Author Archives
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Nights of Loneliness and Despair
We had a hospital photo op today in celebration of the department’s 25th anniversary, where everyone was required to be in formal wear. I haven’t worn my suit and tie since 2019. It is not my favorite ensemble, the tie… Read More ›
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Happy Food
I never really dreaded Monday, nor had I really looked forward to the weekends. I used to love Mondays, in fact, when the clinics were at their busiest, and I would go on rounds and attend conferences the whole day…. Read More ›
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Melanoma vs carcinomatosis
I hate milk tea, but I always said that I would try Tiger Sugar if I ever chance upon a branch without a long queue, just to gloat that I was able to get it without effort. Then the pandemic… Read More ›
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Order in Murder
As the number one fan of the Saw franchise I thought Squid Game would be a breeze to go through, but one episode in and I decided to just scrub into the final scenes of the last episode, saving myself… Read More ›
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Kitty Pryde with Claws
In 1995, at the peak of its popularity, The X-Men books have been “cancelled”, replaced with brand new titles under the banner The Age of Apocalypse. This ran for four months. The premise: A young Charles Xavier has been accidentally… Read More ›
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Ugliness
It must have sounded like I was having a shouting match with a naked woman online, but I was just having teleconsultation with a 92-year old lola who was hard of hearing. She underwent mastectomy a few weeks ago for… Read More ›
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Conventionification
It’s ESMO time. ESMO stands for European Society of Medical Oncology, also known as, we get to go somewhere in Europe, listen to oncology updates, and get lost in the fascinating tangled trains of Europe. Not this year, of course…. Read More ›
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Spurting Lava
Corinne, a friend living in the US, called me up at 11:45 pm to catch-up on the latest miseries in our lives. I was very, very sleepy, but she sounded very worried. Her husband, Lino, has been suffering from terrible… Read More ›
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Dojo
I’ve been trying to watch Cobra Kai on Netflix, and realized that I’ve totally forgotten anything about the movie, other than Ralph Machio jumping and kicking his opponent’s face. I rewatched it, and suddenly wished I had pursued martial arts… Read More ›
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Prodrome or Whininess
Had an online meeting with members of the training committee a few days ago, and some of them had mentioned that they’d been having a lot of patients coming in for headache. These patients turned out to be COVID positive,… Read More ›
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Face-Off
While I was in Uniqlo last month (before the horrific surge), Oxalee frantically informed me that the DFA had opened slots for passport transactions. My passport had expired a few months ago, so I immediately tried to get an appointment…. Read More ›
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Ube Pie
When we were in residency training I once heard my friend Queenie mumbling to herself while staring at a piece of paper: “Okay, rounds ng 7 patients, 30 minutes, walk to social service, 2 minutes, talk to radiology, 3 minutes…… Read More ›
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Flings
While lining up to pay in SNR I saw the guy in front of me scrolling through his phone. His eyes popped out as he paused scrolling and stared at today’s COVID statistics: 17,000+ new cases! I had to do… Read More ›
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Innocent
After chemo in Qualimed I walked around Nuvali to catch up on my required steps for the day. It was a ghost town. I suddenly felt hungry and remembered that I had three pieces of left-over empanada in the ref…. Read More ›
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Regress
Been a bit crazy the past two weeks, with the surge and all. I had assumed that consults for cancer treatment would go down, but strangely, the census has been climbing. There are so many messages in the different apps,… Read More ›
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How assuming!
Armando Garmando was on a diet, but he saw a strategically placed Hello Chocolate Bar in the counter area of 7-11, so he grabbed a couple and wolfed them down in two minutes. The managing personnel in these stores really… Read More ›
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Like, Comment, and Share, Twice
After almost a year of chemotherapy under my care, Mrs. Minerva was finally able to return to the UK. This was in late 2016. She had been working as a chef in a posh hotel in London for over 20… Read More ›
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The Competitors Who Lost
This was our anatomy laboratory back in med school. Anatomy was one of our first subjects in med, and our class of 160 students was divided into groups of six. Each group was assigned a cadaver, who became our most… Read More ›
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Shameless Vultures
There are news that we are going to be placed on a CBLSECQ starting August 1. Making fun of all these initials should have gotten old by now, the way old jokes when rehashed enough times lose their luster, but… Read More ›
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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 ›
