One More On The List

When people find out that I'm a medical student, the first thing that they immediately ask is: "Anung gusto mong specialization?" To which, I usually reply: "'Di ko pa po alam eh", with matching awkward laughter. In the past 3 days though, I found that I enjoyed Ophthalmology a lot. :)

I saw how diagnostics and surgery go hand in hand. Sentro Oftalmologico is a very cool place. It doesn't feel like PGH at all. I learned that there are only 2 TRUE OPHTHALMOLOGIC EMERGENCIES (meaning, no haggard lifestyle as everything can be scheduled accordingly). Ophthalmologists get to use all sorts of technology in their practice. Residency takes 3 years only and that includes surgical training already. Isn't that great?

I have now bumped Ophtha to the top half of my list of potential specializations.

Now, I just have to get through 4 years of med school and the board exams.

Yay.

And I realized all that in the span of three days. Man, not having any patient interaction in the most real sense of the context makes one's perspective kind of skewed in a way.

Oh well.

First.

For the longest time, I've been dealing with the fact that medical school is hard. Not to mention that I am already on my second year and it has been known to be one of the most difficult years of all. These past 2 months, I have found myself, day in and out, studying countless nights (and dawns) for weekly exams that seem unending.

Last week though, for our Hematology module, I got the chance to meet the first patient I had to do a case report on. Exciting, right? Here is a chance to get a fresh perspective on healthcare, going beyond the books that I've grown used to.

The patient is Mark. He's relatively of the same age as most of the people in my class. He was diagnosed with Leukemia 2 years ago and has been in and out of hospitals since.

Talking with him made me think about how it might feel like to be him: stuck in a hospital with around 30 other people who were sick. Knowing how much you want to be better, but forever be bound by financial limitations to health. Art of Medicine classes now come to my mind. We have been taught in the College of Medicine that it is also important to care for our patients more than biologically; addressing, instead, their needs on a more biopsychosocial level. The hospital can make you jaded, though. I bet there will come a time wherein we would find it corny to ask how a patient feels about his/her sickness rather than ask for signs and symptoms that can guide us in finding diagnoses and eventually--treatments.

The system can eat you. I don't want to wait for the time when I won't notice how I treat patients. Being a med student makes me forget sometimes, how people in the hospital are basically just that, PEOPLE. I can get too preoccupied with thinking of deadlines, countless things to do, studying for the next big exam that I get too caught up in this little nook of mine. I forget that there's a whole world of individuals out there, with their own problems, dilemmas, and issues. Seeing it in that light though, somehow I am relieved and still very much thankful... for everything.