SHIKIMIKIE

It's just a lovely day today. Not so long ago, this Gumamela bloomed and we were all like excited because I don't know. I saw it in the morning when I was about to make my coffee and then when my sister saw it, she was calling us to see. 

Yesterday, I went home from the hospital because I have to run errands and then I was supposed to go back at night with my uncle but then again he went with his wifey riding his bike instead of his car so I didn't go. I wasn't supposed to go there today because my mom said that she would just be the one to settle things and she just ordered me to watch over my sisters and like, make sure they eat their lunch and stuff like that. I woke up at around 8 and then I went down and left my phone charging and then when I was already playing with the dogs downstairs, our lovely maid (ate Skylove) was running and said my mama is calling so when I answered she basically said that she forgot something so she asked me to follow her there. She asked me to ride a cab but then again I don't want to spend more than what we're spending already so I took a bus and then rode a jeepney instead. I am pretty sure about the bus part because that's how we go to the mall but the jeepney part was kind of hard. It's like, I know the theory but I don't know how to apply it in real life.

My lola is at home now and I'm so happy that she's overall fine. I feel kind of bad for the person in front of my lola's bed at the female ward though because on our first night there, she approached us and talked to us and stuff so the story is that her daughter is not in the country and it's her godchildren watching her and then they were supposed to go out today as well but they don't have enough money with them there. And it's not even their fault. She have two doctors and one of them said that 50,000 pesos would be enough but when the bill came out, it's 17,000 more than what they prepared for. Also, it's Sunday and you know, NO POST ON SUNDAYS. And I doubt if there are owls who can deliver the money that quick so before we left the hospital, the grandchild was going here and there to appeal to the hospital because if they would stay, hospital is kind of a business you know and doctors are like businessmen but whatever. My point is! The hospital bill would just go up if ever the hospital or whoever would't agree for them to write a promissory note saying they would leave now and would just return and pay their balance some other day and stuff so yeah. I hope they were able to talk to whoever and that they were already discharged from the hospital. I don't know I probably wouldn't bring a lot of extra money when I'm told exactly what to prepare for. 

I therefore conclude that being sick is a bitch. It ruins everything. You know, it's like investing and saving money when you're young so that you would have enough money to pay for your health when you get old. When I was talking with my cousin yesterday, we were like, let's be healthy! Let's buy a juicer, let's not eat this and let's not eat that. But then again I craved. I said let's go to Yakimix and she was like, yeah. LOL.

Spent overnight at the hospital with my cousin to watch over my lola because she wasn't feeling really good the other day. She got fever and just felt generally unwell. And then we thought that she'll start dialysis already because the agreement was that when we go to this particular hospital, she would undergo dialysis na because she need it na but then my mom and lola are still hesitant to start it because as I've told you before, once it started, there's no turning back. My mom asked the doctor if we can check the creatinine again and compare to the previous result and see whether it drastically went high or if it remained the same. It was STAT so I know that it wouldn't take too long for us to know the results. I must admit that I really got excited when I saw a tackle box containing tubes and syringes because you know, I kind of miss doing it. Anyways. When I asked the nurse on duty for the results, he willingly checked it, relayed the result to me (creatinine) and stuff and he again willingly gave to me. Awesome nurse he is. Thank you nurse! Also, except for the sometimes noisy girl nurses who are kind of irritating, I guess everyone's kind of awesome. It's really kind of difficult (somehow) to experience your relative being a patient because you know, more or less, you know what these medical practitioners are doing. Oh the dietitian was also nice and she explained and answered almost everything my mom and lola asked and then she was asking some questions to us to before she explain stuff and then of course not bragging or anything but I would answer and then she would be like, are you a valedictorian? And I was like, I'm a med-tech and she was like, OH. Funny. Maybe I look like a freshie or something

They say that if you can speak the English language, you're cool, intelligent, probably well educated, or maybe rich, or whatever. That's what they say. At least in the Philippines. NOT MY OPINION. I mean, it's kind of common now and I don't know what these people think. Anyways. I really appreciate the language because if I can't speak and understand English, well, we wouldn't be talking like this right now wouldn't we? And I probably wouldn't be able to watch HOUSE which is my favorite T.V. series by the way. I am not saying that I am the BEST ENGLISH speaker or writer or whatever (not even close) because you know, I don't know if you noticed but I can't really keep my tenses consistent so leave it alone. 

