Old post from my old blog.
I should be studying for the midterms... but heck I really can't just seem to concentrate. Things have been milling in my head for days, like cornflakes and rice crispies in one bowl, waiting for good ol' milk to dissolve them and remove the crunch.
We have actually started CHD2 duties in Malinao. Blessing in disguise, coz that was were I first had my community duty for CHD1. But the community is not a blessing at all. It's like Trash Country in the middle of nowhere. Ironically, it is situated near the Pasig City Hall but seems like everybody in the oval office there is hands off when it comes to that pitiful settlement.
Ladies and Gentlemen, let me introduce to you... Vicper.
My First Love. Oh, how I love to burn it down until nothing is left but ashes to feed the hogs!
I love it so much that when it's community immersion time, my gut is turned inside out just by the thought of mingling with these people whose top morbidity cause is Acute Upper Respiratory Tract Infection. Why? It's the air they breathe! Full of MO, my dear! It's like wading into dogshit as dogs literally shit all over the place. It is where people hang out in makeshift tents to do videoke on cheap machines and pay on a per game basis for billiards. Bingo time is after lunch where moms and lolas and even lolos and ates and kuyas and bunsos would waste their lives on a meaningless game, contented of spending and winning the last cent of yesternight's earnings.
I had the chance to go through the Health Center's reports and make the graphical analysis for the our presentation to the community. Pa-consuelo de bobo. I just laughed my head off. Where in the world can you find these cases?
Morbidity Cause: Otitis Media.
FYI: In simple terms, luga. Otitis Media, if not treated, will lead to severe ear infection leading to intracranial expansion and meningitis. How to prevent it? Simply by cleaning the ears. Only an idiot wouldn't do that. And apparently, idiots are rampant on that godforsaken place. Cotton buds, please!
Morbidity Cause: Furunculosis.
My groupmates and I were wondering what Furunculosis is. I texted several doctor friends. Here were the replies:
Dr Dennis Esquivel (IM-Diabetologist who's now teaching in his homeland): Skin infection caused by Staphylococcus Aureus. --- hmm... microbio na microbio andating mo doc ah!
Dr Dominic Guevara (another doctor friend whose specialty is Otitis Media, harhar!): It's a skin infection, usually an inflammation of the hair follicles leading to abscess formation -- aba doc, specialist ka nga. pang Patho na Patho!
Dr Roy Garrido (Cardio-interventionist from Cardinal Santos): Infection of the skin, you can treat it with antibiotics. -- ah, eto naman Pharma ang dating.
But this one... this one is the winner. Ditto, Doc Peanuts.
Angel: (thru text) Doc, hi, alam m b ung skt n furunculosis? tnx :)
Dr Peanuts: Pigsa. Bakit, meron ka? :p
I wanna do several cartwheels!!
Going back, I nearly fell off the chair when I continued reading and analyzing the reports from the Health Center. Mortality Cause was even sensational. My favorites:
Mortality cause: Metabolic Acidosis.
Well, tracing this, one of the causes of Metabolic Acidosis is intoxication of isopropyl alcohol in a Normal anion gap. In an Increased anion gap, one of the causes of Metabolic Acidosis is Lactic acidosis --- a form of acidosis wherein cells use the glucose in the body in the absence of adequate O2. So, here we can argue based on these premises that whoever died from Metabolic Acidosis from that area ingested Isopropyl Alcohol (dude, he should've been in Alcoholics Anonymous!) or died because of hunger and suffocation in that crowded lot.
Mortality cause: Asphyxia r/t Hanging.
In simple terms, SUICIDE. Nagbiti, nagpakamatay. I love NANDA!
Mortality cause: Acute Myocardial Infarction.
Somewhere during the course of their Bingo habit, a resident might have been so elated that he won the pot money of 250 pesos causing his existing atherothromboses to be dislodged from a major blood vessel (remember, elation and too much joy can cause the heart to pump more blood...) causing an infarct. Bye bye to your pot money. I just hoped his Bingo comrades found a way to donate for his wake... might have used the game for fundraising instead! Hehe.
