ONE MORE PAPER TOOOO GOOOO

then graduate liaoz

Hope to come back in 2008 to be inaugural batch for PharmD ^^. If I qualify lah.

Today's Natural product's paper a la Medicinal chemistry part II - call of nature, was sickening.

60 MCQs and 3 long questions in 120min, 2hrs. I felt that the setter of the first and last questions were a matchmade in heaven - their questions were equally sickening even though the last setter gave us a "it's so easy" as he dashed off to the loo.

Most of us postulate the following: rampant calls made to the various pharmacies

"Eh sorry hor, this year no pre-reg liaoz, all have to re."

How to memorise structure, we not med chem students.

I don't even recall the epistomology of the word "Macrolide"!!!

Totally stoned before the next paper - Dosage Form Design 3 - the attack of the tablets and capsules. Went over to the least utilised water cooler around the block and bumped into the lecturer who went

"Why are you here?! Aren't u supposed to be studying?! Make sure you get an A!!!"

=.=!!! - so many brighter people around me... Marked against curve must surrender liaoz.

He also met his dream class on Thursday - a pure guys pharmacy module. Too bad he did not teach Industrial Pharm - the priming of the regulatory bodies.

Granulating sphag - pics later

Yesterday night came home stoned by the pharmaceutical industry paper - realised missed out some of the important points in the first question (last question attempted) - shame on me since I had been typing SOPs for some time in the Army =.=

Some times I do not know what exactly examiners are asking for. My answers are often like adding legs to a drawing of a snake. Tried to cover as much as I can regurgitate. The paper was well balanced - very often I could answer only either of the question in any option but not in full =.= Still can pass ar.

I'll be uploading pics only when my card seems full and when I'm freed from my basic degree.

Left the cut up sphag to soak in distilled water for the past 4 days. Opened the container and the smell of the tannins and fermenting sphag was XP - smelt like molten plastic. Had to wash the mixture another 2-3 times until the amount of foam decreased and water starts running clear - distilled water from Watsons not cheap xp. Another round of snipping through with scissors and another round of washing.

When washing, only sieve the top floating material and about 80% of the sunken material. Do not collect the dark bits below - these are the stems (containing quite a lot of tannins). Tannins may act as astringents - after soaking my hands in to scoop up sphag, I can say may skin feels better ^^ . Tannins also act as herbicides against certain plants - you can't see any other surviving plants in the vicinity of pine tree plantations or near the rivers contaminated by tannins.

After a few rounds of cutting and washing, the sphag will start releasing gums - these act as binding agents during granulations. Also, the water will start running clean. But if you use Chinese sphag, you may not get the gumminess from processed New Zealand moss.

Drain out all the water and spread the moss to dry partially before passing through a 3mm seize. If the moss is too wet, it's a bit hard to sieve into fine semi-dried granules, if not you'll end up squeezing water through and the moss will not pass through.

We can make your medicines for you ^^ Come and lick it

Make sure you lick all your medicine
16 October 2004 The New Paper By Teh Jen Lee jenlee

Hormone therapy medication now comes in form of lollipops and lozenges

HOW would you like to take your medicine in a yummy lollipop?

You can pick from over a dozen flavours including caramel mint and vanilla butternut.

Or if your skin feels dry from lack of hormones, you can get a doctor's prescription and a pharmacist makes a cream containing what you need.

The Specialist Compounding Pharmacy (SCP), in Camden Medical Centre, can do all that. Compounding is the preparation of customised medication for individuals.

Mrs Holly Amiri, 47, a nurse, was picking up her prescription, in the form of lemon-mint lozenges, when The New Paper visited the SCP.

Pointing to head pharmacist Thomas Khoo, she said: 'I can honestly say that man has changed my life... Conventional hormone medicine made me very ill, nauseous.'

Conventional hormone replacement therapy (HRT), usually prescribed to relieve the hot flushes and heart palpitations that come with menopause, uses synthetic hormones. It is known to cause side effects like nausea and bloatedness.

INCREASED RISK OF HEART DISEASE

And a study in the US has shown that it is associated with an increased risk of heart disease, heart attacks, strokes and breast cancer.

SCP provides bio-identical HRT (BHRT) using hormones that are more similar to those in human bodies. They are produced from plants like soy and yam, and converted to the human hormone progesterone, which can be further changed to testosterone.

Dr Ian Lee, one of 20 doctors who works with SCP, said: 'It's what your body is used to and the pharmacy customises the hormone treatment to suit the patient's exact problems. It's not one-pill-fits-all.'

Mr Khoo, whose mother and mother-in-law are SCP's clients, said: 'It makes common sense, if no two persons are the same, why should the medication be the same?'

Dr Lee said the number of patients on BHRT here has been going up.

