Doc Ahmad Hajiri

Assalamu Alaykum! (Peace be upon you!) We are already halfway through FCH 251: Integrated Clerkship II in Family and Community Medicine. Our Sub-group, Block 7A recently ended our 2-week rotation at Community Medicine. Alhamdulillah, another wonderful experience to share ^_^ We started our first week doing the 3-day orientations (yes, I'm serious!): Orientations at Manila Health Department, Fabella Health Center, then Department of Family and Community Medicine (DFCM) in UP-PGH, and so on. The rest of the week were spent on two things: Doing consultations and Public health lectures at Fabella Health Center (FCH) and attending SGDs and lectures. We also have our two-time 10-hr duty at the Ambulatory Dept (AMBU) during the weekends.  The first of three orientations! haha With our awesome LO Axis at the meeting/waiting area: the undying medstones! The Consultations Area. That awesome painting at the back gives much more life (?) to this place. Al t hough the o...

Assalamu Alaykum! (Peace be upon you!) August 31. One month after our first clerkship rotation in Pediatrics. What had happened so far and what have I learned? Perhaps a lot more than I expected. Certainly more than those bio-medico-socio shiz they taught us in the lecture rooms for three years (which most of them I already forgot by the way). All I can say perhaps is "Indeed, clerkship is a different level of academic learning." It drains not just your intellectual being, but more of your emotional and physical energy.  Exhausting. That is the single word that can describe clerkship. At least on this first rotation. They say Pediatrics, as one of the Big Fours in PGH (together with IM, Surgery and OB) is one of the hardest and exhausting rotations. And guess what? We just survived it! Alhamdulillah! I wasn't able to update this blog during my stay in the wards, mostly due to the limited time I have to focus on writing sensible post. A lot of things happened th...

Bismillah (Originally posted Sept 8, 2013 on my FB Page) It has been some time since I wrote about my beloved hometown, Sulu. So I decided to fill-up the holes of long absence with some fun facts about my place. In this post we will be talking about one of the grandest landmarks in Sulu: Bud Tumantangis (Bud or Buwd means Mountain). This is going to be a bit long, so kindly bear with me until the end. I will make sure that this post is worth your time reading.  Bud Tumantangis, is the highest peak in the Sulu mainland. It is located in the Indanan-Patikul boundary, Sulu. It is surrounded by green forests and farmlands. Aside from just being a magnificent sight in the place, it also served as an icon, a “unique landmark” among the Tausugs which they identified with their homeland: Sulu. Every single settler, visitor or traveler in Sulu would know which and where is Bud Tumantangis. If a common seafarer comes home from a long journey at the sea, simply looking for this familiar mo...

 Assalamu Alaykum! (Peace be upon you!) Alhamdulillah, my first week as a clinical clerk is almost over (as of this writing hehe). And I am done with one-fourth of my first rotation: Pediatrics Emergency Room (Pedia ER).   As I may have mentioned in my revious post, Clerks are supposed to rotate for one month under Pediatrics which is subdivided further into 3 departments/services: Wards 9 or 11, Pedia ER and NICU (Neonatal ICU). My group was assigned under PER for our first week. I honestly enjoyed rotating in PER for several reasons. First are the Pedia residents. They are all cool and fun to be with, they always have time to laugh around and be happy with simple things even with all those toxicities they have; they are always ready help and teach us students with essential knowledge and concepts in pedia especially on resuscitation. We even had a session of QnA while resuscitating a patient! Awesome! They are always approachable ad can understand us clerks who...

Assalamu Alaykum! (Peace be upon you!)  Today, our Integrated Clinical Clerkship II a.k.a. "The Slave Trade" officially started. I still can't believe it's already begun, my fourth and second-to-the-last year in Med School. *Spine chills* If this is still a dream, I really have to wake up. We will be rotating first under the Department of Pediatrics, one of the "Big Four" departments in the Med School World. We will be staying with them for 4 weeks: each student must rotate for a week in Pedia ER, another week in NICU (Neonatal ICU/ Baby Catcher in the Labor Room) and two weeks in one of the two Pedia Wards (9 and 11).  I am with the Pedia ER group. At first it actually thrilled me: "Oh yeah! First day of clerkship and it's already under ER! Things about to get real!".  And yet my first day as a Clerk was not that eventful as expected. After the release of the ever-changing schedule, I was the fortunate (or the unfortunate) o...