in true superman form, this entry will fly by like a speeding bullet, but instead of bouncing gatling gun bullets off his chest, will instead be using a (pseudo)bulleted format, meaning a random rundown of significant events this week. so forgive the utter scatterbrained-ness of this entry

obviously, i've already watched superman. 9 am this morning, at the sm mall of asia imax theater. and i have to say, the movie was a little above passable at best. a classmate with good command of the language *lol* puts it up as "messianic" but for me, it's probably what watching the undocumented years of jesus' life as a toddler on film would've felt like (no offense God, you know i love you). for a superhero flick, the action scenes just didn't cut it, and the supposedly-climax of the film turns out to be quite... anticlimactic, there's no other way to put it. but if there's any consolation, i really went to watch the film at the imax theater for just that: to watch a film at the imax theater. and yes, it is big, and the 3d scenes sort of made up *a bit* for the disappointing portrayal of the man of steel.

maybe the film bombed for me because the main antagonist was an annoying, quirky, eccentric, bald billioinaire who had nothing better to do than to sway a dying widow to sign off all her riches over to him on her death bed, and pick a bone from 5 years past. i swear, the comedy was good, but that portrayal of lex luthor would have done better in an austin powers film than anywhere else. next time, stick to the classics please.

at least sometime this week we were able to watch a good movie. an oscar-award-winning movie, to be more precise. crash is just that; a movie which did deserve it's little golden man for best film. while it might strike some as filling up the same drama formula as million-dollar baby with new variables, it really hit a nerve with me. discrimination is everywhere, but the sad thing is that we can't blame any specific cultural group or race for it. if anything, it's our human propensity to isolate those different from us that's the real culprit here. an interesting note though: there were only around a dozen people during the viewing of crash, half from our batch. with an exam around the corner and a review class that night, not only does it explains the lack of attendance to a P10-including-free-food film viewing, but it also shows where our priorities lie. bagong buhay yeah!

we held a human brain this week. while some people might have met this segment with murmurs of *eeew* and *oooh* and maybe even an *astig!* somewhere, it was more like a *yawn* for me. it was really nothing special, except that we would be having an exam on it this tuesday, so it required a bit more enthusiasm that it might have otherwise. the dehumanization of class 2011 has begun. but even basal ganglia and cranial nerves can't sway a true up med student from one of the most important things in life: picture-taking. might have some up later this week.

and speaking of an exam, the first installment of neuro comes on tuesday, and as such i will be returning to manila later tonight for some up-close-and-personal study time. we have to leave in a few minutes too, which should explain the overall pace of this entry. pre-exam paranoia is setting in too, which i hope makes for a productive weekend of transes, samplexes, and berne and levy.

we finally went jogging! once around luneta, and once to the ccp. but for some weird reason, most of the time during the ccp run was spent initiating the gag reflex and burping an unhuman amount of gas from my tummy. at least it's a step towards completing my wellness plan. just hope i can keep it going for the next few years or so. critics, eat your tummy flabs, i'll be sporting flat abs in no time. i hope.

and for the *interested* people out there, i've had several ultimate kilig moments this week, but that's all i'm giving away. they were quite shallow really, but kilig nonetheless. imed will be feasting on this piece of info for months, but i just have to say it. no worries, i'll hang strong this time.

despite the newly connected smart bro at unit 603, i'm writing this entry from home sweet home in qc. why so far, you may ask? well, because i need to get a uniform set from home. and why in the name of God would i have to get a uniform set from home tonight? because we'll be having our first patient exposure tomorrow morning, care of os 203: skin, muscles, and bones. and that's four weeks into classes. don't we just love the new curriculum?

tomorrow, the oh-so-kind consultants of the dermatology section will be expecting us to march into the outpatient department or some other location in the pgh and take histories and physical examinations of the patients they'll be having that morning. it'll be one thing for us to enter the opd as a gigantic, milling, frightened mass wearing white, announcing to the whole world that we're med students, but it'll be another thing to be expected to act like a real doctor, with fair warning given only days in advance. not only will we be examining real, suffering patients with the consultants' judgmental eyes hovering behind us, but the patients probably won't even know that we're just first year proper students, with nary a shred of experience between all 160 of us. and as such, they'll be expecting a proper, professional exam, which we will then be obliged to give them.

