graduate pharmacology - Misheel D.

December Community Service Hours: 3 hours Total Fall Community Service Hours: 12.5 hours This month's service activities included 2 hours at Celebration in the Oaks at City Park and 1 hour at the New Canal Lighthouse.  Celebration in the Oaks is a holiday fundraiser held at City Park with a variety of lights, decor, and amusement rides.  I was placed at one of the entrance gates to take pictures of any visiting guests who requested photos with their loved ones. We - volunteers - were given Hot Hands to help combat the cold. It was not very busy late on a Thursday night at the beginning of December so I spent an ample amount of time messing around with the Hot Hands packets and the thought crossed my mind on what they were made of and what would happen if one ate the inside components. One of the major components is charcoal powder, and in class we learned that charcoal powder taken concomitantly with medication can reduce the absorption of drugs, as well as enhance clearance....

                                     For this month's volunteer activities, I helped direct guests in parking at the Sunset Stroll at the Sankofa Wetland Park and Nature trail on November 16th and watched over the fire area at the Celebration in The Oaks at City Park November 29th, for a total of 6 hours. The Sunset Stroll celebrated the opening of the Sankofa park and trail which was a beautiful and lively event, but also located on the swamp and there was swarms of mosquitos all night. After volunteering I was covered in bites all over my body. In class we learned that the saliva that mosquitos inject into hosts contains histamine, which is involved in immune response and causes inflammation and itching, and contribute to allergic reactions. As we learned in class, antihistamines and topical steroids can help provide relief from these symptoms. More recently, over the past mon...

For my October volunteer activity, I channeled my inner Oktoberfest beer maiden and served beer  with the Ainsley's Angels group at the Huey P Long Bridge Run hosted by Oschner Fitness Center.  I volunteered for a total of 3 and a half hours from 7:30 am to 11 am. Although waking up before 7:30 am on a Saturday wasn't exactly how I would have liked to kick off my weekend, I was really surprised at how great of an experience it was. Ainsely's Angels is a group that normally volunteers at different runs by pushing the wheelchairs of disabled participants along the route, but due to the steep nature of the route of this run they weren't able to do that this time and instead worked the beer tent. All the members of the group that I met were incredibly kind and motivated, there was even a couple who finished their 5k run in under 20 minutes and came straight to the tent to volunteer! Some misconceptions I definitely had before the event was that I would be overworked due to ...

     We just finished the foundational antibiotics block, and while the material for this exam felt a little overwhelming and intense, I thought this block was also the most interesting thus far. Before the lectures in class, I never knew there were so many subclasses of antibiotics and they each had extremely specific usages and side effects. I was under the impression that that they all pretty much had the same effect on the body, but I was clearly wrong. The antibiotics are broken down into subclasses based on how they attack bacterial infections, and even further on which specific bacteria they are good for. As I was stressing over the upcoming exam and trying to study as much as possible, last week I noticed some bumps pop up on the back of my thighs. In an ironic turn of events, I had a bacterial skin infection while we were studying antibiotics in class. I'm not sure if this knowledge was helpful or if it made me spiral with concern of what bacteria it was - I even...