Lazy ass...

I found myself on duty last night. Wasn't planning to work but some resident's kid got sick and she needed someone to go on duty for her. So, here I am, post-duty, not really wanting to do much of anything. But it kinda bothers me to leave this blog so unattended even if Dennise is the only one who bothers to read it but anyway...

I wrote this more than a year ago when I was on duty during my ENT rotation. Extremely boring rotation. This isn't exactly my best work. Mostly just random rantings in between ER and ward calls that were few and far in between.

For some reason, I sound different here. Rock out.

Okay. It’s approximately 4:30 in the afternoon on a Sunday and I’m here in the on-call room with nothing to do except --- well --- pretty much just sit on my rapidly growing ass until 5pm tomorrow. That and the occasional snack which has been part and parcel of my extremely exciting ENT rotation.

Not.

Let’s backtrack a little to when I started my post-graduate internship for absolutely no apparent reason save for the fact that I’m extremely bored and for some inexplicable reason, typing stuff keeps me amused. I like blabbing both verbally and in writing. Go figure.

Anyway, I graduated medical school last March and started my post-graduate internship here in Riverside Medical Center in Bacolod. You might ask, as many have, why the hell are you in Bacolod, girl?!

I’m not really sure why. Maybe it’s the P5000 monthly stipend. Maybe it’s coz I can finally get out of Cagayan de Oro and explore my world like they do in the Discovery Channel. Hehehe… I like that channel. Especially when they feature ocean life and such. I especially liked the one where they were featuring the entire life span of the octopus. Damn near made me cry when the mommy octopus got killed by this cruel, um, catfish? Not sure now which fish it was. Normally, the amazing octopus would have been able to take the fish-that-shall-not-be-named but she was protecting her eggs because really, what chance do eggs of any size, shape or color have against any creature with a mouth?

But I digress. But that’s only because I love the ocean. Plankton glow in the dark, did you know that? God, I am such a nerd. Anyway, where was I? Oh, reasons for current residence. Well, for the most part, I really just wanted to get out of Cagayan de Oro even for just a year but I didn’t want to go to Manila and kill my lungs so I opted for Bacolod. Cebu’s too near and stuff are really expensive. Davao’s too… I can’t remember why I wrote off Davao but anyway, I wrote it off.

There are a bunch of us Xavierians (hehehe…) here in Bacolod with BJ, Ryan and I here in Riverside. However, we were flung into different groups so I had to adjust to people who spoke a dialect I barely knew. But my groupmates were okay. I rotated in Pediatrics first, which is a rotation that I hate. Not because I hate babies. They’re cute and all. But alas, my love for babies is not unconditional. I hate it when they pee, poop and bawl asking for food. Which is pretty much what they do most of the time when they’re not being all cute and such. At least I don’t have to extract blood from babies here. Believe me, the fastest way to rid yourself of any emotional bond to a baby is to extract blood. It’s about the cruelest thing I’ve ever done to a baby, right next to intubation. IV insertions would be cruel, too. But only if you’re really bad at it or the baby just doesn’t have veins. Bleh.

Oh, my groupmates’ names are Teofi, Ada and Darlene. Teofi is from Cebu so immediate plus for me. Ada is crazy and so am I. Darlene is my partner in troubles. Hehe… Mostly because we were the first to go on single duty and were partners on double duty. Plus, the only other Darlene I know is my favoritest resident in the whole wide world, Dr. Darlene Revelo. Darlene the groupmate kinda reminds me of Darlene the resident. In the fact that they are both so toxic.

I’m not sure where this thing is going.

Let’s talk about… our dorm!

Well, I have my very own bed which is the upper bunk of BJ’s bed, right beside Ada’s Alley and across the “whore bed”. It has a daisy-printed bedsheet and I have 3 really soft pillows, which is a consolation for my bed which is about as soft as packed mud. And in case you have the misconception that we run a prostitution ring in our dorm, the “whore bed” is termed such because just about anybody sleeps in it. They even take turns using it. *snerk*

What else… erm, we have cable TV in our living room. However, what is essential to our viewing experience has been invisible for a while now because the remote control is missing. Couch potato-ing is out of the question since if you want to change the channels, you’d actually have to get up and reach for the switchy thing on the TV. I say reach because the TV is propped up on a shelf thing way above my height. So, and this is not something that can be usually said of me, I don’t watch TV all that much. However, there was this 2 to 3 week period where I actually ran to the dorm every 10am just to watch The Nanny reruns. I loved that series. I think that show aired on the local channel while I was in high school or something. Just that they didn’t air the last season where Fran and Maxwell get married and have a baby. Or maybe it did for a while because I remember seeing an episode where Fran was watching out for her ovulation or something. Jeez. Why don’t they just have sex everyday so that way, they don’t miss it? Why go through all the trouble of having to chart your basal body temperature? Don’t they do that in order to prevent an unwanted pregnancy? All for the sake of comedy, I suppose. Not complaining, though. Even if Fran Drescher was a terrible actress, Charles Shaughnessy was cute. Plus, I tend to have a selective but still, shallow sense of humor. I am also easily amused. When I’m in the mood, that is.