maybe it'll be better if we had a few trial sessions ahead of time, a few lectures on proper physical examinations and history-taking, an interactive sample here and there. but no, all we have are a few handouts (which i'll be burning through like hell tonight), our wits, and the pressure of holding the fates of the patients in our hands to help us pull through tomorrow. i'm pretty sure i'll remember tomorrow for the rest of my life as the day i couldn't write a full line of text or stutter a whole sentence of speech, or maybe the day a freshman in the upcm caused a scandal in the opd by rushing out of a consultation room crying his eyes out after a severe bashing from a maltreated patient. of course, i'm only exaggerating *a bit*, but you know where i'm coming from, right? (or not...)

oh yeah, i'm writing this entry right now with my pants looking freshly-laundered and my torso practically drowning in its own apocrine secretions. tonight was my first official medrhythmics practice session, but that's another story for later.

a week ago, we were discussing cell membranes, and now this. med sure does pick up its pace real quick.

**edit: okay, so maybe i did overreact up there a bit. i just read the tutor module for derma, and it says we're not going to do any exam or diagnosis, just check the skins of the patients and describe the skin's condition and stuff. we'll even be having a lecture the entire morning to prepare. we're not even going to be in the hospital proper at that. oh well, there goes the melodrama. but still, the prospect of studying actual people rather than slides and transes is a bit daunting. wish me luck, still.**

this week was so revolutionary i hardly know where to begin.

my first starbucks! believe it or not, i am a med student yet to experience the wallet-crunching thrill of buying my own drink from the above-named cafe sans social phenomenon. we've studied there before, i've tasted it quite a lot, but it's always on someone else's expense. it's almost like a vow of chastity in a way, never to spend my money on something i know isn't worth it. but worry not, no vow was broken this week, thanks to a generous (gullible) soul named joey who actually had the heart and spare cash to treat me to my first overpriced coffee ever. a caramel macchiato (spellcheck please) never tastes as good as it does when it's free. it might actually be the only time ever that i get my own serving, so the cup has become a trophy, of sorts.

my first med exam! membrane potentials and synapses i can handle (mostly thanks to the *goodtimes* with 2010 lol) but the anatomy part was hell in every gyrus, fissure, commissure, and all other identifiable parts of the brain out there. considering that this was probably the most i've ever prepared for an exam before (imagine, almost a week before the day, we've already been hitting the books!), the effort showed a bit, but next time, i know where to focus my concentration efforts on. it'll be such a relief to find out my score on this one. that'll be a momentous occasion as well.

my first time to go jogging by myself! actually, twice already, once on monday and once on wednesday. kiki was too pooped from studying (yes, studying!) to accompany me on monday, so i resolved to try going by myself. on monday, i ended up the same place we did last friday, catching a few minutes of aerobics at the ccp (no one must ever see me there ever!) but on wednesday, i just continued the jogging routine and i jogged... drumroll please... from roxas-remedios to the ccp and back! all in one straight leg-burning run! it's probably not that impressive for long-time fitness freaks, but it was definitely a milestone for me. too bad i wasn't able to go jogging anytime later after that though, you'll soon know why.

my first medrhythmics practice session! finally! i have to say, rhythmics was a blast. the conditioning exercises at the start were already worth it if just for my wellness plan, but getting free dance lessons as well was a bargain! and it's not so bad that i'm a newbie at this, or that i started quite late in the practices. there were plenty of other 2011 people who were also just *trying it out* so i'm not so alone in that aspect, and drew has already promised to teach me the choreo i missed. the only possible downside is that four days after, my thighs and abs are still feeling the burn whenever i bend over or walk up some steps. the pain got bad enough that i couldn't bring myself to jog yesterday. but what the heck, no pain no gain right?

my first clinical subject! derma is a total blast. not only are we dealing with actual medical terminologies and human conditions, but the residents are hot too. *wink wink* for the last few days, we've been stuffing our brains with all the clinically-acceptable terms we could gather, and diagnosing rashes and pimples as "multiple, round, well-defined, hyperpigmented pustules on an erythymatous background locally distributed on the forehead and cheeks". imagine, the oh-so-specific description has to be made in one mega-run-on sentence? and we're expected to do this by ourselves on the practical exam next week! oh well, if there's anything to be said about the diagnosing, it's making us feel more doctor-like than ever.

