Caritas

This is not a post about health insurance, haha.

I've recently, uhm, "leveled up" and now have the unenviable task of handling charity patients. In residency training, these are the supposed learning cases where the residents can apply their knowledge of medicine and practice their own brand of healing.

Guinea pigs? Nope, I don't think so. Not when there are 2 or 3 consultants hovering over your management and questioning you. And let's not even mention the audit, somebody might get ideas. Haha.

For our training, charity means handling those out-of-funds patients who most likely have difficult cases being they've already exhausted their money.

For me, it's trial by fire.

For my patients, it's a chance at a really big discount for his care.

I've had the fortune of having had 4 charities so far, and it's a different feeling each time seeing patients go home a little bit better than how they came in because of my orders in their charts.

The feeling of holding that chart with your name on it, seeing the patient and talking with their families each time you go on rounds, and expecting them on follow-ups -- it's very doctor-y. Haha. It's a mixture of the anxiety of messing up, the fear of failure, the elation of getting something right and the power of healing another human being.

It probably isn't the most reasonable thing to hope that all my patients end up walking home through the hospital doors, but I'd like to keep that streak up as long as I can possibly can.

A Little Bit of Something Each Day

I can't believe I've been away from writing this long. Well, I had more than a couple of things going on and I simply couldn't get away to write up a post here and there. But with the new year comes a new resolve to write more, sing more, live more, not to mention work more, but all in stride. After all, it's always the little things each day that makes up those moments that take your breath away.

SOMETHING SAD

I've written about so many things on this blog, and the seeming nearness of death to us all has always been an easy topic to expound on. With 2 full years of residency under my belt, the losses still matter to me. Most especially when some losses are closer to home. When we lose young patients with so much more to live for, and recently, a friend's mom passed away under our care (my condolences, Ver), I feel, more than anything, the fragile state of our mortality, and that sense makes each morning a better one than yesterday's.

SOMETHING TO LOOK FORWARD TO

I've done 2 years of my residency in Internal Medicine and going into the final stretch. It's going to be a heck of a year with seniorship, teaching juniors (that is if I have anything to impart, haha), and conferences and presentations, and hopefully, graduation.

SOMETHING SCARY

In line with the stuff to look forward to, there are exams, oral and written coming up and which I have yet to prepare for.

SOMETHING MUSICAL

I've finished a close friend's wedding song, but I never got to record it or present it at their wedding. Maybe I'll get up and do it once I'm done with all this residency stuff. And, that Christmas love song for you, you've heard. Haha

SOMETHING LOVE-LY

I'm married! Haha

With all these things, come the promise of a new year -- more blogs, more unforgettable moments, more music, less pain, more joy -- and the wish that it's gonna be a whole lot better from here on out.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!