Blood Extraction Blunder

He did it again.

Using his index finger, he pointed to his left cubital fossa (i.e. the front part of his elbow) while he was giving me this sly grin.

You see a few weeks ago, I extracted blood from him in that area but, lo and behold, I failed to hit his very prominent veins! (But hey, even the great Michael Jordan misses his shots!) So while swallowing my pride, I retracted my needle and transferred to the opposite site.

But my blunders don’t end there. I forgot that his laboratory request consist of Complete Blood Count (CBC), serum electrolytes, Fasting Blood Sugar (FBS), and Serum Creatinine which should be placed in 2 vials, one containing 2cc and the other 4cc. I used only a 3 cc syringe! So as soon as he went out (he was going to the Rehabilitation Medicine Department) I asked a medical technologist intern to follow him there and make another extraction (while thinking of a good alibi).

And since then, he repeated this gesture every time we cross paths (since we live in the same neighborhood). Probably it’s just a joke in his part (I know he’s a good man), but being reminded of your mistake all the time is no laughing matter.

Well, isn’t it the same with our greatest accuser—the devil? He never stops in pointing an accusing finger toward us, making us feel we’re hopeless, good for nothing and we can’t change from our past. He always tells it to our face us that we are sinners and sinners we will forever be. He presents us these lies, thus, making us forget the real value we always had.

Good thing our Father thinks otherwise.

He knows that we are sinners, and as sinners He already paid the price for our sins—both past and future. All we have to do is to accept that grace and repent. May this be the truth that will set us free from the lies of our enemy.

“Just one drop of His blood …
… washed away all of my sins.
Saved.”

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Sutures

I have a new advocacy.

But before that let me share to you an experience I could not forget.

I was having my first day of duty in my first month of surgery at a government hospital. There was this patient who was allegedly mugged by a group of people, thus, sustaining a laceration in the scalp at the right parietal area that badly needs suturing. In a government hospital setting, there are times the patient needs to provide the material, but unfortunately for this patient he had no money because he just came from the province and was trying his luck in the big city. So we just scoured for available sutures in the “pancitan” (Tagalog for “noodles.” This refers to the used sutures that are soaked in antiseptic agent for re-use). There were also some few lidocaine left from a previous patient and luckily there was a sterile glove available. So I, being inexperienced and all, sutured a wound in the scalp for the first time!

As I was doing the minor procedure with trembling hands, I cannot help but to extend my sympathy to the patient. If he just had enough money he could have been attended by a more skilled physician in a complete facility, and not by a fresh surgical clerk who’s unsure of what he was doing. I did not know if he followed-up for suture removal or if he bought the antibiotics he was prescribed, but by the look on his face, I’m sure he was hurt more emotionally than physically because of his helpless condition.

It is just one of the many encounters I had with patients who sought medical help but were unintentionally deprived of such attention because of financial constraints.

If only they had enough money.

That’s why I’m including a new dimension in my life’s mission: FINACIAL HEALING.

I’m not saying I’m rich and capable of giving money to the poor for their health needs. I also needed to be healed in that aspect, for me to be able to take part in their healing process. Financial healing is more than giving money as a dole-out. Because if you just give money as charity, it is like giving them Paracetamol for the fever but not prescribing a broad spectrum antibiotic that will heal the overwhelming bacterial infection in their system.

For people to have financial healing they should be given proper financial education.

Luckily I found a group* that dedicates their time and effort educating people regarding their finances. I, too, am in the process of acquiring financial knowledge and soon will be an instrument of healing of many people, financially.

This is my dream: a first-world Philippines where all patients could avail proper medical attention because they can afford it.

Join me in this dream. Educate yourself and become truly rich!

* They are the International Marketing Group (IMG). In Metro Manila, they are giving FREE financial literacy seminars called Wealth Academy every Wednesday and Friday (7pm-9pm), and Saturday (2pm) at 3/F King's Court Building 1, Chino Roces Ave., Makati City. For outside Metro Manila and other countries, you may inquire to them. For inquiries how they can help you just click here.

