A group of middle aged men arrived bringing a patient, who was clutching his chest, and amist the air-conditioning, I could faintly smell sweat and alcohol. Oh, GREAT. Two things that make me nervous - a person having a heart attack, and a group of drunk people.

We put him up on cardiac monitors, placed oxygen, gave him a dose of nitrates. After a few moments, he was pounding on his chest  and shouting at me - I-CARDIO mo ako!!! I-Cardio mo ako!

I looked at the equally irritated ER resident, and I calmly tried to explain "hindi po kailangan gawin." baffled to find that his ECG strip did not show any signs of an impending attack or ischemic changes.

It was just...unusually fast. 140's..150's. And I've seen many drunk people, and usually they're disoriented, apathetic, drowsy, not as combative as this one.

The Intern told me - "Ma'am,one of the companions told me, he's had meth."

Exactly.

---

After finding out that their health card wouldn't cover his hospitalization since he was drunk, he came up to me and said "hindi naman ako lasing, MISS, napa-upo lang ako sa inuman" trying to inimidate me, even trying to touch my arm as a friendly gesture.

Grabe. Does he really think I'd buy that? How I hate it when patients lie. Seeing how unconvinced I looked, he shifted his anger to the billing department, having the staff a little forced to cover up to the insurance why we gave him Neurobion (which is a vitamin for alcohol intoxication.) I told the clerk that he should've made the man learn his lesson.

--

I had two thoracentesis procedures! yey. One with Dra. Bringas, and another with Dra. Nicolas. :)

--

Vivi and I were waiting for the patient to be brought down to the ultrasound unit, and amidst the busy reception area, we were happy to find two empty chairs at the corner of the room.

The radio resident (who is pretty cute BTW), walked in, and smiled at us. He gave us a questioning look,and pointed towards the door beside us. It read-

MAMMMOGRAPHY EXAMINING ROOM.

Haha.

No flowers.  Not even from the janitor. Just a glittery heart on a stick that Albert gave Vivi and I, and it kind of rocks by itself.

I greeted him "Happy Valentine's Day"

He replied, "Likewise.. is it happy though? :("

Oh freaking gosh, what have I done?

---

One ER duty, the patient was complaining that her back hurts, that the sophisticated looking hospital bed was making her more uneasy on top of what she was already feeling. I tried my best to hide my irritation, thinking "what a grown-up spoiled brat." and rushed her admission, the best I could.

I was so tired last night, I broke my promise to the equally bitter junior intern (that we would stay up all night so we'd zonk out Valentine's day), and lay down on one of the ER's hospital bed. I placed another blanket on top of the one existing, and ...damn, beneath the thin blue cushion... parang plywood, sobrang tigas! I tossed and turned to find a good position, eventually, I gave up.

Lesson - Hindi lahat ng maarteng patients, nag-iinarte lang. Take it into consideration!

--

Code blue. 8 am. Today is the worst day to lose your husband.

Have a happy one. :) To all the singles, put your hands up!

The longer I spend time with my report, the better it's supposed to get...Lots and lots of reading to do, and it's due on Friday...

I wonder if it's just the workload, or am I beginning to doubt whether I really want to be an Internist or not...But I have to finish what I started...I have to complete my residency so that finally my parents can retire because by then I can stand on my own feet.

She was among the people in who came in at the evening rush, and I hurriedly took her history, examined her. She was ambulant, although in some discomfort, but relatively better than the rest of the patients that I was attending to that morning.

Hypogastric pains, fever, dysuria. A tender lower abdomen. A positive urinalysis, I signed her chart as an acute pyelonephritis.

"Hindi ka buntis?"

"First day ko."

And seeing the urinalysis with 40-50 blood cells, I accepted her statement.

I referred her to surgery. The resident told me it was an unusually tender abdomen. He signed her as - rule out acute appendicitis

When the OB saw her, they did a routine pregnancy test.

Positive. She was a threatened abortion. She was transferred from my service to the OB department's. I felt sad to see someone so young and so pretty to be experiencing something she might not have been ready for.

--

Lesson - Not all bleeding are menses. Always, always have a pregnancy test done!

"When you're with a guy, don't be a doctor...be a girl."

--

We brought a patient to PGH. I saw him two days ago in the ER, with a seemingly benign chest pain, post prandial, and admitted him.  Little did I know he would develop an infarction.

Lesson - treat all chest pain like a heart attack.

I was walking through the halls, guiding the stretcher, when I saw a familiar face. It was Dave! Instantly, my face lit up, temporarily forgetting that I was keeping down my stomach contents after that vertigo-inducing ambulance ride.  We said a quick hello, a very tight hug, and we parted ways as I rushed to fetch the patient to his room.

As maneuvered around the building, I told the nurses how it seems only yesterday, I spent a very memorable week there as pre-resident.

When I went back, he was there again. We were deciding whether I would stay in manila, or I would take him along to Dasma. Haha. The ambulance was already about to leave, but our arms were locked and we were pulling opposite directions. It must've looked funny. We took a snapshot, and he let me go.

I miss the times when we were interns. Life was easier then. :)

ngayon alam ko na kung bkit nag-walkout dati si fariñas sa impeachment hearing.. yung mga epal kseng utak-taho sila pa mga maboka sa media..