It has been a whirlwind week of ACTION. It started with a late lunch with the Japanese participants followed by a crazy Monday concerning a hotel, a hostage situation and disgruntled classmate, a few days of being a host (a GRO if you will), studying for a Repro exam and topped off with a night at Villa Escudero and leaving my beloved camera at the bus.

I'm glad with the past week (removing the hostage fiasco that is) and though it left me failing to meet several deadlines, I did make some new friends who I hope I'll be able to keep in touch with.

And I'm seeing how a few days of being together can already foster tolerance of other people and their cultures.

It's only been a month and I think I have accomplished more that what I had done last year. What a crazy month August has been. Though we won't have foreigners this September, there will still be lots of events to organize. Another good things is that I can almost smell sem break. Which means, rest, rest and preparing for EAMSC!

I can't believe I'm still awake to study for an exam. So this is how LUIV turns out if you try to have extra-curricular activities. Curse you med school!

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You've heard about the bus, right?

So abortion has come up again in the consciousness of Philippine media. In one story, a counselor for women who attempted abortion explained that abortion should not happen because the woman will feel extreme guilt regarding the act. Immediately, a question popped in my head, why should she feel guilty about it? Guilt occurs when you commit an act the society deems as unethical. (And the flood gates open for the ethics of abortion.)
But it is sad that our society is a blaming society. One in which women who commit abortion are shunned when them getting pregnant and subsequently getting an abortion is not her entire fault. I am curious as to what methods do these counseling centers use to convince women to keep their pregnancy. I glean from the story that it uses a more religious approach of labels, blaming and fear rather than a more neutral non-blaming laying it all on the table.

Actually, it is weird to use the word counseling when you only offer one viable option. You're not counseling, you're brainwashing.

Am I seriously arguing for abortion? I don't know. Just rambling. I just can't get over the fact that legalizing abortion would make the number go down. And even better, would ensure that women would not die due to back alley procedures ranging from overdoses of Cytotec or pushing a wire up her vagina.

Meeting people from other countries is fun. Too bad it costs an arm and a limb and a whole lot of work to attend those conferences.

I still have a backlog of photos to edit and upload though.

And I have to learn a bit of Chinese for the next conference.

I skipped class again today. I do make sure that I can just read up on that class besides I'd probably not learn the things I learned in the seminar if I just stick to the med curriculum.

I did learn a lot of new things.

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How do you make people into advocates?

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Hot issues right now: Sex Ed, Divorce, Abortion

No, now is not the time to introduce a divorce or abortion law. Focus on the RH bill first. Although the number of induced abortions and deaths due to it is horrendous and warrants immediate action, changing the protocols and retraining the health care professionals would have to suffice for now. The Church is still too noisy.

The Indonesians are leaving tomorrow and as I attempt to return to some semblance of normalcy, the training which we've been organizing since last year rears its ugly head. Far from the 50 participants, we'll only have 24. No point in putting the blame on someone but these issues will definitely appear in our project report.

At least the next module looks more benign than the Cardio module. Unfortunately, I'll have three exams on the week of the training and I'm really worried that I won't be able to recruit volunteers from UP to help out in ACTION.

Again, why do I keep doing this to myself?

Assisting in AMSEP Philippines by being a guide of Indonesians.

Leading our research group and coordinating the logistics of everything.

Mabuti na lang mabilis ako magbasa. Hindi ko alam kung saan ako pupulutin kung hindi.

Been back in the Philippines since last night and jumped head on into the swamp of school work waiting for me. The conference was too packed for me to be able to blog properly.

I need to find some time to blog about my Jakarta experience.

In brief though, the hospital in Jakarta will not make many UPM people happy. It's very nice but the whole philosophy behind it is not acceptable. And my friends from other countries agree. cheers for socialist medicine!

I will have Jakarta part 2 this week since some Indonesians will be coming. I won't be a major host but will try to help out as much as I can.

Now in Indonesia. I might not be presenting the paper I've worked hard for. Might. I also do not have a room for the night. It looks like I'll be staying in the hotel lobby for 8 hours. The email was clear that the committee will book for me but the lobby staff do not have a reservation under my name. A major problem is I haven't seen a single person from the Secretariat team and my group moderator is not replying to my message. This is not a good way to start the conference. =|

UPDATE: I did have a room but there were four of us and one slept on the floor. =| Two Indonesians also toured as around a part of Jakarta. I ate street food and survived. We also had this yummy kang kong dish. mmm... I don't think it's hard to be vegetarian in this country. Traffic here seems a bit worse since there's a feeling of being in Espana. The roads are cleaner though... much cleaner.

