#27!!

The Yankees have done it again. The most decorated team in all of professional sports just won their unprecedented 27th (I repeat, TWENTY-SEVENTH) MLB World Series title, taking down the defending world champs (and my other favourite team from the other league), the Phillies. Just like how Babe Ruth and his Yankees won it all in the old Yankee Stadium, Derek Jeter and co. have emulated what Ruth and co. did, but this time at the new Yankee Stadium!

Solid effort from Andy Pettitte, from the bullpen and Mariano Rivera who recorded the final five outs. But perhaps the man who deserves the most glory is no doubt Hideki Matsui. “Godzilla” singlehandedly mauled the Phillies with six RBIs including a two-run home run off Pedro Martinez. Well deserved World Series MVP, Godzilla!!

Let’s hope this is just the first of many for the Bombers!! Congratulations!!

Back to reality. Two more exams for me… Come on, Nathan! Study! Also found out I passed the Super OSCE yesterday night too, which I’m still quite ecstatic about!! XD

Yanks Pull Even

A solid 7.0 innings by AJ Burnett coupled with a 2.0-inning, six-out save by Mariano Rivera usually means a win for the Bronx Bombers, and today was no exception. Although Mo kind of struggled in the 8th. Nearly gave me a heart attack; figuratively speaking Nevertheless, as Mo has done countless times in his illustrious career, he escaped the jam.

Homers from Mark Teixeira and Hideki Matsui paved the way for the win, along with a pinch-hit RBI by Jorge Posada. Alex Rodriguez, however, continues to struggle. Similarly, the Phils’ big first baseman, Ryan Howard. also struggled. Hopefully A-Rod wakes up soon. Otherwise his so-called postseason “transformation” thus far will be quickly forgotten.

Super OSCE went quite well yesterday (I hope!). Cellulitis with a penicillin allergy. One down, three more to go (4th, 7th and 11th Oct). Wish me luck!

Enter Night, Exit Light

The Yankees punched their ticket into their first World Series since 2003; Mariano Rivera was summoned from the bullpen at the top of the 8th, and you all know what happens next. 99.99% of the time, the Yankees roll on to win the game. Although I’ll admit, I was on the edge of my seat while watching Gameday on MLB.com. The Angels managed to squeeze one run off Mo (which is near impossible), but because it was a pivotal game (win or go home for the Halos), I’ll let this one slide (as Mo still recorded the save anyway).

So, the World Series stage is set. My TWO FAVOURITE TEAMS will battle it out for baseball’s most coveted prize. I remember telling Dill when the season just started that a Yankees/Phillies World Series match-up is possible. He told me to stop dreaming.

Teams-wise, I’m gonna have to say I like the Yankees a little bit more overall, so chances are I’ll be rooting for them. That’s not to say the Phillies aren’t awesome, because I love them just as much! But whoever wins, I’ll be happy. At least Boston didn’t make it

I had my P410 presentation today at 1:30pm too. All in all, I think we did a great job, and without a doubt, our Powerpoint slides were by far the best!

Now, just an OSCE and three exams to go…

Super OSCE!!

Just had my first ever super OSCE this afternoon, and WHOA, what an intense experience!! What’s worse is that our case was by far the most difficult out of ALL the cases given over the past two days (incl. today). I guess it sucks to have a surname near the end of the alphabet lol… Nevertheless, I think I nailed it on the head!

The case was for a 62 (or was she 52?) year old woman who had stable atrial fibrillation (AF) and stable hypertension (HTN), who went to see her doctor a few days ago as she was coughing up green sputum. She was then diagnosed with community-acquired, uncomplicated pneumonia (what a mouthful!). Subsequently, she was prescribed roxithromycin and paracetamol.

That was ALL the info we were given. Firstly, we hadn’t even touched on pneumonia, AND secondly, we have never dispensed roxithromycin. The initial 10 minute preparation time we had was more like 10 minutes of panic time for me! Next was the patient consultation. I was assigned Dr. Zaheer-Ud-Din Babar as my patient, and boy was he useless. Not knocking him or anything, as he’s a pretty awesome lecturer, but he seriously needs to work on his role-playing/acting skills LOL. He was pretty much reading off a movie script for all I knew lol! From this consultation, I find that the patient is also on cilazapril, metoprolol and warfarin (for her AF and HTN).

Off to my doctor’s consultation. I had Dr. Jeff Harrison as my doctor, and I suggested the initial changes I had decided on; which was 1) reduce the cilazapril dose due to the patient’s HTN being well-controlled, and also to reduce the risk of angiodema, and 2) to change the roxithromycin to a penicillin-based antibiotic (such as amoxycillin), as the patient is allergic to the roxithromycin. Unfortunately, at this point, Dr. Harrison declines both of my suggestions, and I’m left sitting there thinking, “OMG come on! What else is fishy!”. I ask to look at the BNF, then it finally clicks; the warfarin! Warfarin interacts with pretty much everything! Turns out roxithromycin increases the anticoagulant effects of warfarin, therefore it’s not suitable for this patient.

Script change(s): roxithromycin changed to amoxycillin 500mg tds for 5 days.

Dispensing was pretty straight-forward, and so was the final patient counselling. Only downside would be Dr. Babar’s lack of rapport and/or acting skills lol…

So there you have it. My very first super OSCE, which I reckon I survived. Even if the case I got was much harder than the rest! One down, two more to go! XD