Tuesday, July 8, 2008

Summer Pharmacy Internship-Week 3 & Insomnia

I took an antihistamine/decongestant combo for my allergies before going to bed and at I'm now wide awake at 4 am-thanks to the side effect of the decongestant! I figured I might as well make good use of my time instead of tossing and turning in bed.

It was crazy at the pharmacy today, after a three-day weekend. I worked about 10 hours and my feet were so painful (they still are, but I'm glad to not be standing anymore). I felt like a robot, cranking out one bottle of prescribed medicine after another. I filled hundreds of prescriptions, but didn't even know the general indications for most of them, and there was no time to learn.

One particularly interesting prescription that I came across today was the magic mouthwash. It's an easily compounded oral solution with a mixture of three different ingredients in equal portions: 40 milliliters of hydramine, antacid & lidocaine solutions to make 120 milliliters of the final product. The technician compounded the solution using the instructions written by the doctor. Lidocaine makes the solution viscous and hydramine adds a pleasant smell. The Maalox provides a minty scent to the solution and makes it milky in appearance.

From Wikipedia, I learned that the magic mouthwash is used to treat inflammation, infection, and/or pain. It is commonly prescribed for pain related to oral ulcers caused by chemotherapy or radiation therapy. Some formulations may include tetracycline (antibiotic), Nystatin (antifungal), glucocorticoids (anti-inflammatory). Maalox acts as a coating agent and sucralfate can also be used for the same purpose.

Based on my knowledge, the magic mouthwash the technician prepared today must have been used to reduce pain (lidocaine) and inflammation (hydramine). I should have looked at the sig to see the instructions for use, but I'll ask my sister about it later.

There are so many things to learn and so little time. I haven't even completed the first item on my list to do this summer yet! Hopefully, I'll get at least one day off per week in August to catch up on some things that need to be done before going back to school in September. I really miss school and seeing my friends and classmates, but don't look forward to the hectic pace of life.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

oh my goodness... you just solved my problem, I think.... I stumbled along you as I was searching the web for magic mouthwash. I am using someone elses, and wanted to learn about it. But here is the problem you solved. I have not been able to sleep for the last week, and am getting very irritable. I have been taking zyrtec before going to bed, and it didn't occur to me that that might be the reason until i read your blog

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