nine weeks into clerkship

Yes I am still alive and although my first nine weeks as a clinical clerk at the UP-Philippine General Hospital (UP-PGH) have been relatively benign, I did not blog because... I don't know. I just didn't feel like writing that much although there were a lot of things worth writing about. So, let me just go through the past nine weeks per rotation. I'm already done with four rotations; each was two weeks long. I am currently in my fifth rotation, my first 4-week rotation. I don't have [much] pictures for my first two rotations because I didn't start bringing my camera until my orthopedics rotations for academic purposes and generally, I'm just too lazy to take pictures (haha!).

Ophthalmology
This was my first rotation since I chose to be with Block 10B. It was an ok rotation to start clerkship with since it's benign but I didn't like it because... I don't know, I just got bored with it. Plus I had some unpleasant experiences with some people. Anyway, the upside, since it was a benign rotation, was that I was able to do other things.

Because we only went on duty every four days either at the ER or the ward and on other days we only saw patients until 5 pm at the latest, I was able to go to the Sorority pictorial. Even the skies were cooperative that afternoon as there were no signs of rain whatsoever despite the bad weather the previous days.

Buddy also celebrated her birthday during our first week back to school (or hospital). Those pink drinks are spiked with supposedly 100 proof lambanog from Batangas courtesy of Nani (who doesn't drink but loves us so much so she brought us a huge bottle of it).

Unfortunately, we were not able to continue our lambanog nights at Cheska's unit anymore. :(

Fortunately, I was able to have a somewhat real emergency during one of my ER duties: I got a patient with a chemical burn, although it was just acidic (But the residents kept on insisting that car batteries are alkaline. Whatever.) so, fortunately for the patient, the damage was not so bad.

Otorhinolaryngology
Best rotation ever. Or at least so far. I don't have enough words to express how much I enjoyed this rotation (although maybe I would have enjoyed it more if I wasn't the liaison officer). The duties, especially the ER ones, were so much fun! And the surgeries, oh my, they were so interesting, I sometimes wished I could stay in the OR forever (haha!). I was also very fortunate that during my last duty (which was an ER duty and also the last day of ORL *sniff*), I was able to see a patient that was referred by the pediatrics service that really touched me. That was the first time that I felt that way about an ORL patient. So yey, I finally had that heart-tugging experience that I've been looking for in ORL. Through that patient, I also felt that oncology (especially surgical oncology) is not so bad.

And since ORL is also relatively benign, I was able to attend Mu's welcome party for the medicine freshmen, Mu Rock 2, a rockeoke party. Yey, clerks and interns represent!

Orthopedics
I don't like ortho, most likely because I don't like the anatomy of the extremities. Fortunately, I was able to enjoy my ortho rotation. Like in ORL, I really liked the duties, both at the ER and the ward. Since the ER was "closed" for cleaning during that time, the only cases that were allowed were trauma, cardiac and intubated patients. Being in ortho, that didn't really mean much difference for us since most of our cases really are trauma. Fortunately, for some reason, I really enjoyed the trauma cases. Meanwhile, ward duties for ortho clerks meant being on-call for OR assist. Ortho surgeries were, somehow, like the exact opposite of head and neck surgeries. In head and neck surgeries, fine motor skills are of great value and the structures are so small and intricate (which, I think, is one of the reasons why I like ORL). On the other hand, ortho surgeries, maybe except for the hand surgeries, were more... brusko for lack of a better term. Surprisingly, I also enjoyed assisting in ortho surgeries. The first one that I assisted in was a trans-tibial amputation (a.k.a. below-the-knee amputation) and I had fun although it was tiring to retract whole limbs (not using retractors but strips gauze) and my gown was very, very bloody by the time that the surgery was finished. I was also very lucky too have been able to assist in a hand surgery because that was probably the only thing that I liked during my first year anatomy of the extremities (I patiently and carefully dissected our cadaver's hands).

Ortho was also memorable because it was the first time that my roommates and I finally had the chance to eat dinner together at home.

There were also many times when we just goof around while waiting for the consultant for our small group discussions (SGD). The most memorable SGD that we've had was probably our first, the hand SGD with Dr. Tanbonliong where the discussion touched topics including getting drunk and growing up, having been kissed and cannabis sativa.

I also had the chance to have coffee/dessert with Katty and Tin one Friday night because we didn't have a conference that afternoon.

We also celebrated Reinzi's birthday at Oarhouse. There was also one time when she was able to drag me to have dinner with her at Pepper Lunch during one post-duty night in ortho. We just saw each other at the lobby of our building and we were so tired and hungry that a huge dinner seemed fun even although I had to exert extra effort to keep my eyes open.

Rehabilitation Medicine


Rehab was one of the most benign rotations, ever. However, we were stuck in the call room most of the time and were not allowed to leave until 4:30 pm. So aside from doing our papers and watching movies, we also did other stuff in the call room like take lots and lots of pictures...

We also tried to tell our luck in the realm of love using Ces' love tarot cards...

Sometimes we also have guests, like Marvin, a brod, and the liaison officer of the 3rd years.

We ate A LOT during that rotation, hence I gained back all the weight that I've lost during the previous three rotations (boo!). And as our resident monitor said: "para kayong may party araw-araw ah."

During our "pizza party," we also had guests from the other half of our block:

It was also during rehab when the sorority held its annual orientation dinner for the females of the freshman class. Surprisingly, a lot of my batchmates were there, so yey!

During my two-weeks in rehab, there were classes and offices were cancelled twice, once during each week. In the first week, I wasn't on duty so I cooked breakfast for Ces and I and we had a guest, Jade, who joined us for a late breakfast and later, lunch. The three of us spent most of the day studying at our unit (it was a pretty productive day for us). For dinner, Erin came over and we made dinner. I wish there could be more times like that when we just stay at home, study, cook, eat, laugh and enjoy the stormy weather (as opposed to being in the hospital and wonder if you'll actually be able to go home when you're already off because of the floods).

Some sisses also had a photoshoot for a magazine which will come out in September (*gasp* that's next month already!). More details on that when the magazine is already out. For now, all I could say is that it was a fun afternoon dressing up and making, sometimes crazy, poses in front of the camera.

Our rehab rotation could still use a lot of improvement (like please give us a fixed schedule so that we won't have to waste away in the call room on most days). But if there's anything good that came out of that two weeks, I guess it would be my new-found appreciation for rehabilitation medicine.


Family Medicine


My current rotation is family medicine although last week was the community medicine component of the rotation. My thoughts on the rotation so far? Hmmm I'd rather not write about it yet because I don't want to judge it prematurely.

So far, clerkship has been good to me although I'm not sure if I could say the same once we start having our toxic rotations beginning this September with pediatrics. All I'm asking for is to be able to finish clerkship with my sanity.