Beauty and Brains

The Year Level 5: ICC Year blog posts - stories and anecdotes, patient encounters and hospital drama, and the many colors of UP med school from the perspective of a third year. Here's the ninth entry, under our one-week rotation in the Section of Dermatology.

Outside the Section of Dermatology, there's a sign in embossed golden plates that says, "No ugly people allowed."

That's not true, obviously, but that everyone in this section is exceptionally groomed, exceptionally dressed, and exceptionally fresh (compared to the rest of their colleagues in the hospital) is the farthest thing from a lie. Plus, the toilets are one of a kind: functioning bidets (not that I ever bothered dumping a shit there). Naturally, it may come across as ironic that the most literally flawless people in the hospital are made to deal with all sorts of skin afflictions.

With Section Chief Dr. Georgina Pastorfide.

With 3rd year resident Dr. Emy Onishi, who graduated top of her class at the University of Santo Tomas Faculty of Medicine and Surgery.

This is a truly outstanding rotation. Everyday, we saw at least three patients - did the histories and physical examinations - and then discussed their cases with the consultants or residents (and it was only natural that most of us preferred the latter). A lot - A LOT - of learning in a span of five days!

We had  a public health lecture on leprosy last Friday. The highlights were an empowerment wall on which we encouraged the audience to write their messages or sentiments via Post-it notes, and a balloon wall, with the balloons containing myths on leprosy, and behind them, a print-out of the new Miss World Megan Young (because, you know, beauty is found within).

 Setting up.

 Check out that balloon-covered face.

 Warm-up before lecture.

 Tongue twister time!

Bravo to this rotation: the first time I gave a 4/4 in the student evaluation!

PDI Review: 'The Bluebird of Happiness' by Trumpets

In today's Inquirer - here - my review of Trumpets' "The Bluebird of Happiness," an original English-language Filipino musical now running at the Meralco Theater until October 20. If you enjoy the humor of "Modern Family," this might just be the show for you. Bonus points if you're a theater geek and a LOTR fan. Check www.ticketworld.com.ph for tickets. Also, I'd like to thank Eugene O'Neill for the title.

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The long night's journey into day that is 'The Bluebird of Happiness

It is easy to dismiss Trumpets' "The Bluebird of Happiness" - which the Christian theater company dubs its "big musical comeback" - as just another extravagantly fantastical, unrestrainedly colorful kiddie show. When the musical's first promotional posters were unveiled online some months ago, the central image of two children heading into the bluish unknown with the eponymous bird hovering in a trail of glitter seemed like a black box warning for those allergic to the cutesy, the silly and juvenile.

But preconceptions be damned: "Bluebird" is hardly the stuff that kindergarten nap time storybooks nowadays are made of. In fact, that it sells itself, or appears to do so, as a children's musical may just be its most golden move. Viewed in that context, this two-and-a-half-hour musical that runs at the Meralco Theater until Oct. 20 plays out like the offspring of a satire and a primetime evening sitcom.

Moaning and whining

"Bluebird" begins on Christmas Eve in the house of two siblings, Mytyl (Chimmi Kohchet-Chua) and Tyltyl (Anton Posadas) - apparently the only ones in their gift-obsessed village without presents. After finding out that the only surprise in store for them come morning is a caged bird from their parents, their moaning and whining prompts the arrival of Berylune, a loony, big-nosed fairy (Jennifer Villegas-dela Cruz), who sends them out into the freezing night to find the bluebird of happiness.

Accompanied by their transiently human pets, the dog Tylo (Robbie Zialcita) and the cat Tylette (Lynn Sherman), and Light (Carla Guevara-Laforteza), the siblings embark on an entire night's journey that might as well be the product of their wild imaginations.

That's a rather typical method of sustaining interest in a children's story, but in the hands of book writer, lyricist, and director Jaime del Mundo, this adaptation of the Belgian philosopher Maurice Maeterlinck's 20th-century play becomes a hilarious musical adventure brimming with a potpourri of pop culture and religious references.

In the Palace of Night (played by Joel Trinidad), the gigantic clock face from the opening scene of the Stephen Schwartz musical "Wicked" gets transported to the backdrop. In the Forest, the protagonists go head-to-head with angry talking trees, and one can only imagine how discussions on environmentalism would have turned out if these were really the ents from J.R.R. Tolkien's "The Lord of the Rings."

