Doc Ahmad Hajiri

Emergency Room Surgical Trauma Rotator It was just another regular evening on a 24-hour duty at the Emergency Department (ED or ER, for most of us). I was one of the only two Trauma Interns on duty and was just taking a break from charting a very long list of patients--ranging from those who fell from stairs to those intoxicated madmen stabbing each other to death! It's a rare occasion for Trauma ER to have no patients in 3 hours time so I grabbed that opportunity to go out and buy a cold drink at the ER kiosk (it was already around 1:00 AM by the way).  On my way back to our station in the Acute Care Unit (ACU), I could see the triage area was already in a mess. ("Triage" by the way is the place where patients would go first before they are assigned with to different departments). There were piles of stretcher-beds (with patients on them, of course!) and hordes of their watchers waiting to be seen by our Triage officer (TO). Where was the TO, you asked? I wo...

  Internship ends in a few days (July 1 to be exact) and since March 22, we started the #Last100Days of Internship countdown. Those who are following my Instagram account would know that I have been posting random pics with the countdown numbers (see above photos). I tried my best to complete the 100 days but it was just so hard! haha. And now, who would have thought that we are now down to the last 50 days! It happened so fast! I can't even believe that the ten months of internship--no, the FIVE YEARS in Medical School is about to end! SubhanaAllah!  I do not even know what to feel right now. Should I be excited, because everything's about to end? Or should I be anxious and scared, because... well, because the daunting future that lies before me is certainly scary! (read: Board exams, being a full-pledged MD, too much expectations from everyone...) Still, as I keep on recounting the remaining days of internship, I just can't help but look back... those enume...

Assalamu Alaykum! (Peace be with you!) It's my last week as a Senior Intern in Internal Medicine and this week, we had the chance (and honor) to accompany our Service Senior Resident, Dr. David Francisco on his ECG rounds. We went to the Central ECG Room where all the ECG requests and results are done, took the remaining unread ECG's and read them. Awesome, right!  Dr. Fransisco teaching us how to read and interpret ECGs while us Senior interns are fooling around :p I always had a hard time understanding ECG's before. Of course, before medschool, those lines were nothing but alien scriptures to me like everyone else! haha. But after studying Basic Clinical Cardiology (one of my "first loves") in LU4 and getting exposed to the wonders of electrophysiology of the heart, understanding the peaks and troughs, the elevations and the depressions of those lines, was simply amazing! I still can't believe a few weird lines could already tell a clinician w...

  MD = Manong Duties? NICU Manong Starter pack. Nakakadismaya at nakakapagod. Why do future MDs doing this anyway? we honestly learn nothing from it?   After listening to my fellow interns (especially PGIs or Post-Graduate Interns from other medschools) comparing the internship training from other hospitals, I just realized how much we students have been living with disappointments in this field of training. Really, a lot of "ideal" things could have been done to maximize our learning and training for our final year in this prestigious hospital and yet, we end up doing the things that are not actually "su itable" for future doctors to do. (Read: magtulak ng stretcher, mag-akyat-baba ng lab results, etc. instead of directly taking care of patients or reviewing for the boards?) *well, not all the time naman ganito nangyayari... pero still, di talaga siya maganda tingnan. I know, this has always been the norm. That our previous alumni and now profess...

Internship Day 1 to 14 Weeks 1 to 2 From July 1 to 14, 2016 The sign at the back of SOJR: The setting for this awesome two-week rotation! (Grabbed from Mike Mondragon :) will replace this once I get a better photo) General Info: Duration of Rotation: 2 weeks Number of students: 10-13 (depends on number per block) Important hours: Time in: 7:00 AM Time out: 5:00 PM Wearing coats REQUIRED on OPD! Allowed to be removed when on ER/Ward Duty. Duties: Two posts: One Ward Intern-on-Duty (WIOD) and one ER Intern on Duty (EIOD) from 7AM to 7AM the next day. How often? Depends. We were 10 in our block, and there were only 2 interns on duty per day, so we have 5 pairs rotating “duties” every 5 days. So chill! True Posts? Nope. But post-duties can go home early (12noon) if allowed by consultants/residents. SIC work: Only WIODs do the SICs of 12-20 patients in th...

Clerkship Day 253/253 Today is the last day of Clerkship (known to UPCM as Learning Unit 6 or LU6), my fourth year as a Medical students. No, maybe it is not yet the official end of the Academic year as we still have our 5 Final examinations and 2 Comprehensive exams next week... But yes, this is the end of our final rotations in the different departments in UP-PGH. I can't even believe I am all done with all of them! We started with Pediatrics, then Family and Community Medicine, then Obstetrics and Gynecology then we had a one-month elective, then we went on to Surgery then Emergency Medicine and Anesthesiology, then the dreaded Neurosciences, then longest rotation which is Internal Medicine and last came the not-so-fun-anymore "fun four": Rehab Med, Orthopedics, Otorhinolayngology (ORL/ENT) and Ophthalmology. Wow! It felt like it started years ago! But it still feels like it just happened yesterday! Maa sha Allah! And as I struggled to "relearn" the ...

Feb 2 2016 It was just one of those usual busy days at the wards. My watch just told me it's almost 3 in the afternoon. I haven't had my lunch yet and I still have a lot of things to do. And while I was savagely writing down my SIC progress notes on one of my patient's chart earlier, at that same time, my brain cells were as busy deciding which of the couple more things to I still need to do must come next. And then, someone tapped my back and called me: "Sir sir, excuse me, sir." I stopped writing and looked at this guy whom I almost failed to recognize. I remember his face during my short stay in the Emergency Department, but I just can't locate his name, nor his story how we met in that ever-so-busy place. "Sir, mabuti nakita ko po kayo," He said with a smile. "Oh kumusta na po?" I asked him pretending I remember him that well, while trying so hard identifying the right name to fit his face. Dude, I am wea...

"Bantay" or "watchers" are those who come and stay in the hospital to accompany the patient. Mostly, they are the patient's parents (notably, mothers), grandparents, siblings or even cousins. Sometimes, they are just a close relative, a friend, a neighbor or even at times, just a stranger, a passer-by. We see them everyday. We interact with them almost at all times. Although we often neglect their mere presence, we cannot deny that they are among those who play an important role in the management of our patients' health and well-being.  This is just a portrayal of how a day of a "bantay" begins as they enter the hospital for the first time through the Emergency Room.... *I used the Tagalog language in this post as I found it the most relevant and appropriate in this setting.  ====  “Kayo po ba ang bantay ng pasyente?” “Opo. Ako po.” “Ah, OK po. Eto po yung mga kailangang gawin. Kailangan po namin siya kunan ng dugo para po sa...

Assalamu Alaykum! (Peace be with you) It’s 11:50PM in my clock and I am about to hit the bunkers but decided to write a short post about the recent events. (PS I need to keep it short coz I have another 24-Hour duty tomorrow ^_^) I am now rotating in OBSTETRICS and GYNECOLOGY (OBGYN) for two weeks already and we have another two weeks remaining until the next rotation. And believe it or not—as much as I hate the bloody business in OBGYN—I am actually enjoying the clerkship in OB :) I do not know there’s just too many things to do that are not that dragging. I mean, I can now actually feel and call myself a part of the medical team working for the benefit and well being of our patients! Anyway, here's a quick run-down of the usual days in OBGYN: The OB Services.   Students rotating in OBGYNE will be divided into 3 services: A, B and C and they will rotate on duty schedules. There will be at least 5 clerks on each service with one service having 6. Interns have...