may the force . . .

It was almost midnight when I got ready to sleep. I had a report to finish but my head was already throbbing and I was too sleepy to care. I decided to have a few hours of sleep before continuing with work on my report. I was having difficulty in falling asleep at a relatively early hour and I found myself tossing and turning. It was while I was trying to still my thoughts when the scary “incident” happened.

There I was in bed, with all the lights switched off. My back was towards the wall next to my bed. I was looking at the wall on the far side trying to focus images without eyeglasses. It was when I thought I was seeing some strange shadows in one corner when I felt movement behind my back not too different from someone stepping on the mattress. I turned a little to see what was causing the mattress to move only to be met with an image of old “thing” looking over my shoulder. It was like I was looking Yoda in the face with its almost bald head and pointy ears. As with these kinds of occurrences I was paralyzed with fear and was unable to do anything but stare ahead. One, two, three seconds passed. I still couldn’t move. Eventually, I gathered enough strength to roll over in bed and see what was going on behind my back. Nothing.

If this occurred earlier in my life I would have attributed it to supernatural forces and other superstition. However, at this point I am hard-pressed to find a perfectly logical and scientific explanation. Right now the only thing I can think of are hypnagogic hallucinations.

There is a phenomenon in which a person may have visual or auditory hallucinations when going to sleep or upon waking up. A person may perceive someone speaking in a distance or have a perception of seeing objects that are not present. When these occur while a person is falling asleep the term used is hypnagogic hallucinations. If the same occurs upon waking it is called a hypnopompic hallucination.

These false visual or auditory perceptions are often associated with narcolepsy reflecting a disorder of REM sleep. However, many people without any disorders also experience these phenomena. Although often frightening, these may not be harmful at all.

Yes, at this point hypnagogic hallucinations is my best explanation. Although I wouldn’t mind thinking that it was actually Yoda come to dispense his words of wisdom, very much needed for a case discussion in Internal Medicine plus a report on dietary management of cardiovascular diseases.

May the force be with you.

work and play

Next up for Family Medicine is another group's answer to stress and lack of extracurricular activities. The Work & Play activities opened today with a 2-hour session of ballroom dancing. It was well attended (enough) considering the late hours (4:30-6:30 pm) and hectic schedule of students, staff and faculty. I suppose it's too early to assess the success of the project. I believe the group will be having three more weeks with ballroom dancing on Mondays and Tae-Bo and aerobics on Thursdays. Exercise twice a week is still not enough but it's a start. So far, so good.

I leave you with a quote from Douglas Adams, author of the weirdly amusing The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy:

A common mistake that people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools.

de-buhos

After rhinosinusitis last week and this week’s toothache disguised as a headache (too much chocolate is bad!) I find myself mentally and physicall drained and in much need of sleep. I have been using caffeine as a crutch, drinking 2 cups of coffee in my first waking hour and having a cola or another coffee around midmorning or lunch. I still manage to get some sleep at night since I refrain from drinking coffee late in the afternoon or the evening.

Onto school matters: Today’s exam in Pediatrics was canceled, which is a good thing. However, we will be having the exam tomorrow, a bad thing, considering I already have 2 other quizzes scheduled for tomorrow.

In the afternoon my classmates and I dropped by the Clinical Laboratory to have a few milliliters of blood extracted for Hepa B screening - another group’s project for Family Medicine. Everyday it’s Family Medicine day. It saddens me that although my group started early with our project’s implementation we are now two weeks behind based on the deadlines we ourselves set. I suppose it’s easier to downplay the importance of the subject and not pay much attention to it especially if we seem to be encountering a lot of problems. But I’d like to think it would’ve been better if we just worked on it immediately and finished it early. By postponing our implementation we are prolonging the duration of our problem, which is never a good thing.

It’s been raining intermittently all day. Every time I look out the window I am reminded of toilets, yung de-buhos (pour flush). That's exactly how the rain looks from inside a classroom.

frazzled

"Frazzing. frantic, ineffective multitasking, typically with the delusion that you are getting a lot done."

Here I am - blogging, checking my email, arranging my lecture notes for an exam in Pediatrics AND reading an article in TIME magazine. Basically, I'm reading about the pitfalls of multitasking while multitasking.

I have previously read on New Scientist how emails and the internet at the office actually decrease productivity. These emails are a constant source of distraction, not allowing a person to focus on one task indefinitely. The problem with multitasking here is that the brain cannot easily move from one task to another. The brain requires a certain amount of time to be able to return to a previous task after a distraction. The more tasks a person is doing, the longer it takes for that person to be able to focus on a specific task.

The article from TIME just expounds on the matter by giving examples (Hollywood producer Jennifer Klein) and tips from "some of the most productive people on the planet" (Condoleezza Rice, Donald Trump, J. Craig Venter, etc). There are, however, still some successful people who still insist on doing one thing at a time.

Suze Orman is a businesswoman, author/columnist and TV personality. One would expect her to be a "master multitasker" yet she is the total opposite - unwilling to answer phones when she is working, unwilling to discuss anything else but the topic for her next speaking engagement. Her single-mindedness borders on obsessiveness. She explains:

"The people who multitask . . . do everything to mediocrity at best. While they are getting a lot done, they are getting it done in such an inefficient way that they usually have to do it again."

That last quote definitely hits home. For now, I don't think I need to read much more about this. However, I do believe it is about time I sign out, shut down my computer and focus on the most important task at hand: studying for my Pedia exams for tomorrow.

alay na buhay

Last Friday, a group for Community and Family Medicine conducted a mass blood drive. All students from the Institute of Medicine were invited to donate blood and although I am unaware of the number of actual donors it is pretty obvious that the turn out was good. I, unfortunately, have yet to donate blood.

