Alya Qistina

Thursday, April 30, 2015

expiry date

Remember a story about me getting a dental treatment? Which I acted so childish about. Not funny.

Well actually after that the doctor gave me a prescription of several drugs as a post treatment.

They are practising dispensing separation (DS) here, even for dental clinics. Like, the doctors or veterinarians will prescribe the medication to the patients in an official prescription and the patients need to go to the community pharmacy to get the medications.

Which Malaysia tries to do it, I mean tried to work for it. But it got some issues here and there, wait, you don't get me wrong. We, pharmacists have nothing to do against the doctors. I emphasized so many times that PHARMACISTS AND DOCTORS SHOULD WORK TOGETHER.

I have lot of friends in medical field and we respect each other on this issue. Thank god. People around me are really brilliant and know how to respect. I believe we are smart enough to discuss/debate in such a classy way.

(Even though I'd read few negative comments but anyhow, just let them. I believe everyone has a right for opinions but I would only appreciate them if they're doing it with manners).

OK, back to my story.

My dentist prescribed me an antibiotic, of course - to prevent the growth of bacteria and whatnot. And few more drugs including this analgesic called diclofenac sodium (Cataflam). I already had this one at home, so I thought I didn't need to buy it anymore. So I didn't really buy it, I was confident.

So I was happily compliance on the dose every morning and night, strictly following the correct times, be really on empty stomach for antibiotic.

Anddddd guess what! My own Cataflam had expired! Omg. After I took it for almost a week!
Cataflam that I brought from Malaysia few years ago. That I didn't really use them because I wasn't in pain - so now, what? Hahaha.

I laughed. Then I panicked.

My mind replayed the face of the pharmacist that offered me his Cataflam the other day.

Well, you couldn't go back to those times right?

So I kept calm and change to my-forever-drug-of-choice, Panadol.

And looked at myself in the mirror and said, "Where have you left your brain, young lady?"

Actually in a hospital/clinic/any drug store, they need to always check for the expiry dates. They have few systems on drug storage like FEFO or FIFO and so on. So don't worry.

And thank Allah, I used that Cataflam only for myself!

Well this if for me and for you, always always know your medicine. Know the basic informations; indication, direction of use, and expiry dates.

Especially if you're going to feed the others. Like infant and elderly.

Since I learn about this, let me share with you a little.

• For syrup - keep in fridge once open. And discard after 1 month after opening. Except for antibiotics, we don't keep them for so long. Discard after you finish the course.

• For tablet - check for expiry dates on the drug strips.

 E 11 2016 -- Expiry date November 2016. 
(It means 30th November. Unless they state the specific date)

Below: EXPMAR2015 -- Expiry date March 2015
Above: EXP 02 2016 -- Expiry date February 2016

If you need any help, just consult your doctors and pharmacists. I'm sure they are ready to help. 

Take care!

Friday, April 24, 2015

winter 2015

( The reason why winter excites me)

Winter has ended. It is late spring now in Egypt. Last winter was just okay. We have 2 weeks of winter break and we decided to spend the holiday outside of Zagazig for few days. Hence, we planned a trip together.

And spent the rest of holidays just lazying around at Syaza's house, sleepover there, watching K dramas, cooking, baking and just lepak there. 

Winter isn't really my favourite season, I'd like spring more. Because petite me actually can't stand cold weather. I shiver easily. I'd get hungry easily - which is a good thing for me. But it makes you feel so malas. You just want to sit under your thick blanket, as close as possible to the heater. 

I hate it when I'm all covered by thick blanket, with thick clothes and socks, then there's an urge of urinating. You get to undressed everything and be ready to the toilet with coldddddddd tap water. And don't mention about showering. That's why I hate when my hair becomes thick and oily, cause we don't shower everyday, obviously. 

(Because people in tropical country take shower everyday)

But on the other hand, there's something about winter that I like, it's cold - of course which automatically makes you feel so calm. And food food, food! Hahaha.

I'm going to write about my winter trip, but I've been really busy lately, final exams are coming.

Ttyl.


Saturday, April 18, 2015

fun mom

I was talking with Shushy about motherhood and parenting skills and stuffs and so.

I once had a conversation with Ameerul about this too. Ameerul, being so rude, he didn't believe that I would be a cool mom. Simply because I'm just fierce like that. He must imagine being in so much pressure with me as a mom.

Don't judge my future by the way I'm acting now, please!

Shushy has the same opinion too.

She said my future children must be a lot closer to their daddy than to me. Because according to her, I'm going to be one grumpy, fierce mom.