In the Land of the Future, unborn children are sent off by Father Time (who can also be Jesus, or Aslan the lion from C.S. Lewis' "The Chronicles of Narnia") via a stair-climbing ritual that, for theater geeks, calls to mind Grizabella ascending on a tire to the Heaviside Layer in Andrew Lloyd Webber's "Cats." And in cameo appearances - the flying ship from Disney's "Peter Pan" and the fairy godmother's song from Disney's "Cinderella," among others.

Effective integration

But the ubiquity and effective integration of puns and cat jokes aside, "Bluebird's" book is also commendable for its bravery, its ambitious attempt to put a creative spin on a variety of themes.

Consider, for example, how each act opens with the song "Much More." Yet, while the Act I version depicts the simple revelry of villagers on Christmas Eve, Act II's is an illustration of excess in the Land of Luxury, where the siblings get lulled into wanton greed and end up squealing and getting physical (like how aggressive kids are wont to fight).

Further highlighting the Christian influence, Act I opens in the siblings' home, which, in its sparseness and intimacy, may as well be the manger in the Nativity. The Act II opener, however, segues into "Living in the Lap of Luxury," in which the seven deadly sins are personified Andrews-Sisters style while the "sinful" fighting kids are gleefully serenaded.

On that note, much praise should be lavished upon this production's cast, who sang their way through opening night on Sept. 27 without a single bum note in sight.

But there are three standouts: Guevara-Laforteza, whose soprano and stratospheric belt is essentially behind the incandescence of her portrayal of Light; Trinidad, whose intelligent grasp of character and ease with comedy transforms Night into a charming, scene-stealing villain; and Kohchet-Chua, who perfectly captures Mytyl's bratty but still charming persona, and whose unembellished delivery of the title song is one that child stage performers should learn from. 

Worthy of admiration

Mio Infante's scenography, hand in hand with John Batalla's lights, is also worthy of admiration. In particular, his design of the Land of Luxury takes a leaf from "Alice in Wonderland" - all bright colors and ornate props, with a chandelier to rival "The Phantom of the Opera" at the back.

And finally, there's the score (music by Rony Fortich), which has the bearings of a mix tape eclectic enough for a long, leisurely drive.

After all the jokes, the occasional clichés, the isolated moments of preachiness that expose minute lapses in the writing, "Bluebird" makes one last jab at philosophizing: the idea of happiness as invisible, or personal. We see the children (spoiler alert!) peering into the covered cage at the bluebird, where it has been the entire time - but we never really see the bird for ourselves.

But to see them finally content in the simplicity and dignity of their place - that becomes the instructive reward for all the extravagance and wildness of their adventure, for their exhausting long night's journey into Christmas Day. 

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The massive cast of "Bluebird" at curtain call on opening night:

Butuan I: The Way to the South and Back

It's been two weeks since we came back from Butuan, and it's thanks to Father, who claimed possession of my laptop for the past few days (he's back in Iloilo now), that I'd been unable to blog about the trip.

The idea of Hospital Management I & II is still vague to me, but of course that's something I wouldn't dare say before our superiors. I'd probably blurt out something that's presumably to their liking: "Management teaches us to be leaders in health care!" "Our field work in Management is wonderful exposure to the administrative and financial machinery behind a hospital!"

I surmise the above sentiments would probably get me into some sort of trouble, but truth be told, that field work was one big holiday. That we got to spend five days away from the noise of Taft Avenue, the musty, narrow streets of Malate, and that distinctive smell pervading every ward in PGH could not have been a more welcome treat.

1. This post is all about the plane rides (but the detailed aerial shots will appear in the next post). Our journey began at 7AM in NAIA Terminal 3. We had four airplane virgins, which is always a cause for celebration. Our plane was in a remote parking slot, or the ones that use stairs, so we assembled at the ground level pre-departure area. Ray, our wonderfully flamboyant, Pharmacist Licensure Exam topnotcher classmate paid us a visit; his group was headed for Davao City.

2. An All Nippon Airways special livery B767-300ER waiting for its mid-morning return flight to Tokyo Narita. Inside the airplane, a couple shot!

