DOCTOR POTATO

Wednesday, August 03, 2005

THAT'S AB-SOLUTE BULL

Good day, people! Here are a few very relevant and helpful mythbusters for the figure-conscious which I got from the magazine Cosmopolitan. I thought of this post last night, because Tomato and I went to Fitness First gym for possibly the last time. We'll be transferring to the Pinnacle Gym by next week. Why? Well, first of all, Fitness First is rather expensive. And secondly, we had a big fight with the management! Want to know more about that? Well, read the following first, and see if you don't learn something new!

BULL: You can spot-reduce your stomach.
THE REAL DEAL: Ab exercises will strengthen and tone your muscles, but you need to incorporate cardio into your routine and change your diet if you want your steel tummy to show.

BULL: The greater the reps, the greater the rewards.
THE REAL DEAL: After 15-20 sit-ups, you begin pulling on the back of your head, whcih can cause neck strain, and using momentum instead of your abs. Focus on form over number of repetitions.

BULL: You need to workyour abs every day.
THE REAL DEAL: Like any muscle, abs need alternate days off to regenerate. Plus, you'll be less likely to burn out if you take a break.

   Didn't I tell you that you'd learn something new?

  Anway, I'd first like to greet everyone a good day. I'm so happy to see that quite a few of my friends--plus some honored guests--have dropped by. Hello to Shin-Shin who's in Canada, and Julia who's somewhere in the Philippines!  Doc Emer also tagged me. You should go see his top-ranked blog, Parallel Universes, if you want more serious insights into the world of Medicine in the Philippines.

  As you can see, I'm dressed quite casually, and am just spending the whole morning bloghopping and writing entries on my gazillion blogs. That cute poodle is the closest approximation that Yahoo avatars has of Zooty, our mixed mutt, whom we mated for the first time with a Japanese Spitz yesterday. The poor thing was whimpering and crying all day. I hope she gets better soon. And I hope she gets pregnant, too!

   I promised to tell you about what happened at Fitness First. Well, to put it simply, they charged us twice for the same two months. One thing I can say about that gym--they do everything in their power to make sure that they don't get stiffed. Well, in this case, it backfired on them. When I was terminating my contract, a lady at the counter--Carrie--told me that my mom's credit card had bounced, so we consequently owed them two month's gym fee. She even called my mom to tell her so, coz I wouldn't believe it. Mom philosophically wrote a check for almost 5k, a not insignificant sum.  Mistake number one.

   Imagine mom's surprise when her bill arrived and showed that the fee for those two months had been debited after all! She got so mad.  We brought up the matter with Carrie at once, who didn't seem sorry at all when she apologized for the oversight. She promised us that she'd attend to the matter before i left the gym, which at the time was only three weeks away.

   Well, two weeks passed, but nothing happened. Every time we followed up with Carrie, she only gave us a commiserating smile, and said that it was out of her hands. Mistake number two.

    Anyone who knows me personally also knows my mother. Losing all patience, she called Carrie up personally and bawled her out over my cellphone. Not content with that, she asked for the number of the main office at Makati. Poor Carrie, who understandably did not want any trouble, tried to talk mom out of getting the number, saying that she'd take care of the matter herself, but mom wouldn't give in. Finally, Mom did get a number, but it was a faxtone. Mistake number three. Strike out. Mom wrote a very irate and explosive letter and faxed it to the main office. The next day, she somehow got the real number and called Makati. By then, everyone there knew her or of her. The manager assured her that Carrie had been reprimanded, and that our complaint would finally be duly processed.

   Well, that finally ended things, except that we're still waiting for our refund. What happened to Carrie? Well, we don't see her around anymore. She may have been transferred, suspended, or even laid off altogether. One thing I know for sure: she's not going to forget me or my mom for a very long time.

renzguerra liberated at 11:35 am
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TWENTY THINGS I LOVE ABOUT TOMATO

I've been mentioning the Tomato for a little while now. Unfortunately, I can't say his real name because he's a little paranoid. Anyway, this is just a little meme to show you why he rocks my world.

1. The way he looks at me with his limpid eyes and slowly flaps his long, thick eyelashes, knowing perfectly well that it makes him look irresistible.

2. The way he calls me when he's out somewhere driving, and belts along to that lovesong bellowing out of his car radio.

3. The way he pauses after each exercise, after each stretching session, and just before changing outside the locker room in the gym so he can hug me and kiss me on the forehead.

4. The way he calls me when he's on his way to my house to ask if he can buy me anything.

5. The way he lifts an arm up to my chin when he's driving, so I can nuzzle his hand with my cheek.

6. The way he buys me small but thoughtful things, like that poster of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.

