Musings from Med 250

Enjoy naman ang Internal Med rotation... pero sana mas mahaba pa sa tatlong linggo ang tinagal namin sa department. Iba-ibang klaseng pasyente rin ang nakita namin at napag-aralan. Napalapit ako kay Harrison (as in the textbook), pero feeling ko kulang pa rin. At least that's what the exams did to me. I flunked my second and third exams, hay. Pero sabi ng resident monitors namin, wag mag-alala dahil mahihila naman yun ng ibang grades sa ibang activities. They kept assuring us that at least, we still learn from the feedback of the answers. Man, they sound like exams are so trivial. Di naman sa super grade conscious ako; sang-ayon naman ako na di lang exam ang batayan ng kahusayan ng isang doktor. Now that we're in the realm of clinical training, I guess I just have to get used to relegating exams to a not-so-big-deal status, even if they make you feel that they are (lalo na kung bagsak ka hehe). It's a struggle to keep an open mind for the explanations to the answers when frustration and disappointment are clouding over you.

Patient interactions will always be a highlight for me in any rotation, and I'm glad that we had a lot of them in IM.You'd think we had really gotten used to seeing patients at the OPD. Well, we are used to it, but I still don't think we're good enough. In this rotation I realized that even a group of 5 to a patient is a big ratio (when I used to think that it was better than having 10 people in a group). What usually happens with my group is that one or two of us carry the conversation with the patient--but the interview is not always systematic. Nakakahiya minsan pag nasasabon pa rin kami ng consultant pagdating sa history taking, samantalang 3rd year na kami. Sa tingin ko mas effective kami kung 2 students : 1 patient ang ratio. Either that, o mag-usap nang masinsinan ang group ko at mag-troubleshoot. Haay... the ideal me ranting at frustrations in life. ^__^

Tama na nga 'to. Bottomline: Med 250 was 'sweet torture' (kind of). But I wish it were a longer rotation.

Time to finish my journal report and dive into Community Medicine readings...

Taking a step closer to Him

Not that I made any big mess lately, but small messes, yes... I did have my shortcomings and inconsistencies, bouts of worry and bouts of selfishness in the past year. I pray this year I will be much more intimate with my Maker, by His grace...

Mercies New
Nicole Nordeman

Is it fair to say I was lured away?
By endless distractions and lovelier attractions then
Or fairer still, my own free will
Is the better one to blame
For this familiar mess I've made again

So I would understand, if You were out of patience
And I would understand, if I was out of chances

Your mercies are new every morning
So let me wake with the dawn
When the music is through or so it seems to be
Let me sing a new song, old things gone
Every day it's true, You make all Your mercies new

The distance left between East and West
Is how far You would go to forget the debt I owe
And thrown into the sea, the wicked ways in me
Will never have a chance to wash back on the sand

So I would understand, if you would make me pay
I would understand, lying in the bed I made again

Your mercies are new every morning
So let me wake with the dawn
When the music is through or so it seems to be
Let me sing a new song, old things gone
Every day it's true, You make all Your mercies new

Up comes the sun on every one of us
Gone, gone, gone the guilt and shame that knew your name

Your mercies are new every morning
So let me wake with the dawn
When the music is through or so it seems to be
Let me sing a new song, old things gone
Every day it's true, You make all Your mercies new