radio nkti

with interns' monitors and friendly staff of the nkti radiology department.

radiology etc.

"x-tray;" "cd-scan;" "todo-echo." some of the funniest interpretations of filipinos to hospital jargon. niña, april and me are currently rotating in radio and idle time coupled with uncontrollable "kadaldalan" lead to some seriously funny and annoying (to others i bet) conversations. we have talked about everything from dead people on tables surrounded with flowers to yayas poking poop and mimicking sandy's now classic "looking busy" (an inside joke).

Edit: more funny stuff...
ct-skull, phenobarbiedoll (phenobarbital), and metromanilazole (metronidazole). these are actual utterances from patients!

Plog No. 11

"Jollibee"
Neonate born via normal spontaneous delivery with this tumor attached on his sacrum.
TA Aneurysm
This is the ascending aorta. From anesthesia point of view (upside-down).
Marge @ Gumbo
Heart Center
View from the OR lounge
"From"
OR Lounge Phil Heart Center
"From-froman"
Sandy taking a nap at the PHC OR lounge
Delifrance
View from PHC OR lounge
Heart-Lung Machine
Operated by perfusionists who are specially trained medical technologists
Me at the OR lounge
PHC Super CATS seminar
Lung Center Dietary
"Success!!!"
The first ever test tube I inserted
Department of Surgery & Anesthesia Office
Lung Center of the Philippines
Friendly Reminder
LCP
Scrub Room
LCP
The O.R. Complex
Lung Center
Fluoroscopy Machine
LCP
3rd Floor Corridor Roof
LCP
3rd Floor Corridor Floor
LCP
Walter Mart @ Muñoz
Previously PLDT Complex
Infinite Corridor
Where the RR room opens. Scary @ Night
Polka-dot
Elevator Ceiling at LCP
LCP Dietary
The... Recovery Room (Boo!)
Spirit Questors Disneyland
LCP Christmas Tree
Kidney Center LCD Monitor for Laparoscopic Procedures
La Naval Procession 2008
Locker Room PCMC
OR Schedule Board on my Birthday
Heart Center CT Scan
Radio Interns
PHC

The Donkey and the Elephant

I always wondered how they became the symbols of the two parties. From Wikipedia...

In 1874, it was rumored that U. S. Grant would run for an unprecedented third term. As the rumors were surfacing, there was also a contemporary urban legend that several animals had escaped from the New York Zoo. Thomas Nast, the most popular and influential cartoonist of the time, took the opportunity to combine the two in a cartoon for The New Yorker magazine, representing the Republicans as elephants, docile but unmoveable when calm, unstoppable and destructive when excited. The cartoon, entitled "The Third Term Panic," depicted the Republican vote as an elephant running inexorably into a tar pit of inflation and chaos. Interestingly, the elephant was running away from the already established Democratic donkey, dressed in a lion's skin. This was Nast's take on the Democrats' view of Grant as Caesar, and their feeling that they had an obligation to play Brutus before he let the power of his office corrupt him.

The donkey predated Nast by three decades, when it was used during Andrew Jackson's campaign, initially by his opponents, calling him a 'jackass' for his populist policies. Well known as stubborn, however, Jackson decided to co-opt the mascot, and used it to his own advantage. After Jackson retired, he was still looked at as a party leader, even though the party refused to be led, and the 1837 cartoon "A Modern Baalim and his Ass" showed him leading a donkey which refused to follow. However, the donkey image was not popularized until the ubiquitous Nast adopted it, first depicting the party as a kicking donkey, attacking Lincoln's secretary of war Edwin Stanton even after his death in an 1870 cartoon for Harper's Weekly.

In other words, both animals were chosen for their negative qualities, such as stubbornness and willy-nilly destruction, and then adopted by the parties for their positive attributes, and neither party has been stubborn or destructive ever since.

My Christmas Wishlist...

it's free to dream right!? i know i won't get any of these but i sure damn have the right to drool...