Just today, we ended up collecting and paying for their trash. Nursing students as garbage collectors-cum-junk shoppers. Sweet. With all the sweat and grime and MO sticking on us, I could've died. I went home not feeling so well. Not well because I hate that place. Full of rowdy, broken people and teeming with dirt! Not well because it only deepens my realization of how wide is really the disparity between the haves and the have-nots.
Just a bingo chip's throw away is the Pasig City Hall and yet the government cannot elucidate a solid action plan on how to solve this eye sore in its jurisdiction. I heard through the grapevine though that the local city officials are really on a "no comment" basis whenever "Vicper" shoots up. Strings of histories tied to the mayor's belt, now Vicper is an abandoned and goddammned place.
Assessing the people, they are kind and receptive, although I personally do not see any real initiative on their part to alleviate their condition. Ambitions drive dreams. Without Ambition, you are nowhere and it seems that this is the case in point here. The people there are lax, satisfied and purely depending on outside help. They have been under this psyche for years, that because they are inherrently indigent, there will always be help coming in from other people. In the process, they never get the chance to redeem themselves from the vicious cycle.
These poor people, they do not have the right to get sick or go hungry. The government is allocating them free medicines, hiring public health practitioners and public health nurses who are on call to always assist them. The only problem is that their mindsets are closed to the fact and accepted the truth that this is where they do belong.
During the course of our interviews and surveys, I met fellow Bicolanos who have settled in Vicper. I asked them why they chose to stay here in Manila and live this impoverished life. All answered for the same familiar reason they know: Here in the Metro, they have money. They thought life was better here than back there in the province where they can easily survive for the day's meals on free veggies handpicked along the road. Here, they go hungry and labor under the heat of the sun, scrimping what little they got to buy food. Here, their children roam on dogshit-infected slums without underwear, growing up as part of the country's urban poor and illiterate.
To wallowing in mud to exposing myself under the heat of the Vicper sun, I had my lost dreams. Dreams of looking forward to a better country without people like them --- impoverished and dirty.
I dreamed once of being a Nurse. All because of Dollar Bank. I hope tomorrow, when I go back to that market shackles, this is the dream I wouldn't lose next.
I should be studying for the midterms... but heck I really can't just seem to concentrate. Things have been milling in my head for days, like cornflakes and rice crispies in one bowl, waiting for good ol' milk to dissolve them and remove the crunch.
We have actually started CHD2 duties in Malinao. Blessing in disguise, coz that was were I first had my community duty for CHD1. But the community is not a blessing at all. It's like Trash Country in the middle of nowhere. Ironically, it is situated near the Pasig City Hall but seems like everybody in the oval office there is hands off when it comes to that pitiful settlement.
Ladies and Gentlemen, let me introduce to you... Vicper.
My First Love. Oh, how I love to burn it down until nothing is left but ashes to feed the hogs!
I love it so much that when it's community immersion time, my gut is turned inside out just by the thought of mingling with these people whose top morbidity cause is Acute Upper Respiratory Tract Infection. Why? It's the air they breathe! Full of MO, my dear! It's like wading into dogshit as dogs literally shit all over the place. It is where people hang out in makeshift tents to do videoke on cheap machines and pay on a per game basis for billiards. Bingo time is after lunch where moms and lolas and even lolos and ates and kuyas and bunsos would waste their lives on a meaningless game, contented of spending and winning the last cent of yesternight's earnings.
I had the chance to go through the Health Center's reports and make the graphical analysis for the our presentation to the community. Pa-consuelo de bobo. I just laughed my head off. Where in the world can you find these cases?
Morbidity Cause: Otitis Media.
FYI: In simple terms, luga. Otitis Media, if not treated, will lead to severe ear infection leading to intracranial expansion and meningitis. How to prevent it? Simply by cleaning the ears. Only an idiot wouldn't do that. And apparently, idiots are rampant on that godforsaken place. Cotton buds, please!
Morbidity Cause: Furunculosis.
My groupmates and I were wondering what Furunculosis is. I texted several doctor friends. Here were the replies:
Dr Dennis Esquivel (IM-Diabetologist who's now teaching in his homeland): Skin infection caused by Staphylococcus Aureus. --- hmm... microbio na microbio andating mo doc ah!
