Memoirs

November is no doubt the busiest month of the year for me. This month, I turned a year older and I'm happy with how I spent my day with friends and family. I felt loved by the people who matter to me, and that's all I need. I spent the day with Marigold, one of my closest friends since freshman year of college. We had late lunch in a newly-opened cafe near my house. I wrote a separate post about it in this page.
Lately, I've been building a habit of making collages about my days. I don't have much to say in this blog post; life's been mundane lately, so I'll let the photos speak for themselves, but I did add in short captions. Enjoy.

Mamang turned a year older too. She celebrates her day every 24th of November. This year, I made a bouquet of red roses from ribbons- a little DIY I learned on TikTok. I was able to buy her a small cake in berry creme flavor from a local cakeshoppe in CDO. We celebrated her birthday a little late because we had to attend other events but we were able to suprise her and shoot photos.

One event we went to was my aunt's grandson's birthday. It was a kid's party but I enjoyed it very much. There were clowns who did a bubble show and a famous nurse who works partime as a magician. It was not my first time watching his magic show. We hired him in one of our graduation parties year ago. There were also special guests, Optimus Prime and Bumblebee. My favorite part about the event was the fact that it was a group of people with different beliefs and that we got along pretty well. I like that about family.

We celebrated my mom's birthday at Fat Chef, SM Northwing. It was a simple celebration. I ordered their famous streetfood served in a small ferris wheel. We had to finish early though, my little brother had to travel back home for classes the next day.

Today, I went out for a study session. I had coffee at Fukuro, a Japanese-themed coffee shop near my place. It was a very productive afternoon while Hanie had her routine dialysis in the hospital. I was able to finish lectures on Microbiology and Parasitology.

I had never experienced severe illness until December of 2022. We were nearing the end of our rotation in the Pediatric ER when I had onset of fever that wouldn't resolve after intake of medications. I had endured this state and did water therapy. I still managed to go to my PM shift however, 2 hours in, my body was on the verge of passing out. I called my mom and she and our driver raced to the hospital were I was training. My aunts and uncles came too and they accompanied me to another private hospital for workup. Workup was done and I was managed as a case of anemia and electrolyte imbalance, and was discharged from the ER. However, the following day, I had worsening shortness of breath and so they had me admitted.

My chest x-ray and 2D echocardiogram showed an enlarged heart with a large volume of fluid around it. I was referred to a cardiologist and he had me monitored in case I go into tamponade, a state wherein the heart can no longer pump due to massive volume of fluid around it. They had me tested for COVID-19 through RT-PCR and it came out positive and my mom and I were isolated for 9 days.

Nine days of isolation really altered our brain chemistry. Days seem routine and they went by pretty fast. Althroughout isolation, my mom took really good care of me despite the exhaustion and I can feel how stressed she was from constantly worrying. I have so much love and appreciation for her.

During my hospital stay, my condition worsened despite medications so they tested me for connective tissue diseases and so I was referref to a rheumatologist. My ANA and anti-dsDNA which are markers for systemic lupus erythematousus came out positive as well and my doctor called it.

My medications grew in number as they discovered several diseases i.e. pericardial effusion, congestion, COVID-19, SLE, and anemia. I had bruises from blood extractions and IV insertions. I was growing tired of being the patient— I wanted to go home.

Series of 2D echocardiogram was done, and they saw that the volume of fluid around my heart was getting bigger despite medications. The following day, I was rushed to the operating room and the cardiologist attempted to do pericardiocentesis, a procedure wherein a needle is inserted into the chest and fluid around the heart is aspirated. However, he was only able to aspirate blood and the procedure was aborted. I had five puncture wounds from when he tried inserting and repositioning the needle while being guided by ultrasound.

I was recently discharged yet family still makes effort to take care of me. They randomly call to check if I'm okay. They're interested in how I'm recovering and they make sure I eat and drink my take home medications. Manong bob drives me to the hospital and my mom just does everything to make sure I recovery from this experience.