7. The way he buys DVD's and audio CD's and offers them to my dad, who is a a techno-freak.

8. The way he buys kakanin and traditional Filipino food and offers them to my mom, who loves such stuff.

9. The way he often calls home to make sure that his mom, niece, and nephew are all right.

10. The way he falls asleep on the sofa while watching DVD's with my family, because he has to wait until 11 in the evening so he can fetch his sister from work. And that's when he has classes the following day, and has to wake up at 5 a.m. at the latest.

renzguerra liberated at 11:34 am
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Tuesday, August 02, 2005

THE ULTIMATE CURE FOR HICCUPS

   My dad reminded me of the quaint way mothers here stop their babies from having intractable hiccups.

   They stick a small piece of of wet cotton on the baby's forehead.

   I'm not kidding! And the astonishing thing is, my dad says that it actually works. Not because of some complex mechanical reaction, either. Just for the simple reason that the baby gets distracted, and it concentrates so much on its forehead that it forgets all about the hiccups.

   I have no idea if this is true. But it's as good an explanation as any.

   Hey, if you don't believe me, you could always try it ;)

   My avatar right now shows me wearing pink pajamas, and almost blending into an all-pink bedroom. My room doesn't look like that, but my old one did. All flowers and baby pink, as if a three year-old girl slept there.  The color made me feel like curling up in a fetal position and sucking my thumb. My new one's theme is mint-green; not because it's my favorite color, but because my dad didn't like the look of PURPLE. He tried it first, but had it repainted almost immediately over my protests. He said the room looked stuck in the season of Lent.

   Actually, what struck me about the pink background was its messiness. And that...I can relate with. Just ask my mother. She'd be glad to tell you how I leave everything in the state of calamity.

   Why am I wearing a scarf, do you ask? Because the aircon's too strong, dammit. But I can't do anything about it, because I'd rather be cold than hot. Whatever.

   It's only 11:30 in the evening, and I'm already sleepy.   Unusual for a night owl like me. I guess it's because of the prospect of having to study. Having submitted the requirements this afternoon, I've become irrevocably bound. Now, since reading my medical books is once more a chore and not something I actually want to do, I expect that I'll be procrastinating like crazy again. Like now.

renzguerra liberated at 09:23 pm
Prescription (1) The bill

MOMENT OF TRUTH

Well, it's the moment of truth.

Have to submit my requirements this afternoon, the damn S2 to follow.

Hoping that I'm making the right decision. I've wasted enough time casting about for which hospital to apply to. Well, at least a lot of my friends will be there. We can suffer and learn the ropes together. The more, the merrier.

By the way, good luck to all my friends who will be taking the Philippine Medicine Boards this August 21, especially Nishi, Miggs, HB, Jeff, Qrix, and all my other intern friends--I can't name you all! I miss you!! God be with you!

renzguerra liberated at 01:42 pm
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Monday, August 01, 2005

AIRHEAD

   Okay, here's another urrrm...I can't think of another word for it, ridiculous medical myth which I came across while I was still a fourth-year clerk.

   Our wards had rotating ceiling fans for ventilation. Our patients couldn't choose which beds they'd end up in, so it was a toss-up whether the fans reached them or not.

   I had one patient, a 12-year old girl, who unfortunately got the brunt of the fan on her face. Afterwards, I noticed that she always had a towel wrapped around her head. When I finally asked her mother why, the mother replied, "Para hindi mapasukan ng lamig ang ulo niya. Baka kasi magka-headache siya."

   To all ye non-Filipinos, her premise was this.

   Cold air can enter your head and cause headaches.

   The other patients and their accompanying relatives nodded seriously, as if this was common knowledge. Instead of cracking up on the spot, I patiently told them that no such thing would happen. Of course, the mother didn't believe me. She kept her daughter's head wrapped up anyway. Just in case.

   Okay. I'm not going to try and find out where she got this idea. I'm not even going to elaborate on why it's not possible in the first place. I'm just going to say this once.

   Cold air cannot enter your head and cause headaches by doing so.

   Enough said.

renzguerra liberated at 09:25 am
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HE OF THE ROCK-HARD PRINCIPLES

Okay, this post has nothing to do with medicine, so indulge me.

   I would just like to congratulate my Tomato, who was given the award of Reporter of the Year by the Volunteer Group Against Crime and Corruption. Of course, I'm prouder than proud. The awarding is supposed to be this week at the Malacanang palace itself. He keeps insisting that it's no biggie and not even prestigious, but I know better. I've already asked permission from my mom to let me attend. Think I'm going to spend some time tomorrow rummaging around my closet.

