Le Docteur Kelly

Audit

2012-01-09T16:22:00.001+08:00

Life audit coming up 25+ years, 308+ months, 1232+ weeks, 9100+ days, 218,400+ hours, 13,104,000+ minutes, 786,240,000+ seconds. This is how much time I've spent here. I think I need to do a life audit so I don't make the mistake of wasting the rest of my years on doing insignificant things or doing things that don't make me happy. It's about time I've put meaning and more passion into my

Community Medicine

2012-01-06T13:59:00.000+08:00

This is what Community Medicine looks like Quick hello from the rural San Juan, Batangas. :)

Cheers to 2012

2011-12-31T18:24:00.000+08:00

‎"The more you praise and celebrate your life, the more there is in life to celebrate." - Oprah Winfrey Wishing everyone a 2012 worth celebrating! May you have joy, love, faith, health, contentment, and everything else that gives you warm, fuzzy feelings to see you through the next 366 (yup, leap year!) days!

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-24T19:00:00.000+08:00

My sister and I Wishing you all a blessed Christmas!

Bedhead

2011-12-23T13:46:00.004+08:00

Like owner human, like cat I think Scarface, our little calico kitty, best represents how I look like in the mornings, when I wake up. Christmas break is spoiling me rotten, teehee.

Cocoon

2011-12-21T22:41:00.002+08:00

This is not my bedroom. This is my bedroom 5 years from now. Haven't keened over from asthma attacks or this horrible atypical pneumonia I'm battling. Just enjoying the relatively lighter days ahead, before January 22 (aka the OB/Gyne rotation) rolls in. And it's Christmas soon.

Residency

2011-11-07T12:13:00.000+08:00

I'm six months through my internship year and well-meaning friends and relatives have started persistently asking me what residency program I'll be entering and where I'd be taking it. I honestly answer, "I have no idea," and I am met with reactions varying from the simple "Oh" to the more melodramatic, "What? Why haven't you decided yet? Aren't you supposed to know by now?" Come on now, people

Lessons

2011-10-26T10:42:00.000+08:00

"There is a lesson in almost everything that you do, and getting the lesson is how you move forward. It is how you enrich your spirit." Being an intern in the pediatric ward means that the bulk of the work is euphemistically termed 'clinical assessement.' Clinical assessment being a nicer term for the term 'monitoring,' the dirty job that clerks and interns perform as (hopefully) part

Chanel Spring 2012 Nail Colors

2011-10-08T21:29:00.000+08:00

Photo from LisaElridge.com I'm still not over Les Jeans De Chanel, and here come the three new colors for spring 2012, named April/May/June. Le sigh. Chanel, why do you make the most amazing nail polish colors? Project for tomorrow: looking for the perfect apricot shade like June. Already have a sort-of-garnet shade (like April) and rose pink (like May) from the ever reliable The Face Shop

A Vacation Would Have Been Better

2011-10-06T19:58:00.001+08:00

The past few weeks have been a sort of a vacation for me, as I was placed in lighter rotations, entailing less duty days and weekends off when not on duty. All I did was to write charts, place specimens in formaldehyde, fill in for triage or cancer institute posts, and basically do work that any trained paramedical staff could do; only thing is I sort of felt more tired, more irritated, and

It's Not Chanel But It Will Do

2011-10-01T23:45:00.005+08:00

Chanel's Coco Blue So the recent nail color trends have been pointing to nudes, deep reds, silvers, hot pinks, and blue, and I couldn't help but fall in love with the limited edition denim collection of Chanel. Coco Blue was just too pretty...and just too expensive and out of reach. The Face Shop BL603 The Face Shop came to my rescue with their BL603 nail polish shade. It's slightly

Serenity

2011-09-30T20:12:00.000+08:00

God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can; and wisdom to know the difference. Living one day at a time; Enjoying one moment at a time; Accepting hardships as the pathway to peace; Taking, as He did, this sinful world as it is, not as I would have it; Trusting that He will make all things rightif I surrender to His Will; That I may

Girl Crush

2011-09-19T14:55:00.000+08:00

Christina Hendricks is my girl crush Christina Hendricks is among the most amazing actors I've encountered so far. She has the loveliest and most luscious curves and she isn't afraid to flaunt them. She's smart, sensible, sexy, and talented. Wish more actors were like her. :)

Too Intense?

