Day 5

Today was the first day of clinic, and I was happy to wake up and not have to think about what to wear. Scrub pants and our Bicol Clinic T-shirt? Yes please. This is why being a doctor is going to be awesome. We have the best work clothes. We ate breakfast and left to walk up to the clinic around 8 to start seeing patients. All of us are split up each day to do different things; 2 work in pharmacy and 2 work in the OR for half a day then switch, 2 students work with one of the Nepalese physicians and 2 with the other, and the last 2 students work with a 4^th year medical student doing H&P’s. I was paired with Dan to work with the 4^th year medical student Rob and it was amazing. I loved literally every minute of it. I know that if I can work in the extreme heat without passing out seeing patients, then 3^rd and 4^th year on clinicals should be a piece of cake….maybe. Rob let us have the ropes for the day, and Rob and I would switch off with who did the H&P and who scribed. It was a lot of great exposure to making SOAP notes, creating a flow and taking care of patients. I think OSCE’s by the end of this should be a walk in the park. It really starts becoming more and more natural after a while. The patients that we saw and cared for present with conditions that are far few and in between in the US. Our first patient was an elderly man with a classic presentation of rheumatoid arthritis, and cataracts that left him nearly blind. He really needs the surgery but cannot afford it, and we don’t have the means financially to fund that surgery since it isn’t life threating, which really puts everything into perspective. Another one of our patients had a textbook presentation of duodenal peptic ulcer disease, which we treated with a triple therapy to knock out H.Pylori if that was the possible cause (which it is in like 90% of cases). A lot of our patients were women with their children, which we ended up seeing all of them It was a very satisfying day, and it made me absolutely love medicine. Because we don’t have the resources and tests in the clinic, we rely on history and physicals, and go back to historic practices of medicine to come up with diagnoses. I heard a VSD and patent ductous arteriosus on 2 of the children that came in and let me tell you, that is something you will never forget hearing. We saw a child with congenital rubella, diagnosed a pregnant woman with possible TB, and I fell in love the absolute cutest baby on the face of this planet. She, who turned out to be a he, just had a cold. I really appreciate all of my friends that contributed to giving me toys and candy for the children on my trip. They were so absolutely thrilled to be given these gifts that their smiles and happiness from this small contribution made not only their day but mine as well. You all really made children who have little to nothing, the happiest children in the world when they were given their gifts.

Personally this is the best experience one could ask for. It makes you think outside of the box and get comfortable relying on your own knowledge and skill set instead of technology and expensive testing. Best of all this experience makes me really realize how much I love medicine, and how I look forward to what I get to do each and everyday. I feel so blessed.

After the clinic, I did my insanity workout with Daniella, Dan and Sean, which was horribly exhausting. We drew an even bigger crowd then the last time to watch us make fools of ourselves. Cases through the day were presented at dinner, and the clinical conversations are always worthwhile. I feel like I learn so much through our discussions. It wasn’t until after dinner that we really started the party though…can you say videoke? Yes that is video karaoke. A very popular and competitive pastime in the Philippines where you sing along to your chosen song and are scored based on your performance. Mix that in with the finest Red Horse Beer of the Philippines and a little Ginebra S. Miguel and those performances got a whole lot better....and weirder. The Filipino’s came and watched us as we put on performances for them, some of which we managed to try and do in Tagalog, and failed miserably. We danced, and sang and drank with everyone well into the night. It goes to show that even though we can’t communicate perfectly with one another our laughter and enjoyment of each other’s company radiated throughout our group and made it into one of the best nights. One of our group members even fell off the cliff and into the bay, so that’s saying something for how we managed to have too much fun. We stayed up until the record setting hour of 1am before I had to give in before falling asleep in the boys room where we all congregated after the karaoke died off. There aren’t that many pictures of this night, but it will live on in infamy. There are videos though….but only if I feel so inclined will they ever leave the safety of my computer.