Family Medicine ends tomorrow

THE PAST four weeks have been among the most enjoyable moments in my clerkship year. I saw simple cases at Fabella Health Center and at the Ambulatory Clinic and realized I still had a lot to learn. I won't talk about how depressing our two-week stint at the Supportive, Palliative, and Hospice Care unit was. Our patients were mostly dying or were in severe pain. But I realized a lot of things and appreciated the value of compassion in patient care. Anyway, here are some photos.

Ching and Lennie inside the Child Hope Asia Philippines (CHAP) van.

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Liebster Award

Background

ATE KATE Pedroso, sister of my MBB classmate Wegs, tagged me for the Liebster Award, which is given to up-and-coming bloggers with less than 200 followers. I don't know what the award means exactly, who invented it, if there's cash involved, or how many followers I have (I don't keep track), but I went ahead because it's been a long time since I did a meme. So thanks, Ate Kate!

The rules

Share 11 facts about yourself.
Answer the awarder’s 11 questions.
Ask 11 questions of your own.
Nominate 11 bloggers.


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Misspellings

MY NAME is often misspelled and mispronounced. "Lance" becomes "lanch" or "lunch." "Isidore" becomes "Isildur" (the Lord of the Rings character) or "Isidor." "Catedral" becomes "Cathedral"—the most common mistake people commit, even those close to me.

These never fail to surprise me. After all, my name isn't like Cheryl or Sheryl, where one can never be too sure if it begins with an "s" or a "c." The name that my parents gave me bears the traditional spelling of "Lance" and "Isidore," without the unnecessary, useless, bothersome consonants that parents like to inflict on their children these days. My name isn't unique, either, unlike those of my classmates—please see this interesting list.
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Missing Youth

AFTER MONTHS of absence, I had a chance to attend the youth fellowship in church. I used to join the Saturday meetings consistently in college and in the early days of med school. When clerkship began last year, my attendance dwindled considerably.
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Near-death experience

A STRANGER came charging at me. I was on my way home. It was 8:45 PM, and Padre Faura Street was drowned in darkness. Dressed in black shirt and jeans, the man looked nothing extraordinary. The glistening blade he held by his right hand was hard to miss.

He grabbed my right shoulder, pointed the knife at my abdomen, and demanded that I give him my cellphone. My initial reaction was shock. What followed was incredulity, for why would he want to steal my phone, the cheapest Nokia model available in the market months ago? It didn't even have a colored screen, and I had only bought it because of the built-in flashlight.
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2012 in words and photos

WE'RE ALREADY on the second week of the year 2013, but for reasons already familiar to you—sloth, stress, the black hole called the Philippine General Hospital—I haven't posted any year-in-review article for 2012 yet. Which is unfortunate, really, because 2012 has been a great year for me.
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DiscLab

DISCUSSION LAB (DiscLab) launched its website a couple of weeks ago. Hailed by Rappler as one of the promising independent art initiatives in Manila, DiscLab aims to "posit critical discussion of art by mapping art histories or engaging the market through questionnaires and interviews with more established art historians and critics."
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Wiggly

INSIDE THE ISOLATION ROOM, my three-year old patient is struggling for freedom. A machine helps him breathe normally. His hands and feet are restrained by torn pieces of yellow cloth attached to the bed. If left alone, he'd take the endotracheal tube where the oxygen is passed to his lungs. We're observing him closely.

His grandmother, who's ordinarily calm, yells, "Dok! May lumalabas sa ilong niya!"
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The Glitch

UNTIL GLITCH, I didn't enjoy computer games at all.



I'm a klutz at hand-eye coordination—at least that which involves pixels and running characters—a fact I've made peace with some years back, during the era of family computer and joystick arcade games (ask your older brothers, if you don't know what I'm talking about).
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