Normalization?

By my estimate, its already about 7 weeks into the lockdown, with measures projected to ease up by the 16th.. As always, I should really be doing something more important, yet here I am, blogging away.. Hehe

Being a frontliner, I have the privilege of having a bit more freedom of movement, and I have been at the hospital on a daily basis since my official "start" of fellowship. I consider it to have been a stroke of luck that I chose to toss my hat back into the ring and train yet one more time. At least this move was able to secure me a small but constant source of income as the world eventually recovers from the pandemic.

It has been pretty interesting to say the least. I'm actually enjoying being able to hang around the faculty room with my esteemed mentors, giving mr the opportunity to casually interact with them and pick their brains. The best thing about it is that they consider me as somewhat of an equal now, except where the subspecialty training is concerned of course. I'm a sucker for a good storyline, and I'm loving the way all theses different batches come together, working towards a common goal. Its a lot of fun hanging out at the callroom, telling the newbies stories of how it was before the covid days, and what they would be facing once things eventually settle back to normal, whatever normal will mean in the next few months.

Its really fascinating seeing the composition of the consultant staff, myself included. It seems that our generation has finally bridged the gap in leadership, with the most junior of the senior consultants being around 10-12 batches our senior. I'm honored to be a part of this crew, and hopefully when I complete my training, I get to be a part of it again. Few people are presented with this unique opportunity to be a part of something great, even though I know I will always just be a bit player.

I find myself cautiously optimistic about Covid in the country. I really believe that the lockdown has indeed done its job, and that the numbers (at least in the metro) will soon be going down to manageable levels. I wish I could say the same about the provinces though. Places outside Luzon were a bit late in their lockdown measures, and presently we are seeing numbers peak in the Visayas... A lot of us yearn for a resumption of normalcy at the hospital, so that the training programs can finally start in earnest, and hospital operations can resume to serve patients who have nothing to do with covid. The necessary game-changer would be a rapid CoViD PCR test (*not antibody) that would allow triaging to the appropriate area (covid or noncovid) at the ER level. This would certainly save a lot of headaches and free up rooms filled with patients who are usually awaiting swab results which would then finally enable proper cohorting. It certatinly does not help that there is such a backlog of results at the laboratory, as the testing capacity has been overwhelmed by a deluge of tests (some of them unnecessary and are from certain agencies) that patient management is already compromised at times. Yes, I am bitter, but I'm sure you would too if you find out that the facility's scarce resources are being channeled to other endeavors outside of its' primary mandate..

Readers may have noticed the vitriol I have against the origins of the virus... Those statements were written in the heat of the moment and will not be revisited anymore, although they will not be retracted. I'm still pretty pissed that all this was allowed to happen due to stupid policies and whatnot. I just with they would outgrow their foolish (and selfish) ideology and just function as normal global citizens. I could go on and on about the country in question, but I decided I won't waste any more of my precious time.

Fellowship has been getting interesting. Thanks to the magic of video conferencing, we have been able to hold three lectures already, and has enabled participation of my batchmate who is still locked down in his province since the travel ban is still in place. Luckily, bulk of the initial necessary learning of the subspecialty deals with reading results from a screen. Hopefully s measures ease and the patients return, we would be able to wade deeper into the thick of things with patient interactions and interesting cases.

I'm actually a little confused with my status right now. I am recognized both as a member of the staff, as well as a subspecialty trainee.. I just hope I'm not overstepping any boundaries by hanging out at the "faculty room", but then again, our section head is part of the faculty as well. I guess I will just stay put until we are able to move into our temporary home, since the ward where our section is housed is still being utilized as a CoViD ward.

I really hope that the trend we are currently observing holds true until the end of the pandemic, so that we would be able to resume our state of normality, with adjustments ..