Jabbar, Dr. E.M. and Me

Last night was a very difficult evening for a PKD patient like me..... but first...!

Who is a well-known physician in Cebu City that reminds you most of the man in the photo? Of course, everybody knows the man in the photo. He is Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, a legend in basketball circles, one of the NBA's greatest players of Lakers fame.

Clue for the doctor?

He has almost the same features as  Jabbar. He wears glasses. He is associated to at least one movie (Jabbar starred opposite Bruce Lee in the Game of Death, the mystery doctor revealed he had a bit role in a Tagalog movie). and he is tall, as in basketball player tall. And both share the same birthday!

The good doctor is non other than.....(drum roll!)....Dr. Edwin Menguito!


Back to the first paragraph..I mentioned it was a very difficult night for me. Why?

It was Dr. Menguito's birthday and I attended his party and holy guacamole! The food was yummy! There's LECHON.

You know, yummy and lechon are synonymous in my case. and that's the problem..... Lechon is NOT PKD-friendly. Too bad. I don't wanna raise my creatinine further, thank you...

Anyway, there's fish, shrimp, crispy kangkong and fruits, and (c'mon...u can do it) I ate just a little piece of lechon skin.(Ayawg saba..)...Ya, I know...I know.

But I enjoyed the party. The mood was of the 60's and 70's with Ultimate Bee Gees  music and Beatles music being played. Reminds me of my folks and my auntie "Tita Ching" who was a "DJ" in the AM radio DYCB. The music throughout the evening were the same songs you hear as background music of afternoon radio dramas still prevalent in today's AM airwaves.

And I even took home a CD of the celebrant's favorite music. Plus 5 DVDs I won by answering one of the doctor's trivia questions.

When it was time for Dr. Menguito to talk, I learned never before known details of his life. He had a brother who is a priest. And he wanted to be a priest.

Turns out we actually have something in common....

He mentioned he has 3 incurable diseases and we share two.....Hypertension (the one that gave the 1st clue I had PKD) and .....(guess).......(sirit?)............Baldness.

By the way, Jabbar also has the last condition.

Happy Birthday Kareem!

After my own Good Friday, Back in Action

It was just last week or Good Friday that I had another episode of gross hematuria (with blood in the urine). To recall my prior readings, rupture of a cyst into the collecting system is thought to be responsible for it and urinary tract infection or stress may be a likely precipitating factor. It may possibly reflect a faster cyst expansion.

Anyway, I managed it with bed rest and hydration, in my case, with oral and intravenous fluids. Those days, I got the best care and support from my loving wife who always gives me strength...and the comic relief from my ever loyal but slowly aging dog- Bacter. Of course, I got prayer support from my family and friends. I know God was helping me carry my cross those moments.

No use for being depressed and all.

This week, the Medical Education Unit (MEU) of the Cebu Institute of Medicine (CIM) conducted a seminar-workshop on clinical teaching to Cebu Velez General Hospital residents who are expected to guide the senior and junior clerks during their own rotations. You can see me in the above picture smiling as if nothing "scary" happened to me a week ago. In the background are the residents having their workshop. I discussed one topic on Adult learning Strategy by Knowles and the Clinical Learning Cycle by Cox. I myself got to review these concepts which are very useful in clinical teaching. I particularly liked Ken Cox's clinical learning cycle which emphasizes the importance of preparation, briefing, debriefing and reflection aside from the patient encounter itself to have effective clinical learning. My other colleagues discussed assessment including the OSCE. By the way, for a step-by-step guide on Mastering the OSCE, Click Here!

On the same day of the workshop, at day's end, I got to have dinner with my 2 of my classmates from medical school years whom I haven't seen for a long time. The best part was...the dinner was their treat! Sarap pag libre ano? (lol) ...and yes...they are "more chubby" than me. Hope they don't get to read this blog...