Fabellista... that's a new term I made up for our group, the blessed clerks of our batch who get the privilege of plunging headlong into clerkship with Fabella as the first assignment. All the others who follow after us will just be called Fabellans. =P The OB orientation I had previously mentioned realized my deepest fears.. KAMI ang mauuna... sa Fabella!!! bwahahaha
For those who don't know, Fabella is an OB/Gyne and Pediatric hospital. In short, it's a freakin' HATCHERY of sorts. Or in the vernacular, PAANAKAN po siya na malapit dun sa Central Market. heehee
I never thought I'd see so many pregnant women in one place!!! Pucha, ANG DAMI!!!! Literally HUNDREDS of gravid women!
I'm a little behind in my blogging, so I'll have a bit of catching up to do, well I should at least complete this little project, the Fabellista Chronicles... =D
DAY 0 - Zero Hour
So named 'coz this was just the endorsement day. We weren't really expected at Fabella 'till the 16th but we went there anyway a day earlier to scout out the place and get a feel of the surroundings. And since the outgoing clerks weren't going to be there the day we went in, we wanted to get as much information as we could. There were 11 of us in the Fabellista group, or group 8b of the unitedclerks 2007, (Go united!!! =D) namely Jayveeh, Braix, Kathy, Mark, Ed, Binx, Pat, myself, Nats, Raissa, and Haids. I remeber the first thought that came to mind when I saw the hospital from afar.. "Oh my God, it looks like a freakin' PRISON!!!". Admittedly, the place has a kind of gloomy atmosphere that hung around it, but it wasn't what I was expecting.. pregnant women lying in the corridors giving birth out in the open, medical staff running around damp floors which are coated with God-knows-what, etc. wala namang ganun... Sobrang daming buntis lang nga. (as in!)
The outgoing clerks were kind enough to lend us some of their time and energy (tapos na rin naman kasi sila eh!) to orient us to how life is in the hospital. And we also had an orientation with the resident in charge of the clerkship training program there.
Just a short primer on Fabella life: The rotation is divided into 5; Duty, From, Ward, OPD, and Pre-Duty in that order. The only constants there are the toxicity due to the overwhelming volume of patients, and the neverending progress reports (more on this later).
After the orientation, the group trooped back to UST via pedicabs to have our little "refresher" orientation with the UST OB residents. Had lunch at the carpark KFC and saw the other groups there as well (it was Black Saturday by the way, which meant that the school was more or less deserted except for the hospital people). Grabe, lumalabas na ang pagka-clannish ng different (sub) groups. Almost everyone was eating with their own little "families". Grabe ang bonding, and clerkship hadn't even really started yet!
The OB refresher wasn't that interesting, so I'll just leave that out.
DAY 1 - The Beginning... (FROM) *Note, the words in all-caps within the parentheses are our group's assignments for that day
As luck of the draw would have it, me and Nats found ourselves with "From duty" status for the first day, which meant that we could just go for a courtesy call to our residents, but fate had other plans... After meeting with our Team leader, we were immediately assigned to do some progress notes!! Arrgh! Now, I would dare say that this is one of the most toxic things that we do in Fabella (other than helping the patients giving birth =P) We were a wreck! We only expected to be there for about an hour but would up gioing home a little before lunch! Braix wasn't available yet due to other commitments so we were pretty much on our own.. eh ang dami pa naman pasyente dun... and since the teams weren't complete yet, wala pang sistema yung ginagawa namin...
Went home tired and severly dehydrated.. (bought Gatorade at 7-11 before going home 'coz I was afraid I'd pass out while commuting) =c Halfway through the half-day, I was seriously comtemplating quitting and just going home... But still I kept on... hay.. I just hope one day I can look back at all of this and laugh.
DAY 2 - Andami naman nito!!! (WARD)
Today was an even greater challenge.. we were supposed to do progress on ALL the patients before 9am so that the residents could do a mass discharge. But at least this time our group was complete, so I feel that that went quite well.. although andami talagang pasyente. We were assinged to the different residents. I was paired up with Dra. Remo. Fortunately, despite all the toxicity, the Fabella OB residents are the kindest bunch I have ever met. They were really patient with us, understanding that it was our first ever rotation and stuff like that.
Found myself putting my MedTech skills to good use once again. It was kinda like I was on XT for the day, and I was running about the hospital like some crazy top. Man, I'm really glad that Fabella has only 3 floors... =P
We had a mortality today... sayang, 'coz that patient was already "to go home"...
It was kinda weird, watching someone that everyone was trying to resuscitate, seeing the life ebb from the person... (well, not really, 'coz I think the patient expired already when I got to the scene) I'll never forget this day.. ever... I mean, I've seen cadavers at Anatomy class, and even had the privilege of watching an autopsy during my MedTech internship, but this was very different...
To out things simply, I had another toxic day in one of the most toxic hospitals this side of the Pasig river... Now I have to sleep andsave my strength for the next day...
More to follow. Stay tuned...
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