Joey M.D.

The mother with dark circles around her eyes looking worriedly at her sick baby. The husband lovingly accompanying his obviously-about-to-give-birth wife. The daughter who sleeps night after night in her father’s sickroom.

For most Asians, including Filipinos, it is unthinkable for a sick person not to have a bantay during those moments. These are the ones who actually give the caregiving. They are the ones who fight their own tiredness and sleepiness in order to see to the needs of the one they are taking care of. They are the ones who absorb all the patient’s bad moods. They give the patient his medications, especially when the patient is already home. They accompany the patient to the clinic or the laboratory. They buy the needed medications. They are the ones who try to understand what the doctors and nurses are trying to say. They give up their work to take care of their sick loved ones.

As doctors, we do our job of trying to find out what ails the patient and what can be done for it. The nurses take care of several patients, carrying out the doctor’s orders while the patients are in the hospital. We do get credited when the patient gets well.

But I believe that a vital ingredient to the patient’s process of getting better is his/her husband/wife, his mother/father, his son/daughter or whoever sacrificed his/her own time and money in order to be the bantay.

They are the unsung heroes. I salute you!

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This is my late entry to TBR16, hosted by Doc Gigi.

Blog Round Guidelines here.

My husband and I are both doctors. We sometimes bring our little boy to clinic where he’s teasingly called “Dr. E, the junior doctor” by the staff. We think that’s cute and we also call him “Dr. E” ourselves.

Knowing how hard it is to become a doctor, would we want our kid to be one?

The answer actually depends on him. It’s pretty tempting to have someone follow your footsteps in the future. It would also be a lot easier for him to go the same path we did because we’ve already blazed the trail so to speak.

But the bottomline is, will he be happy with being a doctor? I know a lot of doctors who fall into depression because after endless years of training, they realize that this kind of life is not for them. Will he be passionate enough about doctoring that earning money will actually be unimportant?

The problem with most students here in the Philippines is that they take courses which are perceived to be “practical”, money making courses, or a course which will make it easier for them to find employment abroad, whether or not they are truly interested in the course. This is mostly encouraged by well-meaning parents and relatives. Like now, the “in” course is Nursing, since it’s one of the fields that are very much in demand abroad. I’ve had a few friends or relatives who have asked me if taking up Nursing is a good choice. I would always say that it’s a good choice if you took it not just because of the earning potential, but it is because that’s what you truly want. Employment patterns may change, the position that is in demand right now might not be so in a few years. If that’s the case, would you still be happy if you have to settle for a local employment with a much lower pay? If you say yes, you’ll still love the job even if it doesn’t pay that much, that the pay is just bonus, then I’ll say go for it!

As for me, I would not push my son into Medicine just because I want to have someone follow our footsteps. I’ll not push him to take up an “in-demand” course just because of the perceived money-making potential.

As parents, we have the responsibility to guide our children, and to support them in their eventual choice of career. I believe that means that we have to see where our children’s talents and passions lie, and guide them to what you think may be the best course that will make use of his talents AND make him happy. The money comes later. If you love your work (like how I love Medicine, and Ophthalmology in particular), you’ll take the good things and the bad, you’ll adjust yourself to the situation and you’ll persevere at it, and you won’t mind if you don’t really earn a lot.

So if my son has a talent in the arts and wants to make a career out of art or music which is a course usually perceived as “poor” choices, I’ll support him all the way. If he wants to be a doctor just like mommy and daddy, I’ll let him know all the pros and cons and let him decide for himself, and support him if he still wants it.

BUT, whatever he decides, I’ll probably teach him to make investments even at an early age so that he would make money work for him and not have to worry about making money by working. For it is still a fact of life that we DO need money for our everyday needs, and I don’t want my son to be too poor to support himself or his family in the future.

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This is my official entry to PPBC 5 hosted by Guardian Angel: What would you like your children to be when they grow up, and why?

When I was still in college, my professors have already warned us girls that we need to have a GWA of at least 2.0  more or less have a sure spot in UST Medicine. The guys, on the other hand, need only a GWA of 2.25.  (1.0 being the highest, 3.0 is just barely passing, 5.0 is a failing mark.)

When I was applying for residency in Ophthalmology, somebody told me that my biggest disadvantage is being female, because a certain institution accepts ONLY male residents (thankfully, that’s not the case today).

Whenever I get interviewed, I always got the question: “Do you have a boyfriend?”. I would always reply no (because that was the truth, I met my hubby towards the end of residency already) — and that would always seem to be a point in my favor.

