This week started clerkship #2: Nuclear Medicine. My preceptor is Dr. Kowalsky, one of the "founding fathers" of nuclear pharmacy, and my professor for my nuclear electives last school year. The objective of this clerkship is to spend time in the hospital, with the patients, and learn about the drugs from the user side. I will be making kits and hitting generators like the summer, but in much smaller numbers. Most of my time will be spent watching patient scans and writing.
Tuesday (Day 1), Dr. Kowalsky, myself, and Mike (another UNC student) met to do paperwork 
and get a tour. Until that day I had never set foot in UNC Hospitals -- hospitals with an "s" and HUGE! We started down hallways and turns and "remember the light at the end of the tunnel" and whatnot, and then I found my landmark -- the zebra butts. You see, radiology and nuclear medicine are in the basement of the Women and Children's hostpital, so they have fun pictures of animals on the walls to make kids smile. Anyways, its worked so far.
and get a tour. Until that day I had never set foot in UNC Hospitals -- hospitals with an "s" and HUGE! We started down hallways and turns and "remember the light at the end of the tunnel" and whatnot, and then I found my landmark -- the zebra butts. You see, radiology and nuclear medicine are in the basement of the Women and Children's hostpital, so they have fun pictures of animals on the walls to make kids smile. Anyways, its worked so far.Our first days have been getting oriented and doing some instrumental experiments. We have to learn how to calibrate some of the machines that count the radioactivity and that could help us identify an unknown compound (I thought I was through with that sophomore year in chemistry!) This morning we went in early, did some quality control tests on the dose calibrators, eluted the generator, and made some kits. I let Mike do most of it since I did it the summer. He was nervous and Dr. K watching him wasn't making it better! I tried mostly to stay out of the way.
Once the kits were made, Dr. K took us upstairs and bought us a cup of coffee. We just sat in the lobby for an hour or so talking. I think there are going to be some real points in this rotation to just get to know Dr. K personally, and for him to get to know me, which will be a great relationship to build and help me decide if I want to go in to nuclear pharmacy.
I'm looking forward to the weekend. Panthers v. Steelers tonight, a UNC alumni basketball game between the 2005 and 2009 Championship teams Friday, and UNC football v. The Citadel on Saturday. Plus, no work on Monday!!
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