“The more you acquire knowledge, the more you realize that you know little”, this phrase I heard from one of my pastors of my church on a Sunday morning made me reflect to something. And this has been somehow true in all aspects of our lives. That we think we know everything but we barely scratched the surface of what is reality.

These experiences that we hurdle in this present world full of unsure and temporary things are so much little that we cannot boast for. But despite these failures and wrong doings we do in our lives, somehow we learn from them. Life has never been designed to be perfect that you just live with it so easily, but at least you must know the purpose why you live and who are you living for.

If I could mention a lesson I learned in my experience being a student of medicine, it is that being knowledgeable to a particular area of your interest will never give true fulfillment if not being shared or applied to anyone. And what makes it more interesting for me now is the idea of how am going to share and influence others more with the wonderful life lessons and teachings I get in med school aside from the myriad concepts from books I learn. For real, there are so much life lessons I learned in my experience that I can share you not just in the area of the profession I am journeying.

Medicine is a very serious course that not everyone has interest to and not everyone has given opportunities to pursue, for some reasons it is financially draining and another it is emotionally distressing. Not every medical student has the audacity to express their thoughts on how much struggle they go through because as much as possible they really wanted to maintain a figure that behind those white clothes they wear is a firm, prim, proper and responsible person. So you have no option but to be strong and be an example to be a person they seek medical advice in the future.  

Meanwhile, in as much as we wanted to gain information and experience, we read all possible materials for the next lecture or exam no matter how seems impossible may be. But anyways, we are but just simple people, we get too tired, suffocated with hifalutin medical terminologies and there are also those times we are mentally altered –because admit it we are not perfect and we meet the limitations of our minds can do.

As a second year student, I am now in the process called adapting in a situation where you need to be more emotionally prepared rather than being intellectually ready. Preceptorials in the hospital and one on one interview with people are more often than my first year. I must admit speaking with people has been my weakness but slowly I am learning and enjoying it. Community and Family Medicine is one of the subjects that my medical program is offering and I am learning so much.

I am now understanding how the community functions and what made me write this very honest realization is that I had first-hand experience to what is happening in a community.

Paratong is just one of the many barangays of Paoay, Ilocos Norte that we are assigned to. Last year, we had an extensive health assessment and we came out with a result that hypertension along with diabetes are among the top threats of the barangay.

These diseases are very common in class discussions, but amidst the etiologies, the nature, how-to-diagnose, treatments and drugs is that how are we going to apply these concepts of books in real life? If you think of the pages of reading materials and effort just to understand, you will be amazed because it is a different story when you witness it in front of a patient.

As a realization I have shared it in my fb timeline my awe in my very first ever experience of reading a 150/100 blood pressure in a very normal looking person was never as accurately described the feeling when I was reading my book.  

Another is my experience of reminding to elderly to seek for their doctors ASAP because they are hypertensive but as if it was not serious after all.  

Another would be a lola who thought she has hypertension and having a maintenance but only to find out it is just Vitamin B complex supplement and paracetamol.

Another would be when we go interview people think we distribute vitamins and hypertension maintenance.

Another would be people think we administer dengvaxia or some sort of vaccine.

Another would be people asking for the right way of taking drugs.

Another would be my experience of being rejected to interviews for they thought it was just a waste of time.

Another would be people asking you if it is just ok to take herbal medicines.

These are just few of the many situations I personally encountered in the community. It is a very big responsibility that we are facing now because we are not in a situation wherein we need not be serious. We are to address the problem and at the same time we need to learn.

Here are some of the pictures I had chance to capture :)

                                           me  interviewing a hypertensive and diabetic patient 













In classrooms we are taught about people's different lifestyle, culture, how they behave, how to address health issues and many more. But the community taught me dedication, compassion, understanding and love to neighbor that never you will learn in a classroom.

With these I am doing now, no matter how difficult may be, it is always by the grace of God and all glory belong to Him.


this Monday will be my first day of second semester of my second year and we'll be having an examination on Surgery, this is just how dedicated our mentors are and we should be as dedicated as them as well. God Bless everyone :)

-lesterrific [12/07/18]

        

          Last week has been a mixture of gladness and despair, what other thing is more stressful than a week full of examinations for a medical student? It was really a week-long of coffee stirring hehehe and fighting your eyelids not to close. I must say medicine is a very perfectionist field, that’s why whenever I say to people I am a medical student, they always think I must be a bright student, but no, part of which is just much studying and serious training. But I am glad despite everything, it seems I am starting to learn and love it little by little.

          As a normal student, fear has always been ruling in our core whenever examination days are coming. You would sacrifice things that matter to your life for a moment and focus as much as possible just to pass the course because you fear of failing the subject. Stresses are all over, from the printing alone of my reading materials, highlighting every pages of transes, making funny mnemonics that I don’t know where are they coming from up to the reading a 30-paged chapters that you barely understand, oh what more can I say. At these moments I begin to worry, looking what more did I not read, what more did I not understand, what more have I not memorize –they were plenty. I was always reminded by my own limited mind that enough readings will never be enough in the field that I have chosen. Information are multiplying and keep on updating and becoming complicated day by day. And there is one thing that we have to do, and that is to do our best. This never ending gain of learnings is what makes us very busy as a student.