I actually didn't want to do this at first but dad made me do it. Here's why. While my sister and I were watching Big Mommas: Like Father Like Son and then dad asked us if we can understand everything they're saying in the film and we said YES. He didn't believe us but anyways, I don't know what's wrong with him or something because you know, we're learning it from school so why wouldn't we understand it fully? Is it impossible for us to learn? My theory is that my dad doesn't want to admit we're better than him at some point. LOL. Dad actually took an English class at age 50, I guess. In Japan.

Why is English IMPORTANT, really? I am always proud that in Japan, you have to do the adjustments. I mean, don't expect all the JAPANESE people to speak English for you. You have to speak Japanese to be able to speak to them. But that's not my point. I don't even know why I mentioned that but since that's kind of on my mind, let it be. Back to my point now, I don't think mastering the English language is necessary. As long as you can express yourself and stuff, good to go. I can't help but share you this. Well, a little bit later. I don't even know if this is legit but a friend of mine who's studying Medicine showed this to me and some of our other friends.

This is not to say that Filipinos can't speak proper English of course. One thing about PGH is that it's like United Nations and coincidentally, it actually can be found in U.N. Avenue. I don't know what I think about this. I have experienced talking to foreign doctors who are practicing in the Philippines but I haven't encountered a doctor like this. So far. Now can we just take a loot at number 6 all together, please? UNFORGIVABLE! Whoever wrote that probably deserves a one way ticket to AZKABAN. I mean, seriously? That's a mortal sin right there. The rest are okay. I mean, laughable but somehow understandable. The moist and dry thingy confused me as heck as well but whatever. There are times when we don't really have to be sooo proper with our English and all that but there are times when English should be properly executed. Say, MEDICAL RECORDS. That's all I have to say actually. Ciao!

This is a late post but whatever. Since I can still remember it, it's going here. :)) I was supposed to be off this day but I had to make-up for an absence so yeah. I, together with two more interns were actually the blood extractor in the main laboratory so we were like going up and down (repeat 10 times). We were so tired and we didn't even get to prepare for the picture taking and then we were like, we should just be together and people would identify that we are the extractors because we all look haggard. 

I don't know how this works but I can barely recognize some people because you know, the thing is darn tiny. We're like AKB48 for a second. If you don't know what that is, that's actually a Japanese girl group with like, 88 members. 

Also this. I'm gonna miss Internship. Actually, I kind of miss it already. People say that we only get to appreciate something when it's done. I attest to that. Somehow.

I present to you my group mates! I'm gonna miss them because you know, I was with this group during night duties and all that stuff so yeah.

We're actually not complete in this picture but I would not miss the other two any less.  

The thing is I don't usually answer back to people. Not that I get complaints often but you know! I actually rarely answer back. It's either I'm sure that I am right or I think that I am mostly right. The point is! There are just some people I can't stand anymore.

Let me just share some of my internship experiences. Can I just say that lately, I get really pissed off easily by stuff. And it's not just me. Ha! In Histopath section, we actually get to extract from our patients' and that means we actually have to deal with the relatives. Which I hate by the way. If you don't know already.

I have three stories to tell you. Just so you would be able to figure out what I am trying to tell.

First.

This happened during the morning pick-up. If you don't know what that is, it's when we extract blood from the patients' every morning for their laboratory exams and all that stuff.

Okay so let's start for real with the first case.

There's this patient who I was about to extract right? I informed the relative and guess what? The relative left. I actually don't know if I persuaded her to leave or what but when I informed her, she left. And I don't know why. If you know me, you would know I don't mind. Hospitals here should be like hospitals in Japan. NO RELATIVE ALLOWED. Anyways, so I tried to extract blood but when I injected the needle, he was like moving and tried to remove my tourniquet and his other hand was like so makulit. So obviously, I wasn't able to extract blood properly.

Morning picks actually go by pair so I helped my co-intern with his extraction and asked him to hold the other patient for me. Guess what? The relative is back and she was already complaining on how blood was already extracted yesterday and the other day and all that. I mean, they probably don't know that laboratory tests are repeated almost everyday for monitoring and all that. And she was explaining about a test that was done to the patient which is not actually our job so whatever. So I extracted blood with my co-intern holding him but he was still moving a lot and all that. So I just got like 1cc and went down.