So I said defensively, "No way! My children must really like me. I'm going to be their favourite. I'm the best mom one's ever wished for!"

She replied, "HAHAHA"

Rude, right?

And I said, "Trust me, even you yourself would ever wish to be my child. Because I'm fun".

She said again, "Oh, that is probably me you're talking about"

Well, both of you, we will just wait until the right time comes, and I'm so going to show you how fun am I as a mom. Haha.

10 years from now, I will come again to this post, show them how lame their assumptions are, and laugh crazily in their faces. Hahaha.

Being a great mom is another story. Great is so much subjective. I mean in the term of skills, way of approach, way of talking, way to educate your children and so. This is something every mother should be excellent about, no exceptions! This usually comes to every mom naturally. And sure, every mother has her own ways to educate her children - not everyone's the same. (Oh look at this single lady's talking about - very ironic hahaha)

But well, back to the main subject, being funny and fun is a lot another story. This is more to being a creative mom. And that's what I'm talking about. I'm so going to be a funny mom and lights up our house with just my jokes.

Haha but these two goons have so little trust in me.

(Me as mom - exciting much, no?)


Picture - google.com.

Friday, April 17, 2015

time zone

I've always longed for weekend! Because I really love being at home, relaxing, doing my own stuffs (basically doing nothing and wasting time), you know, just being at home. Coming back home to the lovely (i.e stink) scent of my thick blanket and reliable wifi with legging and favourite home tshirt and just let your hair flowing down freely. So comfortable.

And weekend supposedly means free time for Ameerul too. So I demand hours long of conversation which we barely have during weekdays. But he, being a real man, having so much things that he plans; badminton, games, friends, project for university and so.

While I'm having so much free time here that I sometimes feel like begging my university for some projects! (hahaha a total lie, of course. I need to explain my jokes nowadays).

Plus with the different time zones, when I call him in the morning, he's already coming back from lectures and feel so tired and hungry that he just want to rest. And at night, I mean my night, it is already pass 12 in Malaysia and sometimes almost approaching dawn there.

I feel so alone - since I have so much free time. Sometimes when I had stories/gossips that I couldn't wait to tell him, there he went busying with his Design Project and came back real tired. 

My stories always went basi like that.

Hahaha. 

Well, this post may sounds like I'm a clingy type of girlfriend or something, I'm nothing like that please duh how-could-you-even, I'm just trying to tell you how limited the time is for us. 

But trust me, I enjoy having so much time just for myself. I can do what I want to do. I can watch series of Korean dramas in a day. I could finish a bundle of lecture notes if I want to (but I usually don't do that. I mean, who wants to?). I could finish knitting baskets of sweaters or scarfs also. 

But don't you feel lonely living just by yourself?

*cries*

This situations apply to everyone too! My family, Shushy, other friends - except if Irfan works on night shift. Hahaha.

Still love weekend by the way.

Wednesday, April 15, 2015

toothless


It is not a defect, okay? My teeth are just overlapping with each other and make some gap in between and make me look toothless!

I don't exactly remember when all of this happened. But as far as I remember, my schoolmates used to make fun of me out of it. I'd got a lot of nicknames during high school. Shorty was one of them, obviously.

You know, the perk of having idiot friends hahaha. I wasn't mad, of course. Because we practiced "give and take", so it meant I gave them a lot of nicknames too! Hahaha. So that's how we rolled, that's how we teased each other. High school was the best, wasn't it?

I'm in quite a dilemma. To wear braces or not? To correct this alignment or not?

I whatsapp-ed Shushy this picture and she said, "PM me the gap in the scale of hectare."

This joke is new. Hectare is a new joke on me.

She just expanded her jokes hahaha. Shushy and her lame jokes, forever. But she advised me not to undergo any ortho treatment. She wants me the way I am. And she's scared of the after-effect of braces to me, since she wears one. Her face turns oval now. Not really oval, it's more like oblong now. But she's still pretty to me, even her face would turn triangle!

I heard/read about this quite a lot that wearing braces would slightly change your face shape. I mean in a better way. Your face would be more oriented. Isn't that a good thing? But thing turns differently to Shushy.

And the other friends (diploma coursemate) asked me to keep it too, just because they want me the way I am and overlapping teeth are some kind of having high sentimental value or something like that, according to what they said. Hahaha.

And now my focus has diverted from my teeth to these people's sweet talks.

"Women"

Forget my teeth, I'd rather be toothless then.

Tuesday, April 14, 2015

the aftermath


My mom sent me a picture of our house few months after the heavy flood stuck. We are back to normal now. Except with few destruction and loss and whatnot. It was quite heartbreaking seeing the aftermath.

