still alive and kicking

18 days na kami into internship. whooohooo!!! To quote Charles Dickens, "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times." :))) May gulay... payat nako. No kidding at walang exaggeration. PAYAT na ako! hahahaha!

See, it took me 18 days to log in again! Hehe.

Being in the hospital is so different from just sitting in the classroom and studying about diseases. In the classrooms, we operate as in a utopian society where the patients can afford all the laboratory tests we could think of as well as all the medicines we should be giving them. Requesting for a CT scan was no issue. We encounter patients in the SGDs in 2D and we don't have to worry about the folks or the nurses or the other patients. Even if our 'cases' died, we didn't think much of it because they had no names and faces. We had aircons then, we ate on time, and we sat most of the time. In the hospital, everything is so.... well.... not the same. In the hospital, everything is alive, dynamic and unpredictable. Forget about eating on time because surgeries can go from 30 minutes to 6 hours. Goodbye lunch break tlga kung nagkataon. And goodbye chair. Haha. Oh my poor feet! But hey, i get the most wonderful cardio work-out there. Haha. Maglakad tayo all about the hospital and up and down stairs. Kung di ma-tone ang muscles mo ewan ko na lng! Hehe. :)

In the hospital, things happen in 3D... 4D even. And things can go wrong so fast. Some patients can't afford to buy antibiotics, some can't even get Nescafe caps for their colostomy. Wounds smell, operations are bloody, and yes, people "expire". One minute they're ok, next minute they're losing blood by the liter and the next instant, they've "expired". And what's markedly different from the SGD cases are that my patients now have names, faces and histories. I've met them, joked with them, touched them. Since now I'm in the Surgery Department, I've even watched while some of them are being operated on. They are not just 'cases' anymore. They are people. And it's never easy to lose any of them.


Anyway, i just dropped by to let everyone know that i'm still alive. I've lost some kilograms but i'm still ok. My hair is longer now. It can be made into a ponytail na. I still don't brush it regularly, haha, asa pa ko na mag-change un. :) I miss my bed. And my feet hurt a lot these days, but it's ok. I think i'll get varicose veins soon. Hehe. I'm enjoying myself immensely and it's just wonderful to be part of this calling. It's always a joy to talk with patients. To see them smile, to have them leave the hospital looking and feeling better than they did when they came. It's been 18 days now since I first entered the hospital as a clinical clerk/intern/4th year student. Madaming learnings and madaming unlearnings. 12 days pa ako dito sa Surgery, then i shift to Ortho. Then it's OB time come May 16.

Happy birthday naman sa mga magbi-birthday! :)