Hi! I’m Jenny, and I am a P1 student. First off, let me tell you how much I LOVE
Presbyterian College School of Pharmacy. The faculty are the best I have ever
seen, the facilities are up to date and beautiful and the people are super
friendly. Now that I have gotten my plug in for the best pharmacy school
(really!), I will delve into the topic that I would like to share today.
We have two labs that we take our first semester P1 year. One is a community lab and one is a biotech lab, and today I want to talk to
you about one of my experiences in our biotech lab. For this particular lab,
our instructor said that we needed some volunteers. Being the science nerd that
I am, I immediately raised my hand and my name was written on the board. I
wasn’t really sure what I was signing up for, so after lab the group of us (4
students in all) met with our professor to discuss our mission. Basically we
were going to be “diabetics” for two days, and each subgroup had different
roles. One group of two students were supposed to drink a sugary beverage (like
coke) early in the morning and then take their glucose levels with a
glucometer. The next subgroup (and the one that I was in) had a slightly
different task - one night we had to eat
a meal, measure our blood glucose levels
15 minutes later, and then an hour later (of being sedentary) we had to
check it again. The second night we were to take our glucose level and then go
exercise for an hour, and then come back and measure the glucose level again.
Easy, right? Well,
first off, I have no diabetics in my immediate family, and I have never been a
big one to inflict unnecessary pain on myself. With this
assignment, I was going to be sticking myself with a needle four times in order
to get a droplet of blood to check my glucose levels. Luckily, my friend
Monica, another P1 student, taught me how to do all of these things because her
dad is a diabetic. So, off I go to take my glucose for the first time, and it
went better than I expected. Then, I took it again after eating (a
carbohydrate rich pasta) and was SHOCKED at how high my levels were! I was
completely convinced that I had at least pre-diabetes. After my sedentary hour
(of studying, might I add) I took my levels again, and they had decreased slightly,
but were still pretty high.
The next night, my dad and I went jogging / walking for an
hour after I took my initial blood glucose reading, and I was amazed at how
much lower it dropped than when I was just sedentary. Exercise definitely does
make a difference in the treatment of diabetes! This was a great learning
experience for me in several ways - one, I learned how to actually use a
glucose meter and would feel comfortable counseling my patients on how to take
their blood glucose levels now. Two, I really saw how much of a difference diet
and exercise made on myself, which I can in turn use as an example to encourage
my patients, especially those with diabetes who could see drastic results. Finally, I am much more empathetic to what it is like to be a diabetic - it was
not easy to prick myself with that needle those four times, and that was only
for a period of two days! I feel much more prepared to be a good pharmacist
after this exercise, and I love that PC provides its students with these
hands-on learning opportunities that will really stick with us in the long
term. Thanks for reading!
Side note: For all those that were wondering, I did not
really have diabetes - false alarm. However, I am more mindful now of how many
carbohydrates I put together in one meal - that pasta will definitely get you :)
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