2011-09-18T18:42:00.000+08:00

Why am I making this hard on myself when there are so many beautiful reasons I have to be happy?" - Natasha Bedingfield, Happy It's my horrid habit of thinking way too far ahead and trying to plan every single minute of the future that has people telling me to slow down and enjoy things. It's been my 'disease' since high school; I'm pretty sure my high school best friend can tell anyone about

Satchel Love

2011-09-14T07:56:00.000+08:00

Satchel and surgeon ;) This is a special shout out to Manila Fashion Observer and Schu! Congratulations on the blog anniversary and thank you so much!

Useless Anxiety

2011-09-02T20:45:00.000+08:00

“I keep the telephone of my mind open to peace, harmony, health, love and abundance. Then whenever doubt, anxiety, or fear try to call me, they keep getting a busy signal and soon they'll forget my number.” - Edith Armstrong I'm having one of those days that I'm feeling bummed and spent. Blame it on my monthly or what, but I guess the biggest thing that's sapping me of energy is all this

Four Months Down

2011-08-31T18:33:00.000+08:00

Fun! Done with 123 days on internship so far! :) For those 123 days, I've learned to become a monitoring machine, a med-tech, a counselor, a nurse, a secretary, a social worker, a child psychiatrist, a rectal examiner, a retractor b*tch, a blood runner, a vein stripper, a pseudo-anesthesiologist, an EMT, a rad tech, a bullet extractor, a research assistant, and a nose job model. A colorful road

Little Blessings

2011-08-30T21:24:00.000+08:00

For every whine of every day, I get little blessings in return. Gotta love the Big Person Upstairs for throwing the little surprises to keep my spirits up. Like I got a Sunday with my family, which is quite rare because the universe somehow conspires to make my duty days fall on Sundays most of the time. We ate a lovely lunch at The Old Spaghetti House in Robinson's Otis; thin crust cheese and

Heartless

2011-08-27T18:57:00.001+08:00

About 100 days into my internship in the national hospital (also known as 100 days of being a glorified aliping sagigilid or scut monkey), I was ready for a break. I noticed that I was becoming less compassionate towards patients and their bantays, and such greatly bothered me because I'm usually the person who would find any and every way to make sure that a patient got a radiologic procedure,

Graduation Day

2011-04-22T18:12:00.000+08:00

I finally and formally appended Doctor of Medicine to my name last Monday.I felt like everything that happened that day was so unreal but so very happy.Thank you to everyone who supported me through this wild ride. :)

So Tired

2011-04-03T21:17:00.000+08:00

I am on the last two weeks of fourth year medical school, otherwise known as clinical clerkship. I've never felt so tired and so defeated for the longest time. All the scut work, all the unnecessary stress, all the emotional/verbal abuse from the higher-ups; I'm so tired of it. And well, I signed up for another year of that, doing internship in the tertiary national hospital of this country,

Baccalaureate Mass for the Quadricentennial Batch Fireworks

2011-03-25T22:23:00.000+08:00

Doctor of Medicine

2011-03-07T05:47:00.000+08:00

I have hurdled the oral revalida. Praise God. I can attach M.D. to my name now.

Down With A Mysterious Virus

2011-02-15T21:16:00.000+08:00

My body is exhausted. Too exhausted to fight this virus. I am so sick. I'm getting better but barely. And I'm setting myself for years of exhaustion ahead. Remind me again why I wanted to be a doctor in the first place, please?

Friends are Love

2011-01-31T12:58:00.002+08:00

Okay, so this family photo is not complete but it would have to do for now. The schedule gods conspired to give me a free day to spend with my barkada from UP Manila. I hadn't seen most of them in about 3-4 years already, so I was really raring to go. We went to the Taguig area to celebrate Daal's birthday, first visiting the exhibit of plastinized human bodies entitled "Myth of the Human

This Too Shall Pass...

2010-12-29T08:46:00.000+08:00

Just days ago, I was secretly congratulating myself for not having any patient or alternate's patient who needed blood transfusion since my Medicine rotation days. The universe took note and provided me with a patient who needed the transfusion badly while I was on night duty, meaning I wouldn't have time to catch even more than an hour's sleep because monitoring would have to be every 15

Thanks, Procter and Gamble!

2010-10-14T20:51:00.000+08:00

Day 1 of the Experiment versus Stress-Induced Hair Problems Starts Tomorrow. ;)

I ♥ Purple

2010-10-14T13:34:00.000+08:00

Isn't it a bit OTT? I really really really LOVE purple.

