Doc Ahmad Hajiri

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...

It came as a surprise to everyone in Mindanao State University-Sulu Laboratory High School (MSU-Sulu LHS). The old, ugly and almost neglected façades of the Grades 7 and 10 were transformed into newly repaired and repainted ones in just one weekend! Only a few knew about what happened and who were those behind it. And those who have no idea where left amazed and yes, surprised. This was how it was planned, and just as how we wanted it to be. The First MSU-Sulu LHS Alumni “Give-Back” project was the first ever project done by the high school alumni for their alma mater without soliciting even a single centavo from their school. It was a spur-of-the-moment event that started from just mere concern for their beloved alma mater to a sudden, successful project, Alhamdulillah. Yes, we started from nothing. It started with the statement “This makes us sad, what can we do?” to “Yes, maybe we can do something small first” until “Let us make it happen then!”. At first, we only thought...