the outside. I had to share with Dave when I got home. They sure are nice to their employees at the Mayo Clinic.



I can't believe I'm already a week into my 7th rotation. I'm at a Super Target near the base in Jacksonville. Three more weeks then I get a couple of weeks off for Christmas. I can't believe I am graduating in May. It just doesn't seem real. I don't wanna leave, I love school! Especially now that Dave is in school. Next year we wont have mailboxes next to each other in the office :( Someone else will be below his name.

Had to take a picture...



I feel like my life is perfectly described in the lyrics of the new Lady Antebellum song, American Honey. There is a line in that song that says "Couldn't wait to get goin' but wasn't quite ready to leave." I feel like our lives are going to be changing so much in the near future. From moving from our first home in our one bedroom apartment to a home on 3rd street, to graduating and actually having a grown up career, and then just maybe, Lord willing, we could start a family... but no comments please, this is a while down the road :) I love the place that David and I are at in our lives. He is such an amazing husband and God has blessed us so much.

Here's a picture of downtown where you can turn to come to our new home on 3rd street, can't wait for it to be done :)



Coming down 3rd street :)



As I had mentioned in a previous note, we were trying to read through the entire Bible chronologically in a year. We have been doing our reading but it doesn't look like we will make it in a year. We are currently in Leviticus. I am really loving the Old Testament. We have been learning about the history of the people of Israel and reading all of the stories of God's creation, promises, and protection of His people. I look forward to learning so much more!

We love you all,
Dave and Lins

Slow Progress

Hi all,
Just a quick house update. Things are moving along slowly and hope to start getting the ball rolling here this coming week. The city has put a few kinks in the plans. Before we can get a permit and do anything, they want to know everything. What's going on the floors, what's going in the kitchen, what's going in the backyard, what's going on the outside, who is going to be doing the work, yada yada yada. So we (mostly mom and Fred) have spent these past few weeks getting quotes from different companies and we have had to pick out EVERYTHING before getting started on anything! Today me and mom went and finally picked out all of the flooring materials. Here is a picture of what we decided on. It's going to be dark wood floors throughout the kitchen, living room, and front hallway and then the carpet in the three bedrooms. The white piece of wood is the cabinet sample that we decided for the kitchen. Going for the classic Pottery Barn look :) (on a budget)



This is the kitchen look we are shooting for



Here's the backyard. Fred and his workers are probably going to be finishing this first. I'm so excited about our backyard! We're getting pavers!!



Hopefully we will get the demolition on the inside started shortly! Sure hope so because our lease ends at the end of January. It's kind of a bitter sweet feeling having to move out of our apartment. Even though we are renting, it's been our first home for me and Dave. I will always look back and be thankful for this little one bedroom apartment.

There are so many great things going on. The holidays are coming up, we get to spend time with family and friends, another rotation will be ending at the end of this week, another rotation will be starting in a week, small (very small) groups have been a great encouragement and a time of learning and growing in God's Word, there is just so much I am thankful for. God has so richly blessed us beyond measure!