Gossip is not Glamorous

2010-10-07T12:36:00.000+08:00

Gossip is something I've never enjoyed because I associate it so much with irony and bigotry. Strong words, eh? I don't like being around people who have nothing better to do than talk about other people, often in negative ways. I just don't get how people feel that gossiping about others and finding malicious amusement in it help strengthen bonds of friendship. I don't get how people love

Funk

2010-09-06T22:10:00.002+08:00

I'm in a funk and I don't know how or why I'm in such a situation, and why of all possible times, it has to be during electives, the time when a medical clerk can recharge and feel human once again. So far, all the electives I've gone through have been enjoyable and packed with memorable learning experiences. I (think I) can read x-ray films better now than two months ago when, say, lacking

Diazepam Drip, Please?

2010-08-24T18:31:00.001+08:00

I'm finally done with my Internal Medicine rotation. It was, by far, among the most challenging experiences I've ever had. I took the longest sixty days of my life one rosary bead at a time and always held on to the promise of "This too, shall pass." Never had I missed my family so much. The probable benefits of the rotation was learning as much as I could (and boy, was it a very steep

Humility, Respect, and Appreciation

2010-07-06T11:24:00.000+08:00

Humility, respect, and appreciation. These are basic values that we student doctors are taught throughout the four years of medical school, and hopefully will carry beyond those four years. Humility, respect, and appreciation. Values we apply in all the things we do during our ward work, our emergency room duty hours, and everything else that happens within the hospital. Humility, respect, and

True Love

2010-07-05T19:10:00.000+08:00

I used to think true love existed only in movies and books, but it took seeing it in the hospital for me to realize it does exist, albeit not as glamorous or as dramatic. There are wives who work themselves to the bone during office hours, spend some time taking care of their families at home, then go to the hospital to take care of their husbands; they endure the heat, the smell, the cramped

Hello, I Am Alive and Lovely

2010-06-10T20:26:00.000+08:00

It's been quite some time since an update was made on this little piece of real estate on the Internet. Blame it on the lack of a decent connection and on the taxing minor rotations of late. I'm thankful that I had a relatively light rotation on the week of my birthday last April. I had time to recharge from the shock of being an actual MS4 (senior clerk) and being on duty most days on my first

I Name Him Cor

2010-06-06T19:15:00.001+08:00

One of the twin black kittens in our household. The most "sungit" of them all!

Crazy Past Few Days

2010-04-26T19:13:00.000+08:00

I'm recovering from that week of 30+ hour duty assignments that came with tons of paperwork and errands. I miss the toxicity of the week in Otorhinolaryngology because that rotation taught me a lot in the very short time I spent with the department. Best of all, I had the best teachers: multitudes of patients who had all sorts of diseases that are now in that part of my brain marked '

Thanks (Commercial Muna)

2010-03-14T12:20:00.000+08:00

To the nice people from Johnson's and Sunsilk, thanks a lot!

January to February in Notebooks

2010-02-22T13:26:00.000+08:00

First photo of the January notebook The cover is a beautiful dark-red to maroon color.My mum thought it was my passport the first time she saw it. Now for the February notebook.It's a very nice and rich red and this photo does not do it justice.(P.S. I'm still using the multi-colored fineliners)

Here Comes The Sun

2010-01-17T21:14:00.000+08:00

I wish I could wake up to the sound of chirping birds and the sight of our green garden everyday. I wish I could get up every morning, relaxed and having had ample rest. I wish I could always greet the morning with breakfast ready on the table.I wish I could stretch out content, and smile at the thought that I'm home, with my family and our pets.And I wish I wasn't going back to the dorm today.

Losing Momentum

2010-01-16T21:13:00.000+08:00

The cumulative sleep debt has finally done me in. I can't focus, I make all sorts of silly mistakes, and I'm not feeling all together well. I wish I could have a very long vacation, but that would not be possible anymore. Such is the reality. It's timely that I'm finally being weaned off those long weeks of summer and Christmas break because it's about three years overdue already; however,

Well, That Went Well

2010-01-04T17:20:00.000+08:00

First day of classes for 2010, and yours truly thinks she did pretty well. I made it to the first class on time, no matter how tempted I was to sleep in the cool sheets or how slow I was in getting ready. What previously took 5 minutes took me some 20 minutes this morning; blame it on holiday hangover or vacation inertia, but I probably just have to reset my routine or familiarize myself with

No Vacations for the Next Ten Years?

