"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.

98% = (MY) Top 2 Medical School in the Country. (Congratulations, schoolmates!)) You Rock!

Full text here. :-) http://www.pinoyboardresults.co.cc/2010/08/top-peforming-schools-august-2010_18.html

Mini-moments

While getting ready for work tomorrow and typing up a resume, I had the impulse to come over and blog a little about my twice-weekly occupational involvements (a.k.a. my job at the hospital) at a municipality 2 hours away from my place.

I've been having a great time, learning, actually...and there is always something new to learn everyday, new people to meet (and help)...newer moments to appreciate and think about. Believe me.

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The other night I was on duty, a mother and father brought in their 6 month-old kid who had been coughing all night. I checked with my stet, wheezes. I examined him all over and asked what that funny smell was...apparently, his mother had rubbed leaves on him. It didn't help him any and he was thus brought to the hospital. While the kid was being nebulized, I couldn't help but get a closer look. He was bright little kid...readily made eye-contact and responded right away. I couldn't help but soften up at the way he would stare at me with his big dark brown eyes and then smile, as if to say, "Hey Lady, let's play.."

But then again, which baby wouldn't? I have a soft spot...no, a weakness for babies. All it takes is a smile, a coo, or a sign of little distress, and I'm taken. :-p This was a funny little naughty baby, too. While I was examining him before sending him home, he reached out and kept playing with the zipper of my jeans... I had to laugh, and I went, "Aww...your kid is so cute, Mrs. X..." "Buyag, Doctora...".   And then I said it again after a  few more minutes of examining, and the she goes, "Buyag..." and then she asked if I were pregnant or something.

I laughed, and I assured her that I was not.

(It's a superstition in some parts (especially in the general area where I work) that saying "Buyag" or "Puera Buyag" to someone who praises your kid's looks, or attributes will be a countercurse, so that any evil spirit in the midst would think twice about harming their kid. She asked if I was pregnant too, 'cause it was possible that I had taken a fancy to her son. )

 (Haha, nothing could be further from the truth...me being pregnant, I mean.)

After reassuring her that that was not the case, and then sending them home with strict instructions and a prescription, I realized that the kid did remind me of someone that I used to be friends with, funnily enough. But then, I just smiled and  thought nothing of it afterwards...I was a sucker for babies anyway. :-p

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There was this 40+ year-old lady who came in because she couldn't pee properly. The history and PE revealed that there was indeed an infection and it was causing significant urinary problems. She came in that night in distress because her full bladder had her in terrible pain. We treated her. She was a nice lady, very trusting and followed my instructions to the letter. I was touched when she said that it was such a big problem for her, even making love (and intercourse) was painful...when it really didn't have to be (because the root infection was treatable). One time, during a check-up, she apologized for having arrived late because she had to walk two hours from where she lived (in the mountains) to get to the hospital...

(And there I was, complaining about my two-hour bus ride...she obviously had the rougher end of the deal.) Anyway, since she was such a good patient, and she took all the prescribed medications, things worked out extremely well for her. She got cured. And it was definitely something to feel good about. Everything worked out well, no more pain...not in just the usual bathroom rituals, even in making love. :-p

(:-p Of course, that's always a  good thing for patients.)

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A 7 year-old kid's foot got burnt after he attempted to put out a burning piece of plastic by stamping on it with his foot. Do'h. :-p Well, his foot got really bad and swollen...it was a second degree burn and was really painful, he couldn't sleep at all, that was why they brought him there. I cleaned it and dressed it, after giving him pain meds. All the while, he was silent, quietly observing me while I picked at it, not saying a word...even  until after I cleaned it, and until his mother hoisted him up and proceeded to carry him to head for home.

I was writing on his chart, oblivious to anything else, because I had already given instructions...and then the next time I looked up, he looked at me and smiled. A small, innocent smile. And then he was gone.

Maybe it was a thank you smile, or something, but for whatever its worth, that made my day.:-)

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The"mini-moments" can mean a lot, too.

~ S.

P.S. Good luck on your interview, A. :-) Break a leg (or should I say, "Charm the panel to death?". (And have fun in BookSale afterwards dayon. hehe)

Hack and Slash

For some reason, I always wind up with patients with decaying body parts...

It's not their fault, but I do take a long time to dress these patients. It's not that I'm slow, but I like taking my extra time to really clean out dead tissue, to mop up the blood, clean out the pus...the works. It smells really bad most of the time, that disgustingly dead, (but now familiar)smell of flesh that has not seen the light of day, for a very long time.