The woman’s priority is the family, while the man’s priority is his career–that has been the long held belief by society. This belief spills over to getting applicants for med school and residency training — that a slot is wasted when given to a female because she will just end up marrying and staying home to care for her husband and kids.

I refused to believe this societal belief. I believed I was as good as any male in my chosen career and that gender should not be an issue at all.

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Hi, everybody!  Joey M.D. is finally back.

I had a server problem last weekend but finally I’m here again!  Woohoo!

There are a lot of bloopers in shows featuring medical doctors. For doctors like us, such bloopers may be bordering on comedic. I’ve pointed some of these bloopers to my (non-doctor) brother and his response was that it was just a show, people won’t really remember the details of what the doctor did. But the thing is, people do get the wrong ideas somehow.

These mistakes are more glaring in the local movies or teleseryes but American TV is not without such mistakes either. Even if I do not watch TVs or movies often anymore, I still see a lot of these bloopers. Here are some samples from my limited repertoire.

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Dr. Meloinks has posted a real challenge for the TBR12. I find myself staring at my computer screen and not really having an idea of what to put down.

When I passed the boards, I was so excited in joining the PMA, thinking that I’m joining the brotherhood of doctors.

I do get some notices of their elections. But sometimes I am just too lazy to go vote, especially since I really do not know the candidates. This is unlike in our specialty society, wherein I more or less know about the candidates and thus I can really make an informed decision.

PMA serves as the “voice” of the doctors. This is a difficult job, and I guess the PMA heads do try their best. But sometimes we are left wondering if the PMA is even listened to. I sometimes feel that it’s the same thing for doctors in general…people just don’t listen to us when we want to air our side.

I was told that the PMA would offer legal help to its members. Although I would appreciate this, I certainly do not want to find myself in the position of needing such legal help.

PMA and its component societies also hold some lectures and talks once in a while. Maybe this is the curse of being a specialist, but most of those topics are not exactly related to my practice. I personally think that PMA should sponsor talks that are less medical (since the specialty societies and the different hospitals handle those mostly anyway) and more oriented towards practice management. You know…things like taxes and BIR, HMOs, investing…these should benefit all doctors, struggling doctors and doctors who are a little bit more experienced alike. Let the older doctors teach us something they didn’t teach us in Medical School — how to set up a profitable but ethical practice.

For now, PMA membership for me is little more than a prerequisite to being a Philhealth health care provider. And that is so sad. Because PMA could be so much more.

Why Do I Blog? Let Me Count The Reasons…

1. Blogging keeps a record of my thoughts.
2. I could rave or rant about a lot of things.
3. It helps me relax.
4. It keeps me in touch with other people with similar interests. Special mention to the doctors who participate in The Blog Rounds.
5. It’s my own little world on the net.
6. I do earn a little something.
7. It improves my command of English.
8. I learn. About many different things.

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(Insert favorite talk show host here): For today’s episode of ___(insert your favorite showbiz talk show here), we’re going to veer away from our usual artista interviewees and interview doctors instead.

Our guests for today are: Dr. MegaMom, Dr. JA, Dr. Carl, Dr. Ness, Dr. Mel, Dr. Prudence, Dr. Joey, Dr. Remo (Bone MD), Dr. Abner, and Dr. Martin Bautista.

Ok, let’s get the ball rolling….

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This week’s TBR hosted by JA is very timely for me.

I’m currently having my Master’s in UP Open University and we have a subject wherein we’re supposed to go to PGH for 5 days. This was the reason why the roundup for TBR10 was delayed.

Anyway, my groupmates agree that the highlight of our summer class was not the subject itself, but the lunch breaks! I was blessed with groupmates who love foodtripping as much as I do, so in those 5 days, we checked out 5 different restos in Robinson’s Place Manila beside UP Manila. It was fun! I’m so glad my groupmates were game. I haven’t had the time to do food tripping in quite a while, so school was actually a good excuse to do so!

Monday: Filipino — Bacolod Chicken Inasal

I ordered the chicken wings and they’re as good as I remembered. My husband loved this place so I always associate it with the time that we were still dating. It’s much tastier than the usual chicken barbecue.

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I will have to apologize to everyone. I was not expecting to be busy this week hence I accepted hosting this round. Unfortunately, my MHA professor rescheduled a whole week of classes to this week. I’ll be doing the roundup as soon as I get the time. Hopefully later this evening.

In the meantime, it’s the chance for those who haven’t submitted their entries yet to still make habol :).