The first time I tried to donate blood two years ago I was deferred. No, not like a good half of my classmates who were deferred for being underweight or possibly anemic, I was deferred because I recently had an asthma attack. Not having my medications with me at the time of donation, the physician who examined me deemed it unwise to let me proceed with the blood extraction.

For yesterday’s blood donation let me just say that I deferred myself. I have just gotten over a week of rhinosinusitis and have been feeling light-headed and tired over having not enough sleep for the past couple of days. I do, however, look forward to the day I am finally allowed to give blood. I believe it’s a necessary learning experience for a would-be doctor like me besides being a much needed contribution to the hospital’s blood bank.

Yesterday, another group had a different activity. A symposium was held for medical and non-medical staff of the hospital. Speakers from National Kidney and Transplant Institute (NKTI) and Human Organ Preservation Effort (HOPE) talked about being organ donors.

There are two categories of organ donors, the non-living and the living. The living donors are further classified into living non-related and living related. The objective of the symposium was to increase awareness on organ donation programs, specifically the deceased or non-living organ donation. In the morning, the talk given to medical staff (clerks, post-grad interns and residents) touched on the need for referrals for organ donors and a lecture on maintenance of organ donors prior to retrieval of organs.

In the Philippines today, the top 3 organs transplanted are the liver, the kidneys and the cornea. The list of organs that can be donated include the eyes, heart, lungs, pancreas, bones and skin. The current program on organ donation still needs a lot of push. In the USA, the deceased organ donation program has already been maximized and they are now looking to improve organ donation from living donors. Spain also has a good program and they are even able to give incentives to donors, something we are unable to do.

As one doctor said, with the 5th leading cause of mortality being associated with trauma (vehicular accidents, etc.) and the 10th leading cause of mortality being renal failure, it is a wonder how the 5th leading cause cannot sustain the 10th leading cause.

I do believe that awareness about organ donation is important. Cultural and religious beliefs along with lack of knowledge about the need for organ donation are the main obstacles to the success of the program. With a 200-long waiting list for organ donors and only around 8 to 15 deceased organ donors a year it is evident that support from every medical institution is necessary.

Help someone to live. Be an organ donor. Check the back of your driver’s license and mark the box indicating that you would like to donate your organs after your death. Or better yet, get an organ donor card.

“Don’t take your organs to heaven . . .

Heaven knows we need them HERE.”

For more information call HOPE at 924-HOPE (924-4673)

Or contact
National Kidney and Transplant Institute
East Avenue, Quezon City, Philippines
Tel No: 924-3601 to 19 Local 2514
http://www.nkti.gov.ph

perspective

This morning I found myself lying flat on my back on the cold, blank tiles of my living room trying to see things from a different perspective.

You know what, the view from below isn't always so bad.

mathematics

She said:

"Medicine is dynamic. It changes every month, every week, every second. One plus one will not always be equal to two."

More of the pediatrician's mathematics

this and that

On the Alumni Homecoming Celebrations:
Tomorrow, together with the celebration for the year’s alumni homecoming, special awards will be given for students earning the highest grades for each subject. It is with a feeling akin to regret that I acknowledge the fact that I am not one of the students receiving an award. Previously (as in a loooooong time ago), I have been included in the top 10 ranking students of my batch. Recent turn of events have seen me slip down the rankings unable to find a subject where I can inarguably be the best.

I remember once talking with a classmate reflecting on his class standing. He said that however good one is there is always seems to be someone way better. No matter what you do, there is someone who is always a step ahead of you. While this may sound discouraging, the reverse does make you feel a little better: that no matter how dumb one student is, there is always someone dumber.

My recent drop in class standing should drive me to work harder to excel. Unfortunately, I am the type of student who, for the most part of my schooling, is not very particular about grades. As long as I am satisfied with my progress, I am content to remain as just an above average student who studies enough and is unwilling to deprive herself of a life.

When I come to a realization that given my capabilities I cannot exceed what others have done I tend to be complacent and work only to get an acceptable grade. I understand, that the desirable reaction would be to strive to be better but I guess I just don’t see the point.


On last December’s preliminary exams:
I have done well (by my standards) for Obstetrics, Rehab Med, Clinical Therapeutics and Psychiatry. While still getting a good grade in Head and Neck Surgery, I am a bit disappointed it isn’t any higher. As for Gynecology, it is best to forget my grade and just study harder for the next exam :)

I have yet to receive results from other subjects but I do hope they are a little better. It would be really nice to get a good grade in Internal Medicine, especially in Cardiology.

eleanor rigby

"Lonely lives are filled with ritual to ward off the void of evenings spent alone . . ."

Reading: Eleanor Rigby by Douglas Coupland
Lead characters Liz Dunn (36 years old, single, loner, just had two wisdom teeth extracted) and Jeremy (Liz’s long-lost son from a teen pregnancy, 20 years old, rehashing memories of foster families and reliving visions as his health spirals down from multiple sclerosis) seem as if they popped out from a Chuck Palahniuk novel (i.e. Invisible Monsters, Survivor, Fight Club). The story, however, is entirely Coupland’s.

I believe in what travelers say that the journey is more important then the destination. For most part in my reading the actual unraveling of the story is more important than the ending. A good ending is just a big fat bonus. But right now I can’t wait to find out how Coupland is going to tie everything together, or not.

sneeze

When your brother who is particularly fond of you starts calling you a loser it’s a signal that it’s time to reassess your life. Whether he did so in jest or not is immaterial.

first pix

[the sky on the first of january]