Notice how I jump from topic to topic? My brain is a traffic jam of impulses going nowhere and everywhere. Voldemort can’t read my mind because really, there’s nothing to read.

Speaking of Voldemort, Harry Potter Book 7 is OUT!!! I even gave in to my impulsiveness by actually going to the bookstore and attempting to buy the extremely expensive hardbound copy of the book but was unable to since the only copies they had were for the even crazier people who paid in advance and actually reserved a book even before copies came out. Crazy people.

Now I’m wondering if it really stops at Book 7. Who’s going to die in this one? It’s bad enough that Rowling killed Dumbledore. Dumbledore-sama! Haay… Why do I have this thing for the old mentor type in fantastical stories? And when I say old, I mean elderly. Take Lord of the Rings for example. While everybody else in the movie house was screaming their lungs out for Legolas (he’s soooo gay, by the way), I was yelling for Gandalf. Beat the shit out of that Balrog! Kick that Nazgul’s ass! Although, kudos to Legolas too because he made me believe a bow and arrow can be used in a short-range battle. But still, nothing can beat the awesome power of white magic. Amazing what a little bleach can do. Hehehe… It’s okay if you don’t get it. I don’t expect most people to understand what goes on in my screwed up brain.

Um, what else. We have a refrigerator that’s always filled with food I can’t eat, a kitchen that never seems to run out of unwashed dishes and mugs. So basically, the only highlights of dorm life are the airconditioned rooms, chatty people, my laptop and DVD collection. I’ll probably be watching a movie in a little while. Either when I get tired of typing or I run out of anything to type.

Okay.

I just ran out of anything to type.

Thirty minutes later and status-post a speedy run-through of Must Love Dogs. I must say, John Cusack still looks cute all these years, albeit with less hair. He has a receding hair line but still very, very appealing. Aside from that, he’s a great actor. I like the miniscule, almost negligible, mannerisms he adds to his character that believe it or not, adds to the realism of his role. Like in Must Love Dogs. Watching the movie, you would really have believe that he’s a boatmaker (Is there a proper term for a person who makes boats? I think there is. I just don’t know it.) who’s really in love with this kindergarten teacher.

I’ll be an Orthopedics PGI starting Wednesday and I expect it’ll be busier than my ENT rotation. Although, anything would be busier than my current ENT rotation. I have significantly less ORs than my predecessors, I’ve only ever truly admitted one patient because the other 2 were direct-to-room admissions and the other one that wasn’t was during the time I wasn’t on duty. I’ve assisted, what, 5 operations and not very lengthy ones at that. Two tracheostomies, 2 tonsillectomies and 1 excision of keloid. The only slightly lengthy procedure would be the thyroidectomy but I didn’t get to assist in that one because it was simultaneous with the tonsillectomy I was assisting. All I did was write the operative technique. Where am I going with this? Just gloating, I suppose. But beware karma. I’m afraid I may be extremely toxic when I rotate in Obstetrics or Internal Medicine. I’m okay with Obstetrics because I like the field but I cannot muster enough love for Internal Medicine. Never have. During my senior clerkship, I hated going on duty because I was always on single duty with no first year resident so basically, I had to do everything on my own before referring to the senior resident. That would have been okay if I had benign patients but most of the time, my admissions were stroke patients or MI or some other condition that needed emergency or intensive care.

Grr. I’m really bored here. Everyone else is busy. Sometimes I think I’ll just go see Pedia OPD patients to pass the time. Then I regain my sanity and stay put. Hehehe… I want to change into my scrub suit but I feel it’s too premature. I might be the object of numerous glares.

Let’s try and talk about something I like. Which leads us to options paralysis since I like a gazillion things.

People keep making fun about how I’m so into Korean movies and series and music but only those who truly know me are aware that my interest is not confined to that of Korean entertainment. My freakiness actually started in elementary school when I started watching Sailormoon, Akazukin ChaCha, Yugi-Oh and other anime series. Then came Rurouni Kenshin or more popularly known as Samurai X. Damn that guy can fight. Sugoi da ne, Ken-san! I know it’s not realistic and that he’s just a cartoon but I had the hugest crush on him to the point that I wished he were real. Yup, another confirmation of my insanity. But really, he was so cute and he wielded that katana so well. Amakakeru ryu no hirameki! And contrary to majority of opinions, his best fight was the one with Saitou Hajime, at the Kamiya Dojo where his Battoussai self revealed himself. However, the whole theme of the series was his remorse at being a kick-ass assassin so he stops himself from ever giving it his all which makes for a slightly mediocre performance during battles, considering what he’s capable of. Geez, he can probably move tectonic plates with Kuzu Ryu Sen, theoretically that is.

So anywaaaay, I started my deviant preferences with Japanese animation. Then Star Movies Chinese came and I enjoyed Chinese comedy and love stories just because they have a slightly weird sense of humor. It’s not slapstick but it’s not extremely intellectual either. Perfect for the easily amused but still critical and slightly cynical audience. But I never was into Chinese television series.