3. Clouds, taken by Pia. Meanwhile, Teddy won his first Cebu Pacific game!

4. More clouds! This was over Masbate, if I'm not mistaken.

5. Arrival! Butuan Bancasi Airport is small. There's no other way to describe it. There's a wisp of a baggage carousel in the arrivals hall that's no bigger than a regular National Bookstore outlet. The plus side was getting to walk on a tarmac under prickly sunshine after so many years of buses and airbridges.

6. Now, photos taken during the return flight to Manila, beginning with Bancasi Airport's check-in area. The recent senselessness in Zamboanga - at the time, it was just a day or two after the Davao mall bombings - reached in spectral form even this relatively peaceful city. Hence, the tightest airport security check I've experienced.  

7. The pre-departure area, a similar style to the old Iloilo Airport, where my first concrete memories of the airport were formed. Passengers bound for three cities all fit in the area, but before entering, a final security check!

8. Our plane was relatively on time. A view of the entire tarmac of Bancasi Airport - the smallness of it exudes a charming rusticity.

9. Creative shot of Pia and a Cebu-bound A320. The tarmac, viewed from a left-window seat.

10. Arriving at NAIA, I finally got to see one of the ex-Iberia A340s that Philippine Airlines has leased. God, what an awfully tasteless sight, especially when put side by side with a sleek B777-300ER.

NEXT: Butuan II: Geography from the Sky

LAST: Butuan V: The House

Hotdogs in Anesth

The Year Level 5: ICC Year blog posts - stories and anecdotes, patient encounters and hospital drama, and the many colors of UP med school from the perspective of a third year. Here's the eighth entry, under our one-week rotation in the  Department of Anesthesiology.

I'm the liaison officer, the point person, for our twelve-man sub-block for the week - four days, if we're going to be precise, because there was another one of those crazy dysmenorrheic rains that got the Chancellor drafting an early-morning suspension last Monday. It all ends today, my term, and inside I'm a hedgehog rolling over and over and over with pure joy.

Courtside spots at a C-section!

We watched a Caesarian section this morning, and that's about the highlight of the entire week. Courtside seats - er, spots! At one point, the tension in the room got insanely high (or maybe it just felt like that to us newbies) as the doctors struggled to get the baby out of the uterus, the unmoving head and shoulders stuck in some dingy, sticky, badass corner. Pull as you would a pillow seemed to be the motto.

I've been meaning to blog about our recent adventures in Butuan a week ago; I actually have the pictures arranged already - just the text missing. But we should be talking about Anesth here, and now I realize there's not much to talk about besides the unspoken fact that if we don't show up for the morning's rotations at the out-patient department, they probably won't even notice our absence. What did we do? Our lecturer treated us to hotdog sandwiches yesterday.

With Dr. Ed Simon, without the hotdogs.

I saw the Cinemalaya winner "Sana Dati" on opening night. It's the acting that should convince skeptics to buy a ticket - TJ Trinidad's defeated portrait of tragedy, most especially. But the story - that overlong, overwrought, too-complicated story - well that's another discussion in itself. "Prisoners," meanwhile, is seemingly being praised every which way you go in the US. What drugs are those moviegoers on? If you must go, then go for Jake Gyllenhaal - and that's all I shall say.

But really, we should be talking about Anesth here.

Houses and Sex

The Year Level 5: ICC Year blog posts - stories and anecdotes, patient encounters and hospital drama, and the many colors of UP med school from the perspective of a third year. Here's the seventh entry, under our two-week Management in Health Care course.

In Management - possibly, but I'm not very sure [sarcasm], the most benign period of third year - we learn how to make houses out of index cards. The houses have to have windows and doors and second floors and chimneys that are cylindrical. They must also be able to withstand a five-inch drop; in other words, fall and still remain upright, thus proving that they can't be upturned by earthquakes or a Godzilla mole rat.

This is supposed to teach us the three kinds of leadership - autocratic, democratic, and uninvolved - and if that's a statement on unfinished Communist housing projects along some godforsaken road leading to the Gobi, then long live Mother China and may heaven be an ice cream parlor in snowy Vladivostok.

