random thoughts volume 41

I've been bumming around for the past week but I didn't feel like blogging until now so here.

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My pediatrics rotation is over and I would like to give myself a pat on the back for still loving kids by the end of my rotation.

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I guess it's ok to post it here since you wouldn't be able to buy this at newspaper and magazine stands/bookstores anyway (something about it just being distributed to doctors). Here is the cover for the September issue of the H&L magazine; it was the second time that my sorority was invited to write an issue.

It was also my second time to contribute an article. This time, I chose to write about a more serious topic (at least compared to the previous one that I wrote). I thought I came up with a crappy article, turns out it wasn't that bad and apparently, corporal punishment and child abuse is a hot topic not just in the world of medicine and the Congress but also in the academe. H&L EIC even chose to mention it in his PDI article. Below is my article:

And I thought my article was short. Two years ago, we were also invited to write for H&L. This was the cover last time:

I wrote about holistic medicine because, well, it seemed "timely" plus the theme then was shifting paradigms.

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My younger brother, a college freshman is writing a paper on, med school's fave, diabetes! So yeah, I gave him a copy of my e-books and whatever articles and clinical practice guidelines that I have on DM. I'm kinda hoping that he would see the beauty (and fine, be fascinated with the gross stuff) of medicine. But then again, I just hope that he would understand what those materials are saying. Well he's pretty good at chem...

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Last night, my friend, Tin, asked me if I'm really studying medicine. We were talking about makeup. Haha.

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I miss writing poetry. And drawing. I plan to get into these activities during my break. Tomorrow, maybe?

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I'm convincing my younger bro to put up a band named Digital RE. HAHAHAHAHA!

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The other day, after watching some funny, albeit violent, cartoon shorts on Youtube with my brother, I Googled the cartoons that I loved as a kid (Dexter's Laboratory and The Powerpuff Girls). Only then did I find out that they actually stopped making new episodes of these when I was in fourth year high school. It felt like my childhood really ended during high school, even though, technically I was still a child when I entered college.

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If you ask medical students at the UP College of Medicine, specifically the interns, there is a very high chance that they would say that pediatrics is their most dreaded rotation during clerkship and/or internship. According to urban legend, very few students finish the rotation without crying once; it is said to be that difficult. I never cried during my four weeks in pedia and although I almost cried once (during an ER duty), it was not because from being too tired (even though we had 35 admissions at the ER that night). It was because there was a seven year old girl who was raped. I had to fight back tears when I asked the women who accompanied her about what happened. That was my third week in pedia and I was still very, very human.

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So THE Robert Sternberg is having a talk/lecture (concert? Haha) at Makati Shangri-La later this month. I'm thinking of going. I really miss the social sciences.

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I was fixing my closet earlier today and unearthed clothes that I've never worn before and kind of forgot about.

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After a special lecture during pedia (it was actually for the course Art of Medicine but during our pedia rotation), where Dr. Bernie Madrid and Dr. Eddie Dorotan talked about the not-so-conventional practice of medicine (Dr. Madrid put up the Child Protection Unit at PGH and the Child Protection Network in the country while Dr. Dorotan became a mayor before in Bicol and is now involved with NGO work), I decided that I still want to be a clinician. But I want to be more than just a clinician. 

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My brother and I are thinking of playing a practical joke (or whatever it's called) by introducing me to his friends as his younger, high school senior, sister. I am confident we could pull it off. Haha.

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I read an article earlier today that psilocybin (the active ingredient in shrooms) increases a person's openness to experience (And they said that personality is relatively stable overtime. Hah!). According to the article: "The dimensions of Openness that increased were openness to fantasy, aesthetics, feelings, and ideas. Openness to Values didn't budge as much as the others." Maybe we could sneak in some shrooms into those bishops' drinks so that they would be more receptive to ideas that are more appropriate to the times.

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I love listening to this song after a tiring day. Or in the morning as I get ready for the day ahead. Or anytime of the day, really. Hehe.

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I've decided that I like my hair just the way it is. No color or cut for me anytime soon.

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The human brain is so bad ass. It's just so amazing. Read here. 

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I've been seeing a lot of lace shorts, like daisy dukes length but made of lace, on the net. Spring/Summer 2012 trend? It's like wearing underwear as outerwear again.

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Earlier this evening, my mother was once again encouraging me to go into otorhinolaryngology. To think that when I first told her how much I like the specialty, she was skeptical about it and kind of insisted that I go into general surgery (and maybe TCVS) or internal medicine (and cardiology). Pretty funny.

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So there's going to be this event at UPIS on the 28th and my brother wants me to go to watch his band. Maybe I'll go to watch him and maybe see friends. Honestly though, I don't all this hype about the old school building being torn down and transferring inside the Diliman campus near the College of Education. Maybe it's because I just graduated from high school seven years ago so I'm not as sentimental as the others. But really, it doesn't matter where we hold high school reunions; what matters is who attends. My high school life was memorable partly because of the place but mostly because of the people-- friends, classmates and teachers-- and the lessons inside the classroom and in life that I learned. 

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With my lovely batchmates at our babies' induction last month:

With our babies:

And with our babies and mommies:

And Via, I disagree. My skirt was not short!

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I'm halfway done with clerkship. Which means I'm going to be an intern soon. And then would have to take the boards. And then be an MD. Oh how fast time flies.

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It was two years ago (at least according to available evidence) when I first considered love as my religion. It still is. And not in a cheesy "romantic" love way but in a One Love...

and Love is My Religion way.