phew, finally a chance to catch my breath. it's been a crazy month and a half. i don't have a blog for 3rd block: ER, so i'll sum it up here.

ER is fast paced, sometimes busy, sometimes slow. I learned alot. I learned how to be fast. It was tough catching up to each attending's nuances, but you learn to adapt. I got to repair a couple of lacerations, which is where I discovered my love for repairing lacerations. I was always nervous about those, but once you jump in there and get it done, it's not so bad at all. It's an art. Night shift SUCKED ASS. I don't know how people do night shift. I wanted to be up when I had to sleep and I wanted to sleep when I had to be up. So that's ER in a nutshell.

Onto residency in general. I have one word to describe it: ROLLERCOASTER. Each day is different. One day you'll feel like the dumbest person on EARTH and feel like you've failed your patients. The next day you adjust and get everything covered, get some good feedback from attendings or patients and you're on top of the world. A day later your patient deteriorates and it's back down again, only to find the next day that patient improves, is lucid and thanks you for all the work you've put in. I'm telling you, it's a rollercoaster; on the way down you feel like your stomach is in your throat and you can't breathe but when you're up there, the high lasts long enough to get you through the bad times. I'm loving it, but can't avoid the fact that it's kicking my ass!

Onto personal life. So, I've been single for a while now and I've honestly been fine with it. However(and this is no offense to ANY of my friends who have spouses/significant others), as I see my friends getting married/meeting people, it makes me a little sad. Obviously residency doesn't help. I'm too tired ot go anywhere, and even if I did meet someone, where the hell would I find the time to hang out with them? I know a handful of people who are in residency and single. I mean we all do fine, but I wonder how many of them are feeling the way I am. It's funny I always thought I'd be settled by now, but unfortunately life doesn't work out the way you planned. Who knows if what you planned would have made you happy. So, as lonely as I am, I'll leave it up to fate and God to figure out my personal life for me. Until then, I'm uber thankful for all my good friends and my family, who keep me sane(or foster my insanity) through these trying times. I love you all!

Block 2: Obstetrics

Have I told you I love my job? I was getting really depressed during my Radiology rotation. I think the reason was that I wasn't actively doing anything; there was no patient contact, my mind wasn't stimulated and I didn't feel any gratification for my efforts. This month, however, has been a breath of fresh air.

As my third week in OB winds down, I've started to reflect on how much I've learned. I was absolutely terrified my first week. I was a bit rusty on my OB and didn't really have any confidence. As the weeks passed, I started managing different cases, doing more deliveries and it all started to click. OB is definitely gratifying AND I love the patient care. It's all very exciting. Another added bonus is that USUALLY the moms are healthy and all you have to worry about is getting that baby out. Even when there are problems, there are only a finite number of things that could go wrong, so it's alot easier to manage theoretically.

Then I started to think, "Am I enjoying myself because it's OB or because it's Family Medicine?" Today I found my answer. I was on call last night, which involves admitting patients to the Medicine team from the Emergency Department. We had three admissions, and I only got 3 hours of sleep, but I was satisfied mentally, emotionally and psychologically. I enjoy talking to patients, thinking through and diagnosing their problems, and finally managing their medical issues. And aside from all of that I actually CARE about these patients. I care about what happens to them and their best interests. I tell you, it's an amazing feeling and I really couldn't imagine myself doing anything else.

Story of the Rotation:
My third day on my OB rotation, I was hanging out in L&D(Labor and Delivery) looking for patients who might potentially deliver soon. I notice one patient is 9 centimeters dilated. I call my OB senior to come down and help me. We find out that her membranes were not ruptured, so we called her primary OB to ask if he wanted us to rupture her. We did so and waited. Five minutes later, the nurse comes out of the room and says she's bleeding alot. We go in and assess her, page her doctor and wait for the call back. We inform him of her bleeding and he says he'll meet us soon. Right as we hang up the phone, the patient's sister comes running out of the room yelling, "The baby's head is coming out!!" We run into the room and indeed the baby's head had come out(HOLY CRAP!) My senior grabs some non-sterile gloves and supports the head. In OB "sterile" is a loosely used term; the priority is getting the baby delivered safe. So I unsterily open the delivery cart and pull out the bulb to suction the baby, in addition to whatever tools we needed to finish the delivery. Both mom and baby were ok, but that was a crazy situation!!

Lesson for the rotation: GOWN UP! Don't get showered with amniotic fluid gownless!!! It's not pretty.

Bathroom Makeover

The other weekend my cousin Novette came to visit me. For some reason she's a catalyst for me to do things I've wanted to do but have been too lazy. So, we made our way to Home Depot and Target to get things for my bathroom. I wanted a light colored motif since my bathroom is tiny. I decided on light green since it matches with the rest of my house.

