Author Archives
-
Mall Aliens
I haven’t been getting a lot of exercise lately, and in a few months my coronary arteries will not only get blocked, but burst and cause mediastinal hemorrhage. After clinics I try to walk inside a mall and complete a… Read More ›
-
Abandonada
A few chapters into Elena Ferrante’s The Days of Abandonment and I already feel like an enraged abandonada, an Italian one at that. Rancor! Contempt! Hatred! Rage! The Red Lanterns of Rage would be proud. I bought this brand new… Read More ›
-
Mumbling
Recently my patience for face shields has been rapidly diminishing, maybe because it’s just too darn hot. Well at least this morning, when I was walking from the Medical Arts Building to the Cancer Institute, and it suddenly rained, I… Read More ›
-
Life In The Coffin
The Coffin was a 6 x 2 meter room located in a boarding house meant for a family of five, but which had been sufficiently partitioned to accommodate twelve tenants at a time. Its walls, made of thin lawanit wood,… Read More ›
-
A Discussion on “Philippine Games”
On their way home from the hospital, Neurologist Jackie’s 9 year-old son, Ernie, pointed at two cows fucking on the grassy field. He asked her what they were doing. This stumped Jackie momentarily, but she brilliantly answered that they were… Read More ›
-
Cockroach Month
June is Cockroach Month. Or more accurately, Kill-A-Cockroach Month. It must be the general wetness of things, but these monsters just spring out of every available crevice come June without consideration or shame. When I took my car out of… Read More ›
-
The New Preamble
Smoketh has finally finished her thesis. So on top of being a nephrologist, she is now a faculty member of the Department of Physiology. When we were in first year medicine we were all terrified of the nephrology physiology module,… Read More ›
-
Alice Munro’s Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage
I’ve recently finished reading Alice Munro’s Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage. It was my first Alice Munro book, and as soon as I’ve read the last page I wanted to run to Fully Booked or Solidaridad to get another one…. Read More ›
-
Early Menopause
“Bakit ang inet!” I yelled to Countess Anastacia Romanova, my clinic secretary. I wasn’t being a jerk, I just had to yell through the two layers of face mask and the industrial-thick face shield. I had just finished chemotherapy on… Read More ›
-
Vaccineering, Dramaneering
At around 9:30 am my friend, Love, picked me up from the clinic and we dashed to the hospital penthouse for our second dose of the Astra Zeneca vaccine. After my first injection 3 months ago the injection site had… Read More ›
-
For Today’s Downer
I sometimes find it puzzling that some patients don’t have the contact details of their doctors. Ever since hell-owship, all my patients would have my number and social media contacts, and surprisingly I never found it bothersome. They were mostly… Read More ›
-
Cake Dramarama
I’ve been eating–no, DEVOURING–more food than usual in the past few weeks. I’m not used to eating too much. I hate the feeling of being bloated, as well as the thought that these things are plotting to clog what shouldn’t… Read More ›
-
Fun Weekend Diversions
Number 4 in today’s list of trending shows on Netflix is No Boyfriend Since Birth directed by Jose Javier Reyes, starring Carla Abellana as Carina and Tom Rodriguez as Carlo. Wedding planner Carina has been secretly in love with campus… Read More ›
-
Memories of Mojito
I woke up at around 4 am, drenched in sweat, and whined: ang inet! The aircon in my room is as old as tube-type televisions, the sort of ancient appliance that hums and gurgles for a few minutes before releasing… Read More ›
-
History, P.E., and Maggots
As I was about to start Joel’s chemo I rattled off the laundry list of pertinent symptoms he might have neglected to disclose. Some patients avoid revealing too much, for fear of a chemotherapy cycle getting delayed. This is not… Read More ›
-
Blessed Be The Horrific-ness
At this point, it seems like The Handmaid’s Tale is just thinking of new ways to terrorize June and the audience. In the previous seasons we saw the ff: a girl was chained to a metal ball and pushed to… Read More ›
-
Nostalgificating Over A Cup of Tea
Around this time 8 years ago I bade farewell to PGH where I’ve studied and trained for almost 13 years, and went back to the province to study for the upcoming medical oncology boards. I would have been very sentimental,… Read More ›
-
Collapse
The paper straw in my cup of iced latte started to collapse. I had placed my drink on top of numerous nurse stations, brought it inside patients’ rooms, lugged it around from one hospital wing to another. After the fifth… Read More ›
-
Praphycyst
One of our classmates from way back, Praphycyst, has been always full of political fury on Facebook. His Red Lantern level of rage was apparent not just in his posts but also in his comments on news sites which, for… Read More ›
-
Hilam, Hilom, Halinghing
Back in 1998 I used my only 3-unit free elective to enroll in The Short Story, a course offered by the UP Institute of Creative Writing. It was a delightful experience, and as expected all my classmates were interesting, eclectic,… Read More ›
