How was your day?

Every little thing is magic.

After a long day, I usually wind down with writing something in my journal… sometimes, I write down lists, or sometimes I just droll on and on about a certain topic, which, upon reaching the end of my “papyric” tirade, it all starts to make sense. I just feel that I never want to lose any of it.

Each little thought is a memory, and every action, every nuance, every line that counts for something should be written down to be remembered (or somehow told.) J

My luggage from home. The cooler is full of food.
lol.

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I had just gotten home from a long day at work… my last activity for the day had been an interview with a bipolar patient from the ward, who was currently Manic. I was assigned to videotape my interview with her for my supervision tomorrow. * In this context, supervision is when you and a consultant sit down and discuss a patient’s case, or in my case, she wanted to discuss my interview with me. The last time I had supervision, I interviewed a psychotic patient, and she’d pause the video clip at certain places to explain to me about aspects of interviewing patients, and then give me some tips on interviewing.

It’s quite an experience watching yourself as you do an interview. I didn’t know I had tics and mannerisms that got magnified on screen. 

Like, for example, I’d tap my fingers when I get impatient…or, I would tend to pause at times for longer than necessary. The most amusing part was at the start…my supervisor laughed, and said (well, I actually verbalized it for her,haha), “I’m too perky?”

She chuckled. ‘If your patient is aloof, or reserved, you should start with that kind of mood,” she said, “you also need to be reserved.”

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I had a bit of a scare earlier.

I had a patient at the OPD who (he was manic) actually tore his prescription right in front of me because he thought I was prescribing too many tablets (he was due for check-up in a month, with 3x daily medications, hence the number). He came with his wife, and he got agitated because he said vitamins helped him sleep anyway, so he wouldn’t need the sleeping pills I prescribed as well. His wife was embarrassed for him, and this irritated him, so after a while, he got antsy and started to talk in a louder voice, saying that he knew some important people in the senate and that the former vice president of the Philippines was his uncle, so he’d be given medications, no doubt about it.

Somehow, that tearing of the prescription scared me, and it made me move away farther from the patient, and it made me annoyed because despite all my patience, he still wanted to assert himself. I took a deep breath and tried to diffuse the situation. It was hard, because the way he carried on, it was as if he was going to hit his wife…and if I pushed it, maybe even me.

I resisted the urge to call security, but in the end, I took the risk and decided to play along with it, talking to the patient calmly but firmly (I hope). Eventually, he recanted, and he even made the promise of bringing me a carton of vitamin supplements that he was selling, and giving it to me for free. Just because.

It worked, thankfully. In fact, in the end, he was even apologetic.  He somehow got some insight, calmed down.  He was easier to talk to afterwards.

He ended up being nicer, promising to take the medications (I slipped his wife another prescription, but this time, it was for a full month).

Patient: “Doctor, how would you like vitamin E supplements? I’ll give them to you for free…

Me: Thank you sir, you are very kind, but Vitamin E makes me break out in pimples… (It does.)

Patient: Do you have a boyfriend? I think you’d get along well with my co-teacher who is also single…

Me: (not letting him finish) Oh, it’s ok sir, thank you. Yes, I do have a boyfriend. (I don’t.)

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I like to think that I am the type of person who can remember whole conversations, especially if I see people’s faces, and see their gestures, and observe them gesticulate in their own peculiar ways.

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My friend Chamie is about to give birth…to her baby we have named Chimichanga!

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I am a lucky girl. And it’s a priceless feeling.

(Thanks Ma, Thanks Pa.)

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A girl in the elevator was singing her version of James Ingram’s “If ever you’re in my arms again…”

Happy thought. J

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I’m reporting on Trance and Hypnosis tomorrow. Volunteered.

(me and my big mouth.)

:-S

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Oh, we heard a good comment earlier from one of our consultants, and I paraphrase…

”We were a great batch, with a good work ethic.” (He meant us first year psych residents, of course.)

*heartwarming*

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A famous author once said, “Anyone’s first draft is shit.”

(Lol. I don’t care.)

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Natch, you know what, maybe one of these days, I’m going to get me a boyfriend who’ll ask me at the end of a long day, “So how was your day?” so you wouldn’t have to put up with my long day revue.

