toxic powers

as much as i want to deny it, i am a toxic magnet. no, i don't attract poisons, but i attract toxic (i.e., problematic; abundant ) patients, be it in the hospital or at the out-patient clinic i go to. definitely, the owners of the hospital aren't complaining since that means profit for them. but the nurses, midwives, nursing aids i work with aren't exactly happy. toxic patients mean more work for them and for me, of course. but i'm not complaining coz i'm better compensated as compared to them.

to make their shifts with me a little bearable for them i usually bring out my bag of goodies. i'm a believer of the saying, "the way to a person's heart is through his stomach", but in this case, the staff's heart. so far, my strategy has been working. though they're dead tired at the end of the day, their stomachs are not grumbling as well.

but still, every single week that i've been there, the staff would ask if i'm coming back the next week. although i would like to think that they would miss me if i'm not coming back, i think the main reason is they just want to know so they could schedule their off days to coincide with my duty days. oh well, at least, they haven't filed emergency leaves at the same time.

so far, i hold the record of the most number of admissions and the most number of ORs in a single day in that hospital....hmmm...what else? i have yet to experience a duty where i don't admit a really toxic patient, be it a vehicular accident victim, a patient with severe attack of asthma or a patient having a heart attack. i just hope my toxic powers wouldn't run out when i become a consultant!

oh, and i have a little secret...i wouldn't be there on my usual duty days next week. sorry na lang sa mga nag-off!

journey

a friend of bugsy started a blog which features articles from different blogs that "tell stories of human interest, Filipino virtues and culture". the articles were published in a blog called Journey of the Soul and cath of Now What, Cat? is the one responsible for this wonderful idea. She said...

"I am not ambitious. It is just a simple wish to create a blog that promotes values and virtues that may no longer found from many of us."

and so, i want to thank bugsy, who recommended my entry, what's in a word, to cath. and of course, to cath, who thought it was worth publishing in her blog. as an added bonus to me, cath also featured another article i made a few months back, A. my heartfelt thanks! =)

jack ryan

i'm currently watching a harrison ford movie on cable tv. i think i've seen this film more than five times but i haven't gotten tired of it. actually, i don't think i'll ever get tired of watching his movies. i dunno what it is about him but i find him ruggedly handsome.

when i see him in a movie, i always get the impression he wouldn't be able to beat the villain but obviously, in the end, he would. i guess it's because his whole demeanor isn't like the typical leading men i see. his is more like the quiet, strong type... parang nasa loob ang kulo. his aggressiveness only becomes apparent when needed and so he could always be taken for granted as a sort-of a weakling. exceptions to this are his charactes in the star wars trilogy and indiana jones series. but then, he was a lot younger then.

he was the best when he played the jack ryan character from tom clancy's books. and it didn't hurt that i'm a tom clancy fan as well. i couldn't imagine anyone who could play jack ryan better. i wish harrison ford would make another jack ryan movie, and this time, the executive orders. i will keep my fingers crossed. but for now, i'll just continue watching his old movies.

room make-over

for months now, since our living room, dining area and kitchen started to undergo some repairs and repainting job, i've been trying to convince my mom to do the same in my room. i want it done in red! but so far i haven't succeeded and i don't think i ever will. so i'm now left to my own artistic devices.

that's where the problem starts. as much as i want to deny it, i don't have any artistic tendencies. drawing a person for me means drawing a stick figure. thinking or imagining a design for my room is just beyond me. all i know is i want to have colors in my room. right now, everything is in wood. the walls are narra ply, which is the main reason why my mom doesn't want it painted. the beds, the windows, the floor and the cabinets are all made of wood and varnished with antique finish. i wonder if i'd soon end up of antique finish too.

although nothing is broken and all are still functional, sometimes i just find my room too gloomy. so how do i infuse some colors into my room? next to the color problem is the storage problem. my sister and i used to share this room and although she has a house of her own now, she refused to budge when i asked to have her bed removed from the room so there would be more space for storage and other things. i understand her sentiments and i know, that was mean of me for even suggesting it, but then, i just have to try. ;-)

i think i've been watching too much room make-overs on tv!

never again

did anybody see the small group of people who were holding a protest rally of some sort yesterday along elliptical road? i was there. i was there with that group. and that was a mass action against the closure of one of the specialty hospitals along quezon avenue.

but i didn't go there on my own volition. in fact, i arrived at the clinic yesterday without the knowledge that there was gonna be an activity at lunch time. what i thought was going to be a small forum with a speaker in a small auditorium, it turned out to be a small rally instead. if i had known, i wouldn't have gone to the clinic at all. i thought i have made it clear to them that although i respect their opinions and what they believe in, that didn't mean i'd be joining their rallies. i've said it over and over again that the best i could do was to see and treat the patients that goes to their clinic.

so anyway, there i was with C, who was also one of the doctors at the clinic, and all the office people from that NGO group, who was part of the organizer of the mass action. we were asked to stand beside the road, side by side, some bearing placards, the others just standing there, not knowing what was happening (and that included me). good thing it was raining coz i had my umbrella with me, which also served to cover my face while standing along the road. i didn't want to be seen on tv which could pose a problem for me in case my family sees it.

after we stood there for around 5 minutes, hungry, wet and a little irritated, C and i decided that we've done enough and went back to the jeepney that brought us there. the sad thing was, with all the talk, speech, placards, i dunno if somebody listened at all to what they're trying to impart. though what they're saying or fighting for might be right, i don't think holding rallies would do the job.

as if rubbing salt to injury, i heard from a reliable source, that the hospital they're fighting for isn't closing at all. ayus!

drama king

at the height of the "hello garci" scandal, my mom thought it best to stock on some basic necessities for fear of instability or any untoward events to happen to the country anytime. in short, my mom went into her panic-buying mode.

on the night she heard GMA asked all the cabinet members to resign, my mom immediately called up my brother and sister to tell them to buy stocks of formula milk for their babies at once. not yet contented, she then called up my eldest brother to buy some more milk on his way home.

unfortunately, he didn't have enough cash with him to buy the cans of milk mom wanted. so he called up my mom to tell her. as he was telling her his predicament, my mom abruptly ended the call, obviously disappointed with her favorite son.

a few minutes after, i received a message from my bro, still in shock and a little peeved by my mom's actions.