my first uniform day! since the thrill of wearing white is too much to describe with words, better let pictures do the talking. and if you know imed, if you know 2011, then you'd know there're tons of pics to do the talking for me. click on the pics for larger versions.



first, sa classroom muna


where's carlos?!


mukhang commercial ng toothpaste ano?


imed classic #1: jumping pic


imed classic #2: half-smiles


imed classic #3: todo emote


imed classic #4: dugtungan!


imed classic #5: stair pic!


imed classic #6: fish face!!!


habang nagttrabaho for formations volcorps (take note: ako lang ung nagttrabaho)


isa pang take note: ginabihan na kami sa kakapics. lol.

better add another 'first' to my previous entry.

rather than actually hitting the transes and studying for the derma osce (organ systems comprehensive exam, the new nomenclature for practical exams) which was what my early return to manila was supposed to be for, we instead tramped off to the far side of manila, vito cruz to be precise, to root for our beloved school's varsity team on its first game this season. or rather, should i say its first victory?!

it's not just that the fighting maroons won their first game this season against ust, but the real clincher there is that this is the first time we've ever watched a uaap game live and up close! icing on the cake, as kiki put it (and from here on out, i will be borrowing certain *tidbits* from kiki's entry about this as well). rovi might have watched plenty of uaap games during his early college days, but according to him, this was his first time to watch a live game where up wins, so it was a first for him as well. and let me say, sacrificing derma time for this was absolutely worth it.

when we first entered the ninoy aquino stadium, a juniors game (adu-ust, where ust lost as well... so sad) was still ongoing, but luckily our transes were there to help us pass *most of* the time. but when the college game finally started, you could really feel the difference in the atmosphere of the place. of course, the ust pep came fully armed, with the entire opposite side of the stadium filled with yellow-clad fanatics screaming "go, uste" with every spare breath, making the up side pale in comparision. but when you're actually there, sitting (or standing, as in our case) on the sidelines, numbers don't really matter too much. you get so involved in the game, so caught up in the emotions flooding the stands, that you feel that you can overpower the opponent's entire squad with the sheer passion in your voice. and with nearly every other person on your side feeling the same way, you'll start to understand how the up side fared during that game.

and being my first game, this was the first time i really learned the up cheers, so the latter half of the game was all about the "up go, up fight" and "shoot that ball" cheers (with matching gestures!). any fatigue i might have felt while waiting just dissipated among the shouts of "defense" and "u-nibersidad ng pilipinas", to which i excitedly went along with. i must've seemed so new to all of that, looking around for the proper cheers and gestures that go with the drumbeat, half-squatting on my chair with anticipation, jumping up and down with every shot we made, loudly booing with every foul. but then, looking around, nearly everyone else was showing the same levels of reckless excitement, so maybe that makes me look more like a veteran than anything else.

by the end of the game, my hands were full of tender, ill-defined, erythymatous patches, my voice was even more scratched out from all the cheering (considering i already had a sore throat beforehand), but my heart and inner scholar were overflowing with pride when we finally got to raise our fists to the "up naming mahal", after the fateful last-second winning shot by number 9, mr. marvin cruz. we walked away with gigantic grins on our faces, still revelling in the adrenaline rush, and hopeful for the next opportunity to yell "let's go up" at the top of our lungs.

in fact, it's admu-up next sunday. anyone else up for a major dose of school spirit?

unibersidad ng pilipinas
unibersidad ng pilipinas
unibersidad ng pilipinas
unibersidad ng pilipinas

matatapang
matatalino
walang takot
kahit kanino
hinding hindi magpapahuli
ganyan kaming
mga taga-up!

unibersidad ng pilipinas
unibersidad ng pilipinas
unibersidad ng pilipinas
unibersidad ng pilipinas

OOH!

presenting... the no_brainer strikes back v1.0. since a lot of the blogs i've seen have been playing on the black-white combination, i've decided that it's about time to jump on the bandwagon as well. luckily, the photoshop filter i used was able to cover up the crappy cropping i did on the picture (done during the 20 minutes before i left the house at qc). but it doesn't look that bad, now does it?