'It's very popular in countries like Australia and the US, not just for menopausal women but also women with very bad pre-menstrual symptoms, or problems with fertility,' said Dr Lee, who has been practising since 1985.

Dr Lee got into BHRT because of his interest in nutritional medicine and natural healing.

For BHRT, doctors start by testing the blood and saliva for hormone levels. Careful monitoring is then done to fine tune the hormone doses.

Dr Lee said: 'I stress to my patients that they must learn to listen to their own bodies and work in partnership with the doctor. If you are under more stress, your body's hormonal demands will be different.'

THE COST

Hormones are powerful chemical messengers that control every function of the body, and even small changes in dosage can make a difference. Does that make BHRT and compounded drugs expensive?

It depends on the type of dosage form and equipment required, plus the time spent researching and preparing the medication.

Mr Khoo said his patients pay $30 to $90 a month. Conventional HRT can cost anything between $12 and $105 a month.

Mrs Sue Phillips, 53, a property manager who has been going to SCP for a year, said: 'When I got off birth control, I became very irritable and didn't want anyone near me.

'I would grit my teeth if my husband put his arm around me. But within a few months of going on compounded BHRT, I was sleeping better. I was calm and basically happy with myself again.'

The natural mix is legal if...

IS it legal to mix and match medicines?

According to the SCP website ( www.scp.com.sg), the preparation (or compounding) and dispensing of a medicinal product in a registered pharmacy is allowed under the Medicines Act.

But these activities must be carried out under the personal supervision of a pharmacist, and in accordance with a written prescription from a medical practitioner.

The Health Sciences Authority (HSA) said SCP appears to be the only pharmacy engaged in compounding customised hormonal products here.

SCP pharmacist Thomas Khoo (right) said pharmacy students spend one-third of their university course on compounding, but it has become a lost art after drug companies started to produce standard preparations in the 1950s.

In an e-mail reply to our queries about the side effects of compounded medicines, a spokesman for HSA said: 'Like any other commercially manufactured product, compounded medication contains active pharmaceutical substance(s) prescribed by the medical practitioner.

All active pharmaceutical ingredients have the potential to cause side effects.

'All patients are advised to discuss with their doctors and pharmacists if they need any customised medication at all, the contents of the medications, as well as the benefits and potential adverse effects which may arise from any medications prescribed to them.'

First Phragmipedium kovachii hybrid !!!

http://forum.theorchidsource.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=38;t=010287

Repotting - Spathoglottis

Supposed to be an Eulophia spp. from S. Africa, flowered as a Spathoglottis plicata - gave away as X'mas present to a friend. It is a plant that is suited for poor soils, grows rampant if well looked after.

The plant's root ball has grown too big for the pot


Remove label and store away safely


Squeeze gently to dislodge plant but not so much strength until root ball breaks!!!


Dislodged plant:


Select a suitable pot. For terrestrials, I usually use a deep pot for very vigorous root growth. Fill pot with charcoal to about 20% to help drainage (crocking)


Push plant to side. The backbulb closes to the edge of the pot and the lead furthest from the edge:


Fill with potting mix:


Voila:

First paper over

PT 3 just over.

Wanted to scream in the middle of the paper as I was very emo x(

I think the last question very confusion, need an ER team to settle - dunno whether to bring patient out of coma or continue coma.

Sianz 0.5 =.=

The current state of my emo right now:



Hmm, should i start a KPT partay @ home b4 i start work?

Sea of diminishing returns

Went to eat @ NUS Science Western Food after a nong nong hiatus.

The grilled dory shrunk by 30%

Same for the chicken cutlet with the evident cut marks to show that it had been cut cut cut.

Ask for tartar sauce the aunty look with a smirk and say, "10 cents".

Need a hug

Under a lot of emotional stress and study stress right now.

Missed the tight comfy hugs which I used to exchange with classmates before exams =(

Lying can be scary if made habitual

There's no point of return. A person has to face up with reality and make people like you as you are. Under agitation and sudden shock, a person's true nature can surface and it can be devastating to both the person and the friends and relatives.

What is compulsive lying?

Compulsive lying is a common disorder often caused by low self-esteem and a need for attention. Often, the liar does not realize how often he or she is lying because it becomes second nature or habit (indeed, it is often referred to as habitual lying).

Compulsive lying alienates friends and loved ones and often brings about the opposite of what the liar wants: instead of getting the attention they often crave, they end up pushing people away. With therapy, many people can overcome their compulsion to lie and salvage their interpersonal relationships before it is too late.

It may result in the following if it goees unchecked:

Lying to get a job

Tan Dawn Wei & Melody Zaccheus, 22 April 2007, Straits Times

Employers here are wising up to tricksters who fabricate details on resumes and fake certs

WHEN restaurant owner Ang Song Kang hired an 'executive chef' from China, he thought he was getting the real deal.