"bakit ganon, di lang ako nakabili ng gatas, nagalit na?"

oh my! the eldest son, the bully of all bullies, having a tiff with my mom over some milk! hmm...that was unusual. in the end, i tried to explain that mom was just worried...blah...blah... but my brother could not be pacified. instead, i received a couple of other messages, which ended with,

"pati ba naman problema ni gloria, ako may kasalanan?"

there goes the drama king!

delaying tactics

these past few weeks, i've been very busy with some new things. i've started a new business and a new hobby, both unrelated to my field of work. and i'm quite enjoying doing them.

i'm currently selling murano-made pendants from italy. i just love those pendants which are made of glass! i'm dreaming of ordering every design available and keep it all to myself! but that would be impossible. so i'm doing the next best thing, which is selling them so i could earn a little to buy some more pendants for me.

as for my new hobby, it has been taking a lot of my time. but i don't mind coz i'm totally enjoying baking. my family is getting bigger because of all the lasagna, cookies and food for the gods i've been making almost every week. although, i haven't heard anyone complaining. in fact, my sister is asking (i.e., demanding) that i bake something every week. and she's kinda suggesting for me to bake cookies for her come christmas time to give to her friends. of course, i declined coz i don't think my hands could stand getting more callous from all the mixing. ano sya, hilo? ;-)

and yet, all these things doesn't hide the fact that i still have to do some major decision making. what i have been doing lately, i've come to realize, is just my own way of delaying the inevitable...ika nga, delaying tactics. but i have to decide real soon. haay nako... somebody help me!


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does anybody know what cd the barker channel get their songs from?

our street

our house is surrounded by two schools. one across our house and the other is a house away from ours. every morning, during school months, whether i like it or not, i wake up to the sound of children's early morning chatter, mothers convincing (i.e., nagging) their kids into going to school, tricycles trying to race each other in bringing the kids to school and all other kinds of noise you can think of. and worse, all these happen before 6 am.

our street, during the school months, is at its busiest, littered with all kinds of vendors, all trying to lure the kids into spending their baon. they sell all kinds of stuff like cotton candy, scramble, chicks, spiders, pabunot, sago, banana-q (or cue?), etc. i think our house is one of 2 houses left in the whole block that doesn't have a store in front. but that didn't mean i didn't have dreams of having a store in front of our house when i was younger...my mind is still tickled by the thought of endless supplies of chocolates, candies and junk food!

and at 8 am, if i'm still not awake by that time, i would definitely wake with the sound of the magtataho, shouting at the top of his voice, "TAHOOOO!". on some days, i would shout back too if i want a glass of taho. and even if nobody wants to buy taho, he would still stop by in front of our house, shouting, tempting us to buy from him. he would stay there for a few minutes until he's convinced that nobody was buying. and he does it every single day, school days or not.

and now, it's almost 6 pm, i could hear the children again passing by the house. their chatter is more animated, their laughter more pronounced, with shouts here and there, oh and the tricycles, still trying to rule the street. and the best...or worst...part of it all, my room is the only room in the house which is beside the street to experience all these.

what's in a word?

after two days of straight duty, i almost came home emptyhanded, with no pay from the hospital. and it's all because of my gullibility...or plainly, my stupidity.

at around midnight, one duty night, there was a man who brought in a woman with a posterior splint bandaged on her left leg. she was accidentally hit by his motorbike, while she was walking, and her foot, in turn, hit a big rock. the man told me he could have easily left the woman but his conscience wouldn't let him. plus, he was afraid his wife would beat him to death. i think this was the main reason he didn't run away.

after the surgeon explained to the man the procedure that was going to be done to the patient and an estimate of the cost it would take, he decided to transfer the patient to a government hospital. so, the bill was prepared and i did a referral letter to the hospital of their choice. when everything was ready, we realized the man left! the woman's companion informed us that the man left to withdraw money from the ATM. at the back of our minds, there was a big possibility that the man wasn't coming back. i gave him an hour and if he didn't come back, we're calling the authorities. after more than an hour, he came back, emptyhanded. he said all ATM machines in the area weren't working.

he asked if he could just return the next day to pay for the ER bill. he looked so desperate and i took pity on him. and more importantly, i thought, the patient had to be transferred at once. period. so i told him to write a promisory note and leave his address with us, without checking first with the hospital director or from the higher-ups.

the next day, i told my sister about what happened. she had big doubts about the man coming back to pay the bill. oh no, if he didn't come back, i would be forced to shoulder the bill coz i let him go without him leaving an ID or his driver's license, just his word!

nowadays, a word or a promise doesn't mean much anymore. and yet, when this man pleaded with me and promised he'd be back, i believed him. was i gullible? yes. was i stupid? yes. but i had faith in him. i somehow knew he would be true to his word. i may have started to doubt him a little when he didn't show up by lunchtime, but i was still hopeful he would be back.

i desperately wanted to believe this man was different from the others who would take advantage of stupid people like me. and he didn't fail me. he came a little after 3 in the afternoon, a few pesos short because that was all the money he had, but it didn't matter. what mattered was he was true to his word.