2010-01-03T19:13:00.001+08:00

The Christmas break went by far too quickly to my liking. It was the last solid block of vacation junior medical students like myself will have for a very long time; April will see us starting our clinical clerkship (as senior medical students), followed by a year of internship, then board exams for physicians, some 2-3 years of residency, and many more years of specialization or

Welcome 2010 with Beautiful Hair!

2009-12-31T14:31:00.004+08:00

Birdie from Hair in Manila is giving away an exclusive and complete set of Kérastase minis! All you have to do is to write about this contest in your FB wall/multiply/blog/myspace/twitter/tumblr/plurk/etc, and link your post to the comments section of this entry. Contest ends January 8 2010 and the winner will be announced on January 9 2010. The winner will randomly drawn and Birdie will

Merry Christmas!

2009-12-25T21:30:00.000+08:00

Image from The Nativity Story (film) Merry Christmas Everyone! May this Christmas bring you more love, joy, hope, peace and health!

Enjoying the Christmas Break

2009-12-23T00:54:00.000+08:00

This picture I borrowed from Tumblr represents some of the food I've been enjoying in the past four days. After what seemed to be weeks and weeks of dreadful school work and not being able to go home, I'm on Christmas break and making the most out of the it. It's going to be my last free Christmas for a very long time; I am an MS3 after all, and it will be more than a decade before I'll be

Yellow Roses

2009-11-24T18:40:00.003+08:00

This little ray of sunshine greeted me with a cheery "Good morning!" over the weekend. They're so lovely and happy. They instantly banished all feelings of frustration, and the all-consuming feeling of loneliness. Thank you =)

Slow Down, You Crazy Child

2009-11-10T00:40:00.002+08:00

If someone prays for patience, do you think God gives them patience? Or does He give them the opportunity to be patient? If they pray for courage, does God give them courage, or does He give them opportunities to be courageous? If someone prayed for their family to be closer, do you think God zaps them with warm, fuzzy feelings? Or does He give them opportunities to love each other? - God (err,

Worth It?

2009-10-20T21:12:00.000+08:00

MS3 is jumping into bed at sunrise only to have to wake up half an hour later to get to an exam or to a class + minimum two short quizzes per day (and additional major exams if you're extra unlucky) + being made to do a presentation for a panel of people who seem to be intent on ripping out your guts (I'm kidding, I'm kidding!) + looking forward to Friday nights for a solid block of several hours

Nostalgia for Good Food

2009-09-12T23:25:00.005+08:00

I think the complete lack of good food nowadays is making me fat. (Please allow me to make excuses, just this time.) I'm swallowing heaps of stuff that are either as bland as board, loaded with enough sugar to make my pee attractive to ants, marinated in a tub of MSG for two months, or soaked through with reused atherogenic animal fat. I'm eating and eating and eating stuff that really isn't that

On Dissatisfaction

2009-09-05T21:11:00.000+08:00

Everything goes way too fast when one is so absorbed in work. Third year is like that, work work work. It is only at this point in time that I realized that I've taken the relatively lighter schedules of first and second year for granted. Two school years worth of breathing room does not make for an easy adjustment to the life of read-take exams-snack on munchies-nap if you're lucky. Such a

Acceptance

2009-07-12T21:10:00.000+08:00

I've spent two years, three months, and nineteen days thinking about it. I think I can safely say that I've finally accepted it but I'm not happy. I don't know now whether my acceptance signifies that I've moved on or that I've given up. If I've moved on, maybe I can take steps to reclaiming my happiness, but if I've given up, I don't know if I'll ever be able to forgive myself for letting go.

Entitlement

2009-03-23T21:09:00.000+08:00

It's just so disappointing that you're the one giving something out of the goodness of your own heart, then this recipient complains generally about what you gave. No, this isn't a rant against those who belong to another social class, but a rant against greed. The reason for the rant? The "beggar" in the street awhile ago whom I handed a sandwich. The beggar just stared at me, uttered a foul

Dance Like No One's Watching

2009-03-21T21:08:00.000+08:00

Forget your worries for four minutes and dance along.I share this in the hope that it might take the blues away.Smile everyone and have a happy weekend!

Been Quite Long Since...

