I’ve always wondered whether these few days of respite are worth it, considering that I end up squeezing in so many tasks and patients in the few days left before the holidays. Yesterday had an online meeting at 9 am, 10 patients scheduled for chemotherapy, a clinical trial, among others. After logging in to the meeting we were informed that there was no quorum so the meeting had to be cancelled, and I was partly relieved. Got a bunch of pahabol gifts from patients and doctors. My favorite is this set of tiny bottles of artisanal jams with strange flavors, such as a papaya-coconut-pistachio concoction.

Ordered lunch for our valiant and exhausted chemo nurses. The lunch being, the pambansang pampalubag loob, pizza. My friend, gastroenterologist Aris Peña, had started an Italian restaurant, Antonino’s Pizzeria located near Robinson’s Lipa, and we ordered two boxes of pizza. It was great. Want to try the other dishes and flavors soon. Finished clinic late, and passed by Alabang Town Center. I looked for a white Victorinox swiss knife. I’ve lost so many swiss knives over the years. I once had to give up to an airport personnel a swiss knife that I had forgotten to remove from my carry-on bag.

In pure hunger I ordered a huge cheeseburger from Fridays, paired of course with 2 shots of whiskey. While eating I checked the estimated caloric content of a TGIF Cheeseburger, and discovered that it’s 1,240 calories! Was able to stop myself from eating the whole damn thing, and took the other half home. Matthew, the internal medicine chief resident, messaged us that it was time for the Zoom interview of the internal medicine residency applicants. I was a bit smashed, so I decided to just listen in. If I asked questions I might Paula Abdul the whole thing. I was, however, tempted to ask: do we really need to avoid dark colored food among patients diagnosed with dengue? Is there a chance I would mistake the appearance of poop after eating Ghirardelli dark chocolate, vs lower gastrointestinal bleeding from thrombocytopenia? But of course, my goal in life being to not make any impact whatsoever, I was able to stop myself from asking inane questions.

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