Memoirs of a Domesticated MD: Just a Recap

I love Sundays. It's the only day of the week where I have the luxury of waking up a little later than what I am normally used to. But today I woke up really late, I guess my body was catching up on sleep since the past week has been quite hectic.

My week started off a bit stressful. I was on 24 hours duty last Monday, which also happened to be a local holiday so my other co-residents had the day off. It was my first solo duty so honestly I was a bit anxious, but things went smoothly, we had around 9 consults, 2 referrals and I had 3 patients for observation in the acute area.

My next 24 hours duty fell on Friday the 13th. But the day did not turn out to be unlucky after all. I was able to attend Micah's recognition during my one hour break, and got there just in time before her name was called. My interns brought food in the evening, so it saved me from buying my dinner. We were able to sit down and enjoy dinner without any calls from the ER for patients coming in or referrals.

I think I had my share of bad luck when I found out that we were asked to attend a strategic planning workshop at the City hall the following day. I was already looking forward to spending Saturday at home with the kids, but since it was a hospital memo I had no choice but to be there. But the workshop did not turn out to be bad after all. It was a strategic planning workshop of the anti-mendicancy board and I honestly learned something from the workshop. It was a shock for me to find out that there is a city ordinance penalizing mendicants/beggars as well as those who would give money to them. I just forgot to ask if giving food would also be counted...

I was quite unsure of the Cebu city's vision of having a mendicant free city by 2015. But I guess if you dare to dream then might as well dream big. I just hope that whatever plans and ideas discussed during the workshop would really be implemented. We need a long term solution to this problem and not just a band-aid fix like picking up vagrants on the street who they suspect to be psychotic but only to find out on evaluation that he has been walking around looking for food and was hungry. I guess any person who has not eaten in days would have a brief psychotic episode.

Tomorrow is the start of another week. I don't really know what lies ahead but I am positive that things happen for a reason and that there is always a lesson to be learned in everything...