I know, blogging about one's bathroom is kind of weird, but the reason I blog was because I was so happy with the outcome. I got everything for a good price and for the things I was lacking, I discovered a way to put my own little personal touch with things I had around the house.

The shower curtains, rugs, toothbrush holder, soap dish, cup and towels were all bought at Target. I replaced the toilet seat cover, which used to be the soft cover, with a hard cover from Home Depot

What I was missing was a picture to put above the towel rack, and something to accent my display towels. I searched my house for something green to tie around the towels. My mom has a drawerful of random strips of cloth from pants she's taken in or whatever. I found two green pieces of cloth that used to be the bottom of pants. I twisted them and fastened them with a safety pin on the towels. At this point I was already proud of myself. As I was cleaning out my bathroom, I found these wires with beads on them. I wrapped those around the green cloth and voila, cute towel holder thingies.

The next dilemma was what to put above the towel rack. I found an old painting that had the same color theme as my bathroom, but it looked a little antiquated. As I was cleaning out my sister's room, I came upon drawings that my mom, my sister and I had made at California Disney. I had framed them a while ago in a black frame, and hadn't found a place to put them yet. To my delight, it fit perfectly in my bathroom. I really like the personal touch it adds to the whole place. Plus everytime I look at Matess' drawing it makes me smile.(Far right)

First Paycheck

This happened about a week ago, but I only just uploaded pictures. So I got my first paycheck last Friday and it felt pretty freakin' good to know that I'm getting paid for my efforts. :)

I was on call for the third time this weekend(Saturday-Sunday.) I was definitely more relaxed and sort of knew what I was doing. Last night while we were seeing patients I realized how much I love my job. It's the adjusting to new environments I hate. Maybe it's not being able to control my surroundings, but I get all anxious and panicky.

Yesterday, though, I had fun. It's nice knowing your patients as well as knowing that you're somewhat helping them. I wish I could put it more eloquently, but that's all you're going to get out of me. My call was pretty slow with only two admissions and I actually got to sleep.

And So It Begins...

Two weeks of orientation are done. This last weekend is the absolute LAST weekend I will never be responsible for any patient care. I'm scared and excited to start!

Orientation was a bit long and sometimes redundant, but it was a great opportunity to get to know my fellow residents and get to know the hospital/clinic/system. I did learn that anything you write/blog about can be used against you in a court of law, so I will definitely be keeping my blogs general when it comes to patient care.

I really thought I'd have more to blog about, but maybe it's because I calmed myself down, or maybe I'm blocked by the fear of litigation. At any rate, I'll try to document my experiences here.

Read this: Playing Doctor

Hawaii 2007 Part III

15-18: Oahu continued

Friday was a jam-packed day. My dad took the day off so he took us around the island with the final destination at North Shore. On the way there, we stopped at the Chinaman Hat, Pipeline Beach(where the sandstorms hurt like hell), and Turtle Bay. The first stop at North Shore was Giovanni's Shrimp Truck, one of two in the area. The other must have at North Shore is Matsumoto's Shaved Ice where the shaved ice comes with ice cream and/or red bean at the bottom. I tried the Hawaiian(pineapple, coconut and banana) with ice cream on the bottom and condensed milk on top. Yum!

That night we met up with Ty and his co-worker Jeff for a night out in Honolulu. I guess the trick is to get there early when the cover is free, get your hand stamped and pick out which one is the best bar. Here, you can walk in an out of the bars/clubs as long as you have a stamp! While waiting for the clubs to get going, we got some drinks at the Yardhouse, and decided on Zanzibar's. By the end of the night we were thouroghly intoxicated and STARVING. We ended up at Ono's Cheesesteak where they import their bread straight from Philly! It was almost as good as a real Philly Cheesesteak. Heaven.

The next day was mine and Erwin's graduation party at the Dole Cannery. It was much fancier than I had expected; almost like a wedding. There was a sign in table, a DJ, drink tickets, prepared speeches, catered buffet with prime rib and bananas flambe. Afterwards we went to Ala Moana to buy some last minute gifts, came home and rested. At around 5pm, the BBQ started at my dad's house. Erwin's girlfriend, Natasha, brought over Dance Dance Revolution and it was all over. We spent the night drinking and playing DDR and Guitar Hero(particularly Sweet Child of Mine which is still stuck in my head!)