for future reference (and for those who doubt the authenticity of the pic), yes, that is a real brain. we were lucky enough that neurology lab session to be able to grab a spare brain and recruit it for photo ops. credit goes to coco/ice for the photos, and to migz for the free internet at his condo, which i so shamelessly used to finish this template.

and of course, there's also the suspension of classes today to thank as well. the whole of last night might have been spent entirely on lesion identification and dermatologic examinations, had i not *taken a break* and decided to finalize the template. after which came the final announcement for suspension today, so i just kept at it the rest of the night. actually, it's a bit of a bummer that the exam didn't push through this morning, because now the derma info has to contend with cell bio and anatomy lab for a prime spot in my cerebral hemisphere for next week. God help us with 3 exams next week and an admu-up game on sunday.

two things:

1. it's quite hard being *oh so* special.

2. i'm really in no position to divulge anything, but all i can say is that this is going to be *yet another* interesting year.

ok, so i'm stuffing myself with my words and my pride right now (myke and other atenean friends who were on the receiving end of my taunts will be partying right now) but prepare for major reverse peristalsis and verbal chyme expulsion when the second round comes! (or so i fantasize, again.) med terms are such fun to use.

the saddest part about losing to admu isn't actually losing to admu, but the myriad of associations and conclusions that can be deduced from this game and previous ones. we lost to admu by 9 points, while nu lost to admu by only 5 points. adamson slaughtered nu during the game earlier today. so if by pure mathematical substitution and correlation, we would have to lose to both adamson and nu, which isn't exactly what i envisioned this uaap season to be like for up.

but no matter. throughout the entire game, i was still spilling my guts out (and sweating buckets, which we have now diagnosed as hyperhidrosis) cheering for up, no matter how the numbers held. while we held a short but sweet lead early in the game, when the lead against us worsened to ten points, when the maroons made a quick comeback during the 3rd quarter, or when the blue eagles started to pull away once again for their final lead, the intensity in my gestures held, the passion in my voice stayed alive. heck, maybe you might have seen it; several people texted during the game that we were flashed on the studio 23 telecast a couple of times (i was the dark skinny guy in green), and that i seemed particularly ecstatic. and similarly, whether up dominates the season or if they miss the final four by a slot yet again, they can always count on me for support from the stands.

i was texting wyna a while ago, when she mentioned "si abon, mahilig na sa basketball!" or something to that effect. for me, it's not really the game that draws these emotions out, but rather, like i've said before, it's the school pride and spirit which really function to draw me away from derma and anatomy transes and into the stadium. it's such an amazing high, to be able to watch your team and cheer them on with all your might, that regardless of your vested interest in the sport you're still a hundred percent into the game. i'm just proud that i'm able to show this much enthusiasm for up; it really shows that i'm somewhere i want to be in and that i'm so appreciative of the chance to be a part of this hallowed institution.

like the blue babble cheer says, "win or lose, it's the school you choose." and i'm sure i've chosen the best one out there, regardless of final scores or season standings.

**side note: i am now harboring up pep dreams. good luck na lang.**

if there's anything to be said about having too much knowledge, it's that doctors (or in this case, medical students) can have it much harder than most.

case in question: an intelligent, witty, lovable, and hot 18-year-old up medical student contracts a rhinovirus, which presents regular symptoms since over three weeks ago. a week ago, he notices an increased number of pruritic, erythematous papules regionally distributed on his chest, where some soon coalesce into a well-defined plaque on the right side of his jugular notch. he also notes a purpura on the flexor side of his right foreleg. four days ago, he starts complaining of intermittent headaches localized on the right occipital area of his head. the next day, he notices a lymph node swelling on the right nape area, and slight ringing in his right ear. around this time, he decides to consult the up-pgh health services clinic after the much-dreaded derma-upper extremities exam duo, foregoing the first two hours of cadaver dissection, which started a week ago.

