My Blog

News came today … finally, I have something to look forward to a few months from now … the release of JK Rowling’s final book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, on the 21st of July. Wonder when they’ll take reservations? hehe  =p

Ah yes… since I’ve been a bum these past few months … I’ve taken the habit of participating in online forums …it’s true what they say… post a question and someone somewhere (out there in cyberspace) is bound to know the answer to what you’re asking about.  I’ve read lots of information in the forums that I probably wouldn’t be able to get. What I like most of all are the food blogs. *sigh* Those bloggers (or their food photographers) sure are talented when it comes to portraying the food.   I have also come across the USMLE blogs … which scare me and make me nervous even more … haaay!

The means of communicating in written form, via text, blogging, and posting in forums, etc. strips your statements into pure syntax and leaves it open for anyone to subject it to his/her own interpretation and thus is bound to lead to misunderstanding.  People can pretend to be whoever they want to be when they’re online, however, when someone makes a personal remark about you (usually in forums), sometimes they can’t help it and their true personality shows.  I usually sit in the sidelines and lurk in the forums but sometimes people can be so annoying that it tests your patience (which I do not…do not really like). In the real world, I would’ve handled things differently, but in cyberspace I can choose to ignore it altogether…and stare at my flowerhorn instead.  hahaha 

Then there are those who use alternicks in forums and post oh-so-personal questions to ask for advices and such.  Are people now afraid of talking to another person?  Afraid to see the look of surprise, perhaps? or judgement?  The exchange of accusations, whodunit theories, threats, racist & stereotype remarks makes for such interesting reading hehehe.

And don’t get me started on people using "textspeak" and allcaps in emails and forums…  *stares at my flowerhorn again* 

it’s been a week since I received the surprisingly unexpected good news that I passed the boards…(those who knew me in med school and college, wag kayong kokontra!!!)  It was unexpected, a miracle, really, with an element of luck perhaps?!  I was really getting bored cramming during the later part of August, and I haven’t even reviewed for Legal Med, Med Juris, PrevMed, and most especially IM!  My mind was set on retaking the boards next February so my plan then was to take a break from August til October then start reviewing again from November til February then apply for residency in July ‘07…and then..the news came…I passed.  Great! Now I don’t know what to do with myself…=p  watch cable tv? watch pirated dvds? watch reruns of my fave shows on dvd? Choices. Choices. Hmm…

So I am officially a bum.  I feel like I just graduated from college… overqualified for most jobs and yet underqualified in others especially in the medical field. tsk tsk. 
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Of all the patients I’ve encountered..this one is the most challenging…how do you know what’s wrong if? the patient cannot talk? cannot understand you? cannot be touched? and has fins and swims? (what the?!!!)  Yep. it’s my kuya’s flowerhorn that keeps me company as I type this blog…and he’s sick. Thank God for messageboards. hehe. Hopefully he gets better soon, mahal ang gamot nya…magastos pa sa tubig! haaay!

a friend of mine sent this text a few days ago…

"my nights are becoming  sleepless
my days are becoming restless

so I asked God
"Is this love?"

and God said
"Love?" Malapit na boards kaya ganyan!
MAG-aral KA KAYA!  =)  "

Only a chapter to go… tinatamad na ako. siyeeeet! Pano ba naman…

Had to reformat the desktop and reinstall everything a few days ago. tsk tsk. damn, Microsoft for the windows product activation thingy!

then the dvd writer starts wasting dvds! argh!

then i started practice driving around the village yesterday for the first time… 30 minutes seemed like 2hrs ! 2nd gear seems way too fast. tsk tsk

and curse this damn dsl… for 2 years i tried convincing my parents to have dsl installed but to no avail… then, just when i needed no distractions for my board review… they finally gave in! and i recently discovered this amazing fan videos of House MD and Grey’s Anatomy on Youtube… haaaay!

I finally managed to finish reading Snell’s Anatomy after two weeks! Geez… Now I’m waaay behind on my schedule.