*sigh*

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But you know I love writing to you anyway, right? J

(Good.)

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Love,

S.

P.S. So...How was your day?

Oh, this made me laugh while watching Modern Family last weekend. Give it a go! :-D

Tricky Boy vs. The Thousand Light bulbs

My father doesn’t trust me to screw on a light bulb.


He’d rather I call the building electrician who charges 100 pesos an hour rather than have his “little” girl change the busted light bulb.


But because he’s in town for a surprise visit, he screwed it on himself.


:-)


Pops texted me the other night telling me that he was going to be in Manila for some work-related trip with the mayor about some lighting seminar something or other.


I thought it was a way cool surprise. It would be nice to see my pop, I thought it would be nice to give him a tour around my hospital, so he could see where I worked.

This is my pop. (Lol. :-))


I was going to post the picture of him standing in front of the roster of names of the psychiatry residents (one of them mine), pointing to my name, and acting like the complete “stage father”. I actually toured him around the ward (where he got all curious and actually wanted to see my patients, which of course, I good-naturedly refused to do, because of the privacy clause.) I also took him around the hospital, where he saw the ER (he was surprised at how many patients there were, and how crowded it was.). When we passed by the ambulatory unit from across the street, I pointed out to him a patient who I thought was probably going to be admitted. “Pop, do you think that’s a Psych Patient?” I asked. “ Hmm...” he went, thought a little harder, and finally said, “No, she looks normal.”


(Haha. There is a reason why he’s an Engineer and I’m a psychiatry resident. True enough, I saw the same patient in the wards the next day.)


:-)


We just got home from Quiapo, where he wanted to go because he was looking for a place that reportedly sold good ham in Aranque Market. We took a cab, and walked around the Quiapo area most of the way.


He knew the area…and while we were walking, he shared a story about back in the seventies, when he was still in Nautical school, he and his friends were into Bruce Lee movies and from ROTC class, they’d line up to see the movies at the Bruce Lee festival (this is pretty much why I grew up watching Bruce Lee movies as well). They’d troop on Saturdays and munch on banana-cues (essentially bananas fried in sugar syrup).
We bought strawberries for home, and when we passed by a thrift shop, he held on to some tops that I liked while I picked out some more. Haha. He was a pretty good sport. We also ended up buying me replacement lamps for those that I had busted in my apartment (and hadn’t changed because I didn’t have the time), a screwdriver set (although he wouldn’t trust me to use it to change the ballast on my bedroom light), a table, things I needed for school, etc.


The sales clerk at the hardware store tested out one of the bulbs, and started to explain how the lights worked, and I was almost puffing out my chest when I said, “It’s ok, my pop’s an engineer, and he knows all about that.” Haha. The dude was Ilonggo, trying to speak in Cebuano, and very, very chatty. Pop and I gave 
him a good ribbing, and he laughed along.


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I reckon I’m a daddy’s girl type of girl. :-) I get along well with my father, and we’re very similar in that we are both stubborn, and that we both love a good laugh. We both want to do things to make people feel at ease. We don’t always agree on certain things, and there were even times that we’d have to resort to some book source, or some internet source to settle a discussion (which I almost always win anyway, haha. My father is not a big reader of books, but he is a sharp man.). They’re usually pretty trivial stuff…and one of the funniest I can recall was when we were arguing over what particular cannon they used in Desert Storm. LOL.


(Whatever… :-p)


He’s a joker, really, and I do recall times when we’d take at least two hours during dinner because he was always entertaining us with a joke, or a work anecdote, and stuff. Ahh…good times. 


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In theory, I reckon I know how to change the ballast of a fluorescent lamp, but no, I am not supposed to do it on my own. Lol.


He’d rather have someone do it for me, because he doesn’t trust me not to hurt myself around electricity. (He actually explained things as he went along fixing stuff in the house, including my toilet flusher, but of course, wouldn’t actually let me do it.)


Don’t worry pops, I’ll make sure I’ll get a man who can fix the ballast, change my lightbulbs, and do the plumbing as well as you can ( as well as make me very happy, of course.).


