My last "day"

I finished my internship with Cardinal Health Nuclear Pharmacy Services in Raleigh last week. I woke up Thursday afternoon around 4:30 pm, took a shower, and got ready for dinner. It was the third Thursday of the month so I was off to Tyler's Tap Room in Durham for dinner with my lovely Kappa Delta Sisters of the RDU Alumni Association.

I LOVE these women and was so very glad to see them one last time before I move. I have really enjoyed meeting the women of the RDU KD AA and can't thank you all enough for being my friends. You have given me new opportunities to continue my involvement in Kappa Delta and shown me how KD truly is a lifelong connection. I will miss you all very much, and I look forward to coming back to visit. AOT.

After dinner I had a really terrible headache so I went home to take a nap. I woke up again at 12:30 am and got ready for my last "day" at work. I fixed some tea, grabbed some breakfast, and headed out the door. Despite the generator shortage we've been experiencing most of the summer, my last week was a good one. We received two medium sized generators on Monday and two large ones on Thursday plus an unexpected small one as a bonus!

When I arrived Friday, Andy, the pharmacist, was busy making kits (adding radioactivity to different drugs for specific tests). I set up a work station and jumped right in with the other technicians drawing up doses and sending them out for packaging. As we finished the majority of the first run of doses, Andy noticed we had enough left over kits to draw the rest of the doses for the morning so we just finished everything up. Three hours into my shift and almost all the work for the day is completed, things are looking good!

We all grabbed a snack and then the guys took out their deliveries. There were a few clients that called in for some extra doses so we worked on those as needed. Around 7 am, a couple of big wigs came in to train the pharmacists and technicians on the new Smart Fill radioiodine machine that had been installed on Thursday. I got to observe the training and smooze with the big wig for a little while. The machine is designed to better contain the radioactivity of the iodine while capsules are being made. Iodine has a long half life (8 days) and targets the thyroid. If the pharmacist, technician, or nuclear medicine worker, inhales or absorbs too much iodine while working with it, it will kill their thyroid and they will have to be on medication for the rest of their life. Thus, installing a new machine that can accurately make the iodine capsules while containing the radiation is a big safety feature!

I was very glad to have the opportunity this summer to complete an internship with Cardinal Health. I learned a lot and finally got the chance to experience this niche of pharmacy that I have been working towards since my senior year in high school. This summer I learned how to: elute a generator to obtain technetium, tag a drug with radioactivity, tag blood cells with radioactivity, quality control test a drug kit to make sure it was properly tagged, safely draw up doses for a patient, safely package and ship doses to clients, deliver doses to clients, sleep during the day (blackout curtains or a dungeon work best), and the embodiment of customer service no matter how much work it creates for you. I have learned I still like nuclear pharmacy and could be happy doing it "when I grow up." And more than that, I met some really amazing people that really know this business and this company.