Second.

This one was actually an endorsement so I was already expecting that it is a hard to extract patient. Edema is actually our enemy since it makes everything worse. Like, seriously. And my post mate actually already endorsed the relative was whiny and was like complaining.

So I was actually extra courteous when I went to the ward and then I searched for the vein and actually, I was able to hit the vein but the blood was coming out too slow so I kind of don't know whether or not to pull it already because it's still not enough but I'm aware that it might already be clotted so whatevs. When I reached the end of the syringe with my plunger, the blood is not flowing anymore so I pushed it back to the level of the blood and guess what? This relative asked the most ridiculous thing ever. WHY ARE YOU INJECTING AIR? I pulled it out and yup! It was clotted. So whatever.

I then answered IT'S NOT AIR. IT'S VACUUM. And then she kind of said so many things that I can't even anymore and said I KNOW WHAT I'M DOING. And she said yeah I know what you know what you're doing but blah blah blah blah blah. Can you just stop already? GUSTO MO YATANG IKAW NA KUMUHA NG DUGO EH? Nakakahiya naman. And then I kind of said that we have other patients like that as well. Just so she know that it's not gonna be my first time. And guess what she said? I DON'T CARE ABOUT OTHER PATIENTS. I was so close in saying I DON'T CARE ABOUT YOUR PATIENT TOO. But I just shook it off. So close.

I actually have other vein to extract from but since I don't want to stay because you know! I might say something else.

But then I said sorry and just walked away. Thanks to the relative of the other patient for actually defending me and saying it's really hard to extract from patients like that.

And then I endorsed it to the nurse and she said she also can't extract blood from that patient and so I was like okay, I'll just endorse it to my staff.

So that happened.

Can I just say that I was really really pissed off? Like, injecting air?? What kind of science is that? If I indeed injected air, she probably wouldn't be able to speak anymore because her relative would be dead. Annoying.

Third.

I've been hearing about this patient for a while now. Like the staffs are always mentioning her. Thing is we actually don't extract blood from those who pay for everything they avail. Like, those who are from the pay ward.

So then I got asked to go to her ward with the pathologist on duty and the relatives were so nice and all that. The guy was combing his mother's hair and all that. And then they were really really nice that the guy actually got a flashlight and pointed it to his mother's hand for the doctor to actually see better.

The staff on duty who endorsed actually said that she tried 4 times and failed and all that and then the pathologist I was with tried like 4 times and failed. But did the relatives complain? No.

So whatever.

They all get hurt. It's not like there's local anesthesia for those who are in the pay ward or something. Some people just have to be a little more understanding.

For patients' relatives one and two. What do they expect their patients to be in a hospital? Effing comfortable? No needles and all that? Stay home then. Government hospitals like my hospital now is trying to help but you have to help us too. Just effing shut up. It would really mean a lot.

Like, can I just say? I mean. That's it. It's really annoying when I encounter this kind of things in the emergency room. Like, are you effing serious? Well, you're not only wasting your money for the effing emergency room fee and all that unnecessary laboratory tests but you're also wasting our energy.

I don't know if this incident made it to the local news but not so long ago, a nursing student was taken hostage by a hold upper and she was brought to the emergency room because she was traumatized. The hold upper was also brought to the emergency room because he was actually shot in the head by a sniper. I mean, that's understandable. Shot in the head = emergency room. Traumatized = emergency room.

Also, even before that incident, there were two effing careless individual who think they're superheroes of some kind and shot each other helpless and so they both ended up in the emergency room. I mean, that's somehow understandable too because they're both shot but whatever!! I mean, that's just so careless. How dare them shot each other when they're incapable of protecting themselves and stuff.

There was also an incident of electric shock. Even though it's not entirely his fault, he should have been more careful. But his case is understandable.

And all other serious stuff = understandable.

If you're child (below 16) is sick, then it's understandable that you're worried and that if you rush him or her to the emergency room, fine.

NOW! Let's get to these creatures. If you're child is 16 above, and it's just their first day of getting sick, what are you doing in the emergency room? I know you're probably worried and stuff. But seriously? 1st effing day of fever and stuff? WTH! Like, to the extreme.

And then those kind or people have the guts to complain that their case is being ignored. WOW. Just WOW.