3/2/11 Compounding

This week was pretty cool. I finally got to see more of what a pharmacist does. Erica showed me how to compound drugs. Compounding is taking drugs and making them into different forms so that patients can take their medications more easily. So after a brief overview, Erica had me make 4 different compounds. [D] At first, I thought she was going to stand over my shoulder and watch. But no. She gave me my instructions and left. I was a little terrified. [F] She had given me the basic ideas of things, and then left me to learn on my own. She did however say that I could still ask her or Jeanine, who is not a pharmacist, but has done compounding before. [D] So that made me feel a little better. [F] Three of the compounds involved crushing pills with mortar and pestle. For those of you who don't know what that is, it's the typical sign of a pharmacy with a bowl and a rounded utensil thingy. After crushing the pills, I had to sift them because around most pills is a very fine coating that you can barely see, but you have to sift out. The powder that is left is what I used to mix with various liquids. Some of the liquids are for taste, and I could smell some really nice smelling ones. Others are just to turn the powder into a paste. Once the powder is mixed with the liquid, you can pour it into the final bottle. [D] I guess I had done pretty well because Erica said they looked great and there weren't any particles floating around. Yay! [F] The last compound I did was with a fine powder and a cream. This took a little longer because you have to mix them together in a different way. I used a cutting board made of glass and a flat, rounded knife to slowly bring the two substances together. It's hard to describe, but I used the flat knife to press the powder into the cream and moved it back and forth like I was icing a cake. It took a while, but the finished product was also really good according to Erica. [D] I was so relieved to finally be doing something a little different this week. Compounding is kind of like cooking, and its fun and makes the time pass quickly. [F] It's also a different area of pharmaceuticals that one could work at, instead of in retail pharmacy. [A]