Dr Dominic Guevara (another doctor friend whose specialty is Otitis Media, harhar!): It's a skin infection, usually an inflammation of the hair follicles leading to abscess formation -- aba doc, specialist ka nga. pang Patho na Patho!
Dr Roy Garrido (Cardio-interventionist from Cardinal Santos): Infection of the skin, you can treat it with antibiotics. -- ah, eto naman Pharma ang dating.
But this one... this one is the winner. Ditto, Doc Peanuts.
Angel: (thru text) Doc, hi, alam m b ung skt n furunculosis? tnx :)
Dr Peanuts: Pigsa. Bakit, meron ka? :p
I wanna do several cartwheels!!
Going back, I nearly fell off the chair when I continued reading and analyzing the reports from the Health Center. Mortality Cause was even sensational. My favorites:
Mortality cause: Metabolic Acidosis.
Well, tracing this, one of the causes of Metabolic Acidosis is intoxication of isopropyl alcohol in a Normal anion gap. In an Increased anion gap, one of the causes of Metabolic Acidosis is Lactic acidosis --- a form of acidosis wherein cells use the glucose in the body in the absence of adequate O2. So, here we can argue based on these premises that whoever died from Metabolic Acidosis from that area ingested Isopropyl Alcohol (dude, he should've been in Alcoholics Anonymous!) or died because of hunger and suffocation in that crowded lot.
Mortality cause: Asphyxia r/t Hanging.
In simple terms, SUICIDE. Nagbiti, nagpakamatay. I love NANDA!
Mortality cause: Acute Myocardial Infarction.
Somewhere during the course of their Bingo habit, a resident might have been so elated that he won the pot money of 250 pesos causing his existing atherothromboses to be dislodged from a major blood vessel (remember, elation and too much joy can cause the heart to pump more blood...) causing an infarct. Bye bye to your pot money. I just hoped his Bingo comrades found a way to donate for his wake... might have used the game for fundraising instead! Hehe.
Just today, we ended up collecting and paying for their trash. Nursing students as garbage collectors-cum-junk shoppers. Sweet. With all the sweat and grime and MO sticking on us, I could've died. I went home not feeling so well. Not well because I hate that place. Full of rowdy, broken people and teeming with dirt! Not well because it only deepens my realization of how wide is really the disparity between the haves and the have-nots.
Just a bingo chip's throw away is the Pasig City Hall and yet the government cannot elucidate a solid action plan on how to solve this eye sore in its jurisdiction. I heard through the grapevine though that the local city officials are really on a "no comment" basis whenever "Vicper" shoots up. Strings of histories tied to the mayor's belt, now Vicper is an abandoned and goddammned place.
Assessing the people, they are kind and receptive, although I personally do not see any real initiative on their part to alleviate their condition. Ambitions drive dreams. Without Ambition, you are nowhere and it seems that this is the case in point here. The people there are lax, satisfied and purely depending on outside help. They have been under this psyche for years, that because they are inherrently indigent, there will always be help coming in from other people. In the process, they never get the chance to redeem themselves from the vicious cycle.
These poor people, they do not have the right to get sick or go hungry. The government is allocating them free medicines, hiring public health practitioners and public health nurses who are on call to always assist them. The only problem is that their mindsets are closed to the fact and accepted the truth that this is where they do belong.
During the course of our interviews and surveys, I met fellow Bicolanos who have settled in Vicper. I asked them why they chose to stay here in Manila and live this impoverished life. All answered for the same familiar reason they know: Here in the Metro, they have money. They thought life was better here than back there in the province where they can easily survive for the day's meals on free veggies handpicked along the road. Here, they go hungry and labor under the heat of the sun, scrimping what little they got to buy food. Here, their children roam on dogshit-infected slums without underwear, growing up as part of the country's urban poor and illiterate.
To wallowing in mud to exposing myself under the heat of the Vicper sun, I had my lost dreams. Dreams of looking forward to a better country without people like them --- impoverished and dirty.
I dreamed once of being a Nurse. All because of Dollar Bank. I hope tomorrow, when I go back to that market shackles, this is the dream I wouldn't lose next.
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