At first, the physician assistant at the urgent care clinic in Los Angeles thought it was bacterial vaginosis, so I was prescribed an antibiotic I shouldn’t take for an infection I didn’t have. I was in line at Big Thunder Mountain Railroad in Disneyland when she called me back with my urinalysis results. It was a bladder infection, not bacterial vaginosis and there was a bottle of ciprofloxacin waiting for me in a bin at CVS on Glenoaks Boulevard. However, I shouldn’t have been prescribed this antibiotic either considering my current medication, but overwhelmed, both at the clinic and now on Main Street, U.S.A., I hadn’t mentioned anything and the physician assistant hadn’t asked. I wouldn’t have known the risks if not for my own curiosity, which had prompted me to do some research on the antibiotic when I got home. As it turned out, the concurrent …show more content…
I wanted to be the kind of pharmacist who checked for these kinds of dangerous but often overlooked interactions, warned patients and their doctors, and sought alternatives. Eager to learn more about the profession, I took the Pharmacy Technician Certification Exam after spending my winter break with Mosby’s Pharmacy Technician: Principles and Practice. I passed and began working as a pharmacy technician at Walgreens.
It only took a short time to realize I didn’t want to be a pharmacist. While I enjoyed working as a part of a supportive healthcare team, I wanted more than to work with patients from behind the counter. I wanted to prescribe the right drug the first time, to develop meaningful and effective relationships with patients, and to use the skills I mastered as an English major – to write and speak in a clear and concise manner, to interpret complex information, to research, and to think critically – every