Trust me, it is an experience, it assails your senses at first meeting. And, depending on how bad it is, it'll make you want to cancel that lunch date you've been planning with someone.

That bad.

Hmm...so what causes it? Where do you often get these "decaying" body parts? Well, most of the time there's the common "diabetic foot", there's necrotizing fasciitis, among others. For tonight's discussion, however, let us focus on the one my patient has. He has had pressure ulcers (that have become infected) from not having been cleaned, properly...for the past two weeks. You can smell decayed flesh from a corridor away.

I won't say what his case was exactly, but suffice to say, he was left in bed for weeks, and thinking they were helping him, his relatives would apply a poultice of mashed nut somethings on his ulcers. AND Betadine. (tragic, really.)

So when he got to the hospital, he was feverish and his ulcers were in pretty bad shape. For some reason, I take it as a personal mission to clean these suckers out, dress them and keep them clean...and do the same thing again every day.

The last time I did this for another patient, his leg got all better...and he got to go home after a long long time of being in the hospital (but it wasn't because of my dressing his leg only, of course. :-p).

I suppose, aside from the fact that it should be done for the patient's good, the act of taking out the bad, dead, devitalized tissue to allow living tissue to granulate and form into new muscles/skin is pretty symbolic. It is a Zen-like experience to have to suffer [the stench, the cost, the time] and to forget yourself, even for a while, because this other person depended on that help you were giving him. He couldn't do it himself, and so he would surely appreciate your efforts. Seeing change and improvement by taking out the bad stuff from something that's meant to be living, useful flesh is therapeutic. In my opinion, it is as much your healing as your patients'. (I can always relate to everything...it almost makes me selfish.:-p)

Honestly speaking, when it comes down to it, dressing/debriding meticulously is as much as good for me, the doctor,as it is for my patient. It is a symbiosis, a mutualism that he or she doesn't know about...because most of the time, they think they're the only ones benefiting from it. ;-p

(Of course, there are select cases...some patients can get downright demanding and would want to be dressed more than once a day, paging and paging. This case in point is about the one patient you would dress when you had the time to sit down to it.)

STR for stroke

There was one time just recently, when someone called me on the phone to ask for me help, and ask about what he was having. Normally, the proper way to diagnose a patient would be to do a history (i.e. inteview) and examine him/her fully....and get only necessary labs to confirm  the diagnosis. This would be impossible to do over the phone, so after getting an over-all assessment from a brief interview, it would be best to guide the patient as to what steps to take next...

    Strokes are pretty common occurrences, and they can happen to anyone within a susceptible demographic, so if in case you are placed in a situation where you need to decide whether a person needs medical help, the cut card below would come really handy. It's a simple way to assess. 

(Photo credit: http://www.ehow.com/how_2352831_recognize-stroke-symptoms.html )     

     There is a disclaimer, of course, because medical expertise could not be substituted with online articles, but I think that this would be a very useful way to assess. Every second counts. The sooner you can identify, the faster the person can be treated, the better the outcome will be.

Incognito

October 1st, 2009
6:00 PM
How Yang Chinese Restaurant
Perdices Street, Dumaguete City

A few more days of thinking is bound to do me some good. I still haven't decided 100% as to what I really want to do.

I actually came here because I had a burger craving...they're the same people behind the famous burgers from "Taster's Delight". Eating this burger, and pronto, was all I could think about this morning.

And so, I had that...all it's childhood memory-inducing "mayo-loaded" magic... The exquisite delight of biting into it and savoring it reminded me of how the feared food critic must've have felt like when he bit into Remy the Rat's "Ratatouille", of the movie of the same name. (Oh, it must have been heavenly!).

------------- 

How Yang has the best ambience when you want to do some thinking. This restaurant has nice, ergonomic chair and table sets, good lighting as well as subdued music. Very satisfactory. 

I'm a big fan of bright lights and wide-open spaces... and would think of myself rightfully saddened if placed in cramped, dark areas with not a hint of breeze and seemingly no hope of society.

------------ 

Although I sometimes wish to remain incognito and do my reading in peace, I find that I cannot always do so.  There will always be someone I could run into, asking about me, and exchanging pleasantries will always be the norm. This does not bother me much, although, I do prefer not be called by the title of Doctor, when I'm dressed in jean shorts, a ratty t-shirt and rubber thongs. 

