Recent Posts - page 8
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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 ›
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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 ›
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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 ›
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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 ›
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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 ›
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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 ›
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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 ›
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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 ›
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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 ›
Supposed Former Melancholia Junkie 