my life as a filipino-american, newly graduated family med physician

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3 Hour Tour

When someone visits our city, the number one tourist spot is the Riverwalk followed by the Alamo. Since I had to work half day today, Robin went ahead and brought our guests there along with the rest of the Manila children's choir gang. Fortunately for me, I got to miss the river barge ride which always seems to go on forever and ever, but met up with them for lunch. We also bypassed the Alamo tour since our guests were happy enough to see a picture of it rather than subjecting themselves to Texas history. Don't get me wrong, I love history, but after living 22 years of my life here and touring the Alamo about every year of it, I'm sick and tired of the Alamo.

The children are extremely entertaining and extroverted. While at the mall, Robin and I were amused to watch them laugh about absolutely nothing, break into dance, and say jokes in Tagalog that neither of us could understand. I love to hear them speak Tagalog (the national Filipino language) mainly cuz to hear it gives me some practice. I think if I hung around Tagalog speaking kids for about a month, I might finally be able to learn how to speak it!!!

Here is a pic of me and one of the children we're hosting. This is the best out of about 20 photos I took with my dad's $50 digital camera. It has no flash and the resolution is terrible, but what can you say for a cheap camera and instant gratification?

posted by dinah 10:36 PM

Small World

I'm hosting some Filipino kids from the Manila Children's Choir for the next three days. While I was driving them home, I was talking to their coordinator and mentioned to her that I know someone from the internet that is from Manila. I actually came upon this 14 year old Filipino girl's website while websurfing last year. Her site is amazing in general, but for a 14 year old, it's superb (She's now 15 and has been web journaling since she was 11). Anyway, I couldn't remember her name, but I told the conductor that this girl is from Makati City and is extremely adept at webzines. The intructor mentioned a girl named "Lauryn" and the name all of a sudden clicked. She said that Lauryn used to sing with them, but that now only her little sister is with the group. When I got home, I tried searching for Lauryn's site again since I hadn't read her journal in a while. Her entry for the day mentioned that she "missed" her little sister since she went to the States yesterday. I wrote Lauryn and what would you know, she was the same person the intructor mentioned. Small world . . .
Check out Lauryn's site. As you read, she'll totally shatter your image of what a teenager in the Philippines is like. She is definitely not FOB.

posted by dinah 3:05 PM

Busy, Busy, Busy!
I am having such a busy, yet fun weekend. Friday and Saturday, we went to a retreat with our Young Married Couples Group. We drove about 2 1/2 hrs away and stayed at this Naval Base because it was a lot cheaper at $25 than staying at a hotel. So anyway, since we got there a little later than some of the others, they told us that the place was similar to a roach motel and that we'd have to share a room with another couple. They also made sure to tell us to bring a flashlight when we went to the bathroom since we might be "surprised" by some critter. I was ready to wear my slippers in the shower. Anyway, we get there and from the outside it looked like your average old college dorm, but when we went inside we were surprised to find a sparkling clean room! I was so relieved and laughed at their practical joke. As it turned out, we got the VIP suites where visiting colonels stay when they're at the base. The place had your basic roomate layout with 2 bedrooms equipped with their own bathroom and joined together by a livingroom and kitchen in the middle. We even had a VCR. I couldn't believe we paid a mere $25 for the place. The military ain't so bad . . .

Well, after staying up till 2:30 am doing our workbooks to find out our spiritual gifts (mine being music, hospitality, evangelism, etc) and personailty styles, we got up Sat morning and drove to the beach. We tried sitting around on the sand singing songs, but it was so windy, we all ended up getting sand in our mouths and hair. So anyway, we left by 4:00 and listened to the Spurs/Timberwolves game all the way home (so disappointing . . .I was hoping the Spurs would finish up the series!).

posted by dinah 2:47 PM

Growing uP!