          Now I begin to realize the vanities of vanities in life. I  just feel this different kind of stress I am having now is just too much. Sometimes, I think of those days as a kid when I don’t want to have my siesta because I want to go play outside, now I have no chance to sleep because of worrying. I can feel the gladness of having to be called the doctors of the coming generation but upon seeing yourself in a broader scale of comparison, we have just started rooting and cultivating the dry land while the others are now seem to be harvesting the fruits they have planted. You see yourself in a void of vanities and starting to question your worth and certainty. Though it is not a good idea to see myself from the others, there's always this situation that I worry of the high expectations. I remember my friends asking me on messenger while at the middle of my review to diagnose their unending symptoms, but I have no firm in answering them because the best thing I can do for now is to explain and refer them  to doctors and to stop them referring to google hahaha. I know it's really a great transition for me in this matter but there will be a time for this. 

         Different perspectives but if not because of compassion to people I could not imagine myself standing together with the other brave souls and suffer from the hardships of schooling. It is always a daily struggle of faith and humility for me that I can strongly withstand these but I, we, must do it. It is always a challenge of diligence and character as well.

          Meanwhile, a verse from the Ecclesiastes has made me comforted and ponder, yes this author writing these words is reading his  bible :) , and  as it is written at the 12^th verse on the 12^th chapter "And further, by these my son, Be admonished  of making much book there is no end and much study is a weariness of flesh”. I imagine the self-indulgence there is into me, I felt so much comforted and felt sorry not just to God but for my family that I almost have no time to talk to them and no time for myself because of much reading. 

          It is just actually a privilege for me to be on the secular world and making a blueprint of my dream of becoming a doctor. It is very difficult but what more is the best thing to do but to try and learn. I am not the best person, I am not a perfect student and neither anyone of us, there comes really a situation in our lives when it’s not really our best day, you’ll be agitated and you’ll be stressed out, you pass, you fail. But one thing for sure there is always God who hears every dramas of our lives and gives comfort in a very special way :)

And this is one of the best readings I had from the ecclesiastes that week )

lesterrific

10/01/2018

photo (c) Medical News Today

https://www.google.com/search?q=coffee&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjXtoD3n-XdAhUGE4gKHcc9DFMQ_AUIDigB&biw=1366&bih=651#imgrc=aMLfFM4m2ZGhYM:

While I was busy staring and remembering those colic vessels of the cadaver and  listening to the trivia and segues of the advertiser, I remembered an unforgettable moment in my first year as a medical student. This retrospect was an experience I never shared with everyone –that was the day I cut myself. LOL


In my undergraduate program, one of the requirements to graduate is passing comparative anatomy in my third year, which included a stressful cat dissection. That was the time I started to appreciate anatomy and was my first time to smell formalin. I struggled really hard in that subject. I remember those times we had to extend hours at night to remove those fascias and identify every important structure because practical exams were very serious.


Incidents are inevitable sometimes, I remember a classmate which was cut by a scalpel on her thigh because she forgot how sharp a 10-blade can be. She needed to go to infirmary for a first aid because blood started to paint her pants. At that moment, fear of cutting myself manifested in me and I am losing control and focus sometimes whenever I cut tissues until now.


Anatomy in medschool is not enough if we limit ourselves only to Netter or Gray’s atlases. I expected worse in cadaver than a cat dissection. At first I thought I cannot handle the situation but I needed to do it. We would wear double masks, double gloves, some wore goggles, lab gowns and caps.  I needed to be extra careful with blades because I haven’t had my Hepa B second and third shots yet, the risk of acquiring is high if I get cut. We no longer cut lower forms of life, we deal with real people. That’s why I am always reminded to be very careful, respectful and meticulous everytime I hand a scalpel and a forcep with me. I dwell to books trying to memorize and picture in my mind the structures.


After dissections, it is on these times that we needed time for ourselves to unwind. One time we went to my friend’s house and prepared pasta and chicken for lunch. But that day was the day I was taught something by a dull knife. The day that revealed a realization that I never imagined will come across me. I cut myself with that dull knife while cutting onion. It was too painful not because of the cut but because of the idea that I never had cut myself in any dissection sessions before. I thought I was good enough by then,  I thought I was too careful but I was wrong. That very basic cutting of onion was a reminder to myself .


Med school is a very complicated and perfectionist training, you will study almost every word of books, it will take almost all your time, it will require all your energy but we must not forget  the very basic of life, I know how sharp a scalpel but at  that day I cut myself because I forgot that a dull knife can still hurt me.

Oh yes fam, I am now in my second semester of my medical school as a freshman. Hopefully you'll be with me with this journey :)

I have a lot of stories to tell and much experiences to share and I hope you find this interesting and helpful to those aspiring medical students like me before.  

