Pharmacy Day

In conjunction with Pharmacy Day 2009, organized by the final year students of Kulliyyah of Pharmacy, IIUM Kuantan, here are the three hectic days-in-a-row (of course, these are incomparable to what our Palestinian brothers & sisters have been suffering!)

16/01/09:

We did house-to-house promotion about the program. Flyers were distributed and posters were put up at strategic places. That village, and the villages near-by are known to be the black areas. Most of the villagers are fishermen & unemployed.


“Assalamualaikum, pak cik. Assalamualaikum, mak cik. Assalamualaikum, adik. Kami pelajar farmasi UIA akan buat pemeriksaan kesihatan percuma hari Ahad ni kat Balai Raya Kg. Tanjung Lumpur, sebelah SK Tanjung Lumpur, dari pukul 9 pagi hingga 5 petang. Jemput datang ye! Kalau sekarang ni tengah makan apa-apa ubat, mak cik pak cik boleh la bawak ubat tu sekali nanti. Kita akan bagi khidmat nasihat percuma, insya Allah. Kami juga akan adakan pertandingan mewarna untuk kanak-kanak. Datanglah ye, adik-adik” Smile & greet. Smile & greet. Smile & greet.

17/01/09:

Gotong-royong di balai raya. We swept and cleaned the floor, wiped the wall, unclogged the drain, and arranged the tables and chairs accordingly. Just like a room make-over! It was nicer to look at than before. Then, we had the lunch together.


2.30 pm – 5.30 pm: we had to attend the lecture on Ethics and Laws in Pharmacy; it’s a core-course!

“Aik, pharmacy pun ade lecture jgk ke hujung minggu? Tak pernah-pernah pun dengar sebelum ni”, kata seorang sahabat dari KAHS. Uhhu..memang pun ada tapi tersangatlah jarang dan hampir tiada.

18/01/09:

It’s the big day! I was the person in-charge for blood pressure screening. Most of the people came with white-coat hypertension and many have been diagnosed with hypertension before this; treated or untreated, compliant or non-compliant. Unsurprisingly, those who have already developed hypertension were found to have a strong relation with smoking.


Then I took over the counseling session. One of the patients was an elderly who is on hypertension and diabetes medications. He claimed that he experienced lethargy and sometimes shivering when he took all three types of medicines prescribed by a doctor to him. Because of this, he has been reducing the intake from three types of medicines to consume only one type; which made him felt better. He had reported this to the doctor but ended up of being scolded for the non-compliance and changing the regime without consent.

Upon further probing, I finally found out the real culprit behind his problem. He has not been taking proper meals; he takes his breakfast on time, has his lunch by 3 or 4 pm, he skips his dinner, and eats no snacks before going to bed. With the effect of the anti-diabetic agents that he has been taking and the short of glucose supply from diet, he developed nocturnal hypoglycemia; waking up suddenly from sleep with the whole body shivering. The hypoglycemic condition also occurred at other times.

This case was noted! It will be our case for domiciliary service. At least three visits need to be done to follow up this patient, insya Allah.

P/S: Well done, friends! You've done the great job!