I do recall a time when I was quietly devouring a cup of Takoyaki (Squid) balls in a corner of a busy busy side store, when suddenly, a nurse from the hospital I used to work at addressed me with a smile (no less), "Why, Dr. M____, it's you!" I remember smiling sheepishly, a tad embarrassed at having been found in less dignified a manner.

--------- 

      Making major decisions is not something I take lightly...it usually takes me a while. I hope I make it in time, though. 

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      I am simply amazed by the unrelenting efforts of our countrymen. After relief, there will be a need for rehabilitation. Those who have given their time, effort and resources are the real heroes.

      And, I think Gerald Anderson is a dream. :-) Such daring, such heroism... (gushing, here.)

"Doctora..."

1:30AM

Lola's living room

I could have heard a pin drop...if somebody besides me were around to drop it. *nervous swallow*

I'm not entertaining any scary thoughts, as I am the only one (hopefully) who's awake in the house. All the others have gone to sleep hours ago.

My 84-year-old grandmother took ill and I was sleeping over to see to her needs, and to manage her. After the necessary history and PE and the essential labs (just 2), my suspicions were confirmed. My grandmother's condition (I won't say what it is, though) is a pretty common thing for the elderly.

I felt responsible for seeing to her care, because I happened to be, after all, the "first doctor of the family". (I have a tita and tito who hold doctorate degrees in law, but that, of course is another thing, totally.) I'm managing this as an out-patient case, of course, but with her being geriatric, and my very own grandmother, I'm keeping a watchful eye just in case anything gets out of...order. Managing/treating family members can be quite challenging, because you really have to keep being on your toes just to make sure you've got all the bases covered.

Like, for instance, with my lola... her current case is something I regularly see at the hospital wards and is a common complaint in the ER, but before I gave her the medication, I had to go check my books and look up on medscape.com if my management was still current, and effective. An evidence-based search rewarded my efforts.

In fact, I'm still up because I want to check if, from the time I gave her an antipyretic (fever meds) to four hours after (which is a few minutes from now), she wil still be afebrile.

My grandmother is into alternative medicine as well, and just yesterday, I noticed that she had charcoal dust arund her bedsides, and an open book, placed facedown on her tummy. She apparently had been reading about "The Healing wonders of Charcoal" before she fell asleep.

"Tsk, tsk.." I tutted, with a smile. My grandmother would always be after a cheaper panacea, a "cure-all", so to speak, all the time. In fact, to be perfectly honest, the fact that she had decided to comply with the medication I prescribed and administered was flattering. But then again, she always listened to what I said anyway (as is the privilege of grandchildren), sometimes she teases me and calls me "Doctora".

1:45 AM

Nope, no fever. She's sleeping soundly, and so is my Lolo.

So far, so good.

:-) Good night!

~ Sonia

The Hippocratic Oath

I'll be swearing on this later today...(at the Cebu Waterfront Hotel, Lahug, Cebu City, 6PM).

Can't wait to see my old friends, and new colleagues.
:-p
I'll post pictures soon. :-)

Lost...almost.

i have this friend i've known for years. he is quite successful, and is saying that he will be marrying his girlfriend of seven years. I reckon one of his secrets in getting to where he was at right now was because he was very...practical. For lack of a better word, that's what i would describe how he doesn't let emotions get in the way of what he wants. What he wants, he works hard at and gets result.

That seems like a pretty sound way of doing things...one cannot afford to let one's emotions rule one's actions or let them get the better of him or her. i only have two months left before "the big one", i shouldn't let my troubles and worries get the better of me.

As far as i can see, it's going to be hard getting everything together...but i will try. I can't let all the pressure, the hurt, the disappointments, and all that negative energy get to me. I just wish life were more fair.

The school work and the studying i can handle, it's all the other outside stuff that i don't have control of that are troubling me. I'm finding it hard to focus without a much needed resolution. Be kind.

-----------

Speaking of my friend, he told me that his gf was someone he had had a crush on when he was younger, and then they somehow ended up together (although I'm pretty sure he had had a hand in the whole thing, knowing him, haha). Those relationships are the best, when two people genuinely like each other (read: crazy about each other), and have many things in common. Everything always works when both parties want it to, really. If only one does, then, it's totally not going to work.

Life is not always fair in the love department.

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I feel generally down today. Sorry. I kept thinking about how i used to be so lighthearted and positive, but these past few days, I've felt off.

I needed to get away, so i went off to the local mall by myself, just wandering around while waiting for my order to get done. Uncertainty and impatience, annoyance and disappointment are roiling inside me now, and I can't seem to find any relief. I want to get away from everyone i know for a few days and not have to think about anything or anyone that will make me feel sorry for myself.