Until METEOR GARDEN came! Yeah, yeah. Most people will probably deny having ever watched the series religiously since its sheer popularity with the masses has immediately labeled it as corny. But I have come to terms with the fact that I am, in a lot of instances, corny so I have no problem owning up to the fact that I have a huge Ken Zhu poster at home, that I practically memorized the songs in Ken Zhu’s album in Mandarin without understanding a word I’m saying, and that I have a complete collection of their television series and movies on DVD. And that I may have watched most of them several times over already. Ken Zhu isn’t dreamy because I’m not really all that attracted to “dreamy-looking” guys. I prefer the rugged or masculine type. Ken’s not really rugged but he’s masculine in his own sort of way. He has, I think, 5 piercings in his left ear (I have 3), 1 on his nose (I would have loved to have one too if not for my allergic rhinitis which I strongly believe will be a co-morbid illness, later when I’m old and gray and still sneezing at a speed of 70 miles per hour) and… I don’t know where else. He does have a tattoo on his left arm and lumbar area, though. Hmmm… Stalking much? Hehehe…

So started my one-sided love affair with Zhu Xiao Tian or Ken Zhu. We celebrated our 6 year anniversary last May and still going strong. And I am so totally nuts. Anyway, METEOR GARDEN opened up a whole new chapter to my freakiness. I started watching Chinese television series in Mandarin with no subtitles. I might as well have been watching a silent movie but for the freak I was, I still enjoyed the series. Then, watching Chinese television series would lead to watching Korean television series and this is where we are now. The evolution of fandom.

What else do we talk about? I need to keep typing because it’s freezing here in the on-call room. Typing keeps my fingers from getting stiff as a board. By the way, I just finished eating my dinner. With a strawberry frost blend for dessert, I might add. See, the stuff I do don’t make any sense. It’s freezing cold but I choose to have ice cream for dessert.

I still want to have my residency in Obstetrics because frankly, it is the only rotation during my entire senior clerkship that I truly had fun and enjoyed being on duty. Actually, it was mostly during the time that Dr. Revelo was my senior resident but still, I liked some of my residents in Internal Medicine but that never made me like the field. It’s not just a resident factor. Anyway, even if I end up not being able to sleep a wink during my duty, I would still be happy going about my duties. I really did enjoy delivering babies and repairing episiotomies. Hehe… somebody’s playing Ebony and Ivory in the background. Nothing. Just that those types of songs remind me of the time during first year med when my group and I went on a trip to Naawan. One of my groupmates would cringe everytime I played my Asian music (ie F4, K-pop, J-pop, C-pop) and on that trip, the jeepney we rode in played a mix tape containing nothing but oldies. And not the oldies that I like. Songs like, “I saw a diary underneath a tree-eee, and I was reading about meee-eee.” Don’t know the title but I really hated it. Creeped me out, to say the least. So that groupmate of mine who abhorred my choice of music was loving every minute of my pain during the 2-hour trip.

I was out for a while because Ed, my co-intern currently rotating in Pediatrics, had an IV line inserted because he’s been having fever for 2 days now and has a platelet count of 179,000 with a hematocrit of 0.44. Although, he does look very dehydrated so that could explain the hematocrit. Anyway, we fast dripped (Is that really grammatically correct?) a liter of IV fluid in a matter of 45 minutes and still, no urge to urinate. It has been 12 hours since the last time he urinated. And this topic is getting weird. No reason to continue this then.

I watched Pan’s Labyrinth last night. It was a Spanish film that apparently won 3 Academy Awards. Wonder which ones those were. For sure one of them was best foreign film. Anyway, it was set during the Fascist whatever and there’s this little girl who is apparently the princess of the underworld in another body and her father sent a faun to bring her back. However, to ensure her immortality, she has to accomplish 3 tasks. The first was to make a giant toad eat rocks, the second to get a dagger from the dining room of a weird creature whose eyes were located on its palms. She wasn’t supposed to eat anything off the dinner table but the git just had to eat grapes. Even with that creepy creature around 3 feet away from her, she just couldn’t resist eating the grapes. Those must have been pretty damn sweet grapes for her to risk having her head ripped from her neck. However, the scene where the creature actually tries to eat her was more hilarious than scary. The third task was something about not sacrificing the blood of the innocent.

It’s the morning after my duty but unlike during my Pediatrics rotation, I don’t feel tired or anything. Sure I feel sleepy but not any more than usual. I’m always sleepy for some reason. I could be anemic. Hehehe...

Hmm.. Waiting for 10:30 to come so I could go to Dr. Puey’s clinic and observe what goes on in an ENT clinic. Not that I haven’t seen what goes on in an ENT clinic. My rotation in ENT during my senior clerkship was nothing but OPD. Everybody else, including my resident, would be in the operating room while I would be stuck at the OPD suctioning cerumen and removing foreign bodies. Yech. I liked the suturing, though. The most difficult repair I did was one where there was partial avulsion of the nasal septum and there were no available nylon or even 4-O silk sutures. I had to make do with a small field, huge cutting needle and thick non-absorbable sutures. But it turned out okay.

And it just ends there. I guess I found something better to do. Or I found food.