Assalamu Alaykum! (Peace be upon you all!)
The second week as an ICC student in the Department of Pediatrics just ended with a rather "incomplete" sets of days in a week. We had special non-working, no-classes holidays the past 2 weeks that reduced our class days from 10 to 7 (due to the Feast of Black Nazarene last January 9 and now the Papal Visit from Jan 15-19). And as a result, all those supposedly scheduled lectures and case conferences were cramped in the remaining school days!
It was actually exhausting: to report on a case conference at 7:30 then have an ER duty the next night and then go back to class the next morning!!! What now, are we finally and slowly turning into zombies? But then again, we chose this path from the very beginning, and there are no reason to complain about these right now... Why dream of being a doctor if you want to feel nothing but ease and comfort? Things don't do that way. Always. And exhausting as it may seem, we are still having fun learning things anew in this awesome field of medicine :)
The past week what I honestly cherish learning is the undeniable, inseparable, indisputable connection between the mother and her child. Just like in OBGYNE where we were taught that we are taking care of not one, but two patients, Pediatrics also adheres to this principle. Even though we are taking care of kids from their first day of life to their 18th year (Pedia patients' age range), we cannot deny that they are still inseparable to their parents, especially their mothers. Maybe not much with those older children who are starting to explore the world independently, but with the younger ones, this is really visible. And still, as physicians and health providers, we should never overlook this very important fact: Always consider your patients' mothers/parents as well in your management plans.
A week of learning
We had lectures on how to properly conduct History and Physical Examinations on pediatric patients, (re)learned the different kinds of vaccinations and how to properly give them, and some important matters to prepare us for our one-month training. We also had some exposures in the Sick Child clinic (SCC) and some case-conferences which I consider very "high-yield", especially if you were able to read on them ahead of time. Which, as you know, is very unlikely to happen to me haha. Again and again, I have to remind myself that I must learn to study ahead and without limiting myself to the classroom setting. If you have the time read something :) It will always be worth it in the near future in sha Allah.
And then, the last but not the least: the 12-hour Pedia ER duty.
My first 12-hour duty in the Emergency Department
My ER-Group started our duty in the Emergency Department (Pediatrics) at around 4PM and finished the next day, 4AM. There were some amazing cases during our stay, some are toxic but most are benign. And as ICC's who know nothing much, what we did there were mostly "monitoring" of vital signs -_-. But hey! It's as important to the other tasks as well, at least we are contributing somehow right? And this is the first and only exposure we have in the ER for this Learning unit. More of it would be in LU6 and 7. But I really hope they would train us more so that you know we wont be too surprised or overwhelmed by the tasks we might have in the near future as clerks and interns.
(photo inset: The ICCs, Clerks and Interns on duty; photo from Karl)
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| Taking a break. Time: 2AM |
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Ina' is here!
Now moving on to the not-gloomy news: My mom is now here in Manila :) it was really great to see her face and hug her after months of staying away. I wasn't able to go home last December, so it was a wonderful gift that she is now here :) Alhamdulillah. I would talk to her about our patients, the funny experiences, the sad ones, and it was always a wonderful feeling to have her here, to share these thoughts I have in mind that I can never share to any one else.
She also shared her stories about us growing up, which are always funny yet inspiring. Mothers are always the best huh?
Next week we will have a break from Pediatrics and go back to the confusing world of Pharmacology. There will be an exam by the end of the week and I heard it's among the "hardest" exams. Huh. Since when did we have any not "hardest" exam anyway?
Okay, that's all for now, Salam Kasilasa!
Anakiluh
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