Blake & Faith - Block 1 (2025-26): Midpoint

Hey y'all!

It's Blake! Faith and I have been out here in Wyoming for about 3 weeks now, and we are so happy and excited to share all the fun we've been having while we've been here!

Traveling to Wyoming

Instead of flying and getting a rental, Faith and I both made the long drive from Auburn to Fort Washakie. It's about a 26-hour drive all told. While that's certainly a long drive, it took us through multiple states (Mississippi, Tennessee, Kentucky, Indiana, Missouri, Arkansas, and Nebraska, depending on which way you go) and was a beautifully scenic trip.

Arriving in Wyoming

We arrived in Wyoming late on the Friday before our first day. We spent the weekend getting settled, cleaning up, getting groceries, and making a little home for ourselves. We even got a Roku for the living room TV that we and future students can use! We are here May-June and are so happy and satisfied with the weather, it's such a great time to be out here!

First Week of Rotation

When we first arrived at the rotation site (Wind River Cares Ethete Clinic), we met our preceptor, Katherine, and spent some time getting comfortable with the dispensing system and the EHR. We got to meet all the lovely people at the pharmacy, and even met some of the nurses and providers during the tour. 

During our first week, we spent our time doing order entry, filling prescriptions, and helping/counseling patients at the window. However, due to a maintenance issue, we were given that Wednesday off. Faith and I used our day off as an opportunity to go on our first hike, Popo Agie Falls!

Popo Agie (please ask your preceptor how to pronounce it) was so amazingly beautiful and was a pretty easy, comfortable hike! It was only about 30-40 minutes away. We would definitely recommend this as a first hike and have been back there again since posting this!

On this day off, we also stopped by the Shoshone Cultural Center (just a few minutes from the student house) and got to learn about the Shoshone and Arapahoe tribes, Chief Washakie, and even Sacajawea!

Cody and the Petroglyphs

After we finished our first week of the rotation, we made a little trip to Cody, making a little stop outside of Thermopolis to see the historic Legend Rock petroglyphs. It was fascinating to see them and get to read about expert analyses of what they depict and represent about native culture.

After our stop at the petroglyphs, we got back on the road and arrived in Cody, Wyoming shortly after. While in Cody, we went to the Buffalo Bill museum! It has multiple large exhibits, including native history, natural history, modern/traditional art, Buffalo Bill history, and one of the largest gun exhibits in the US (over 7,000 guns)! We spent hours and hours in the museum and still probably missed some things. 

We strongly recommend making the trip to Cody to explore the museum. We learned so much and had a great time! While you're in Cody, be sure to stop by the historic Irma Hotel for food. It has such a great atmosphere and a very rich history.

Second Week of Rotation

As we started our second week of the rotation, we were assigned our first project! We were tasked with looking into Hydroxychloroquine use at Wind River Clinics (Ethete, Arapahoe, and Riverton) as well as the prevalence of eye exams to monitor for HQC eye toxicity. We learned so much and we're able to present our findings to the P&T Committee!

During the second week, we were assigned our second project (which we just finished today)! We have been looking at chronic use of opioids as well as MME/day across all three of the Wind River Cares clinics. We are hoping to present that data next week!

During this week, Faith and I both had the opportunity to continue counseling patients, and we even applied CGMs to patients! We also welcomed a new student to the house, a P4 from the University of Wyoming!

Exploring the Tetons

After finishing our second week, we (Faith, the Wyoming student, and I) took a trip to Grand Teton National Park! It was about two and a half hours from us, and we were amazed by the beauty and magnitude of the Tetons!

The three of us chose Taggart Lake as our hike for the day. It was a relatively short and easy hike with lots of flowing water, animals, and beautiful plants. It was a nice, warm day, which was perfect for hiking. When we made it to the lake itself, we were absolutely blown away by how stunning and serene the lake was, especially with the Tetons in the background.

After taking in the sights and sounds of the lake, we made our way back to the car, seeing a moose on the way! Once we got back to the car, we drove into Jackson and explored the town a bit, getting ice cream and doing some shopping while we were there.

Third Week of Rotation

As we started our third week of the rotation, we continued our work on the opioid project, applied more CGMs, did some more counseling, and got to know the pharmacy staff a bit better. We even got to shadow one of the NPs (who specializes in Behavioral Health!), which was a very insightful experience for both of us.

Also, we welcomed another student to our little home, a student from UTHSC (Tennessee)! The Wyoming student and the Tennessee student have been spending their time at the Arapahoe clinic, but we will be swapping clinics next week!

Outside of the clinic this week, we finally made the short drive to visit Sacajawea's gravesite. We got to learn a bit about her and her journey with Lewis and Clark. Just down the road is Chief Washakie's gravesite, which we also visited. We also got to see beautiful statues of both Sacajawea and Chief Washakie!

What's Next?

As we're writing this, we are hanging out in the living room, waiting to go to the Dubois Rodeo tonight! This weekend, we will be going back to the Tetons to hike Jenny Lake and then spend more time in Jackson. Next weekend, we will be going to Yellowstone!

We are so excited to send out our final update at the end of the rotation, just a couple of weeks from now, and have had a great time typing up this post. We can only hope that this post gives at least a little insight into the amazing time we've been having out here. It's truly difficult to put into words how breathtaking and memorable this whole experience has been so far. We are so excited for what awaits us, and are just as excited to share it here!

War Eagle!!

- Blake and Faith