I also saw my paper in the Academic booklet. It was a nice feeling. I'm jealous of the countries who were able to make quantitative research projects. Next time, we'll do a better job.

Finding myself toxic again with all the juggling of responsibilities.

At least I have Indonesia to look forward to next week.

Unfortunately, I will be reading transes during my spare time there as I have a big test to come home to after that.

And then there's that blasted training we're organizing. I already feel the burden of being a secretary. Never again will I accept a secretary role.

Happy with the results of the 1st General Pathology exam.

Happy that my excuse request has been approved.

DOH Sec Ona is not making me hopeful about the Philippine health situation.

One is the striking lack of a Public Health background aside from advocating preventive nephrology and against brain drain, he has spent the rest of his career as a specialist and before becoming the new sec, the head of NKTI. The DOH needs not a specialist who has been stuck in a hospital for the majority of his career, the DOH needs a person who has worked in the communities and in public health programs.

But what really rubs me off is his desire to lift the transplant ban and allow "gratuity packages" for kidney donors. He fools no one. Everyone knows that the "gratuity package" is what he thinks is the appropriate market price of a healthy kidney. The gratitude of the recipient should not be expressed through a lump sum of money. Money that would actually tempt poor families to sell their kidneys. Add to that the inherent complexity of differentiating money given as gifts and money given as payment. A task I do not trust the DOH nor anyone for that matter to be successful in completing for all cases.

Lifting the transplant ban is stupid. Already, thousands of Filipinos die every year because of lack of available kidneys (and the prohibitive costs) yet Dr. Ona plans to siphon the few donated kidneys away from deserving Filipinos to other foreigners. I must use the nationalism card. The foreigner might be deserving as well but Filipinos deserve them too. What more, that Filipino will be working here and helping in the country's development. That foreigner will just pay a sum for the servics and then leave.

Actually, determining who is more deserving is not an important question. We should focus on the Filipino's right to health to which the State is duty bound to fulfill. Lifting the ban makes it harder for the State to fulfill its duty to fulfilling the right to health of Filipinos. As mentioned previously,  lifting it would just diminish the low supply of kidneys which would just rob more Filipinos their right to health.

Had a busy week and the following week is not looking good either. Times like these when I wish I want lesser and smaller things in life. or maybe it's just the colds talking.

The deadline for THE paper is looming. I'm at that stage where I hate everything I wrote.

I wonder when or if I'd ever get rid of that stage. I guess the only way to find out is to continue writing.

on miracles: maybe they happen. I've never experienced one but that doesn't mean it doesn't exist. Still, it would be pretty hard to convince me that there is no "natural" or rational explanation for an event. I do accept that things of very low probability do occur. hey, if they don't occur then Life shouldn't have existed.

Happy Atheist Solidarity Day!

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Parents sue DepEd regarding Sex Ed

One, how many of you hypocrites have children enrolled in public schools?
Two, private schools have been "overtaking the parents' responsibility" for years now. If you are going to sue someone, sue one who has committed the act and not one who is intending to.
Three, your invocation of a clause from the Constitution is irrelevant. The sex education module will not even affect the morals of children. It is not a religion nor a values ed class.
Four, you should sue DepEd because they have values class which is "overtaking the parents' responsibility" for the child's moral development. But you don't want that because according to you the youth already has twisted morals.
Five, it is actually your Church who wants to include the moral implications of sex in the module. So you should first complain to them.

Our art of medicine lecturer shared stories of "rude" UPCM graduates.

It was toxic in the ER. A journalist was asked to leave since he is not allowed. He threatened to expose this "maltreatment" of media and write about how he was wronged. The intern present having enough of the journalist just told him to leave and even showed the journalist his nameplate and said, "Be sure that you don't incorrectly spell my name, ok?"

