the cycle

5:30 am
marge: *awakes with a startle, heart thumping loudly*
ralph: bye, hun. pasok na ko.
marge: *goes with ralph to the door.* ok, hun. see you bukas.
marge: *goes to the bathroom to take a hi-speed shower* shet, late na naman ako nito.

6:15 am
marge: *drives towards EAMC listening to "The Morning Rush." laughs a little, much irritated by the traffic.*

7:15 am
marge: *catches her breath, after ruuning at top speed from the parking lot, through 6 flights of stairs, to the office, as she looks at the "barred" attendance.* late na naman ako, as usual. *in between gasps*

marge then goes on with the rest of her day:

8 am - 12 nn
patient's mom: ano, doctora, xray na naman? kaka-xray lang namin nung isang araw ah.
marge: *annoyed beyond measure* mommy, ginagawan po natin ng paraan para maipasok sya sa operating room kaya po ipapaulit natin yung xray. eto po pera, *tries to wrangle out of her own hand the last one-thousand-peso bill she has on her coin purse* ipagawa nyo po sa labas yung xray para po makuha agad ang resulta. salamat po. *turns around and leaves before she pounces forward and tear off the carotids of the complaining mom using her bare teeth*

marge: ma'am/sir, kunin ko po sana yung resulta ng "______" ni patient "________."
ma'am/sir: *answers either of the following* ok po, eto po./wala pa po, pakibalikan na lang po next year/wala pa po ba sa itaas? may nag-float na po nun./wala po kami na-receive na ganun.
marge: ok po. salamat po.

12 noon
marge: *complains about this-and-that to her co-residents over overpriced canteen food*

12:30 pm - 5 pm
marge: *continues with the left over morning errands*checks and rechecks the pre-op patients, only to find out that they ain't got no blood/materials for the operation/clearance/etc.* exchange one-liner text messages with ralph* have a hearty laugh with some of the ward nurses*

5 - 6 pm
marge: *starts to endorse patients.*tries to give out a "half-smile" as she gets asked a lot of questions that she can't answer because she's too lazy to read cummings.*feels embarassed as she can't remember answers to questions that have been asked over and over again*


9 pm
marge: *drives home, left hand on a cigarette stick and the other on the wheel. contemplates about reading cummings or watching one or two of the stack of dvds she bought ages ago but still haven't got the time to see*

10 pm
marge: *gets out of the car. leaves her stuff on the bedroom floor. goes to the shower to have a decent bath*

11 pm
marge: *opens laptop and plays "plants vs. zombies."*

11:05 pm
marge: *slips into GCS 3 while playing "plants vs. zombies"

5:45 am (the following day)
marge: *awakes with a startle, heart thumping loudly*
marge: *goes to the bathroom to take a hi-speed shower* shet, late na naman ako nito.

and the cycle continues...

iba

after a long hiatus, i have risen to write about death.

a few hours ago, i have experienced my first mortality in this new institution i'm in. and it broke my heart to know that they do things so much differently from what i'm used to.

walang ECG. kalokohan. i understand that the living patients need it more than the dead/seemingly dead. but how can you pronounce someone dead without an ECG tracing?! with a confusing cheap stethoscope that can't even hear a loudly beating heart?! if we were stuck in the middle of the Amazon, i would've just let it go. but we're not. so there.

walang pari. 'pag umaga lang daw may pari, sa gabi, wala. WAT DA??!! kalokohan na talaga 'to.

(other details of what transpired i believe are too foul to be written.)

i learned from this man. in him i was able to do my first tracheostomy. forever will i be grateful. i wish some people would give him some respect, dead as he may be.

death is not something we would ever be accustomed to. or so i thought.

Eternal rest grant unto him O Lord.
And let perpetual light shine upon him.
May he rest in peace.

i like!!! :D

35-36

For weeks I've been thinking of things to blog about. So much has happened since I last posted:

got married! rotated in Neuro-Psych rotated in Medicine laptop got stolen finished internship! bell's palsy recurred preparing for the boards.

But now, only one thing consumes me:

I AM 35-36 weeks PREGNANT!

I am thrilled and scared sh*tless at the same time.

my sky. :)

here's a glimpse of my baby girl! (and her evil twin. hehe. figure out which is which.)

finally, INTERNSHIP IS OVER!!!

i can finally concentrate on being a mom! :D
(and wife?! hmm.) ;p

I'M SO EXCITED!!! :D

(i'll try to post something decent over the next few days.)

advance merry christmas, everyone!

23 days na lang, pasko na! :)

christmas will be extra special from this year onwards. :)

excited na ako. :D

tondo man... may langit din

Yesterday marked the end of my 10-day stint playing Ob-Gyn doctor in Tondo General Hospital and my 2-months rotation in Ob-Gyn. I enjoyed it more than I expected! Hehe.

The Things I love about Tondo Gen:

1. The staff really treats you like a doctor.
They not only call you "doctor," but they also give you the respect that comes along with it. The nurses there (and even the janitorial staff) are very, very polite. They say "please" when they ask you to do something and you'll really feel that they mean it. And the residents there take your word as truths. You are treated like you're not "just an intern." They give you credit, and I love them so much for that. I wouldn't wanna repeat my rotation there, (it had been the most physically challenging days of my like) but looking back, it had been a very enriching experience all in all.

2. No more pushing!
Wheelchairs, stretchers, gurneys... name it, you won't push it. Hehe. Don't get me wrong, I'm totally fine with pushing these things. (As if one year of clerkship ain't enough, I still do it now that I'm an intern.) But just the thought that I'm not obliged to do it is very... new. And I find it somewhat ironic that a government hospital like Tondo Gen can afford to have people do these things for us. (Thank you, Philcare!) Whereas in UST, the MRODs (Manong/Manang Romac On Duty: Romac is the name of the company giving the general services in UST.) are only supposed to clean, not push, and we've only got a very limited number of transport aides so we still got a lot of pushing to do. Oh well.

3. Lots of Blood.
We do blood extractions and IV line insertions! Yey! The dormant Med Tech in me really appreciated the demand for a phlebotomist. I loved it! And aside from inserting IV lines, we also get to push Hydralazine (an anti-hypertensive drug) directly from a syringe into a vein. Yey! (Now I know how IV drug users do it. Hehe.) I'm really thankful I was given a chance to hone my skills.

4. Stitch!
And of course, the reason why we were assigned to rotate in Tondo Gen: to be able to learn how to do normal spontaneous deliveries. we already had a go with this during our Clerkship rotation in Fabella. But now, were up to a higher level. We got to do Episiorrhaphies as well! (Episiorrhaphy is when you repair the "cut" you did to make the vaginal introitus wider, thus facilitating passage of the baby) During clerkship we were allowed to do suturing on the skin only. But now, we're allowed to repair the submucosa as well! Yey! And we're also to do first assist in Cesarian Sections. (in UST, only second year residents do it in the Clinical Division and third year residents do it in the Private Division.)

5. Exposure.
Patients are the best teachers. Once you've seen a case, it's very likely that you won't forget it. And it's not only theories that you learn from patients, you also learn to be human. It's very stressful when you think about it, when their problem suddenly becomes your problem. But I think that's what makes this profession noble. You extended your arm farther than expected. You do your best to give more. (Okay, enough patient talk from me. I tend to get carried away when it comes to these things.)

So, that's that for me. For two months, I had been allowed to have my teeth set on the edge. (I love Ob-Gyn!) Thanks to everyone who have shared the experience with me. :)

Speaking of teeth set on the edge, here's what's keeping mine lately: