Postcards On the Roll....

I grew up in the time when we had to travel to post offices to drop mails to different places (either to local places or to cousins based overseas). It was also during that time that I was fascinated with postage stamps & tried to collect them. When electronic mails (or e-mails) were introduced and words such as Yahoo!, Hotmail, Gmail became household names, post offices & snail mails turned ancient.

Until recently when my youngest sister asked me a favor - go to the post office to send post cards. I dug deep in my brain on the location of our post office. She narrated that she joined a postcards-exchange website called Postcrossing. You start by sending a postcard from your country to a random registered person anywhere in the world. The admin will give you a postcard-id which you must write on the postcard. The recipient will use the postcard-id to register the postcard you've sent. You can send a maximum of five postcards any time. When your first postcard is successfully received & registered, your name will show up as a recipient for another person who wants to send a postcard. So on and so forth.....

I paid almost P50 for the 3 postcards my youngest sister sent to european recipients. I don't have an idea how long it will take until the postcards reach their destinations. I already have 2 recipients - both in Europe. I haven't purchased my postcards yet & I am clueless what to write down. I've seen their profiles, & I've read the postcards they like to receive - common theme: nature.

I'm excited to start sending & receiving postcards. I feel like a kid all over again. Promise, I'll take a picture of the first postcard I'll receive. :)

www.postcrossing.com

What Late?

Not to boast but I'm not the type of person who arrives late at class/work. Since I was a kid, I was trained by my parents on avoiding tardiness. Even until my residency, I haven't gotten tired of that habit. Of course, you cannot avoid unexpected incidents (like car radiator going up which eats up a lot of time or very very heavy traffic) but those were just rare occasions. My colleagues will start to wonder that something did happen to me along the way. To quote a colleague, "Bihira lang ako ma-late." I'm a professional, and it starts at arriving on time.

With my present work, there's a rule imposed that tardiness will be sanctioned through salary deduction to encourage us to arrive on time. There was no "grace period".  Since I started there, I didn't receive any salary deductions due to tardiness. There were occasional days that I logged-in between 8:01 to 8:10 am (the latest) but I guess they were okay with it. There's just this 1 incident when I was late because of car radiator problem. I informed a colleague and a nurse by phone that I will be arriving late. I logged-in at 8:18 am. I thought "One time lang naman, hindi naman habitual. Baka pwede pa nila akong pagbigyan since may dahilan naman ako." And with my overtime hours, I guess makakabawi ako.

When I saw my payslip for the second half of December via email, I was shocked to see that I had 251 minutes (equivalent to more than 4 hours) tardiness. Almost P1000 was deducted from my salary. What?! Where did that come from? My colleagues and even the staff were surprised when I told them about it. I called our Payroll division to clarify/verify that. It turns out that the accountant was wrong about my actual clinic schedule. For 2 days (wednesday and friday mornings), she assumed that my log-in time was at 7 am but my actual time-in is at 8 am. So when I logged in at 7:59 am, she thought I was 59 minutes late. She repeated that pattern for the other days. Thus tallying to 251 minutes late. Right then & there, I corrected her by giving her my actual clinic schedule. Surprisingly, that's the first time I encountered it. If she's unaware of my actual clinic schedule, why didn't it happen before or during the first few months? Why only now? She told me that she'll give back the amount (that was deducted) on the next pay. Dapat lang! Sayang din yun.

Starbucks 2012 Planner

Every time that Starbucks Coffee offers their Christmas drinks, I become one of their patrons. I'm after the peppermint mocha. Completing the sticker booklet for a planner is just secondary, but I care less about it.

It just so happen that I was able to complete the 20+ stickers needed for the new planner. I asked myself what will I do with it since I already use Navi? On the other hand, sayang naman if I don't claim it. Probably I could sell it.

The planner (cover bamboo) is neatly stored in my book shelf, unopened. Anyone interested in buying it? :)

Change of Plan-ner

I used a Belle De Jour planner for 2011, a gift from my youngest sister last Christmas. In contrast to my previous planners (Starbucks), I used all pages from January to December. Aside from reminding myself of important activities like birthdays, anniversaries, I was able to keep track of must-do's, errands to follow, and other important details. The weekly design was very useful because I was able to write down thoughts, reflections on anything and everything that happened on one day. The downside was the discount coupons which I occasionally used. I confess I'm not very "kikay" and it will just encourage me to spend more rather than save. Also, it's bulky since it's hard-bound. So far, it's the only planner I was able to successfully use.

But for 2012, I wanted to look for other planners. Perhaps there's another planner that's useful as BDJ but less kikay. 

Last month, I bought a Paolo Coelho Daily Moments 2012 planner at Powerbooks in Greenbelt 4. It's supposed to be for my youngest sister as her christmas wish list. But she changed her mind. Instead, I gave it as my exchange gift during our department christmas party. I didn't like the design - it has no monthly calendar, has a few lines to jot down important events, thoughts during the week. 