I probably would have done the same thing but our lecturer warned us that it is stupid to fight the media. And since I was recently called rude by a teacher I respect, I should work on creating a polite public persona. At least one I could use for patients and business acquaintances i.e. people I need something from. Cleaning myself up would help since a doctor also asked me why I look like I haven't taken a bath (I actually did but commuting in the summer heat from home to PGH unraveled most of its effects).

The bishop who attended the DepEd consultation said that they will only agree to sex ed if contentious material against certain doctrine of people are removed particularly those against of the Roman Catholic doctrine.

Uh... no. The DepEd needs to follow secular molarity free from religious doctrine. If it is contentious i.e. offends the RC doctrine or any doctrine for that matter, the teacher can note this in class. There is no need to remove it.

They also want a spiritual component to be involved. From any other person, this would be an okay suggestion but this is coming from a bishop and you know that what he's referring to spiritual development is development to becoming a good Catholic.

And I don't agree that sex should occur within marriage. Nor should they teach that sex should only happen in marriage. Sex should occur between responsible adults who have both understood the potential outcomes of intercourse and have prepared for it. In other words, consenting adults. Adults need not be married. The module could point out that having children out of wedlock would be difficult for the current society but it is not immoral. Having sex out of wedlock is immoral only in religious ethics and not secular ethics.

And having religious teaching in public school is unconstitutional.

In the end, this consultation is a farce. The RC Church is not for sex education. They don't even want using the word SEX. The DepEd should have a firm stance and not be bullied into weakening their module. Worse, they should not be bullied into making a module that forces religious belief unto others especially young and impressionable individuals. If the RC Church is so worried about it sex ed, they should hold their own sessions. I think that is what Sunday school is for anyway.

One, there is no absolute normal. A doctor should know that there is always a small chance that an abnormal lab test is not abnormal for the patient.

Two, ask before attacking. I wouldn't have gotten annoyed have you chosen better words to criticize our work.

Three, don't assume that I don't know what I'm doing. I may not have experienced as many things as you have but don't treat me like I know nothing.

Four, yes. BHWs can last four hours listening to lectures. Their levels of internal motivation is quite wonderful.

Five, We did have a relatively good session. At least my classmates seem to have learned something.

I spent my Saturday afternoon with the child residents of Hospicio de San Jose talking
about peace, war and climate change.

LUIII officially ended with enrollment yesterday. And I really should be posting on LUIII so here it goes.

LUIII started with me hating medicine. Coming from a 4 week stint as a research assistant for a health policy project made me want to just stop taking up medicine and just take the plunge into the public health arena. Of course, my dependence on my parents and my desire to become a doctor won over so here I am a 2nd year med student.

To avoid the feeling of utter uselessness to Philippine society, I had to join organizations. I am active in three: MSSR, RSO and the MSC Social issues VolCorps. These organizations provide a venue to complement my medical education. UPCM wants us to be community-oriented doctors and I feel these three help me grow to be that kind of doctor. Summer immersions and real community work beyond medical missions? RSO. Updated on national issues? MSC SocIsh. Peace and human rights? Global issues? Networking? MSSR. I've got my bases pretty covered.

I was pretty sure I was sending off anti-social vibes during my first few days in med school. I couldn't even bring myself to say the class cheer. That all changed. I'm pretty sure I'm well integrated socially. Us having to follow a seat plan and that art of medicine module did move things along.

Academically, I exceeded my expectations. The subjects were challenging but surprisingly, I did well in the subject I feared most, OS 202 or Neurology and Endocrinology. I'm still bewildered by the score I got at the first lecture exam. Having friends who tutored me on the anatomy of the brain really helped. And the weird thing is that I got the same grades for the other OS subjects (except for the Thorax module were grades were curved) despite the feeling that I really did well in that abdomen and pelvis modules. The dreadful part is getting relatively low grades in our research subject despite having an arguably good paper, presentation and positive results on top. I have yet to evaluate this subject but they'll be hearing a lot from me and their stupid evaluation method.

Having a BSPH degree really helped. As the year progressed, I realized that I can "let go" of the histology portions of the modules since I already know them enough. The time saved was spent on reviewing areas where I was weak, such as gross anatomy. Medicine has been good because it allowed me to practice skills I learned in undergrad. At least when I get out, I have increased mastery over skills such as making health promotion materials, managing groups and writing research papers.

Overall, LUIII is a good year. I hope LUIV brings more fun and cheer.