2009-03-03T02:00:00.000+08:00

...I last saw curves on TV.Fiercely, somewhat inspiring. P.S. (A male colleague saw part of this episode and kept going, "Oh, this woman has real boobies too. Boobies, boobies, boobies!" I never thought he was the type of guy who'd say hello to a well-endowed woman's chest instead of her face. I am so tempted to call him "Boobies" from now on, but it just doesn't sound right. I

Stress Management Tips from the Masters

2009-02-23T22:30:00.000+08:00

Just in case you are having a rough day, here is a stress management technique recommended in all the latest psychological tests. The funny thing is that it works. 1. Picture yourself near a stream in the mountains. 2. Birds are softly chirping in the cool mountain air. 3. No one knows your secret place. 4. You are in total seclusion from the hectic place called the world. 5. The

Loveliest Love Letter

2009-02-23T21:06:00.000+08:00

Came across the loveliest letter today-heartbreaking, poignant, and beautiful. I probably will not forget these words. Beloved, Today, for the second time, my mother had to bury her husband. As they lowered his body into the ground, I remembered his words, and those of he that came before. Dad told me to find a girl I could trust with my life. Father told me to find one I could trust with

Biochem Pick-up Lines

2009-02-14T23:00:00.000+08:00

Wow. Never knew nerds could be such pervs. If I were an enzyme, I'd be DNA helicase so I could unzip your genes. You're so hot, you denature my proteins. Can I be the phasor to your electron and take you to an excited state? You must be gibberelin, because I'm experiencing some stem elongation. You make my anoxic sediments want to increase their redox potential. Hey baby, will a

Blame Hypoglycemia

2009-02-04T21:00:00.000+08:00

Yeah, I went for some 18 hours without decent food. Forgive the rant. Medicine and Microbiology and OB1 and Neurology have just danced across my brain.1. Perspectives are unique and subjective. You can't force people to see things your way just because you think your perspective is as clear as can be or is as perfect as could be. If you proclaim your perspective and personal beliefs as dogma,

Hands

2009-01-21T22:00:00.000+08:00

Medical school professors always remind us students to take care of our hands; they don't care if one becomes extremely vain when it comes to hands, just as long as the hands are in the best working order. After all, our hands are extremely important in our chosen vocation. So yes, we wash them, (supposedly) keep them tidy at all times, and try to keep them soft and warm for the benefit of

I Love You, Lee Pace

2009-01-14T20:58:00.000+08:00

"Paraplegic," piemaker, bandit, whatever.

The Nerdiness

2009-01-13T20:55:00.000+08:00

Date: 13 January 2008Time: 1315HLocation: Pathology departmentProfessor 1: Oh you're here!Professor 2: How was the exam?Professor 3: You're smiling. It must mean the exam was easy.Moi: It was actually okay. More of the common sense type of questions, but then again I always lack common sense.Professor 3 chuckles and leaves.Professor 2: I'm going to ask you a question, and I'll ask you to answer

The Year That Was 2008

2008-12-30T20:53:00.000+08:00

Where did you begin 2008?At home, I think. Trying to avoid the smoke and noise from our neighbors who decided to line every available inch of our street with pyrotechnics.What was your status by Valentine's day of 2008?Mostly frustrated because I had to skip my ongoing Valentine Santa tradition of giving out chocolates to everyone; I had that weird episode with the left knee going all crazy.

Gratitude Entry

2008-12-09T20:00:00.000+08:00

Thank you for... allowing me to wake up on time for today showing me the solution to the problem that almost guaranteed a doomed start for the day not putting me through the wringer this morning friends whom I can run to just to, just to complain of so many things allowing me to eat, because any meal is better than none the Potterverse professors who still care enough to sacrifice a night's

Back to the 50s and 60s

2008-12-06T20:48:00.000+08:00

Perhaps it comes from watching Pushing Daisies and Mad Men. I am officially in love with clothing styles from the 1950s to 1960s. The silhouettes are so feminine and fun, yet polished and elegant. This has me wishing I could create my own clothes, or maybe have enough money to burn on having clothes done by a mananahi.Should I try my luck in Cubao-X?