I went back to Powerbooks to search for my next planner. I saw Navi. It was done by the same people behind BDJ but less kikay, lesser coupons, cheaper. Without hesitation, I bought it. Navi is short for navigator and as the name implies, it is a travel journal. Very, very appropriate for me - I like to travel & I want to travel. I also adore the uniqueness of the design - the right page of each book is blank. I have the freedom to write down anything & everything under the sun, I can paste pictures, and even draw. 

I can't wait to start writing down on it. :) 

Offer - Rejected!

While at work this afternoon, I made up my mind regarding the offer of employment at Tan Tock Seng Hospital in Singapore as one of their medical officers. With the help of a forums site, I learned a lot about the job description of medical officers (or clinical associates), and their condition/s outside of the hospital. Plus, the contract said I was going to work under the Department of Geriatric Medicine. I know for a fact that they have an aging population, and it was mentioned to me during the interview. I remember I told my interviewer that I just had 1 month rotation at Geriatric Medicine during my last year in senior residency but it was less intensive - mostly giving prescriptions to the patients left & right so that they can buy their medications at the pharmacy. Little did I know that it was going to be offered to me seriously.

It wasn't an easy decision but deep down, I felt that that job is not for me. On the other hand, it can be a good stepping stone for possible employment at New Zealand, Australia, or other Commonwealth country. I asked myself several questions -- what are my intentions there, knowing that I have less chances of being recognised a family physician there since I didn't earn my medical degree there. Am I after the practice itself? Am I going to receive potential recognition from the Singapore Medical Council in the future as a family physician? Or am I just there for the money? When my contract ends, what then? Is the monthly pay justifiable or sufficient enough to shoulder all of my expenses? Most importantly, am I going to be happy there? Well of course, we'll never know until it happens.

I know other physicians will gladly grab the opportunity if they were in my shoes. Sa kanila na lang. But for me, thanks but no thanks.

Prayer Answered

I just received the best christmas gift ever... Never mind that it arrived early.

I passed the Diplomate Exams! Woot!

My batchmate and I were going nuts since yesterday about the results. I was hesitant in calling the PAFP office to learn the result. I was so scared, anxious. While I was having my usual clinic hours in the morning at a big industry, little did I know that there was a text message going around about the results of the exams. My batchmate called me over my mobile phone, she was frantic and I could barely understand what she was telling me. I was also distracted because I had a patient/employee in front of me at the same time. Keeping my professionalism, I told her I'm quite busy and I hanged up. After 30 minutes, another female colleague (junior co-resident) called me & greeted me "Congratulations!" Coincidentally at that moment, I didn't had a patient so I talked with her for a while. She told me about the text message. I was puzzled because I haven't received any other text message that morning. She said that according to the text, my batchmate and I passed! I swear I wanted to shout for joy right then and there. But I still had doubts, maybe it was a hoax. After our conversation, my inbox was flooded with messages saying "Congrats!" It was around 10am that I received a forwarded text message stating that we indeed passed the exams. The original message was sent by 1 of the national directors of the Academy and a former specialty board member. My doubts were cast aside and I felt relieved. I told the good news to my family and my boyfriend. Everyone's happy for me.

Aside from my batchmate, I also greeted 1 of my co-workers (had residency at Veterans Memorial Medical Center) for passing the exams. I'm extremely happy to share the same joy with them, relief that we won't go through the same hardships all over again.

Can't wait to wear those togas during the Annual Convention next year. And I'm psyched to add 5 initials to my name - DPAFP.

I just wish my professional fee also goes up. Haha! :p

The Damage Has Been Done

Projection Exams
December 2, 2011
1600H
UST Faculty of Medicine & Surgery Medical Informatics Lab (Formerly known as LRU)

The first part of our 2-day Oral Diplomate Exams. The exam consisted of pictures (skin rashes, microscopic anatomy, ECG, x-rays, etc.) in timed powerpoint slides. In less than 2 hours, we were done. But before I could say "Thank goodness", we still had two more tests that involved purely Family Medicine physician's skills. After 30 minutes, I could finally give a sigh of relief - well, for that day. The projection exams were satisfactory.

On a side note, I was impressed with the new facilities of LRU. Flat, bigger screens, updated operating system, keyboards and mouse. So that's where part of the tuition fee is going.


OSCE
December 3, 2011
0800H
UST Faculty of Medicine & Surgery

"This is it!"

7 stations (5 manned, 2 unmanned), nerves, butterflies-in-my-stomach feeling, members of the Specialty Board going around, colleagues reading/holding books while you're not holding any. While you're in the holding area, you hear the bell countless times. And then, you hear your colleagues review many things like leopold's maneuvers, classification of body mass index, etc. Oh boy! I hated the agony of waiting.

When it was my turn, holy cow! My nerves got the best of me. I did very, very poorly. When I was finished, I cried my heart out. I wanted to think positive, be optimistic but in the back of my mind, I was already anticipating that I'm going through this again next year. I tried to smile but deep inside I was sad. I thought "Let it be done, according to Your will."

Results are going to be released 1 week after. I'm going to pray my hardest.