I guess it all started when I got married . . .this business of growing up. When I was 18, I thought I'd be so much more mature than I actually am at 26. I use to look at people in my church who were 26 as "old." So here I am, OLD, married, but still feeling like I'm going through some awkard-pubertal stage in my life. Maybe it's because I'm heading towards making another difficult choice in my life: where to live.

Since I was 5 years old, I've lived here. I went to elementary, high school, college, and now medical school here. The question is, should I move for residency? The explorer in me says, "YES, see other parts of the United States!" yet the cautious side in me says, "Stay here, this is your comfort zone." The thing is, it's not solely my choice. I have a husband who makes decisions with me and, as far as residency goes, you don't always get your first choice. It's really up to where you get algorithmically "matched."

Anyway, Robin and I sat down and actually had to make a pros and cons list. When it came down to it, our pros outweighed our cons. The main reasons being that we love the weather, the reasonable cost-of-living, the medium-sized traffic, and more importantly, our church and our new group of friends, "The YMCA (Young Married Couples and Associates)." For once, we have found a group where both Robin and I can hang around comfortably for the mere reason that none of them were "his" or "my" friends first. We figured that although moving would be fun, it's so difficult to find a good church and good friends. In addition, our families would just be a few miles away. By living here, I think we'd have more money to have a decent house and also money enough to travel and meet the needs of the "explorers" in us.

Although I feel a little bit more relieved, like I mentioned, it all depends on where I'm "matched" in March 2002. Who knows where I'll end up. The main thing, though, is that we'll probably always gravitate back here . . .home.

posted by dinah 5:13 PM

San Jacinto/Battle of the Flowers

Where else in the U.S. would banks, schools, and clinics close for FIESTA? Oh yeah, I forgot about Mardi Gras. Anyhow, I actually didn't have clinic today because of the annual Battle of the Flowers Parade and Fiesta celebration. People actually camp on the streetside overnight just to get a good view of the parade. Again, I haven't been to the parade since I was kid. The funny was, the best part of the parade for me was watching random groups of "pooper scoopers" pick up the horse excrement left behind. Yeah, the bands were okay, and the women in their sweltering hot dresses were fun to wave at, but I'm telling you, watching people volunteer to pick up horse poop w/o a sign of cringing on their face was great fun for a 10 year old kid. Anyway, I don' t think I'll go anytime soon. I've "been there and done that." Once you've gone you don't really want to go again until you have your own kids to bring.

posted by dinah 11:43 AM

Alrighty, I finally transferred my blogs to my ftp server. Why didn't I do this before??? Cuz like always, I didn't take the time out to read directions and didn't know how to . . . so here it is.

posted by dinah 8:28 PM

[4/25/2001 7:12:13 PM | dinah s]
Viva Fiesta
I had corn-on-the-cob for dinner tonight. I don't know what it is about corn, but the moment I sink my teeth into a cob of yellow ears, a feeling of sheer happiness envelopes me. Maybe it's because I associate corn on the cob with summer and when I think of summer, flashes of my favorite vacation memories as a gangly filipino kid hanging out with my "ka-razy" friends bounce across my mind.

Speaking of summer, it's about 80 degrees outside today and I'm loving it. Fiesta celebrations are going on all over the city complete with carne guisada, Latino music, and tacos with frijoles on the side. Fiesta (spanish for party) lasts 10 days beginning with Oyster Bake and bascially ending with the Fiesta Flambeau Night parade this Saturday. I haven't gone to the festivities since undergrad, but I may tonight since my brother's in town. We'll see . . .I still have clinic tomorrow.



[edit]

[4/24/2001 6:59:01 PM | dinah s]


I finally feel better . . .yeah!

Well, my husband's birthday is coming up and I'm wondering how I could be original yet again. This is the 5th birthday I've spent with him and in addition to Valentine's Day, I think I've been pretty good at making the celebrations memorable. On the first birthday i spent with him, I cooked crawfish gumbo (with my mother's help), made a coffee cheescake, and made a fruit basket appetizer. It was supposed to be a picnic, but it ended up raining that day and I had to set up the whole thing on my livingroom
floor. Nonetheless, it turned out great. I don't know what to do this time and you know, he might be reading this . . .