   Thinking of a nice gift to celebrate the occasion. What do you give a really cute reporter in a top newspaper who's more often than not on the front page (he had two articles there today, one of them was the headline), and who just received an award for uncompromising integrity?

   Hmmm, think hard, think fast.

renzguerra liberated at 09:03 am
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DAMN BUREAUCRACIES

   Right now, I'm engrossed in gathering the requirements for my Internal Medicine residency application. It's a great big hassle, especially nowadays that we don't have a driver.  Our driver, as some of you might know, recently underwent a CABG (a coronary artery bypass graft), because he was on the verge of a heart attack. My dad did the operation, and nearly financed the whole thing, too. Anyway, he says that Mang Nelson has to rest for about six months after the operation. That's, like, two months away, which is precisely why I'm stuck in the house. My friends keep telling me that I have to learn how to drive so I won't have to depend on anyone, but it's not like i can drive either of our cars, which are both SUV's. My dad keeps telling me that I can drive the Trooper. Duh. I don't even want to know how much that would cost me if I so much as scratched it.  If I got a car to use as a practice vehicle, I'd prefer that it was small, second or third-hand, and cheap.

   Anyway, I'm still missing the S2 license, which would allow me to prescribe regulated drugs. I don't know why the heck I need it in the first place, except that it's listed in the requirements. As a first-year Internal Medicine resident, I don't expect to be prescribing such things for years yet to come. But, there you go. That damn S2 is causing me more trouble than all the other requirements combined.  Because of it, I have to get my TIN (Taxpayer's Identification Number) ID, which, of course, I never applied for. That means that we had to drive about 20 kilometers away to the Bureau of Internal Revenue (this is a considerable distance when we're talking about the traffic in Manila), wait for more than an hour while the government employees took their sweet time getting back from lunch, only to be told that I couldn't get an ID because I had to update my registered-bloody-address. So the guy there gave me two forms, and told me to fill them up and give them to the BIR at North Quezon City. Fine. So we drove all the way back and proceeded to the establishment in question. And what happened? The--fortunately--nice lady there told us that we'd done it wrong; we should have had the three--not two!--forms processed back at the Manila BIR before submitting it to the BIR at South Quezon City.   My blood started to boil. That was definitely not a good day.

   Anyway, that task finally got done. I handed the whole thing over to my helper because I didn't want to go through that entire hassle again. Thankfully, she survived this time, although we've been told to wait 3-5 days for processing before I could apply for my ID. Fine. I can still wait. The hospital I've been applying to doesn't even know the deadline for the residency application, which is a good thing, because that must mean it's still far off. I sure hope so. I haven't studied yet, and that fact is finally beginning to worry me. I should have at least a month left. That's enough.

   My next stop tomorrow: the compulsory urine drug test, which I could not take before because I had been taking slimming pills which could turn out false positive and give me a bad record at the Department of Health. Great. I'm so excited.

renzguerra liberated at 01:37 am
Prescription (1) The bill

Sunday, July 31, 2005

DIARRHEA DOLDRUMS

   When you live at home with two noisy, boisterous kids aged 1 1/2 and 3 years old, you're bound to have to deal with a lot of shit. And I'm saying that literally. Kids tend to put anything in their mouths, even when it's not good for them. That leads to a lot of tummy trouble, and frequent trips to the bathroom.

   Fortunately, I'm not talking about myself. I'm talking about my boyfriend, who often has to deal with his sister's two kids without the assistance of domestic help. Of course, his mother's always at home, but she's hypertensive, and shouldn't be subjected to so much stress.

   Anyway, kids dehydrate very quickly, and become listless and lethargic. At any other circumstance, this would actually be desirable, but since they're sick, the correct response would be concern.

   So what should you do?

   Do not to give them anti-diarrhea medications like Diatabs or Loperamide or anything of the sort.

   That might actually be bad for them. The medications would force the kid's intestines to retain whatever they had eaten, even if they were toxic or spoiled. You would end up prolonging the illness, not solving it. The body is smart--it tries to expel bad things as quickly as possible.

   No; the danger here is dehydration and electrolyte imbalance, which is why the kids become weak. They should be given lots of water and Oral Rehydration Solutions, which are available in drugstores. Also, they should be put on a bland diet that is rich in potassium, what we traditionally refer to as the BRAT diet (Bananas, rice, apples, tea). Nothing oily, spicy, fatty, or exotic that could shock the stomach further.

   When I was young, I used to be given softdrinks and crackers by my yayas. Of course, I am now aware that this is wrong, as softdrinks are often too sweet, and crackers are too salty.

