I am not sure if you are aware, but during the day Irma and I are not together. She is in her final year of pharmacy school and she also has a required internship, which is at a community pharmacy. So from when she leaves in the morning until we meet up later in the evening, I am on my own. Today, I had my first community pharmacy experience, solo. Throughout the day I was having watery eyes, running nose, and scratchy throat all classic symptoms of allergies. And I was miserable. I decided on my way home to stop at the pharmacy I walk by daily. I followed the signs and pictures on the wall to locate the over-the-counter cough, cold, fever, pain, and also allergy relief medications. Scanning the boxes I finally located a medication "cloridrato de fexotenadina" with "anti-alergico" also printed on the box. Success! In English, fexofenadine goes by the brand name of Allegra. I took a few pictures of the box and packaging displayed here just in case you were curious. I felt proud of myself for being able to navigate the pharmacy to treat a self-care problem, and grateful that like in the US there was no prescription required.
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The past two days have been extremely busy. I finally had the chance to meet Helena Marques, Irma's professor and my preceptor during this time in Portugal. She was welcoming and interested in hearing more about pharmacy school in the United States and what we do for our fourth (and final) year of pharmacy rotations. After a short chat, she walked me around from room to room in the pharmaceutical research building showing me the various labs and introducing me to absolutely everyone: professors, co-researchers, PhD students, masters students, undergraduate students, even the secretary. In each lab she would try to explain to the best of her ability what type of research was completed and the different pieces of equipment that were utilized. For those of you familiar with the pharmacy school curriculum, it was the living example of the Drug Development III course. Basically, I had seen pictures of these various machines used during the drug discovery and development process, and had a general idea how they worked, but now I will be observing their use for clinical research purposes. For aerosol delivery there was a machine that could measure the size of a particle. For parenteral delivery there was a machine that could measure the osmolarity of a solution. For oral delivery there was a machine that created tablets and another for capsules. And the list goes on of each of the technologies I was introduced to, which hopefully I will be seeing in action over the next few weeks. As far as the laboratory goes, some of the research is confidential as it is unpublished and innovative work. Therefore, I will be able to post some pictures but they must be approved by my preceptor first to make sure they are appropriate for sharing on my blog. It is so exciting that I even have the opportunity to observe the work that takes place in this faculty!
In my off time, I had my first chance to explore a small part of the city as Irma and I venture to the top of one of the hills surrounding Lisbon for dinner in the evening. I'm starting to get used to seeing picturesque views everywhere I look. Even the sidewalks are paved with black and white tiles in various patterns, it is almost too pretty to walk on. I had the pleasure of meeting more of Irma's family as her brother and his wife are visiting from France with their new baby boy, Tomas. Below is a smattering of photos from the past two days so you can see what I am trying to describe in words, but it is almost impossible. |
AuthorCheck out the About Me tab for a brief self-biography of Valerie Nolt. Archives
August 2015
Categories"Travel makes one modest. You see what a tiny place you occupy in the world."
- Gustave Flaubert |