After an extremely eventful week, our last two days were very low key. Novette and I stayed at the house, while Ben and Maryann met up with Ty at Waikiki to surf/lay out. We made some carne asada nachos, packed, relaxed and played MORE guitar hero. I had a wonderful time and it was a great way to end my days off before I started residency.

Somehow, I got the feeling that someone didn't want me to leave.....

For more pictures click here: OAHU

Hawaii 2007 Part II

June 10-14: Oahu

The first day in Oahu was airport and rest day. All four of us came in at various times throughout the day, which resulted in my dad driving back and forth from the airport 3 times. After we unpacked, planned our itinerary(thanks Ben) and settled in, we had some dinner and polished off a bottle of Captain Morgan(and coke) plus 3/4 of a bottle of Bicardi O Rum(and sprite) with my dad. Halfway through the bottles we decided to play a game of drunk Pac-Man.

The next day was choc full of tourist activities: Punchbowl Cemetery, Pali lookout, the Byodo Temple(below) and hiking up Diamond Head. Needless to say, we were exhausted and decided to stay home and take the night off by watching "Blood Diamond" on DVD. A nice bonus while staying at my dad's house for the week was that his wife's uncle loves to cook and he was our personal cook when we were home. For dinner that night, grandpa made us some Chow Fun.

TueSday, the 12th, was supposed to be "S" day: Shopping, Surfing and Snorkeling. Ben and my brother, Erwin surfed in the morning, while Maryann, Novette and I went shopping at the Ala Moana Shopping Center. After an impromptu lunch at the Pineapple Room with my friend Ty, who lives on the island, we were ready to go snorkeling at Hanauma Bay. Unfortunately it was closed and we drove along the coast stopping at scenic spots. We found oursleves at Sandy Beach, which we later found out was a pretty dangerous beach to swim at. Grandpa made oxtail for dinner and we finished off the night with another African themed movie, "The Last King of Scotland" and some Kahlua root beer floats.

Day four on Oahu lead us to Pearl Harbor and the Aloha Stadium Swap Meet. The timing for those to events ran like clockwork. Unfortunately, since we had made plans to go to dinner and bowling later that night, we had no time to go to Hanauma Bay -- 2nd attempt foiled. Instead we went to Waikiki to lay out and relax for about an hour. There Ben discovered Banyan Trees. That night we took my dad and his family out to dinner to Makino Chaya as a "thank you" for letting us stay and eat in their home. Afterwards we went bowling, which I haven't done in over a year. I scored a 105, 115, 110.

The next day was officially reserved for HANAUMA BAY since we failed our last two attempts and we had a free day. We FINALLY made it to the bay, despite the cloudy weather. Afterwards we went to the Paradise Cove Luau(main picture) where the Mai Tai's rule.

And now I am tired. Since this is a pretty long post, I'll just split this up into 3 parts. More to come later!

HAWAII 2007 - Part I

June 7-10: The Big Island

The whole reason for my trip to Hawaii was that my dad was throwing my brother Erwin, who graduated from high school, and I a graduation party. I invited all of my cousins and fortunately 3 of them were able to come with me! Novette and Ben came with me to the Big Island and Maryann met up with us on Oahu.

The trip started off a little rough -- we missed our flight!! Fortunately, after four hours, we were able to catch the last flight out of LAX on stand-by. We picked up the car, checked into our room and rested up for the next day. Below is the view from our hotel room at the Royal Kona Resort.

The next day we ventured south to the Volcano National Park to see the active volcano and hot lava. On the way down we stopped by random beaches to lay out and take pictures as well as a Kona coffee farm. After hiking thru lava rock in the drizzling rain, we still didn't even get to see the molten lava. At best we saw a red light in the distance that came from the lava. It was dark, raining and we were exhausted so we made our way home without dinner :(

Day 2 we explored the north side of the island; and by "explored" I mean we drove up the coast until we hit a dead end. That dead end was Polulu Valley. We hiked down the valley to the beach, played around in the little camping area, hiked back up and drove back to the hotel in Kona. There we had our last and only dinner on the Big Island at Don the Beachcomber. Not only did it have great food, but it had a great view.

Novette and I decided to go out and drink since it was our last night on the island. On our way to the bar and while at the bar, we got stopped by TWO groups of people who thought we were locals. One asked us where was a good place to eat(they followed us into the bar we randomly chose) and another wanted to take a picture with us(we should have charged them money).

The next day we took my cousin Ben to the airport, returned to the hotel and laid out for an hour or so. We got to the Kona airport an HOUR early, they couldn't find our names on the reservation and we missed our flight AGAIN!!! Good thing inter-island flights run every 30 minutes or so. We landed in Oahu safely. Stay tuned for the next installment of Hawaii 2007!