I can still remember those moments of my childhood when things are running quite smooth~~no so much dramas in life. When I was in gradeschool or highschool, I remember those times when going to school interests me a lot and my only problem back then were my homework.

Then, I went to college and I must say it was a fun experience and include the amazing people I met. I graduated and landing in a job could have been my priority for now but that did not happen at all.

Entering in medical school was a very brave step for me. It was never an easy one by the way. I have pushed myself so hard to have atleast the best credential of my college and made so much effort in my admission exam and interview just to be accepted finally in medschool. And when I got accepted I was so happy but so much scared, I was like hiking in a jungle where no one is around, no directions and sign boards where it would lead me, but all I know I want to go and explore things.

At this moment of my life it hasn't really sunken yet that i am one of the students I was wishing for. I am now one of the people walking along the pavements of a college I was dreaming of. It got to a point wherein sometimes I am telling myself "hey wake up, you are now wearing that white gala uniform at the College of Medicine".

Oh yes finally I was feeling accomplished after the struggles I have been through in my first five months of becoming a medical student. I can say this has been the most difficult challenge of my life. With this, I have with you some truths and what to expect in medschool.

Truth # 01 Reading is very important

They say, in first year you're expected to read and read and read and I think it's true. You always have to expect a quiz in every subject and shifting you have. Coming to school empty-handed is not a good idea, you must always have something with you. But that did not work with me always, you know I am not a perfect student anyway, i hate cramming when exams are there threatening me. Medschool is far way different from undergrad school, they never give you all the information in class, it's more like an exchange of ideas with the doctors, so they let you ask all the questions you want to clarify from your self-directed learning knowledge. Reading is a very sacred for us which is always taking the biggest fraction of our time. So when you see a med student reading, do not disturb hekhekhek that moment could save a patient's life someday.

TRUTH #02 ALWAYS Listen and Follow all instructions, they are important

It will hit you hard like a bullet train hahahaha. I cannot take away my frustration after I realized I need to capitalize my answers in my quiz or else I would lose my chance of having a correct answer, and it happened it was heartbreaking :( I was once called an attention after not writing my Surname first in a piece of paper HAHAHAHA and very embarrassing . These simple instructions are very important if you want to enroll in Medicine. Discipline is the key :)

TRUTH #03 You will be having lesser time for family gatherings

Though you don't want to be absent in every family occasions, you have no choice but to be in your cave memorizing the origin, insertion, innervation and action of your cadaver. That's what making me very sad sometimes. Lucky for me I have to be with my family at night because I don't wanna be in a dormitory.

TRUTH #04 You will be experimenting with your study and sleeping habits

Sleeping is fun not until you have a long exam the next morning. Up until now I'm still experimenting what's the best sleeping pattern, how much sleep I'll get and what are the most effective study habits.

TRUTH #05  Expect people will call you "doc"

Whenever someone recognizes me, most of the time they call me "doc", which is sort of annoying sometimes especially in public places because of the intimidating stares I get around me. I still prefer to be called by my name, hence, I am not yet a doctor.

TRUTH #06  You are forced to think mature

I am now in a transition from teenage and adult life. Medschool for me is not just a place for me to learn but it has become my working place us well. They've given us a great responsibility and you need to be mature enough to accept those. I am no longer a kid, I am meeting real people here and I remember those stares I got whenever we go to community, they were treating you as if they trust in you and believe in you. So you need to stand and be a good example.

TRUTH #07 MedSchool is very HARD

Difficulty level = 10 out of 10

TRUTH #08 You will always hear "SOBRANG HIRAP" from a med student

Though I feel it sometimes that  as if I am exaggerating things when I have to meet some of my friends but I cannot help but to be honest, it is truly HARD. 

TRUTH #09 You question yourself many times, "Is it worth it?" 

YESS it is worth it !! This is very interesting ! Even how much dramas I've been through, I am still getting my little successes from the people around me.Getting a failing score was a bit depressing but I need to stand firm and be brave. I know I am still far away from my goal of becoming a doctor but I can feel the happiness I get when they say "You CAN do it" or "You did your BEST". Challenges will come along the way but I still believe, God has put me in here and it's up for me to see my purpose.

Truth # 10 Medschool is Fun

This has been my life now and enjoying everything even how bad and good that may be. Meeting and working with new people, learning new things everyday and making improvements in my life. To those aspiring medical students, do your best now :) hopefully I'll see you somewhere in the college or in other universities. 

I am always saying this to everyone I meet "I have been in my most difficult and rough moments in my medschool life, i have received failures and downfalls but God has always been showing me the positive side of everything". And if God would make a good doctor soon, I can never promise to be the best doctor but i can promise to give my best to be one. And hopefully bring back to people who have been with me with this journey.  #LabanLang <3 PEACE 

PS: My vacation is almost over my first day of second semester in on monday :)

-lesterrific[01/12/17]