:-p


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Ohers:
 Congratulations, Atty. Zeus Yee! 
 Going home for the weekend.
 Attending graduation of 4 of my cousins. 
 Grew a pair of balls...but am slightly miserable about the timing. :-S

Video: Natalie - Love you so

LSS for no special reason.

Well, maybe there is one. But it's too corny to mention... :-)

This goes out to people who still "feel" things, but more so for people who should "remember what it was like to feel."

:-)

Love,

S.

P.S. I really am the world's biggest cornball...the song isn't even multi-layered poetry. :-)

The Line

"By having you, I could lose you. By not having you, I could love you forever."

-------- 
 It's from an Andrew Greeley book I read when I was ten. I haven't used this line since. Oh, I feel like such a big girl now. 


Here's to feelings and the neverending quest for The One True Thing. :-) (I'm the world's biggest cornball.)


Love,

S.

"Pang-mestiza"

"Mommy, this is my girlfriend.... Stephanie..."

(No, he didn't mean me.)


:-)


At last night's symposium on a certain brand of anti-depressants at the Richmonde Hotel in Eastwood City, Libis, there was a point where the comedians Tomas and Petite got all frisky and decided to ask one of the doctors to come up to join them onstage. (That's them, by the way, Tomas is the skinnier, short guy with long hair, while Petite is the buxom "woman" in the hot skirt. They were a hoot, by the way.)


Anyway, in this spiel, they were playing out a scenario where the good-looking doctor, a certain JS from the National Center for Mental Health (another psychiatric facility, he's a second-year Psychiatry resident, by the way), was supposed to be introducing his girlfriend, to his mom (Petite, the one on the right).


He sheepishly scratched his head, but went through with it anyway...and they both walked up to his "mom", and he said,


"Mommy, this is my girlfriend, Stephanie..." 


(I almost stood up and called out, "I'm Stephanie!!" , but of course, I didn't. *grin*)


Petite looks at the "girlfriend" and goes, "Stephanie? eh pang-mestiza ang pangalang yan, hindi ka namang mukhang mestiza ah... <-- actually, she said something else, but then I forgot what it was. Basta, bottom line, "she" didn't fit the name Stephanie. (Everyone guffawed, and Jonani (the doctor) tried another name... he picked "Lindsay" this time. Still not convinced.)


:-) I saw the guy up close, earlier that night, he was in front of me while i was getting some potato salad.... (and I read his name off his name tag, which hung around his neck, because I do that.:-))

(i love potato salad, by the way) 

Anyway, the guy turned out to be a good sport, although, he didn't "kiss" Tomas. lol. From the look on his face (it was all in a painful grimace), he seemed to want to fall through the floor, i mean, well, you couldn't make him.

I saw him again while we were waiting for our rides at the lobby. The NCMH people all took a big van and he seemed to be the last to ride, along with a couple of girls (they were both chummy, but body language-wise, i didn't think either one was his girlfriend.) :-) Anyway, i just stood there, waiting with my co-residents, and he was just a mere one-meter away. If i didn't have any impulse control, i probably would've gone, 

"Hey, I'm Stephanie..."

(But I do. And so...I just spent the next few seconds quietly (and discreetly, of course) looking at the guy and observing, looking for nuances, little tics and quirks, like I always do.)

Instant crush? maybe.

And then, he passes in front of me, and I get a whiff... of a manly scent that was familiar.

And "Underneath it All' by No Doubt was playing in the background...

(and I was immediately transported to another place and time...and boy, if you know what i mean.)


:-p


*sigh*


Love,


S.

Movie: Little Manhattan

I was watching movies last night in bed.
:-)
This one is simply too cute for words.
The little kid described having a broken heart as "The pain with no name...." so adorable. :-) 
I agree though, love does suck, but in the end, it does leave you with incredible memories anyway.
(Barbra Streisand's character in that movie with Jeff Bridges said something about how even though love hurt like hell, people still fall in love...because it's still fucking great. [sic..]. )


:-) 


Good night, everyone.


Love, 


S.
 P.s. a link to the site, just in case, the embedded one doesn't work.