A Birthday Weekend & Some Old/New Updates!

First things first...I thought I took a lot of pictures; however, Elise has definitely taken over that role here. I have become her default model; therefore, I have borrowed a few pictures that she has taken of me.

This one here is of me working in our office at the college:


Here I am at lunch on Thursday afternoon at a place called Ford Maddox Brown. Really cute place & yummy too. I'm having to adjust to the fact that the majority of places we go to we order prior to sitting down. When we walked in we just sat at a table and just waited for our server but then we caught on!



Now - moving on to this last Friday. I jumped on a train (first one in a foreign country..woo!) to London to meet up with my friend Jamie. I was a bit nervous about getting lost so Elise came with me to the train station, very nice of her. And then I was nervous about making it on the RIGHT train and arriving in London in one piece. I'm slowly getting over my aversion to asking people for help. I always feel like such a bother but I figured that it was either ask the lady how to get on the train or be stuck at the Picadilly train station and here's why: as I sat and watched all these people get on the train, it looked to me as if the doors were opening automatically so I stared in confusion at the train car I was supposed to get on when the door didn't open for me. Apparently you have to press the magic button that says "push" in order for it to open. Shout out to the lady who informed me of this- THANKS!!



Needless to say, I got on the train, found my seat (had to ask for help on this one too!) and made it to London just fine! I have a weak stomach and tend to get sick anytime I'm in a moving object be it train, plane, or automobile, so I was surprised to find that the train was actually not a bad ride! I arrived at the London train station and made a B-line for the bathroom before going to look for Jamie. Did you know that you have to PAY to use the bathrooms there!?!? I also stood staring at the barriers to the bathroom with a confused look on my face before I realized that they really weren't joking. Fair or not, my need to use the bathroom after a 2 hour train ride and an entire bottle of water was necessary, so I coughed up my 30 pence.

I didn't have much trouble finding Jamie and after he dragged me up and down the train station escalators (j/k Jamie) we got on the "tube" to meet up with his "mummy", Pam :) also known as my favorite British mom. Ok ok..so she's the only British mom that I really know but she's still the best. We jumped in the car, headed to Jamie's sister & brother-in law's (Lucy and John) house in Somerset. (I think that's right!) Jamie provided me with my first experience with English motorways. I don't think that I'll be complaining about traffic in Kentucky anymore! Lucy was making chili for dinner. As a pseudo-Texas (pseudo because I have never lived in Texas but my mother and father are about as Texan as they come plus my family history is rooted there!) native, mexican food is a way of life so chili was music to my ears. We played rapidough (new game for me - but essentially it's like the sculpting part of cranium) I had informed Jamie that I was an excellent sculptor...which is true...so he was BEYOND lucky to be my partner; only thing was, he just wasn't that quick at guessing my art masterpieces made of play-do.

Saturday was Mrs. Payne's birthday outing. I felt so honored to be part of the whole ordeal. Lucy picked a wonderful restaurant & the food was amazing. I truly love birthdays and not because of the presents, although presents are great too. I always feel like I'm on top of the world when it's my birthday because it's a smack in the face reminder of how absolutely blessed I am. I do not know how I got so lucky to have the friendship of such amazing people, and I include the entire Payne family in that group! Saturday evening after the lunch outing was followed by chicken fajitas (again...refer to my love of Mexican food above) & games (spoons, card games, and the name game which was new to me..but I may be stealing it to take back to the states). I don't think I'll be able to stop myself from laughing when I think of Batman from here on out. Thanks Jamie for that!

Sunday we went for a dog walk. And I love that it's called that. The South of England reminds me of parts of Kentucky in a sense. It was absolutely gorgeous. I took just a few pictures while we were out walking! I completely forgot about taking pictures until the end! I wish that I had been in "tourist-mode" more! Lucy had planned a traditional English roast for lunch - which as fabulous! Thanks again Luce & John! :)



So today Elise and I started our stent at the Christie hospital where we will be doing data entry for a clinical trial in renal cell carcinoma.


Today we familiarized ourselves with the computer system and the data entry form we would be using. We already have a few adjustments to make to the form after beginning the pilot today! We are first performing a pilot data collection on roughly 20 patients to make sure that we are collecting all the necessary data. We received a tour of the hospital which was great. It functions primarily as a cancer hospital and now is moving more towards a hub for cancer research (largest in Europe). Currently there are ~150 clinical trials going on right now! CRAZY. The hospital is only 100 beds but they see about 12,000 new patients a year. Christie has been part of several historical landmarks in cancer research (i.e. being one of the first (or maybe the first) to use G-CSF to prevent neutropenia after chemotherapy. I find the role of G-CSF fascinating and just incredible that it is able to do what it does!

Despite having the same ultimate goal...our healthcare system in the states is different in so many ways. Geoff, one of the oncology specialist pharmacists is the lead on this particular clinical trial (renal cell) and the individual who gave us the tour. He informed us that the Christie outsources all of their IV chemotherapy. It is prepared off site and shipped to the Christie. The hospital can still prepare IV chemo (i.e. drugs used in clinical trials) if they need to but heavily rely on the outsourcing by Baxter (large manufacturer)for their patients. Geoff was explaining how he feels this allows him to be able to more fully do his job as a clinical pharmacist - ensuring that the right dose & right drug get to the right patient for the right indication! Essentially, I feel like we are moving towards he same direction in regards to IV preparation in the states as preparing chemo is often done by a technician, and a pharmacist just performs the final check. Patients also cannot just show up at the Christie unless they are registered with the Christie which is very different from how our hospitals in the states are! The GPs - general practitioners - are the the gate keepers for the NHS run healthcare system. I personally feel like that's the way it should be for us as well in the states. The ER is too frequently used as a GP in the states - leading to patients taking up the beds for those who really need emergent care! There has to be a happy medium between a system that is entirely government run and the system that we currently have in place. I'm going to get off my soapbox before this blog turns into a mini novel though! I could talk for hours on this topic!

Here is where we had lunch today! So thankful for the sunshine today! We sat outside...that was a first!