The Freudian Slip Of A Bacolodnon

Three more days and I am outta OB-GYNE Department. This could mean 2 months of peace and isolation from the affairs at the Hospital. Hmmm...not quite though. Despite our posting as Community PGIs, we will still be reporting every afternoon at the hospital's ER department, in charged with the OPD section. We are also not spared from attending the daily afternoon conferences at the board room. What I will especially miss: 1. For two months, I will not be assigned any case report or grand rounds discussion which is great! Yesterday, during Tin's Friday Conference, we were all surprised when Dr. Guancia, the Walking Harrison and Head of the Internal Medicine Department of my alma-mater hospital, attended the conference. He was his usual self of course: interrogating, intimidating and intellectual. Nobody's ready whenever he's around. Just the sight of him made all our bowels hyperactive. And that was just us the audience. I could just imagine how Tin Tin was feeling then. G...

I don't know with you guys, but when someone's hit by Cupid's arrows, there is no way to go but get crazy. I have seen such lunacy in action. Friends who fell in love, they can't seem to contain themselves. Compare them with rabid animals and the latter appear more civilized than them. But then, who can blame them, right? Even hectic PGIs get to experience being in love. And when they do, oh boy, they go crazier than crazy. So what can I say, except: Marc, a.k.a Japet, you're my idol, bro. Imagine what you would do for love. Ken, a.k.a. A-gi, too bad I didn't get to meet the guy, but what I told you about Gesper was all true! wink wink. Con, a.k.a. Alzheimeric, it isn't enough you text people you love during their birthdays. I say, you go ride a Cebro and go to them and give them the gift they really deserve...you. Gesper, a.k.a. Enrique Iglesias, it is still okay to sing, "...you can run, you can hide, but you can't escape my love." To the re...

I have been a Bacolodnon for 26 years but it was my very first time to witness the Masskara Festival from the vintage point of a tourist. During my childhood, my parents used to bring me to those Masskara Parades. We would line up the streets and watch, at times on my father's shoulders, the masked dancers pass us by. During my grown up days, I settled to watching the festivities on TV and would just roam around the city center only after the street dance competitions. The last time I lined up the streets was during my son's third birthday but we only caught up on the rear part of the parade. It was actually a last minute decision. However, this year, I decided that as a true blooded Bacolodnon I must experience what other tourists and avid locals experience: The Masskara Festival right at the plaza. I planned the day quite in order: have lunch at the hospital where I work, then proceed to the Public Plaza in the afternoon where mini-stands were put up for watchers. Earlier dur...

Last Oct 19 my son and I went to see the civic parade at Lacson Highway. It was perhaps the longest civic parade yet. It was actually for the 68th Charter day of Bacolod City. So, it was a special non-working holiday which meant being off from work at around 12 noon! The civic parade was watched by thousands and participated by many socio-civic groups from different baranggays, schools, business establishments, even social clubs and just plain ordinary folks. They marched, danced, walked, biked, rode in cars or trucks or floats. It was a fun time for my son who attended his first civic parade ever. He had fun chasing after candies being thrown from passing floats. The original plan actually was to watch the Masskara highlights (which is today, around exactly 2 hours from now) at the City Plaza, but Rien and Roann went home to my parents-in-law's place and spent the night there. They won't be back until later tonight; this means they won't be watching the streetdancing at t...

I am in my last two weeks as an OB-GYNE PGI. Life has been pretty generous to me and the rest of the PGIs. After 6 months of training, I have come to know and discover my fellow PGIs, especially their unique personalities and even eccentricities, including my own. Pressure and stress are the best precipitants for revealing one's character. The world of PGI-ship is never without these. The small On-call room at 208 and the cozy Dormitory at 205 have become our little world where friendships are made, secrets are traded, promises are broken and trust shattered. Hook up at least 5 24/7 cams and you have yourself a mini Big Brother series, featuring the PGIs of BOLMSH. How you work (and how you play) with others tell the kind of person you are. It doesn't matter whether you are this or that. What matters more is how you deal with the differences of other people around you, how you resolve these inherent conflicts and opposing personalities, how you learn to tolerate them and maybe...

Last Saturday, my son and I celebrated our birthdays together. It was my 26th and it was his 4th. We didn't have the celebration until the next day, Sunday, when we hosted a simple dinner party at home for friends and relatives. It was the first dinner party since my sister's graduation dinner 5 years ago. It was also my first dinner birthday party since 1998. It was a simple gathering of old and new friends and relatives. We had the dinner catered and all the tables were set at the lawn. The past few days however, I was kindof apprehensive about the weather. Four days prior, it had been raining hard every dusk until late evening. I was expecting that it might also rain during my dinner party. Nevertheless, I did pray to God that He grant me a nice weather as His birthday gift for me. And for the first time in a week, it did not rain during that Sunday! The dinner was great and most of my fellow post graduate interns were there, including Melvin who was supposed to be On Duty ...

"When it rains, it pours." This is what happens when you lose your benign streak and start getting toxic in your admissions and ward calls. I am from duty and my duty last night was perhaps the most toxic of all duties I ever had in my OB-GYNE rotation. Two C-sections, one in the glorious unforgiving early hours of the morning, and two Normal Spontaneous deliveries at the DR with still three more patients screaming in the labor room just across the hallway. Did I mention a bleeding patient whose face and palpebral conjunctivae already as white as paper? Oh yes, we have to do some D&C on her too. Luckily, she was a house case so I got to do the scraping. One of the NSDs was also a house case so for the first time after so many months, I got to do the delivery by myself, with my Junior Consultant being my first assist. I did the episiotomy and the repair, the whole enchalada! And I get to manage her post partum at the wards. One of the NSDs was a patient of my wife's OB...

Last Wednesday, I attended along with the rest of the PGI-alumni of USLS, the giving of the Signum Lasallianum Award to Dr. Namin, considered as the Father of Internal Medicine in Bacolod City, and the launching of the Dr. Namin Lecture Series. The entire affair was done in the new Santuario de lasalle, built behind the Balay Kalinugan retreat house. It was a formal affair attended by close to 300 participants, made up with doctors, academicians, benefactors, medical students and PGIs. The event was in honor of Dr. Namin for his exemplary contributions to the education and training of medical doctors especially in Bacolod City. Dr. Namin was among the pioneering teachers and trainors in the field of medical education. Dinner was superb and our dinner table became a mini buffet table. I was so full I fear I was about to burst. Anyway, 3 weeks to go and I am to end my OB-GYNE rotation. I am so far enjoying my rotation in OB-GYNE. There were toxic days and there were benign days but it al...

This month is the sixth month of my duty as Post graduate Intern, which means, 6 months to go and Judgment Day begins. Parang Kailan Lang as the song says. A year ago we were crawling to our knees as clerks. Now we are still crawling to our knees as PGIs. The difference is we are just wearing the white gown, which makes the job even much dirtier than expected. Time has been so fast. So much has happened. So little time to blog. In celebration of our sixth month as PGIs, I am listing down the "milestones" we PGIs have so far earned. 1. So far, all PGIs have rotated in at least 3 departments . I have personally rotated in Surgery, Pediatrics and now in OB-GYNE. 2. So far, 8 PGIs have presented their Grand Rounds Presentation. I have personally presented mine last August and it was a Pedia Grand Rounds Case re: meconium peritonitis. 3. So far, there are only two groups rotating in their departments as a pair. They are Gerard and TinTin now rotating in Medicine and Marc and Radc...