My friend Larz just told me to go look up Missy Bon Bon on Google Images, and ta-dah!!! There's my face, and two other pictures from my blog. Interesting. I wonder how that got there!
After working in public health for most of my professional life - first as a Doctor to the Barrio, then in the DOH Central Office, then as a researcher - I've decided it's time to enter residency. Scrubs these days are expensive AF. Did not buy. For the uninitiated, residency is that special time in every specialist doctor's life where you work and train in a hospital for 3 to 5 years to become a specialist in something - in my case, Psychiatry. For the initiated, this is 3 to 5 years of being an overworked, underpaid zombie. My friends and family know I've agonized about this decision for a long time now. I already applied to a Psychiatry program last year, but decided not to push through to stay in the DOH. Last December I decided to quit DOH anyway and take what eventually became a "slow year." I was lucky enough to be offered a few research and consulting gigs, and to some extent, I was able to do things on my own terms. For the first time ever I was 100...
We went to the doctor today for a follow-up. (Yes, doctors need doctors too.) His name is Dr. Jaffy, and this was only our second visit to him. I was supposed to see him five months ago, but I stubbornly put it off until things got worse. (Doctors also make the worst patients.) "Worse" is what my hands look like today. As soon as I sat down in the clinic chair, Doc Jaffy took my knobby, red hands and gently tapped on the joints as he counted. "Looks like all your PIPs are inflamed." Proximal Inter-Phalangeal joint. PIP. Such a cute word but whenever my doctors bring it up, the context is never cute. "Where else?" he asked. I said, my knuckles, elbows, knees, and toes, and then felt kinda stupid for reciting them to him in this order like a kid. He put his finger to his masked chin and thought for a while. " Mag- biologics na nga tayo ," he said. Biologics are a class of drugs meant to suppress my immune system and keep it from attacking my own ...
I just finished my final two weeks of pre-residency at PGH, or the Philippine General Hospital. Along with my 8 batchmates in residency, we spent the past two weeks figuring out the work commute, preparing and giving lectures to each other, shadowing the more senior residents, seeing patients at the Outpatient Department (OPD) and Emergency Room (ER), and of course, practicing for the first years' Christmas party dance. Yep, that’s me. You're probably wondering how I got here. Well it all started when… 1. Storm between calms The day immediately before returning to PGH was November 30, the day of the Baha sa Luneta 2.0 protests. We had a 3,000-strong contingent, and more people would have showed up if not for the police. Having learned from their mistakes during the September 21 rally, the police showed up in full force. They messed up the program and caused immense delays. Still, the program pushed on. There was singing, dancing, and a few speeches. At around 10 AM, ...
even the visitors flag counter is there! So coool!
ReplyDeleteI know right! So cool B-)
ReplyDelete