Highlighter Love Affair

2008-11-27T20:47:00.000+08:00

Now, I never highlight stuff. Ever. If you see me carrying anything with highlights, it's probably borrowed from someone who does the highlighting thing. It's weird that quite a lot of people still call me out on this habit of mine that stems from the lack of need to highlight stuff during undergrad (I dare you to try highlighting all those symbols and formulae as you go down a reaction

Pa

2008-11-27T20:25:00.000+08:00

He's not the demonstrative kind of a parental unit; he's the total opposite of my mum, who's all hugs and kisses and cooing doves and unicorns and sparkly things. He's gruff, he's weird, he's anti-social, he's moody (must be his artisté temperament), he's stubborn as hell, he's got a dry sense of humor that rarely pops up (as in one in several million light years) and he's mostly silent, save

Strength, Courage, and Wisdom

2008-09-15T19:42:00.000+08:00

"They subjugate because they fear the power of WOMAN.They discriminate because WOMAN is beyond their comprehension..They enslave because they think WOMAN should be under control like an animal or an object.WOMAN, you are beautiful. WOMAN, you are brave and strong. WOMAN, you are intelligent and wise.WOMAN, you are a person. WOMAN, you are a rightful citizen of this world. WOMAN, you are NEVER to

Brainwashing

2008-09-06T19:42:00.000+08:00

No matter how the person tries to make me believe otherwise, I cannot do it.No one should expect me to take things at face value, begging me to keep an open mind when his own mind is so narrow and clouded by fanaticism. I just can't see eye-to-eye with religious dogma/doctrine on certain issues, and besides, the religion hasn't had a perfect track record when you're talking about science. (

I Miss Biochem

2008-08-22T19:39:00.000+08:00

I suddenly miss all the grunt work of undergrad. Doing the deadly organic chemistry experiments in laboratory rooms without running water. Identifying unknown substances that look suspiciously like table salt or sugar. Transferring strong acids inside the fume hood that has a fan that sounds like an airplane taking off. The endless parade of glassware to be washed and trying to outdo other

Happiness Is...

2008-08-19T19:38:00.000+08:00

My goddaughter, Anya.Baby Schwartz and Nestlé Pops togetherThe fresh scent of cotton.A LOLCAT.The fact that you're still loving the field after the first round of exams.

Hello? Telephone?

2008-07-31T19:37:00.000+08:00

Ah, heeelo? Parteee line? Si Boldemort eeto, di mo ba kilala kong seno aku? (This is Voldemort, don't you know who I am? in an accent)

Nestlé PoPs!

2008-07-24T19:36:00.000+08:00

This is the story of a simple young woman's obsession with simple ice cream.

First Patient

2008-06-26T19:31:00.000+08:00

Took her history yesterday.First few minutes into the interview, we could sense that she was a bit worn out so my interview partner and I tried to keep our voice as soothing as possible. She gradually warmed up, sometimes spending minutes talking about her kids, her favorite food, her diet strategies, her work, her financial woes, her health pre-op, and her post-op pain. My partner and I

Sibuyan Diaries Part One

2008-06-22T19:30:00.000+08:00

Where in the world is Sibuyan Island? 03 May 2008 Early this morning, with enough clothes for eight days and a brand new mountain bike in tow, I started my second journey of the summer in Cubao. This was no ordinary vacation where I'd expect to completely chill out to the sun, sand, and sea; I was going on a eco-tour to save an unspoilt island threatened by mining. By noontime, the bus

Dancing Partner Needed

2008-06-21T19:29:00.000+08:00

14th June 2008Grandaunt: My dear, your uncle is getting married next year, and I'd like to take this opportunity to invite you to the wedding.Moi: Congratulations! Thank you-Grandaunt: Well, I'd have to ask you to bring young men along with you, you know, to dance. We would be hiring a band and all, and it would be such a waste if nobody took to the dance floor...Moi: (squirming under the

Part Deux

2008-06-11T19:27:00.000+08:00

Discounting all the little things that made the flow of work a little more challenging, starting the second year in med school was quite...benign. Note the use of the term "little things." The term applies not to the important details that matter so much in the long run/for the bigger picture, but the petty insecurities, normal inconveniences (in the words of a nurse in a medical ethics forum,

Sikaran

2008-05-02T10:00:00.000+08:00

Sibuyan is a beautiful island just off Romblon, however, its beauty may very well soon be marred by greed and mining. What better way to call attention to the threat, than to take a cycling eco-tour of the island? I'm joining something called "SIKARAN: Sikad Para sa Sibuyan": A Bicycle Eco-Tour to Save Sibyan Island.I remain optimistic that I can manage the seven day tour. I might have not