I was able to watch X-Men 3 (finally) at Centerpoint today.  It’s like a private screening coz there were very few people who were watching… munching on my lunch never sounded louder. hehe

Wonder when I’ll be able to watch The Lake House.

Haaay!

Yep. After 6 days, i’ve managed to finish 1… yes folks, 1 review book.  Took a lot of effort cramming myself into my desk and reviewing from midmorning (since I wake up at 8 or 9am) til 12am. I hope it sticks. Wish I studied more for Patho 3 years ago then I wouldn’t probably have taken so long. i even snubbed my brother to chat with him just so I could finish the book. *sigh*

Doing this routine for the next 50 or so days will be a challenge to keep up…There’s always February… hehehe

We moved out my things today from the apartment I rarely stayed at (since home was 2 rides away, compared to 3 back in UE). It’s like a yearly routine for me, having stayed at different places way back in med school (Yojie knows this all too well. hehe), bringing the same stuff in and bringing home even more stuff at the end of the year (take note that I always happen to live in an apartment on the topmost floor of the building with no elevators and two flights of stairs per floor. whew!).  The veins on my feet are so visible you could start an IV line with a G16 needle.

It’s official. I am now a bum. Woohoo! Gone are the days when my getup is composed of a stet and a bp app hanging on my shoulder, a clipboard full of bed numbers, er… i mean patients) to be monitored, and a huge backpack.  Best of all, no more duties! For now at least. and it’s indefinite. that’s all i’m going to say.

while i welcome the "vacation" i still can’t seem to enjoy myself and book for those getaways to beaches and other places I once planned to give myself as a reward for every duty I had. i couldn’t, because subconsciously i am thinking about the upcoming boards. maybe it’s just for today. who knows…

It’s over… OB that is. woohoooooo!!!  The past 8 weeks will now be only a memory…of interviewing mommies na "pasaway," listening to fetal heartbeats that seem like bass beats to your ears, pushing heavy steel stretchers (with screaming pregnant women), enduring the shouts and calls of schizophrenic residents giving you 3 orders or tasks at a time, and worst of all, eating your lunch at 6pm and your dinner at 4am.  8 weeks. I would’ve wanted to have a little celebration but I opted to grab some well-deserved sleep instead. 

And I will never hear this again… "hingang malalim, pigil ang hininga, and go push, 1…2…3…4…5…6…7…8…9…10!"  Kung ikaw ba naman sabihan nyan habang naglalabor ka, maiintindihan mo kaya?!!

All of my service residents were kind and friendly… it’s just that they transform into someone else, especially pag toxic at sunud-sunod ang dating ng pasyente.  What I regret most of all, is that I become someone else too, although not as extreme as them.  It took a lot of patience and self-control to stop myself from screaming or slapping the women who decided to take medications to abort their unwanted babies, at mothers who seem to want to create a whole barangay with 8-11 children, at the patients who line up and make excuses for not going to their checkups, and at patients who simply reply "matagal na yun" or "ay, hindi ko na maalala" when asked when their symptoms started.  The most irksome of all…is when women use the surname of their current partner even when they’re not married! argh! May asawa pero pag tanungin mo kung kasal, ang sagot, hindi.

I would not have survived OB without my co-interns na kasa-kasama ko sa pagsusungit, pagtataray, pagbibiro, pag-IE, pagmo-monitor, pagpapaanak, pagrerepair ng perineum, pagkagutom, pagkabangag, pagkapagod (sa pag tulak at pagbuhat ng mga stretchers), at pagsusulat ng pagkarami-raming papeles na sa OB lang ata naimbento. 

Everytime I enter into a new rotation and introduce myself as a PGI, most residents ask me why I chose to take my internship there (considering the patient load, the manual labor, the work involved)… at other times I regret it and sometimes it just makes me think that maybe I’ve made the right decision.

OB… it’s everything they said it was… not overrated… they can shout as loud as they want, i’m deaf in one ear anyway. hahaha.  2 duties so far… and i’m dead-tired, walking like a zombie across the many hallways of pgh

another thing… a patient farted when I was inserting a foley catheter. ugh!