1. Fuji Finepix S5 Pro
2. Sony Ericsson w980
3. 2008 Toyota Corolla Altis
4. My own townhouse
5. Dell XPS M1330

...oh when will i win the lottery?????? oh and yeah... world peace ^_^

Surgery Rotation

surgery was the first specialization i really wanted to get into. during clerkship, i realized that i may not be made for it. given my back's condition coupled with the demands of the specialization for doctors to stand for a long span of time. a resident said to me... "then just operate sitting down..." yeah... then be called a wuss. will your co-residents and consultants take an excuse and not hack you off until you quit?

after going through surgery this internship, i have mixed feelings. i've seen the the good, the bad, and yes, the ugly. surgery is a fulfilling field. i liked what my friend sandy said why she wanted to go into surgery. you see results immediately. a guy has abdominal pain. he has acute appendicitis. you remove his appendix. his symptoms go away. poof! like that. in medicine, you wait for your medications to take effect. for the body to heal itself. and more often than not, things are not very simple. i guess that's why they joke that medicine takes brain and surgery just skills which is all very wrong.

i thoroughly enjoyed working at the east avenue e.r. especially that marco and i had a great resident (dr. varela) who was a friend and together with dr. montes (the rotator from another hospital) we all were food-addict buddies. ha!

working through orthopedics and urology subspecialties both gave me insights into their private worlds. orthopedics is an interesting field... and lucrative too. but it's a little down my list. i admit i did not get to do a lot during urology except make tarpaulins and and their video for their upcoming urology week but i did learn a few things most importantly how to do a proper urologic history. i will remember their names forever because of that video ha!

the outside rotations are really interesting too! at the philippine children's medical center, i realized that imperforate anuses are very prevalent more than hernia which i seriously thought would be more common (or it was just a hernia down week?). i got to see rare cases. i got to see a boy who had TWO PENISES. ehem. a newborn with a tumor larger than his head. at phil heart center, i realized these delicate surgeries are the longesssssssst types of surgeries. my my, i can't take them. but it was fun because i got to close a lot of graft sites! lung center was productive too for me, i got to insert four chest tubes on my own! at national kidney and transplant institute i got the best mentor in dr. ahalajal who taught me and let me(!) insert IJ catheters, who answered my questions, treated me as an equal and is a surgeon who (i hope for real) does not belong to the stereotype (more on this later hehe). thank you doctor.

i think i have said it here before but i'll say it again. not taking everybody but most of and not just a few of the nurses at national kidney institute are the most unprofessional, annoying, untalented of the nurses who work for the different centers. there i said it. i hate a lot of them. they are rubbish and are nothing compared to nurses at lung center who are their total opposite. they have a lot to learn. and age has nothing to do with it. there ARE good people there but they are truly outnumbered and i AM saying this as what is true to me. kudos to you lung center nurses i love you. and i am sure all the interns love you as well.

sigh... the year is coming to a close. and i'm excited and frightened about next year's board exam. i thank you marge for having so much confidence in me that i think i can do anything because of that. i hope i make you proud as i know you'll make me too.

watching something the other day in youtube, i loved the quote: "thought transcends matter" from george bernard shaw. barbra talking about it said the outer world mirrors what is within us, and we make happen those things we think about. i hope that all our dreams and wishes be realized and fulfilled with our thoughts, prayers and deeds.

edit : now with edits *wink

My Week's Top Five - XXII

I just thought I'd like to add more to my top five lists :-) Just as I've revived one of my favorites... In no particular order...

1. Peanut Butter - I forgot how delicious Lily's peanut butter is!
2. Heroes Season 3 - sandy and me are superfans!
3. DOH-PCSHC - everyday I repeatedly realize choosing DOH for internship was one of the best decisions I made in my life.
4. Tyler's Ultimate - Mr. Florence... you're an insipiration, I want to cook!
5. Delifrance Coffee Bun - just perfect...