I was so excited to go back to work. Although immunocompromised from the steroids, I'm hoping my body stays healthy for the remaining duration of internship. I am grateful to my doctors for taking good care of me, to my family and friends who made this experience a whole lot easier, to my mom who would move mountains to see me get better.

I started my internship last August at Northern Mindanao Medical Center, the same hospital where I had my clerkship.

The first two months, I rotated in my chosen electives: pathology, otolaryngology-head and neck surgery, anesthesiology, and family medicine. Above photo: (C) me intubating a patient under Anesthesia

Probably one of the highlights in my pathology rotation is that we got to crash an event by MOMS (Misamis Oriental Medical Society) as ushers. We got to dress up fancy and eat at Luxe.

Above: (L) with the pathology residents on our last day in patho, (C) selfie with ENT clerks at the ER in front of our cute cubicle, (R) photo with the ENT residents, my co-PGIs, and clerks

After electives, I rotated in obstetrics and gynecology. It's a daunting department with a different level of exhaustion and yet I've learned to enjoy and love it. Although residents terrify me, I try to learn as much from them — and I did. Thank you, doctors.

Also, we got matching pink scrubs the we wear almost every duty.

One of the pink residents got engaged and married last month and we got to join in and throw her a bridal shower. (R) Also another core memory, my groupmates and I went to Bluetail, a cafe within Ultra Winds Mountain Resort. Still during our previous status. The view was super nice and the place was really relaxing. I ordered a strawberry-flavored frappe, my new go-to flavor.

We also had a ton of help from our clerks from XU and Liceo. I hope they learned from us. (R) DQ break after OPD; (L) selfie at the ward, my least liked post

We had a breather before diving into our next rotation, pediatrics. My groupmates booked an airbnb within the city; they had alcohol, I had Mountain Dew; and we had a good time.

I really appreciate my team for all the fun times, the brunches and dinners, the coffee breaks, the whispers and chismis. Hehe I wouldn't be able to cope up to the stress and exhaustion if it weren't for them sharing the journey with me.

And that's it! We're finally done with OB. Pink babies out!

I was able to go on duty at the NICU and monitor babies who are in much need of monitoring due to neonatal conditions brought about prematurity. Some of the babies in the NICU have jaundice, hence the blue light phototherapy, and apnea of prematurity. It was very difficult to monitor these babies because I had to stop myself from crying. They couldn't be with their parents 24/7 and they're struggling to survive at such an early age. Rotation in pediatrics taught me to be compassionate especially to the little ones who still have a long way to go in life however are struggling to stay alive at such a young age. I pray my patients get better without the long term sequelae of their diseases. May they live a healthy and normal life with love from their parents.

Also had the chance to catch a baby who was delivered preterm via cesarean section. She was put in an incubator for thermoregulation.

During my face-to-face duty, my sister had acute progression to CKD stage 5 due to chronic glomerulonephritis and was getting treatment (including dialysis) in the same hospital where I was rotating. This was something that was unprecedented. She didn't have any symptoms. Her chronic condition was silent until onset of acute symptoms i.e. shortness of breath and cough a few days prior to admission. She's currently getting dialysis twice a week (on Wednesdays and Saturdays) however, she'll need a kidney transplant for a definitive and long-term treatment. We're currently scouting for donors however the progress has been slow-paced.

I had a catch-up dinner with friends, Mina and Sher. We ate burgers at our usual place and it gave me relief and comfort that I was able to vent out my exhaustion. Sher is getting married on the 4th of December. Sadly, I can't go because of expenses that's why I'm hoping to celebrate with her during her bridal shower.

My aunt took us to this private subdivision overlooking the city. We had our morning walk and it was really refreshing. The view is really good and the air was also nice. I hope to someday get a house with this kind of view.

Sometimes, I take my brother out in the mall to get coffee. He got vaccinated against COVID this month! His 2nd dose will be on the 27th. I'm taking him to the mall because

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