moments of peace (with sounds of drilling in the background)

It’s kind of a late announcement, but I guess most of you guys know that my internship is finally OVER! Can you believe that one whole year has passed, and here I am still, blogging away, with full body intact. I can’t even believe that I gained a few pounds, which was the total opposite effect that I was going for in this internship. Even my make-up hours for OB and Pedia are done. So now I am supposed to be doing my reviews but I still haven’t formally started yet. Can’t a person have her long awaited vacation? I already went to my province for some quiet time, but I decided not to fully give up my dorm because I still want to go to the gym near it, and the internet here is ultimately better than the one we have at home. I’ll go back to my house when my review session in PGH is over and that’s gonna happen a month from now.

Isn’t it ironic that the annoying sounds of the basketball game combined with the drilling/construction work which happened for about 2 weeks or more stopped on the last day of my internship?

On the last day of internship, we held the annual “sunog”, which means “burn”… A few days before all interns submitted their votes on their most hated, most burnable people in all of PGH… I guess this is the only way we will ever get back on those professors, doctors, nurses, and staff, and even clerks, who made our lives more difficult than it should be. I was going to post the pictures of the people who were burned in this blog but I changed my mind because they might get more humiliated and there are limits to the embarassment people could incur. Their pictures would be posted on a big poster in the hospital itself anyway. I think they got all the people right, except for a resident who should not have been burned (I believe that she was only pressured by her seniors… oh well… )

The only thing I miss about internship is the interaction with people. Right now, the best interaction I get is with the Internet. I kinda wish that the new tenants of the dorm would come already just so I could talk to some other people. This is kind of a good environment for really reviewing and I plan to use it to the fullest. The earlier the boards are done the earlier my new life will begin.

Just this morning, my cousin called me to consult about his daughter’s cough, and all I could think of is, it has finally begun. I feel honored to be acknowledged by my clan as the new clan doctor, even if I don’t have my license yet. Just the fact that he called me means so much for a new doctor like me.

As I review my anatomy, I realized how relatively easier it is for me to take in the data compared to when I was in 1st year medical school. The experience I got from clerkship and internship are the reason I guess. I realize now how important each fact is to my practice… This realization is what will keep me determined to acquire that coveted surgery residency in the United States. I may not be the star scholar, I may not be the brightest of the bunch… But I know I have the determination. I guess that’s why I can relate to those cartoon heroes who are average but compensates by there zealousness.

For those of you who continue to support me, thank you very much. I will try my best, and not only aim to pass but aim for the highest spot. If you happen to pass by Taft Avenue, let’s have some coffee… ^_^

daddy and me

I don’t know if a lot of daughters still have good relationships with their dads.  I know a lot of adults are telling the world how awful my generation has become, and how much we have grown apart from our parents.  I know for a fact that I grew up most of the time “yaya-guided” by my beloved “Ate Its” (yaya means nanny in Tagalog).  My dad worked day and night as a surgeon.  I would wake up in the morning and he’d still be asleep.  When I return from school he’d still be in the OR (operating room).  By the time he’s back I’d be asleep.  It never was an issue to me, because I knew he was just doing his job to earn money so that me and my 2 older siblings would stay in school.  Now that I have decided to follow his path, I couldn’t praise him more.  Most people would think that I have full advantage having a surgeon for a dad.  It’s partly true.  I started watching his operations when I entered 3rd year med school.  Just watched from the back, not assisting.  I started assisting during my clerkship, just last year.  He didn’t treat me like a family member but a real surgeon in training, and I thank him for that.  Now that I’m an intern, I assist him every time I go home.  The pic above this article is just one of our operations together (my dad is the one at the left).  He’d give out a snappy comments like:

“Your job is to make things easy for me, the head surgeon, not to make things worse.”

Then after the amazingly short OR, he’d treat all of us to dinner, like nothing happened.  He has taught me a lot, not just through his words but through his actions.  He lets me go with him as he makes rounds.  I smile at the fact that he sits beside the bed of his patient and holds his or her hand.   He explains  their diagnosis as simply as possible.

Whenever I feel that my mind is already so poisoned by the goings-on at my hospital, I just look at him and I’m reminded that there are still good doctors out there.

Like what one of my teachers said when I was still in med school,

“Never let reality dilute your values “.

I told my dad, “I wish I can be just as good a surgeon like you.”

His reply was simple, “I wish you would be a BETTER surgeon than me.”

Love you Papa! ^_^

22 days and counting

1 more week in rehab

1 24 hr duty left for my entire internship

2 more weeks of internal medicine

2 more final exams (pedia and OB)

1 oral exam in IM

a few hours of make-up

and I am DONE!

Time flies when you are having… FUN?  I can’t say that all of that work didn’t have moments of laughter in it, sure it did.  Especially with great blockmates like mine (aww…).

Everything nowadays is pretty benign, considering that most of my work is in the clinics, and most of the sleepless nights are because of the final exams and not because of physical work.

Me and my cousin tikoy even got to watch the annual DLSU Pops Orchestra concert!  I was a part of this group during my college time.  I am so glad that they are still doing damn well.  The only bad part about the concert is that they chose not to have any cool hosts, and so it was just like listening to song after song, without as much as a story-telling effort.  Plus they were having a lot of mic problems, which is really unfair for the singers, since most of the are probably nervous about their performance and then they end up not being heard at all! I hope they were able to fix the problem for the gala night. 

The concert was held last March 29, 2008 at the Yuchengco Theater in DLSU-Manila.  The title of the concert was “On stage Tonight”.  The show featured tracks from movies, musicals, and some TV shows.  Some of the pieces that they played were familiar to me since we also played them back when I was still there, but there were a lot of new songs as well.  I am really proud of my Pops family   Going to the concert also meant going back to DLSU-Manila… ahh.. nostalgia… DLSU Manila is still one of my favorite campuses ever.  The best times in my life were really spent there.  No doubt about it. ^^