Doc Ahmad Hajiri

  Assalamu Alaykum! (Peace be with you!) I just realized... I haven't talked much about my videos about Sulu in this blog. I have a playlist which you can watch if you are interested in seeing (or maybe visiting?) my dear homeplace.  Just check it out here: JOLO, SULU PLAYLIST You can watch this instead:      Yup, that is all for today.   PS. I am mulling over the idea of transferring my blog from blogspot to wordpress...  hmmmmmm    

  There’s this Facebook Page called “Sulu Cultural and Historical Society” that I really like. (You can check it out here ) They usually upload old images of Sulu, or any old artifacts related to Sulu that are found around the world (usually in Museums). What I really like about this is the fact that they do their research and provide the readers the necessary and factual information regarding those places, items, etc. One of those series that I enjoyed in their page is the old photos of Jolo, Sulu. I saved a couple of those images (screenshot), and then I went on a bike ride a few days back and decided to take a picture of the same exact place in the present time. Kudos to the admins of the FB Page mentioned for all of these! So here they are, I hope you’ll enjoy this as I did! Plaza Rizal  Photo by William "Bill" Fabianic circa 1961     This is the screenshot of the post in the FB Page. It says, “Rizal Park, Jolo, Sulu, circa 1961. Jolo’s Plaza Rizal in...

 Assalamu Alaykum.   I'm writing this post from a blank slate.   It's been a long while since my purposeful blogpost, and yes, I do miss it.   I miss writing down my thoughts.   I miss interacting with my readers (if ever they do exist).   I miss reading my old posts and ponder upon my seemingly-deep-but-not-really thoughts from the past.   I miss writing.    When and why did I stop?   Was it the "busy-ness" of being a doctor? Not really.   Was it the ever-dwindling self confidence I have? Maybe. I still don't know if my words would reach anyone's heart and change the world (No! I never really thought they would).   I have a lot in my mind. At this point in time, in my 30 years of existence... I have known what I am really good at: Making plans... and never actually get to finish any of it! haha!   But really, I wanna go back... I want to go back to writing my thoughts on an empty slate and just let the inks dry and fate d...

 Assalamu Alaykum. It's May 1, 2021, exactly 3 years, 2 months and 29 days since my last post published in this blog. Yes, I am still alive Alhamdulillaah. And Ramadhan mubarak to all my Muslim brothers and sisters :)  I do still check this blogsite once in a while to moderate comments. But my creative mind have long forgotten what it's like to write and publish a blogpost (just kidding, I'm either busy or lazy to publish one lol).  I decided to publish an update because my page suddenly had a spike of views in its long years of hibernation. I already knew why: Lapu-Lapu.  (thanks Lapu-Lapu, Tausug ka man o hindi haha). And yes, I decided to unpublish my most popular post as well, due to its numerous unverified information.  Do I still believe Lapu-Lapu was not a Filipino? Yes. Why? Simple: the word "Filipino" was non-existent yet in 1521. Period. Was Lapu-Lapu a Tausug? I cannot say for sure. Truth be told, I only got these information from oral histories and t...

Assalamu Alaykum! I've been trying to sort things out in my new life as a barrio doctor, and among those "to-do lists" is freeing some disk spaces in my phone. I was sifting through my gallery when I realized how much of an adventure the past 12 months had been for me. In this post, using screen caps from my gallery, I will try to share what happened in my life last 2017. Here goes! *WARNING: Some photos may contain graphic pictures. Those with blood/wounds were turned black-and-white. Photos of patients here were shaded to respect their privacy. Thanks! January:  Unfortunately, I do not have my January folder in my phone. I think I already transferred my files to my external drive by then. What I can remember here is that... I am still an intern in Internal Medicine, of course! haha. Maybe in the wards? Was this the time I went on JWAPODship? (JWAPOD: Junior Ward Admitting Physician on Duty). I gotta check my old files.

Assalamu Alaykum! (Peace be upon you all!)   [NOTE: This is a really, really old post! For those applying to UPCM for school years 2021 and beyond, it is best to visit the UPCM website for updates. Download and read the latest primer here . The details in this blogspot may not be applicable anymore. Read with discretion.    You can send me a message on my FB Page here :    Thanks!]  This post was originally published in January 2015, almost two years after I entered the great hallways of Calderon in UPCM. Now, it's January 2018: roughly 6 months since graduation, and here I am, a full-pledged UPCM Alumnus and now a licensed physician! Wow! Then I realized in this blog that this post reaches more hits that the other posts I have published , and I know I badly needed to update this...And so I did. I tried... And so... To those aspiring future martyrs amazing medical students who will sacrifice their social lives really enjoy learning the wonder...

*PF = Professional fee A patient's question that is hardest for me to answer is... "Magkano po, doc?" (How much will I pay, doc?) I remember back in PGH, whenever we tell them  "wala po. wala po kayong babayaran sa aming mga duktor." (Zero. You don't need to pay us anything at all). Their faces were  always left in awe and disbelief. Almost to say to us "weeeh? di ngaaa?" But now, I am in an uncomfortable seat and I have to helplessly smile and direct them towards the nurse who in turn will lead them to the cashier. Waiving a PF is always an honorable act that we doctors would want to do. Especially to those we know are indigent and could use those money for other things like their medicine, or transportation back home. How I wish I could waive each and every PF for my patients. But I just can't. Doing it would be tantamount to suicide. Especially to young doctors who are still struggling in this messy world he just stepped ...

  Alhamdulillah! Alhamdulillah! Alhamdulillah! All praise is indeed to Allah alone! I still can't believe that I am now a LICENSED DOCTOR! Seriously, to say that I am still in cloud nine, is an understatement!   As one mentor once told me: "You will be floating there for a year, at least!" And he was right! Alhamdulillah, last September 22, 2017 the results of this year's Physician Licensure Exam was released and it was indeed one of the best news in my life I could ever ask for. I am now a duly licensed physician in this country. I now have the license to heal, to cure, to do surgery and to prescribe medicine. And with it comes the big responsibility of not harming my patients as well. I never felt how heavy this responsibility before until now. Ma shaa Allah. This was a dream that I never once thought of having nor achieving when I was a child. (You see, I really wanted to become a Civil Engineer like my late father). Still, Alhamdulillah God gave m...

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...

March 13, 2017 Internal Medicine Rotator I was outside the hemodialysis (HD) room, watching some videos on Youtube while waiting for my patient’s HD to start. A few minutes after I seated myself on a vacant seat outside, a woman came near me. I recognized her the moment she approached, she’s my patient’s mother. I could see her eyes weary, tired and full of questions. It takes only a few seconds to recognize a soul in search of answers to her endless questions. And this one is a definite example. “Doc,” she started meekly, “Doc, tapatin niyo po ako.”(Doc please tell me) “Po? Ano po yun, maam?” I asked, my earphones already removed for me to focus on her every word. “Doc, ano na po ba talaga ang kalagayan ng anak ko? Di na po ba siya gagaling? Mamamatay na po ba siya?” (Doc, what is the real condition of my child? Will he still get well? Will he die?) her voice shaking with fear, full of anxiety over what she might find out. I asked her to ...

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...