From Duty Affairs

I was on 24 hours duty last Thursday June 22, 2006 and it was to be considered a more benign duty than the one I had last Monday June 19. I only admitted 4 patients during the entire 24 hours, two for pediatric surgery (palatoplasty and cheiloplasty), one for orchiectomy, which was done earlier this afternoon, and the other was more of a psychiatric case, a patient with anxiety disorder, but was admitted under our department because the attending physician she prefered was a surgeon by specialty. She was later referred to the department of internal medicine. But how do you treat anxiety disorder? Not surgically of course but my personal approach would be to give the following therapeutics: a listening ear, a shoulder to cry on and 1 tab of Diazepam 5 mg if unable to sleep. I had the most interesting conversation with that middle-aged lady. And I felt fortunate to have admitted her under my care. Somehow, after the long conversation we had, I feel I have helped her somehow. She had been too preoccupied about problems hounding her loved ones she had given no time for herself. I told her that we were not placed here in this world to solve all the problems of the world. We can only handle as much as we can. It would be thus fair to also give attention to ourselves as much as we give to others.

I did my rounds that evening and I was surprised to see my best friend Ren leading a group of student nurses in station 3. Ren has been a friend since 5th grade and she is now a C.I., a clinical instructor. I spent some time at station 3, catching up with an old friend. She told me so many things about her life lately she herself also has been undergoing some anxiety. Nothing much to say about Renzo, as we would fondly call her, but, "This, too, shall pass".

Friday morning was medical conference time and after a successful lecture on diabetic ketoacidosis, we were treated to some heavy breakfast, courtesy of Novartis. It was another light moment for the PGIs. No pressure now. Just eating away our sandwich filled with grass! Unfortunately, this batch of PGIs is certified carnivorous. We use to say, "grasses are for horses." The carbonara wasn't tasty either. But deal with it.

After a deserving siesta, I went to USLS to visit Clarissa's mom, Dr. Uy, who is a dentist. As previously planned, I wanted my teeth checked up. What she told me was nothing short of Doomsday. She told me I had 12 cavities, one totally messed up tooth and it needs to be extracted. So right now I need to take antibiotics for at most 7 days before this tooth can be removed. I went back to the hospital and spent the remaining hours laughing hard at Leah while she was getting a crash course on Pacman. It was hysterical. I had to tell her that it was just a game and it wasn't real.








Amiga Leah in Action


After 5 pm, as usual, Gerard, Ken and I went to the USLS tracks to jog. I went home on my mountain bike and arrived to see my son playing with his toys. Later, he posed for the camera wearing his new school uniform.

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