Here are more pictures(complete with captions) of the Big Island.

Hawaii 2007

Relax. I'm starting you guys off slowly. I have a lot to blog about. This is the first in a series of posts about my trip to Hawaii. Because I just sorted through a bajillion pictures right now I'm a bit lazy to start a real blog. So, for your entertainment I have a 3 picture progression of my tan.

Download the slideshow here:

http://www.snapdrive.net/files/53071/slideshow%202007%20web.wmv

DOCTOR

Funny how one little word can change your life. On May 11, 2007 the word "doctor" was placed in front of my name, and the letters "D.O." after my name. This event has been something I've worked for the majority of my life and it is a surreal feeling to be "done."

I expected to be really emotional on graduation day, but the sheer hectic nature of the procession, taking pictures and smiling, trying to find your family, hunting your friends down took alot out of me. The emotions range from exhaustion, to loneliness, to excitement, to relief, to happiness, and finally fear. I didn't even have time to ponder any of that, or how my life would change in a month.

In a month some of my close friends will have moved far away to their respective residencies and I will be missing them at a crucial time in our lives. In a month I will have made new friends and will have to adapt to a new dynamic; feeling out personalities and figuring out how to work with new people. In a month I will have my own patients who look to me for guidance. In a month I will be responsible for other people's lives; making decisions about their futures when my own personal future is so uncertain. How scary is that?

But before all that could happen, I had to celebrate my accomplishements!! After the graduation ceremonies, I had a luncheon at Coco Palms in Pomona. The place is lovely, has a great view and an amazing buffet of Cuban food. After a quick 5 minute nap on the way back to my house and a wardrobe change, I headed off to a joint graduation party with 4 of my girlfriends from medical school.

The party was held at the Tedesco Residence, my friend Tenli's parent's house(thanks Lisa and Mark!). We had a taco bar which included pork, chicken and carne asada tacos, beans and rice and all the fixings. A margarita machine was spinning, the coolers were filled with Corona, Pacifico and Coors or was it Miller(I don't drink beer), AND huge bottles of red and white wine. The DJ played into the night and we danced until we were tired.

At the end of the night my girlfriends and I opened gifts that we had gotten for each other. It was a great way to end the night: with friends, memories and big hugs!

For pictures of events please click the links below:

Westernu DO 2007 Dinner Dance

Graduation Festivities

DO 2007 Slideshow courtesy of yours truly

Time Flies....

I have 3 more days left of school. Today was my last Monday of being a student EVER!! It's all very surreal. I'm going through senioritis so I don't want to be at work. On the other hand I am terrified of the responsibility that comes with graduating. It's not like I won't have any guidance during residency, but I actually have to practice not looking over my shoulder for approval from an attending and actually MAKE MY OWN DECISIONS for my patients. DAMN!

It's all really bittersweet. I'm really looking forward to graduation and all the festivities. I'm not looking forward to my friends moving away. I'm looking forward to getting paid. I'm not looking forward to being on call. You get the picture.

I was watching this Filipino news show with my mom and they were talking about medical tourism, specifically in Thailand. I've known about Filipino's going back to the Philippines to get plastic surgery and what not, but I never imagined American's and Europeans going on a "medical vacation." The news segment also showed what kind of rooms patients stay in after surgery and I've never even stayed at hotels that were this nice! I was also surprised to learn that people don't just travel for plastic surgery, they travel to get other surgeries such as open heart.

The reason I blog about this is because the Philippines is trying to get in on this industry, but they want it to be on a Thailand scale. At first I thought that this would be good for the country. Doctors would be motivated to stay in the Philippines instead of going to the US. (see my blog about this doctor drain) Good for all right? Wrong! Yeah, the doctors will stay and practice in the Philippines, but for TOURISTS. What about all the medically underserved in the rural areas? That's where most care is needed, but if this whole medical tourism thing blows up in the Philippines, every doctor graduating in the country will be pulled towards these hospital/hotels leaving the poor worse off than they were originally.

Hopefully next year I'll get to go on a medical mission to the Philippines in my moms province. I'm really looking forward to it.

MATCH DAY

This will be a quick one because it's been a long day, but:

I matched at....POMONA VALLEY HOSPITAL MEDICAL CENTER in Family Medicine!

Congratulations to all my friends. I'm so proud of you all! And remember....we all end up where we are supposed to. Divide and conquer!!

"Did I Match" DAY : YES I DID!!

Today we found out IF we matched, hence the title. The important thing about today is that I know I'll be going somewhere I chose. If I didn't match then I'd have to scramble, which means I would have to find programs that didn't fill their spots and try to get into one of those spots. The unfilled programs can be located anywhere, so it's not something I anyone wants to do. Anyhow, so MATCH DAY is on Thursday. My friends and I are going to find out where we match together; thank God for wireless! Blog about that to come...