After all, the veteran cook claimed he ran a kitchen staffed with more than 20 workers, earned 10,000 yuan (S$1,950) a month and had the certificates to show for it.

But it soon emerged that the maestro was not much chop. He could not heat a hot plate, had no idea how to turn on a stove and even served crabs reeking of urine at the Canton Wok eatery.

'My customers almost wanted to sue me because of the crabs. In the end, he admitted that all he did in the past 10 years was wrap xiao long bao (pork dumplings),' said Mr Ang, who promptly sent the kitchen klutz packing.

Sadly, Mr Ang is not the first boss who has been lied to by prospective employees with more cheek than credentials.

The Straits Times reported last Thursday that Swiss bank Credit Suisse is suing a former worker who supposedly lied about having degrees from prestigious colleges.

Mr Bryan Lim, who was a fund manager, also claimed he was named the best officer cadet in the Singapore Armed Forces during his national service.

Human resource consultants said the problem is not a new one. But more firms are wising up to pre-employment screenings.

'Companies always have problems with people who misrepresent on their CVs. They are just becoming more aware of it,' said Mr Philip Johnson, senior consultant at Control Risks, a British risk management consultancy that has just extended its screening division to Singapore.

About 12 to 16 per cent of Singaporean job applicants are not entirely truthful on their curricula vitae or CVs, estimates Mr Wayne Tollemache, the Asia-Pacific executive vice-president of First Advantage, a United States-based firm specialising in resume detective work.

But that is still better than the 18 to 20 per cent across the Asia-Pacific region, he said.

The Ministry of Manpower (MOM) caught 374 people who lied to get employment passes and S-Passes last year, well up from the 97 in 2005. More than 60 per cent were for fibs over educational qualifications.

But MOM attributes the increase to better enforcement.

The most common kinds of deceit involve inflating current salaries, faking employment history, embellishing titles and omitting information.

St James Power Station's chief operating officer, Mr Andrew Ing, said job applicants also tend to scrub out details about any criminal records.

Mr Ing once caught a bartender stealing liquor and called the police. That was when he learnt the guy had served time, something he conveniently neglected to declare in his application form.

Deception can range from something as simple as not declaring you have a medical condition like asthma, to forging documents.

Mr Patrick Chan, China executive director for recruitment agency GMP Search International, said two candidates he interviewed for a job at a US computer giant had the same set of certificates and resumes, word for word and even the same typeface. Both were sent packing.

Indian national Nattuveettil Velayudhan Vinodkumar was even more clueless, applying whitener over his wife's name on her university certificate and inking in his name instead.

He spent two months in jail before being repatriated, kissing goodbye to a $2,600-a-month job at a food firm.

Job applicants lie for a host of reasons - better pay, fear of prejudice or just plain desperation.

A 32-year-old unemployed man with two children, who wanted to be known only as Ashwin, said he has lied about 'small things' like getting his friends with impressive job titles to be his referees and bloating his salary by $300.

'Everybody will want to lie to get a better paying job. I think everyone lies,' he said.

But faking it is harder now with more companies adopting pre-employment screenings as a standard practice.

Ms C.K. Goh Rosa, director and country manager of Manpower Staffing Services, said the public service, health, legal and finance sectors are more stringent 'due to the sensitivity of their industry'.

Checks come at two levels. A basic one involves verifying CV information, including contacting schools, previous employers and referees.

A high-level probe that checks public records and even international blacklists is usually done for candidates handling money or confidential information.

First Advantage, for example, would charge anything from $80 for a simple verification exercise to $500 for a more complete one.

Companies have also made it routine for applicants to submit original documents.

United Overseas Bank has busted a few fakes who could not produce original papers to back information on application forms, such as latest pay slips.

Miss Edlyn Wee, key account manager of global HR consultancy Adecco, said its consultants get suspicious if a resume shows gaps in employment periods, a sudden increase or decrease in pay or a sudden change in roles.

HR personnel also study a candidate's body language at interviews. 'Shifty eyes, whether they fidget when they answer questions, or if the explanation is too smooth or too halting,' said one.

Screenings are now increasingly being done not just for middle to senior management but for every worker - a consequence of the Coke case.

Last year, a secretary at Coca-Cola's Atlanta base was convicted of stealing a sample of a new Coke product which she tried to sell for a high price.

And more firms are embracing post-employment checks, said First Advantage's Mr Tollemache.

'They didn't do the pre-checks, and now realise they should have,' he said.

Those caught cheating could be prosecuted, fined and even jailed, said lawyer Philip Fong of Harry Elias Partnership, although dodgy workers are usually fired.

But not every job seeker tricks up his CV.

As recent business management graduate Cindy Tan, 23, put it: 'It's hard to continue a lie because you have to keep remembering what you lied about and I can't be constantly doing that.'


If your child is still young, correct it earlier