Medical Trivias 2

Some interesting facts and figures from medical and first aid websites:

- Around the world, 50 people a day are blown up by land mines.
- The mosquito is the most dangerous animal in the world. 3000 people die each day from Malaria. World wide, 515 million people are infected.
- Properly performed, CPR delivers less than 30% of the hearts normal flow of oxygenated blood to the brain.
- A red blood cell can circumnavigate your whole body in 20 seconds.
- There are 2.5 trillion red blood cells in your body, which means about two and a half million new ones need to be produced every second by your bone marrow. That's the same as reproducing the population of the city of Toronto every second. That's 100 billion every day.
- If you look at all the cells and tissues in your body, about 25 million are reproduced every second, which is like reproducing almost the entire population of Canada every second!
- Nerve impulses travel at over 400 km/h. When we touch something, we send a message to our brain at 124 mph.
- In one square inch of our hand we have nine feet of blood vessels, 600 pain sensors, 9000 nerve endings, 625 sweat glands, 36 heat sensors and 75 pressure sensors.
- A sneeze explodes out of the body at 166 km/h. A cough travels at 100 km/h.
- The average heart beats at 100,000 times a day.
- Your blood is on a 600,000 mile journey.
- Our lungs inhale over two million litres of air every day, and if they were spread out, they are large enough to cover a tennis court.
- We make 1 litre of saliva every day.
- Over your lifetime, the average person will breathe in around 40 pounds of dust.
- There are more living organisms in one average human body than there are humans in the whole world!
- From 30 years old onwards we gradually shrink.
- We have enough carbon in our bodies to make 9,000 pencils.
- When we blush, our stomach lining goes red too.
- If we put together all the time we spend blinking, we would see blackness for 1.2 years.

Source

I Love You From the Bottom of My Amygdala!

I am halfway through my rotation at the hospital laboratory and I am having a great time!

Aside from the fact that I don't have a night duty (8am-5pm only), I am appreciating better the domains of blood chemistry, histopathology and microbiology! (Am I becoming a freak now?)

And since I am at the LAB (short for laboratory) department, allow me to share with you some of my thoughts about LOVE... (lol)

> For me, love is more than an emotion. It is a decision. If you decide to love somebody, you will stick to that person even the kilig feeling (infatuation) has been long gone. It involves more then your heart (or amygdala where the source of our emotion, anatomically speaking) but your will.

> For you to share love, you must be filled with love. If not, it will drain out the life out of you. Imagine you have a cup which you fill with water. You must be filled and overflow with love, so that the overflowing love from your "cup" will be the love that the other "cups" in your life—family , friends, career—will receive. Remember, you cannot give what you don't have.

> It is romantic to hear from your special someone the phrase "you complete me," but if you are still incomplete, then, I believe what you will give is an incomplete love.

> And before you say "I love you" to someone, you should have said "I love You" first to your God.

> 1 John 4:19 (TEV) says "We love because God first loved us." You should realize how much you are loved by God, because we ought to response to that great Love. It is inevitable! If you felt that unconditional love from God, you cannot help but to love Him back.

> It is great to show your love in extraordinary ways, but don't forget to love them with the little ways (unexpected phone call to a friend, a simple back massage for your mom, a hug for your brother.)

> Be verbal with your love! It sounds very mushy but believe me you'll regret it when you are just saying those words of affection too late; when that person is already dead upon arrival at the E.R. and the doctors cannot do anything about it!

> Love your work, so that you won't have to work a day in your life.

> Love the poor. (I'm teaching myself to be generous.)

>Love the unlovable (that unreasonable resident doctor, that demanding patient, that indifferent neighbor, that person that no one wants to befriend with). It is difficult I know, and sometimes I am having a hard time to follow this. But at least, try.

My friend, live a life full of love.

"Meanwhile these three remain: faith, hope, and love; and the greatest of these is love."

1 Corinthian 13:13, TEV

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Laughter is the Best Medicine 1

Check out one of my hospital bloopers!

I remember when I was still a medical clerk and was rotating at Fabella Medical Center (the baby factory of the Philippines!), I was assigned to monitor the vital signs of all the patients together with some colleagues. The ward was so huge it has 100-150 bed capacity.When I was in this particular row, I noticed a pregnant patient with her baby's head sticking out from her!I noticed that the baby was already cyanotic and so my instinct told me to call the attention of the resident doctors and to pull out the baby right there and then (yes, without even wearing sterile gloves)!

And so at the top of my lungs I screamed "Doc, baby out!" All of the patients, nurse and everyone in that huge ward stared at me puzzled while I panicked. Then one of the doctors approached me and told me to calm down because it's alright. What I didn't know was the patient had intrauterine fetal death (the baby was already dead inside) and they were just waiting for the mother to spontaneously deliver the baby so that they won't have to induce labor!

Yikes! I made a scene and it was very embarrassing!