   These are just temporizing measures, of course, but they are very important measures. Kids can die from dehydration. That's precisely how cholera kills. If the kids get better immediately, well and good. But if the illness persists, they should be brought to a pediatrician immediately.

renzguerra liberated at 09:00 pm
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ACTIVITY AND APPENDICITIS

   There is a long-standing belief that:

   Vigorous activity within two hours of a full meal is a risk factor for appendicitis.

   I don't know if anyone else aside from Filipinos believes this too.

   Actually, it sounds pretty logical if you think about it. The problem is, the new trend nowadays is Evidence-Based Medicine, which means that just because it's logical doesn't mean that it's true.

   The thing is, I've never encountered anything in our Surgery book--Schwartz--that says anything about post-prandial activity having anything to do with appendicitis. Believe me, I've looked. It just tends to run in families, and is more common in adolescent males and those with intra-abdominal tumors (Griffith's 5 minute Clinical Consult).

Appendicitis is caused when something obstructs the appendix--most commonly a fecalith (which is an impressive sounding-name for a hardened piece of shit) or other foreign bodies such as worms (yucky but true) or seeds, and prevents the venous blood from draining. Of course, secretions accumulate inside the appendix too, till it becomes this small, red, swollen balloon that hurts like hell. That pain usually manifests first around your navel, then transfers after a few hours to the right lower quadrant of the abdomen.

Anyway, the point is, there's no evidence that says you can't exercise after eating for fear of Appendicitis. But i'm not aware of any studies that have investigated this either, so better safe than sorry.

renzguerra liberated at 07:13 pm
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Friday, July 29, 2005

CUTICLE CRAZY

   I don't know why it is that manicurists here in the Philippines remove the cuticle when tending to fingernails.   Some of them seem to have a personal grudge against this little bit of tissue, and nip and tug furiously at it until every trace is gone. I suppose it's supposed to look cleaner.

   What a lot of people don't seem to realize is that we actually need the cuticle. It protects the nail, and the living tissue around it. Without the cuticle, the finger is much more predisposed to infection, which can be very painful, as a lot of people have found out through bitter experience.

   My boyfriend is an example. One day, his right index finger just became red, swollen, and tender. He ignored it, until it resembled a red balloon. Finally, he had to have it looked at. His doctor had to make a small incision on the side of his finger to let all the pus out. Ouch.

   So the next time your manicurista tries to take off your cuticles, don't let her. You just might be sparing yourself from a lot of pain.

renzguerra liberated at 09:45 pm
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All About Me

DOCTOR POTATO IS IN!
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ABOUT ME:

Age: 26 (Biological); 23 (Real daw)

Occupation: IM Resident

Subspecialty: Cardio or Endo

Appearance: Look at the Avatar ;)

Just trying to:

Introduce people to the wacky world of Medicine in the Philippines

Correct some common misconceptions about medical stuff

Blog about life in general

Visit my other pages

I Live: long and prosper.
I Work: Awww...do I have to?.
I Think: therefore I get headaches.
I Laugh: even when I don't get the joke.
I Hide: and Seek.
I Write: when I'm bored/inspired.
I See:...Dead People?
I Sing: in the shower.
I Can: cross my eyes.
I Can't: whistle.
I Watch: Disney.
I Daydream: in church. I can't help it!.
I Fall: when my heels are too pointy.
I Want: potato chips. Lays, Sour Cream and Onion.
I Cry: when I chop onions.
I Read: the instruction manuals that come with gadgets.
I Love: Tomato.
I Sometimes: talk to myself. Joke. Oh, wait...
I Fear: Doctor Go.
I Hope: to be him someday. Another joke!
I Quit: and so did three others....
I Miss: College.
I Forgive: mostly everyone, except Kris Aquino for publicly confessing she had an STD.
I Drive: a red Mazda 3. In my dreams.
I Dream: when I sleep. Duh.
I Remember: when I had a smaller waistline. *sigh*
I Don't: have a sense of direction.
I Believe: that I should be in Hogwarts.
I Know: who was killed in the Half-Blood Prince.
I Hate: Snape.
I Feel: restless.

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AUTUMN

Mountain splinters courting
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Reminder to Self When Writing...

Kapag pinag-sama ang Patatas at ang Kamatis, ano ang katumbas? Gulay ba? Hindi yata bagay kung sa pagkain. Pero kung sa totoong buhay, aba...hindi yata puwedeng magkahiwalay!!

When: In about two or three years.
Kids: Maximum of two.
Cars: Two to three, an SUV for him and a car for him.
Pets:

He wants a St. Bernard. I want a Shih Tzu. Let's hope the former doesn't eat the latter.
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