Best Buy

It cost me $1.00 singapore dollar, roughly $0.80 U.S. Dollar,  I got in Chinatown my first day here, and I use it everyday.

A folding fan.

I always thought these were so cheesy, but now I always make sure I have it on me before I leave the house.  With weather here in the upper 80's with high humidity, and all the time spent walking using public transportation, this little fan has become a lifesaver.  It is small, light weight, and it gets the job done. Sure I look like a tourist, but at least I'm a bit more comfortable with it in hand.  I highly recommend one for anyone traveling near the equator.


More to come soon!

Cowboys in Texas Drive Audis

So the conversation with my preceptor goes a little like this:

Preceptor: Do they say howdy in the U.S.?
Me: No, not really, why?
Preceptor: Really? I thought it would be popular there
Me: No, they usually don't say howdy, maybe if you are a cowboy, or if you live in Texas you would.
Preceptor: Oh that's interesting, what about Cadillacs? Do people drive Cadillacs in the states?

Me:......... >_<  thinking to myself-...... oh he was talking about cars this whole time, he was asking DO THEY DRIVE AUDIS IN THE STATES....the German car..... at this point it was too late to correct myself out of sheer embarrassment, so I just let him think that cowboys in Texas drive Audis. my final reply:

Yes, yes they do drive Cadillacs in the U.S.

This is an excellent example of how difficult it is to communicate at times, even though I am speaking the same language as everyone else here.  It also emphasizes the importance of verifying your understanding of what people are asking, and how your response is interpreted.


More to come soon!

Name game

One of the hardest things to get used to in the pharmacy is the different names of drugs.  Most of the drugs here go by different brand names, they use the British naming system, for example pantoprazole here is called Controloc instead of Protonix.

What's even worse for me is that there are some drugs that even go by different generic names, most people know that some countries recognize acetaminophen (Tylenol) as paracetamol (Panadol).  

But did you know that here glyburide (Diabeta/Glynase Press tab) is known as glibenclamide (Daonil)?

 When I first saw it, I thought it was a completely different sulfonylurea.

More to come soon!

Unhealthy Glow

In Western countries, we believe that a tan gives you that nice healthy looking glow, in fact, Jergens has a self tanning lotion called natural glow, but here in Asia, they believe in healthy White.

They don't like dark skin, because traditionally that is associated with laborers that have to work in the fields.  So if you are affluent, you can afford to stay indoors and have healthy white skin.  My friend that lives here said that they put whitening products in almost every skin product, when you go to the spa you have to specifically request NO whitening products because they just assume that you want that here.

I think it's unhealthy to bee too far on either side of the spectrum, too much UV light can cause skin cancer, and using chemicals constantly to keep your skin white can't be healthy either.

More to come soon!

To the left, to the left

They drive on the opposite side of the road here, and they also walk on that side of the walk way too.  It's a bit disorienting, and even dangerous at times.  For example, when crossing the street I tend to look in the opposite direction to look for oncoming traffic.  I also seem to get in the way because I sometimes forget to yield to the left instead of the right. I constantly have to remind myself to look both ways before crossing here.

Singaporean English, Singlish, Singrish

People here speak English, but their own version, Singaporean English, Singlish for short.  They use very proper words because they were once colonized by the British, such as queue instead of line. However they often so not use pro-nouns such as it or the.  A common thing is to ask Can-lah? or Cannot lah? Which they use for every situation, in a taxi they ask "can turn lah?" or in the pharmacy they ask "can buy without prescription lah?"

And the -lah part is used often, after a statement, expression, or question.  Kind of similar to the way they use "Ay" after questions in in Canada.

The Singrish part comes in because there are people from all over the work here, and they often have a heavy accent, so jokingly many say "Singrish." Communication here is a lot more difficult than I thought.  I asked my co-workers, and they do not have a difficult time understanding me because of the American television available here.  But I do have a difficult time understanding others because of the Singlish combined with the heavy accent.  I try my best to understand by using the repeat back method.  I repeat back what the person said to me to verify if what I heard was in fact what they said.  I think this is a good method to use whether or not there is a language barrier in healthcare.

And then there are some things I just find childlishly amusing, "hump ahead" instead of bump:

More to come soon!

Slow internet

The internet where I am staying is extremely slow and spotty, so I can't update as often as I'd like. But I found the trick is to use the internet in the morning, when usage is low for better quality.

My site is located on Orchard Road, which is like the equivalent of 5th avenue in New York.  It is a strip of high end malls.  I have actually never seen so many malls before in my life!  The plus for me is that I get to stop by for the food courts during lunch which have so many options, low end things like meat on a stick and bakery items running from about $1-2 singapore dollars each, to mid range and higher end gourmet meals from all around the world.

My pharmacy is located within a private hospital, Mount Elizabeth

The Guardian pharmacy that I am at sells mane beauty and medical supplies.  They do about 70-100 prescriptions per day, which is considered very high volume for Singapore pharmacies.  I work with 2 pharmacists and 5 other students, some of them are from different countries like Malaysia and New Zealand so I get to learn a bit about pharmacy practice in those countries as well.

My preceptor loves to quiz his students, yesterday's topic was the different types of rhinitis.  I am impressed my his memory of medicinal chemistry and detailed immunology, even 8 years after he has graduated.

So quiz time for all of you pharmacy geeks, we went over the different pathophysiologies of the different types of rhitnitis, allergic, bacterial, viral, and blunt trauma induced.  Allergic Rhinitis is the only pathway that involved histamine release, but why do doctors sometimes prescribe diphenydramine for viral or bacterial rhitintis?..........................

Answer: because the anti-cholinergic effects of antihistamines can help reduce secretions! such common sense, but sometimes we forget to think about these things.

Also if anyone can tell me the purpose of diphenhydramine in Rocky Mountain Mouthwash to treat thrush, it would be much appreciated.

More to come soon!