[edit]


[4/18/2001 10:10:43 AM | dinah s]
SICK

I coughed and coughed all night and wondered to myself how Robin (my husband) could still sleep and snore so loudly. But then, this morning he had the audacity to tell me he couldn't sleep cuz I was breathing so loudly! I've been sick these past few days. I admit that. Usually, I try to stay in a state of denial working till I can't take it anymore, but this time, I just wanted to be a whiny baby. Maybe it's because now, I have a personal slave. In the past, I only wished to be babied by my mother, but this time, even though she was only a yell away, I preferred my husband.

He's been great these past few days tending to the tasks I set before him. "Would you get me some robitussin DM and a thermometer" I said in the most hoarse voice I could muster. 102.7 degrees, a surefire fever. I asked for a cold compress, food that I could swallow (I couldn't even swallow my own saliva w/o discomfort), a massage . . .ahhhhh. . . that was the life!

So now I'm a little better, but still coughing and contagious with only 1 days worth of antibiotics in me. But now it's role reversal time. This morning, with a scowl on his face, robin thanked me for give him my sore throat.
[edit]

[4/14/2001 2:19:02 PM | dinah s]
Being a Man
When I think of my impending pregnancy and labor pangs way down the road, I sometimes wish I was a guy. Yesterday, though, I was sure glad I was female. I was standing in the procedure room with 5 men, one was the patient, the others : an attending, a third and first year resident, and the nurse. The procedure? A vasectomy.

The patient was naked from the waist down except for his size 11 tennis shoes he still wore while lying on the procedure table. I glanced over at the chair on the side of the room where his bright white briefs lay unfolded on top of jean shorts. I had to give him credit first, for letting a female in on the procedure and second, for overcoming the fact that many men think the loss of the ability to produce sperm is demasculating. Here was a burly man, father of three boys, and married to his wife of 18 years putting an end to his ability to impregnate a woman.

The longest part of the procedure was finding the vas deferens on each side of the testicles. The vas is a tube which is the actual conduit used by the sperm to travel from the testicles to the urethra. This is the tube that is severed or cauterized. Everytime the resident would try clamping the vas, he ended up clamping the patient's skin instead, barely missing the vas. While the vas and the anterior skin were anesthetized, the posterior side of the patient's testicles were not. With each attempt to clamp the vas, the man would let out a slight grumble which got louder each time. Obviously, I couldn't relate, but I could tell every guy in that room had extreme sympathy for the patient.

Eventually, the attending said to the patient, " you know, you're a big man, and you have big balls which is kind of making it difficult to do the procedure, but we're almost done." Was that a compliment?

The entire procedure took about 30 minutes, but I could tell everyone was glad to get out of there, including myself.
[edit]

[4/14/2001 1:46:41 PM | dinah s]
"Do one"

The other day, I was watching a lipoma being removed from a patient's arm. All of a sudden I started feeling really hot and just wanted to get out of there, but I didn't want to miss out on my opportunity to suture since I haven't done any suturing for over a year. I pressed on even as a cloud of blackness masked my view of the procedure. As soon as my attending asked me to come around
and get ready to suture I had to confess, "uh, i"m getting kind of queasy. ." I must of looked terrible cuz he immediately told me to sit down. In about a minute I got back up saying I was ready again, but I wasn't. I could feel sweat dripping from my forehead and i almost lost balance. I was told to sit down again. The patients mother put a cup of water to my mouth while the nurse put a cold compress on the back of my neck. It was so humiliating--I'm just glad I didn't faint!

Well, by the end of the day, i actually got to remove an ingrown toenail, so the day wasn't a waste afterall
[edit]

posted by dinah 8:23 PM

I finally changed this blog to my ftp server. It took me a while though . . .

posted by dinah 7:38 PM