start of something new

Today was my first day in Family Medicine.  A part in my medical career, that I vow to PERFECT.  Come on, if you can’t be a simple all-around family doctor, then how do you expect to manage the really tough cases?  I was really nervous (as usual) going into the ambulatory care clinic, but I was lucky enough to have a wonderful resident with me, Dr. Fadrilan (is the spelling correct?)  She gave us a good introduction and orientation, and then guided us through the entire shift.  Duty in Fam Med is different from the usual duty in other departments.   Either you are day or night shift, each lasting for 12 hours.  It went by more quickly than I thought it would.  I was lucky enough to get the day shift on the first day.  Night shift meant that I still have to attend the morning OPD from 7:30-5 pm and then go on night duty from 7 PM till 7 am, and then going on OPD again from 7:30 am till 12 NN.  Night shift is pretty tough, and I go on night shift on Thursday.  That’s 2 days from now.  But for tomorrow I go on normal non-duty status, meaning just attending the OPD from 7:30 AM till 5 PM, with a quota of 15 patients per day (not so bad).  This rotation will last for 2 weeks.  and then off we go to Community Medicine!  Get set for the cool province shots that we’re gonna be taking while being doctors at San Juan Batangas!  ^_^ I’m kind of scared about the oral reports though coming up next week.

I got lots of stories already about the patients I encountered today.  But I’m kinda tired, so let’s just leave that for another day.  Thanks for reading! ^_^

sick day

My very first sick day.  Today was the first time I took a day off from the hospital.  I could have done it a million times before, but I believe that today is the first legitimate day.  I started to have colds and a sore throat 3 days prior when I saw my dad, bro, and his GF to see a documentary called Deep Sea 3D at the iMax theater.  I was already sick when I went on my first and last duty at the nursery.  I tried to get rid of it yesterday, but to no avail.  Today I was supposed to be pre-duty status at the Pedia ER, which meant monitor all the back-log patients and finish all the orders by 4:30 pm.  I thought that if I went to the hospital today, I might not get the sickness out of my system by tomorrow, when I am REALLY needed by the team, since we go on duty tomorrow.  So I slept again and woke up 12 noon, still with a cold and a fever.  I’m getting better though, no worries.  I’m still sniffing, but I’ll make it through tomorrow.  ^_^ At least after the 24 hour duty, I get another day off.  ^_^

kids ‘r us

Growing up, I was never that into kids like the other girls. I wasn’t like those people who would go “aww… look at the baby!” It’s probably because I was born the youngest of 3 siblings and I have always been THE baby of the family. I had no experience taking care of someone younger than me and I was never around little kids that much. I remember during the 5th grade, I did have some experience taking care of my younger cousins. That was back when I was in the US. I hated those moments because it was such a big responsibility for me who would rather take care of myself and mind my own business. The worst part was having to clean up the carpet after my little cousin threw up on it. FANTASTIC!

Then came Pedia clerkship. I dreaded having to go through it, but for some odd twist of fate, I actually enjoyed it (minus the monitoring and the scary residents and consultants). I actually considered Pedia as my 2nd choice for residency (the 1st being surgery). The problem was that I just wanted to deal with neonates aka newborns. So I told myself, maybe I would be better off being a Pediatric surgeon instead.

Finally, I got the patience to upload some pictures to share with you guys again. These are some of the pics that i’ve take while we are at our ward and nursery rotation. I like the nursery rotation best because this is where I learned to catch newborns all by myself and with the assistance of my clerks. I was really scared during my first duty but after a while it became like routine, so I got the hang of it real quick.