60. Escorting chemo brain out of the building
I participated in bedside rounds with the residents and a rotating medical student today. One of our residents was using medical-ese to explain to a patient’s mother why her son needed a urinalysis. Recognizing this, I spoke to the mom in simpler, more understandable words (yes I talked to the resident about this after rounds… […]
Hello, UP Symphony Orchestra!
(PGH DRM x UPSO) Establishing rapport: hello orchestra, we are the Philippine General Hospital Department of Rehabilitation Medicine and would like to be your physicians. Our team from the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine started our Musicians’ Health Series of short-ish talks this morning with the University of the Philippines Symphony Orchestra. We joined them before […]
Performing Arts Medicine Association 41st International Symposium
July 6-9, 2023. It was great to be back among “my people” in New York City after missing the first post-pandemic in-person conference (Chicago, 2022) due to illness. Bonus: we [Dave the Travel Pig and I] “met” the inventor of the Pap smear. Special thanks to the organizers, and also to my presentation co-author John […]
59. Traveling, one year after breast cancer
July, 2023 marked my first major trip after breast cancer diagnosis and treatment from the Philippines to the United States of America. This is also my first major trip post-pandemic. It is a trip I have made many, many times before the COVID-19 pandemic… but this blog post is not going to dwell on pre-pandemic […]
Introduction to the Medical Humanities: Art Analysis Task
We had fun today: the Medical Humanities students presented their art analysis task, and we are now ⅔ of the way through the 2-week course. The students were asked to choose an art work related to health and/or medicine, and talk about it for 5-10 minutes during our session. Special thanks to the faculty who […]
Medical Humanities Elective: it’s showtime!
I think our first session (of six) went well for the inaugural Introduction to the Medical Humanities 2-week elective for interns (final year medical students – they are 2 months away from graduation!). As far as we know, this is the Philippines’ first elective within the medical school curriculum wholly dedicated to the Medical Humanities.
58. Making meaning out of illness through multiple lenses
Hooray, presentation done! Doreen the breast cancer mascot has made her debut on the international academic conference circuit. Grateful for the opportunity to talk about my breast cancer learnings and experiences (aka the craziness of 2022) at the Asia Pacific Bioethics Education Network Congress 2023, held at St. Luke’s Medical Center at Bonifacio Global City, […]
57. Lymphedema Gets Real
My weekend trip to Singapore came with an unpleasant – though not entirely unexpected – souvenir: lymphedema. Lymphedema (as defined by the CDC) is swelling due to build-up of lymph in the body. This Cleveland Clinic webpage has a good definition of lymph: it is a collection of the extra fluid that drains from cells […]
Performing Arts Medicine – Singapore Trip
I was chatting with my medical school classmates Fil and Mae about our research project, when Fil (Filomar Tariao, aka “doctor Fil” to his students) mentioned he would be presenting our findings at a local Singapore event: the May 2023 Sports Medicine Association Singapore – Performing Arts Medicine Special Interest Group meeting. I half-jokingly asked […]
Medical Humanities Talk – Faculty Development
Monday morning (May 8, 2023) started off with Conversations that Matter – part of the St. Lukes Medical Center College of Medicine’s faculty development program. We played the video of my talk from the Association of Philippine Medical Colleges conference in 2022, and had a live open forum for questions and answers. In this way, […]