This is a cheap blog only because while trying to find pictures for the blog, I found an entry that said everything I wanted to say. I was watching TLC's "My Unique Family" this evening and Bree Walker and family were being featured. What makes them unique is they have Ectrodactyly. I remembered her from when I lived in San Diego, where she was a newscaster.

So...here's the link. I just thought it was really interesting, and I totally agree with what the author has to say.

Bree Walker

You know you've had too much plastic surgery when Wikipedia says so....

"In recent years, it has been observed that Walker seems to have undergone visible facial plastic surgery; her lips especially, appear to have been injected with collagen. It is estimated five quarts of collagen have been used."

Hey all,

I just recently fell in love with this song. It's been out for a while in the Philippines, and continues to be number 1 there. I just wanted to share it with you guys and let you know that I'm there for you. Attached is the English translation of the song(Thanks Dad!) Enjoy

Love you guys!

Christina

http://profile.imeem.com/u0nV1A/music/p4VK0Q-s/hawak_kamay/

Sometimes you feel a heavy load
so hard to bear, you'd say "I can't take it anymore"

Just look at the sky
a silver lining you might find
or, you can count on me (or, you can call me ?)
I'll be here, anytime

[chorus]
Hold my hand… (hand in hand ?)
I will always be at your side
In a world of uncertainty,
hold my hand…
I won't let go
in an empty world

sometimes you feel
the world is crumbling under your feet
and the wave of despair overwhelms you

Just look at the sky
a silver lining you might find
or, you can count on me
I'll be here, anytime

[repeat chorus]

[bridge]
Don't ever feel you're alone
always remember you have me
I'm here for you, oh, I'm her for you

[repeat chorus]

In an empty world…

Hand in hand…

In an empty world…..

CABLE....FINALLY!! The last time I had cable was for 4 months in 2003 when I was living in Philadelphia. My mom has been a subscriber to The Filipino Channel for almost 2 years now, which is through Direct TV. They require you to have at least the basic channel plan(9.99) to add TFC. I decided that when I start residency I would get REAL cable and also get a DV-R to record all the shows I want to watch. I mentioned this during dinner last night. Her boyfriend, who also subscribes said that for international subscribers it's only 20 bucks more to add regular cable. I thought it would be more so I figured, why not get cable now. While I was at work, he called and set up the cable for us. When I got home I was pleasantly surprised to find that we had MTV, VH1, E!, the Food Network, and many more! The only 2 channels I want that are missing are FX and Bravo. I'll have to reassess when I start residency as to what channels I can get for what price. At that time I will also figure out my DV-R situation. Happy President's Day indeed!

My Playlist

Oh how exciting! I saw this on my friend's blog and thought it was the coolest thing ever. Finetune allows you to make playlists or listen to other people's playlists. You can add up to 45 songs and embed it into your myspace or blogger. FREAKING awesome! Plus if you want to sample an artist or similar artists, then you can just listen to it on the website as well. :) enjoy people! I know all the songs are pretty random, but I'm a random kind of person.

If you want to forward to the next song just move the cursor to the far left of the icon and click!

Love Day

This year I was ready to just live through what everyone calls "Valentine's Day" and treat it just like any other Wednesday. It didn't even hit me until last night that it was coming really. I didn't send out any cards(I never do) and I didn't get anyone gifts(usually for my mom, and in years passed the sig. other). I was going to completely deny and avoid the day that makes all single people feel like crap.

This morning however, I was pleasantly surprised by my friend Melissa who had brought me a little bag of goodies and a Valentine. When I got home I had received an e-card Valentine from her as well. She reminded me that I was loved and that Valentine's Day isn't just for couples. It's for the people you care about and letting them know you love them. In keeping with the pleasant surprises, I received a forward from my uncle(just one of many he usually sends along) and I decided to open it. It was a Snoopy powerpoint. Short and simple with the "Cheers" theme song playing in the background. It made me feel all warm and mushy inside so I sent it to all my loved ones hoping it would make them feel the same way.

So I'm changing my perception of Valentine's Day and welcoming all the love. It's turned out to be a pretty good day. I got off work at 1130. I had an awesome lunch with my mom and sister to Market Broiler, where they gave us 2 extra halves of snow crab to compensate for the "long wait"(5 min or so more than usual for our food)!!! Now, I'm going to spend some quality time with my sister, doing nails and vegging out to Charmed DVDs.

Hope all of you had a lovely day!