The Surgical Intern

Can't believe that more than a month of internship just flew by. One thing I love about Chinese General Hospital is FREE FOOD - lots of it! I pigged out initially on 3 dishes and a cup of rice per meal but started to crash diet when friends started to point out how extra puffy cheeked I looked. Since then, I've trimmed down my rice intake to 2 heaping tablespoonfuls (no more, no less). Quite happy with the results so far. Now I can wear my pants without looking like a tightly wrapped suman. I go on 24-hour duty every 3 days. Duty days are the most "toxic" and were made more "toxic" by a handful of patients who go in for not-so-worthy ER cases such as a dead toenail or a simple "pigsa sa puwet." Duh. Other days are more manageable. Quite fun actually 'coz I'm rotating in Community Medicine as well. I get to spend more days seeing patients in the community (urban 'coz the clinic's along Del Monte Avenue) and socializing with interns from other hospitals. A typical day in the community goes like this:

8:00-9:30 a.m. - attendance/sleeping time

9:30-10:30 a.m.- I start seeing patients (Consultation Period)

10:30-11:00 a.m. - merienda

11:00-11:30 a.m. - Consultation Period

11:30-2:00 p.m. - lunch/siesta/DVD time

2:00 - 4:00 p.m. - Consultation Period

Life surely tastes like vanilla along Del Monte Avenue...

Ampao

Ampao...Hope I spelled it right. You see, I have a trickle of Chinese blood in my veins (just a trickle! Great grandma's half-Chinese) so I dunno if I spelled it right. All I know is, it's this loot envelope (red with some gold design) which contains money. I'm now an official medical intern at Chinese General Hospital. My goal? To render good patient care. How will I know if I'm doing this well? By the number of ampaos I'll be getting from my patients. Hehehe. Am just kidding. Internship started May first. Luckily, got assigned to Surgery/Community Medicine so my schedule's still bearable. Even got to watch MI3 then videoked with my brods and sisses a couple of days ago. Hey, we should do this more often. Hope Ruthie goes with us next time. Miss her big time. I'm badly missing someone who's so busy these days that I rarely get to talk to him everytime I go online. Hmp. Going online these days takes much effort, sir. Internship is a lot more difficult than clerkship. Actually depends on the hospital one's rotating in. At Chinese General Hospital, we have A LOT TO DO. So far, the longest sleeping time I've enjoyed during duty nights is close to 2 hours. So there, hope to hear MORE from you soon. Oh...and I haven't watched The Matrix yet so your YM status is still Greek to me.