No Angst

2008-04-27T23:30:00.000+08:00

Aunt #s 1, 2, 3: "How old are you turning tomorrow?" Kelly: "Old enough to drink alcohol and drive and be married with parental advice." Mum: "I don't know. Shouldn't you be having some angst about your age by now?" Kelly: "..." Yes, in a some years' time, I'll be considered firmly on the shelf (like the last carton of milk left to curdle alone on a supermarket shelf past its sell-by

Palawan Diaries Part Two

2008-04-21T11:00:00.000+08:00

04 April 2008Day 2First day of academic tutorials and I am assigned to the brightest kids of the group; I do not have enough training (and patience, perhaps) to be able to deal with the ones whose needs are greatest. Technically, they're on their high school years already, but they were brought back to lower levels when the volunteers found out that the dormers really had a tough time with the

Palawan Diaries Part One

2008-04-20T17:03:00.000+08:00

03 April 2008Day 1Waking very early to get to the Centennial Airport for an 0800H flight today had the words "WRONG, WRONG, WRONG!" stamped all over it. Rising on an ungodly hour of a weekday after an hour of sleep brought back memories conveniently stowed away for two weeks already; yours truly was supposed to be hibernating the summer away, after a very colorful year of med school, after all.

Provincia

2008-04-02T17:02:00.000+08:00

Not content with our semi-bucolic village hamlet in the suburbs of Manila, yours truly has decided to take a vacation take a trip to a very rural/pastoral/rustic/arcadian place where only one network has any semblance of a mobile signal, where you actually pump water out of a well to take a bath or a dump under the stars, where you cross some rice paddies or jump islands to get from home to home,

Bubblegum Ice Cream

2008-03-29T22:00:00.000+08:00

I cannot remember the brand of ice cream that came out with the bubblegum flavored treat many years ago. The color was mint green and pink, and the plastic cone shaped container contained a gum ball at the bottom. The frozen treat was discontinued for a while and during that long dry stretch of the bubblegum ice cream missing from supermarket freezers, yours truly turned to Dipping Dots for a

O Rly?

2008-03-27T01:00:00.000+08:00

You have got to be kidding me. This is like Hogwarts having a fifth house named Sparklypoo. If I become a pediatrician in the future, I won't be giving out bandages that look like this. The kids that will get this will need therapy when they become older. Something along the lines of "Mummy, Dr. Kelly says that enchanted unicorns exist....they're right here on my boo boo with rainbows

Cortical Spreading Depression

2008-03-06T00:00:00.000+08:00

1. Wake up with a killer migraine.2. Take one shifting exam with head feeling like it could explode anytime.3. Try everything to ameliorate pain. Eat a good nutritious meal, drink two liters of water, keep self in ambient temperature, get eight hours of sleep, do deep breathing exercises, take painkillers, stop reading your handouts and books, keep self in horizontal position, and close eyes

A Certain Sense of Loss

2008-02-09T21:00:00.000+08:00

Perhaps the feeling of disappointment over half-hearted pursuit of academic excellence has not worn off, despite the mounds of chocolate and crisps one managed to cram down one's throat until one felt sick enough to heave one's guts out. There's a certain sense of loss of hope for attaining what was easily within reach but wasted due to choices made.Perhaps it is the sense of being thrown in a

On Second Thought...

2008-01-27T16:50:00.000+08:00

Being the dependable person does have its perks. It took the insights of my cousin to help me realize this. Now I understand how she survived uni; she always manages to look at the brighter side of things.Oh yes.I get better at explaining things as concisely as possible.I get better at thinking quickly and referencing all those bits of knowledge in the crevices of my brain.I get better

Goodbye 2007

2007-12-31T23:34:00.000+08:00

This past year was mostly filled with too much of my whining. Maybe my expectations were so high (from the intense experiences of 2006) and I just wouldn't move to reach my goals, that I wound up feeling like a loser in 2007. I have a lot of excuses but I know I can't blame them for what actually happened in my life. It was the collective effect of bad decisions, pessimism, and out-of-place

Post Caffeine Hangover

2007-12-06T23:23:00.000+08:00

Waking up with an enormous sleep debt and some caffeine running amok in your system isn't exactly the best feeling in the world. But anyway, I had to discipline myself to attend the morning classes. Yeah, anatomy was a tough thing to study, but what the hell. So blessed to be in the company of my beloved friends tonight. I wonder, though, when we will see each other again. We're all starting