Never imagined our house would submerged like that!

The flood was getting into my house for the first time ever! This time was so serious. My place wasn't usually affected by flood. So I guessed we were not fully ready.

I was on my winter break here in Egypt and we lost contact for almost a week. I could reached dad, but he couldn't reached mom and the rest.

My mom and the rest were transferred to a higher place. So everything was okay.

My mom even cooked for the people there! Hahaha showing off some cooking skills once in a while didn't hurt, of course. *looks at instant ramen that I've eaten here*

The aftermath was quite tiring, I felt so kesian to them to clean everything up while I was here munching strawberries and watching Korean dramas. How sad. The tiring part was washing all the affected clothes! And the mud crazily stuck to the floor!

They had tenths rounds of washing everything up, including my clothes. Which my mom complained about how many more rounds did she needed to finish them all? So her last resort was "I thought of giving away your clothes. I'm too tired to wash all of them."

I lost my words. Hahaha. Okay now, what should I really do?

I said, "Never mind. If you're tired, I'll wash all of them when I come back"

Mom's reaction was, "Okay, I'll keep them in a box while you're away"

Oh. God!

Is this real?

Hahaha.

Sunday, April 12, 2015

industry

I have never been so compatible with Physics. Or anything that has something to do with experts' laws; Dalton's Law, Newton's Law and few names more Archimedes, Boyle, Hertz hahaha don't get me wrong, I mean they're really amazing, but that is so far from my soul. I can tolerate chemistry and (simple) mathematics, but not this far.

So, they said, you'll get something that you don't like. It's kind of a test for you. More like to test your patience or how grateful you are. So Physics has finally came to me in a serious way. 

Come to think of it, it's me who are actually calling for it. When I first enrolled into my course, I knew it was going to have some Physics. So no surprise. But then, I've never knew it was this tough!

We have a field in Pharmacy called Industrial Pharmacy. Basically, it's all about the manufacturing processes in a factory which where the drugs are manufactured. You got to know the machines to be used in the industry as well. How it works. Those principles. Those calculations. Proportions of ingredients. What type of machines are used for what type of drugs. Dos and don'ts. Things like that. 

It's only a degree level but my head has exploded every week in lectures. Hats off to those who choose to pursue Industrial Pharmacy in Master Degree. 

Never ever in my mind I thought about working in an industry. Simply because it's tough! I can't imagine a clumsy me doing a quality control. And careless me forget to maintain the temperature right while mixing those fine particles into a machines. And impatient me to stay in a huge refrigerator to work on cold chain drugs. Hahaha.

Because you really have to be extra meticulous and immaculate to work in this field. Which I'm afraid I can't do this correctly.


But nothing is wrong about learning the basic of them. It is fun to just learn about them. I mean, we at least have an idea about what industrial pharmacist are doing. But the fact of taking this course into an examination hall is so scary. This is my toughest paper this semester.

Since this course is kind of related to engineering, I thought of asking Ameerul to help me solving my Heat Transfer homework. Sly is my middle name, just registered by the way. Hahaha. 

So it's quite fun to finally have something in common to talk with him, even in study hahaha. Feels like I've just enrolled into another study group - engineering version. We talked about refrigeration's principle, Humidity Chart and so on. 

Then he said, "Why do you guys have to learn about this? I'm so surprise."

Yeah, because they think the drugs are coming down from the sky readily.

Hahaha.

Saturday, April 11, 2015

new member

I will be back in Malaysia in less than 3 months. Excited, no? And I'm pretty sure this summer break will be the exciting one. Because we are going to get a new family member!

My big brother is going to get married! First wedding in our family and of course they can't proceed to anything unless the loveliest of all is back from Egypt. Hahaha but I missed their engagement. Plus the time zone spoiled a lot. I only wake up when they'd done with the ceremony and I was celebrating alone on my bed seeing the pictures on Facebook and Whatsapp.

So, as for the wedding, they are patiently waiting for me to come back. I'm so special like that hahaha.

I personally haven't meet my future sister-in-law. Never once. Unlike the other family members. So they are talking about how good she is. How adorable she is. How lovely she is. How diligent she was in the kitchen helping my mom. So my mom likes her a lot.

I'm really looking forward to this. I'm excited okay. So my biggest contribution so far is... choosing my own outfit to the event.

And for the outfit, I know this uncle here that sews very very well. Hahaha he is one amazing tailor. I will just show him few pictures of the dress that I want him to follow, he nods and tell me to come a few days after to collect the dress. I find it amusing! Like he's a mind reader perhaps? Hahaha.