now, how do you even start making sense of all those differentials? if i was still the typical simple-minded high school student i was a couple of years ago, all this would have been attributed to a typical flu, which would have then been taken care of with fluids, bed rest, and the occasional paracetamol tablet. but now, thanks to the advent of anat/physio subjects, icpc's, and medical enlightenment in general, simple symptoms can take on entirely different (and mostly outrageous, i hope) diagnoses.

in the span of a few days, we've already looked up lymphadenitis and lymphedemas, parotitis, cranial neoplasms, hodgkin and non-hodgkin lymphomas, and probably a couple illnesses more, each more unlikely than the last. it's like we can't just relegate common symptoms to common diseases; our mere awareness necessitates a drive to uncover any and all possible causes behind the physical signs. once we start associating these signs to the respective diseases, it gets even worse when all the related symptoms, prognoses, and complications of each disease are uncovered. considering that the chances i contract mumps or that i develop malignancies are slimmer than my chances to ace the last two exams, it's still frightening to think of the possibility of sterility or a 10-year lease on life developing from a simple lymph inflammation.

and if the disease-guessing scare wasn't already enough for me to handle, now my caring father has to get on my case about cheering my lungs out at uaap games and my daily living habits, implicating them to my inflammed nodes. as if i'm not aware of the need for proper sleep and daily vitamin doses. when your child gets sick, or might be sick, i think it's more standard operating procedure to lay off the repetitive, stressful sermons and show your concern through more constructive means, am i right? luckily, i'm more than a bit used to the apparent lack of discretion on his side, so i'll just be stashing away counter-arguments for next time, and taking the silent way out this time.

anyway, the respectable diagnosis i got yesterday from the doctor at the health services was rhinitis with possible reactive adenitis. a week on co-amoxiclav to start with, and a referral to the department of otorhinolaryngology just in case. we'll just see how good our doctor-ing skills are at this point by then.

separate from the normal group of filipino students who would automatically raise their voices in exaltation and jump for blessed joy whenever the three greatest words in scholastic history are announced via radio, tv, or whatever forms of media have you, we would rather feign sulkiness and regret when the phrase "classes are suspended" is declared in our context.

as a result of the yet-experimental organ systems integration curriculum, our schedule is even more jam-packed than a jeepney with everyone sitting half-a-pwet, more rigid than the ten commandments set in stone. the slightest delay, the smallest aberration in our timetable can send ripples of chaos to a week later or beyond. a chaos we have already experienced due to the postponed exam the other thursday, a chaos i believe none of us would rather have to experience again.

the popular adage "there's no such thing as a free lunch" never rang so true. as all our doctors say, lost lectures will always be to our disadvantage. not only do we possibly lose the benefit of hearing the lesson and all necessary explanations come straight out of the horse's mouth (or rather, the two-hour unadulterated nap time brought about by the soporific effects of the professor's voice), but if we decide to have a make-up class, the stress will then fall upon trying to find the time to fit it all in. this gets even worse if exams are the unfortunate target of premature vacations; they might get moved to an inconvenient time, or worse, moved alongside other exams already set by the schedule. and being the good, ideal students that we are, we would much rather have our plenaries on time than suffer the consequences of a missed day of med school. but alas, weather concerns and the chancellor's prerogative come before the students' collective will, and suspensions will still occur.

but of course, i would be lying if i said that all i feel during these times are the disappointment of lost lectures and the burden of catching up with teachers and exams. i am still a student after all, albeit being a mature, responsible one. while i still feel the negative effects of the crippled schedule, my inner child just can't help but rejoice at the prospect of catching up with missed sleep, exclusive internet and chat time, or just the blissful feeling that there's nothing that needs to be done. or rather, that there's studying to be done, but at least the extra hours really come in handy. and if we're really lucky (or really, really lazy) there'd be somewhere to fit in a movie or two, arcade games at g-box, or just lollygagging around rob, looking around for prospective buys.

in fact, that's what just happened to me today. and with a new moss-green-with-blue- piping-and-red-orange-accent-stripe jacket added to my wardrobe (i am totally hooked on jackets right now; they're the indispensable touch of fashion to go along with the all-white look), today wasn't such a bad day after all.

**edit: yet another day of classes has been foregone in fear of deluges that never deliver. but now the histology deities have spoken, the tides of tests have shifted. there will be hell to pay upon our return. God help us.**