Moving in (and out)

I'M MOVING to a new place again, somewhere much nearer, literally a stone's throw away from the hospital entrance. Moving out (and in) is stressful for me. My upper body strength is so weak, such that carrying two volumes of Harrison's inevitably brings about pain the next day. My friend Jef, who penned my college yearbook write up, referred to my arms as “wispy.”
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Best lunch I've had in a while

WHENEVER I overhear someone say he “enjoys” residency—as if it were as easy as window shopping or reading Danielle Steele—a part of me doubts him. Either he's exaggerating the ease of his transition into residency life, or he's not doing what he's supposed to do. Medical training is hard work—more so during the first year.
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Late entry for Valentine's

ON MY WAY out of the Medical ICU to catch a quick breakfast before I did my rounds, I was greeted by unusually giddy nurses, “Happy Valentine's Day, Doc.” I would've told them that Valentine's Day is a non-entity for me—and not in a romantically bitter way, for those emotions escape me—but I replied, in the interest of time, something like, “Happy Valentine's Day, too.”
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No man is an island

ONE OF the greatest joys of my week, assuming I'm not on a 24-hour shift, is the Bible study (or cell) group I've been attending for months now. It's called Pilgrims, composed mostly of married, basketball-loving, middle-aged men. In terms of age, I'm in the minority—at 27, I'm among the youngest. We meet Thursday nights in church.

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Libro

HANDFUL of quotes from materials, mostly books, I'm currently reading.

On the art of seeing and managing too many patients all at once.

To a medical student who requires 2 hours to collect a patient's history and perform a physical examination and several additional hours to organize that information into a coherent presentation, an experienced clinician's ability to decide on a diagnosis and management plan in a fraction of the time seems extraordinary.—DB Mark and JB Wong, In: Decision-Making in Clinical Medicine, Harrison's Principles of Internal Medicine, 18th Ed., Vol. 1

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Part of the narrative

MY FIRST foray at the Wards as first year resident was made up of a whirlwind of experiences—a combination of frustration and fulfillment (mostly the former). I suppose my month-long stay there was an initiation to the tough, challenging world of residency training in Internal Medicine at the Philippine General Hospital.
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