A Sort of Fulfillment

2007-11-08T18:00:00.000+08:00

It is always, always lovely to start each school day with a lecture given by a competent teacher. This particular Neuroanatomy lecturer fast became my favorite when he used ordinary terms for the excessively-hard-to-remember jargon of the subject. This morning was particularly very special, because he did the lecture with a swollen hard palate (he had a cyst taken out recently)-talk about

Remember, remember, the Fifth of November

2007-11-05T16:00:00.000+08:00

Remember, remember, the Fifth of November, the Gunpowder Treason and Plot. I know of no reason why the Gunpowder Treason should ever be forgot... But what of the man? I know his name was Guy Fawkes and I know, in 1605, he attempted to blow up the Houses of Parliament. But who was he really? What was he like? We are told to remember the idea, not the man, because a man can fail. He can be caught

Happy Halloween

2007-10-31T23:30:00.000+08:00

I am alternately bored and procrastinating, while I bare my fangs out of the window to scare the evil spirits (who are no doubt hoping to have some good old fun) quivering and shitless. (Yeah, I have a bit of that in me. I believe in that delusion that I am too crabby for any spirit to try to haunt or terrify. They stand to gain nothing in trying or in doing, but they lose a lot of their

Gay

2007-10-20T15:25:00.000+08:00

Right. Brava, Ms. Rowling. I thought you'd never say that.

Whiff of Death

2007-09-08T21:00:00.000+08:00

The preserved cadaver lies prone or supine on the black body bag on the cold metal table, helpless against the assault of my group's steel tools. We pray for the soul of the cadaver, make the incisions, remove the fascia and the fat, isolate the neurovascular structures, cut across muscles, point out tendons, and then we leave after cleaning up, sometimes forgetting to pray. All the time I am

Doldrums

2007-08-27T18:30:00.000+08:00

There comes a time when you have to assume responsibility. It's inevitable. It's exhilarating and rotten at the same time; you get to test out your own wings yet you're left unsure of your self. It's like walking across a high wire without a net underneath. It's like being stuck on a roller coaster that wasn't built with brakes and careening out of control; somehow you'll begin to think that

Soon All of This Will Be Over...Exams, I Mean

2007-08-13T19:00:00.000+08:00

While I live in the suburbs of the polluted metropolis that is Metro Manila, I think I shall never see a shower of shooting stars. (Yes, shoot me if I spouting misnomers now...the term just seems more romantic.) When I was younger, I would always hope that I could spot at least one that would saucily wink at me as though to say, "Make a wish, quick!" I never was quite successful at spotting or

Getting Better...I Hope

2007-07-07T21:00:00.000+08:00

I'm totally hating my physical biorhythm right now. I know the hormones are to blame; I still can't help but get irked at the hormone's non-cooperation with my schedule. I'm sleeping more than usual but I need to stay awake for at least twenty hours to get all my work done. The red tide is rising and I'm also irked that it's coming at the most inconvenient time of my academic schedule. Hormones

Two Weeks Gone

2007-07-01T13:24:00.000+08:00

It's almost been a month now since I've gone to medical school, and I still can't find the proper groove. It's as though everyone around me is working on their foxtrot while I'm dancing to an improvised jig. As my friend has put it, I'm in a double whammy of adjusting to medical school AND adjusting to a new learning institution. I sorely miss my former school, and I'm only realizing now that

Tired but not Beaten

2007-06-30T19:30:00.000+08:00

Another week is over and I'm thankful that all the stress is over for a bit. Thank God for my friends from UP who love me so much that they even dropped by the dorm to see how I was doing. Thank God for a mentor who always tries to boost my self-esteem. Thank God for friends who care enough to help me out when I need it most. Thank God for my home. Thank God for my relatives and upperclassmen

Back to the Dorm

2007-06-24T18:30:00.000+08:00

In a few minutes' time, I will be back at my dorm; it's about 20 kilometers away but it seems more like 20 million. (The rationale behind this being that I cannot take the 2-hour commute one way from the house to the campus, with four out of the five days of the school week starting at 7 AM.) It's going to be another week of no internet, 17-minute head-down reading sessions, dissections,

First Week in Med School

2007-06-15T13:20:00.000+08:00

My first week of medical school was a complete emotional roller coaster. My feeling swung from excitement to apprehension to delight to sadness and every other emotion known to the human range or spectrum. I am still adjusting to living in a dorm again; I don't have the endurance for the two hour trips one way to or from school. I've taken my bedroom here at home for granted, that I missed the