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The only highlight of my day was when i got to sit in at the UST board review classes for the day. The instructors were intelligent and polished and had great powerpoints...very high standard. It reminded me of why I was attracted to be in Medicine when i was younger...i loved the high standard, the prestige, the importance and the precision of the field. :-)

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I almost got lost, after i decided to walk home after the cab queue was full... i almost took a wrong turn and would have ended up in a seedy dead-end with who knows what. But, since I was a good girl, I think Providence decided that it wasn't my time, and that I wasn't going to be harmed in anyway.

I found the way home...

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We have an exam tomorrow. I better get home. (We have Rosary Time at 8PM).

Going down the Mile

Arrggghh..!

 I’ve been working at my hospital charts for hours now and I’m not even halfway through.

 (*sigh*)

 If only I had done these earlier, like, maybe in the last couple of months… they have piled up considerably, and as a result, I may have to set my schedule for board review further away.  The latest that I will get everything ready will probably be the 20^th…that’s counting the time I have to go back to my old school in Iloilo to get my records so I can take the board exam.

 I wish I had somebody to worry about these things for me… or better yet, I wish I had somebody tell me how silly it was of me to keep putting the work off.

 My old classmates in facebook have talked about how they were already cleared and were well on their way to start the review…EM even had a massage and was speeding on his way after he got cleared (Yes, I do read status postings in facebook.. :-p ).

PGI A: Working on his admissions sheet. PGI B: Resting her head on a small fraction of her workload. (Records Section, SUMC, May 2009)

 I’m not the only one who’s dealing with this…a majority of us PGI’s have had to “reschedule” because of all this chart work. Some got lucky, they had the heavy rotations (i.e. Medicine, Surgery) earlier in the year, which left them a lot of free time during the “lighter rotations” (a.k.a., less “toxic”) rotations later to do their paperwork. (They’re about half-done, I think.)

 In my hospital, the Interns (that’s us) do the paperwork (i.e. history, PE, discharge summaries, etc), and the rest, if not finished, is set aside until you can do them at a later day.

 Unfortunately for me, that “later day” is, well, now.

 LOL.  I used the phrase, “My past is coming back to haunt me, Ma…” earlier, when I was joking with my Ma.

 I had to take out my trusty old electric typewriter,which I got when I was in high school, out so I didn’t have to feel as tired.  My right hand could only write so much… Also, because of the sheer  volume of paper work we had to finish, my handwriting had become so illegibly impossible! (And very slow, which has made the typewriter a boon.:-p)

 

Ma volunteered to help, saying that she’d do the ones where she’d just have to copy stuff and not have to summarize anything. So, I had to teach her where to find this and that, where the final diagnosis was placed, etc. After a few charts on her own, she was able to go ahead and do her work by herself, asking only occasional questions, and deciphering “undecipherable” handwriting.  She had trouble reading mine, honestly speaking. :-p

 So, wish me luck, y’all and here’s hoping I can get everything done by the 15^th of May so I can hitch a ride on the “Cadiz Carpool” to Boracay…where I’ll be getting off at Iloilo City, of course.

 You know what, for some reason some time ago, I was envying the guys and gals who had “significant others” who pitched in and did their chart work with (and for) them…I didn’t have mine who would get down and dirty with the chart work with me. 

But then again, I thought, who needs a boyfriend when you’ve got a Ma who’s willing to go down the mile of charts (literally!) with you?  Di ba? Di ba? 

--------------------------------------------

Happy Mother’s Day, Meme! :-D 

Thanks for always being there...

Staircase

I took this snapshot a few minutes earlier... can you guess what this might be?

A: The stairs up the foot of Mount Talinis

B: The footpath up Okoy Bridge

C: Abstract art with emphasis on emotional yellows and browns

D: None of the above.

E: Bootleg books/review material for August.. halp! :-p

hehe. A real no-brainer Q there for you, but feel free to give a guess anyway. :-p

After that decisive (and very lucky) "running" three-pointer...

Team Coach Dr. RVJ with the winner's trophy
That's Brobo, a.k.a. Mr. Three Points, getting an arm up after scoring the winning point.
Some of the guys and their muse, Doc Saceda.
(The team and some of their fans...this one was behind the camera the whole time.)
..exeept of course, in this one. :-)

Congratulations to the 2009 First Silliman Medical Center Inter-Color Basketball Tournament Champions... The DOCTORS!