This past week

After the screening, this past week was rather uneventful. We had a few more mini-screenings for Max/Facs Patients (Maxillary and Facial, I think), so there were definitely more people on board, but the pharmacy churned away, stocking units and filling crew scripts. Friday, we got an urgent order from a pharmaceutical company in England, so I got to unpack, count, put into stock, and put away the overfill all by myself. I've never been so thankful for our stockroom guys at Methodist.


Some of the drugs that came in needed to be checked by the ministry of health, so we had a member of that office (I still don't know her official title) come on board to watch us as we unpacked everything. She was beautiful and very composed. She spoke only French, but luckily there was a French interpreter to help (not me). As we unpacked, you could tell she was getting frustrated at the haphazard manner of packing, which made it hard to unpack all the antibiotics at once and consequently took more time to unpack and check. But she was very gracious, and at the end said, "Merci, et je m'excuse si je vous dérange." (Thank you, and I'm sorry if I messed up your flow-beth's colloquial translation). To which I replied, "Pas de problème." (No worries). To which she replied, "Ah bon, il y a une qui a compris." (Oh good, at least one of you got my drift). Victory!!!!!! I spoke French, and I didn't get the look of doom, where no one understood what I was saying or even if I was speaking French. I might have done a dance in the aisle between L-Z tablets and topicals. She also was very fascinated by our pill counting machine, so we gave a demonstration, and then Miriam took her on a tour of the hospital.

I don't think I introduced my coworkers, so here's a quick rundown. I'll post photos next time. Miriam is  a Kiwi (that's how she introduces herself) and plays rugby and has a dry sense of humor that often involves teasing. So basically I feel right at home. She's a community pharmacist (basically the same as a retail pharmacist) so she signs emails as "your local friendly pharmacist".

Carolyn arrived last Saturday from SW England. She's a clinical pharmacist in a hospital, so we speak a similar language, but she's got a steep learning curve for more of the filling/sorting/organizing side of pharmacy. She's been great though and is learning very quickly. She's a short-termer like me, but is thinking of joining as long term crew someday.

One surprise this week was singing. At home, I'm used to various online radio stations like Greatest Ballads of the 80's or Martini Lounge blasting in the background while we work. Here...silence. Until last Wednesday. All of a sudden I hear live music that doesn't involve Frank Sinatra or Pat Benetar or "Walk like an Egyptian". It turns out that people do mini concerts and just break into song while waiting on the wards. I don't know who was singing, but I walked by one of the areas and there was a group of 5 with a drum, sitting on some stools and singing beautifully. It was not in English or any other language I recognized, and I was enchanted. Not as enchanting is my attempt to sing in our pharmacy. Carolyn and I put great effort into bringing some of the showtunes back ("Tomorrow" from Annie makes a frequent appearance as we're leaving). Oddly enough, Miriam doesn't join in. Hmmm.

I have a few stories about the "reefer"-our refrigerated overflow area that involves makeshift levers and body slams and trekking through arctic conditions for the sake of storage, but I think they'll be more entertaining in a post with photos. Until then, hope your days are filled with songs, laughter and new adventures around every corner.