Our group was assigned under the tyrannical reign of T, and in his time, we produced four whole houses and some roofless ones (for kinky foreigners who wish to sleep naked under the September moon). Meanwhile, his friend P was the head of the democracy, and they made a replica of Ayala Alabang Village.

Recently, T and P, when they're not pretending to run make-believe governments, have developed a sort of special bond, like Ellen Page and Michael Cera in "Juno," but without the teenage pregnancy (because, well, T and P aren't teenagers). They have also asked me (and I have willingly agreed) to play the part of T and P's one and only son.

Meanwhile, we went to M. Roxas High School this afternoon for our second session with the kids. Guess what the topic was? It's times like this that make you wish we were a less uptight country or have a less hypocritical culture. One of the guys in my small-group discussion wanted to talk about homosexuality and sex change. Why, indeed, do we not have a separate session for this?

We're off to Butuan on Saturday for a five-day immersion with the Manobos of the Agusan Marsh. I wish.

First Duty Ever

The Year Level 5: ICC Year blog posts - stories and anecdotes, patient encounters and hospital drama, and the many colors of UP med school from the perspective of a third year. Here's the sixth entry, under our two-week combined rotation with the Departments of Neurology and Psychiatry.

The bitchy neurology resident sure made for a splashy end to our two-week rotation in NeuroPsych. Dressed in all blue, with a glance that could throw an entire army into panic, she strode into the room, gathered us in one corner, and detailed the first order of business: our lack of a Powerpoint presentation during last Wednesday's small-group discussion. Which was interesting because we were never required to have a Powerpoint (or if we were, then our liaison officer never impressed such a requirement on us).

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We had our first 24-hour duty last Thursday in Psychiatry. I was grouped with J and T, and our theme song was "Lucky" by Britney Spears. Question No. 1: What is the relationship between the life and times of Britney Spears and a cat nursing its kitten?

We spent the morning attending lectures.

Then, in the afternoon, we stayed in the library, making full use of the free WiFi and the air-conditioning. It was fun seeing all the year level 3 and 4 (first and second year) kids buried in books for exams the next day, while we just Facebook-ed and slept and drooled a little.

After the library, we went to L's unit in one of the condominiums surrounding UP Manila. Trust me, these condos are sprouting like unwanted 'shrooms; I expect we'll be literally overshadowed someday. T had band practice; J and I did nothing exceptionally productive. Then, we had dinner at Robinsons, because fast food is healthy for student-doctors on call. Question No. 2: Where did we eat, and what did we eat, and how ecstatic does T look?

At 7PM, it was time to return to the call room, where we spent the next couple of hours playing cards. Question No. 3: What were we playing?

Finally, at around 9:30, we had our first patient at the emergency room - a toxicology referral. Poor guy had a row with his live-in partner last week; wife left him and brought the daughters with her. Guy became really, really, really sad; earlier that day, attempted to overdose himself with six 500mg amoxicillin capsules (which failed, because six capsules do not an overdose make), then slashed his left wrist, but not before sending a suicide note to mamah, who brought him to us

To the ER (left) and back to the call room.

It was all resolved by 11:30. And - big surprise! - we were told we could go home and just show up at 7 the next day. So we did, and that's how benign and fake our duty was. I think the three of us combined plus Lennie our intern made for a pretty benign magnet. So we went to T's as planned, and then I walked along empty Padre Faura at 12:30AM to C's place, where I ate cherries and slept. Question No. 4: Why did I eat cherries at C's place?

At T's condo. They filmed part of "Sisterakas" in that building.

"They go, 'Isn't she lovely, this Hollywood girl?' And they say she's so lucky, she's a star. But she cry, cry cries in her lonely heart, thinking..."

Mind Block

The Year Level 5: ICC Year blog posts - stories and anecdotes, patient encounters and hospital drama, and the many colors of UP med school from the perspective of a third year. Here's the fifth entry, under our two-week combined rotation with the Departments of Neurology and Psychiatry.

Where did the week go? And why do I feel like I didn't learn anything?

Newsflash to self: One week down for this NeuroPsych rotation. Brother told me it's a useless rotation - not even worth talking about. I know what he means. This is turning out to be some sort of quasi-vacation. For both the body and the brain. Talk about mornings-only everyday for the last week.

Which should explain my relatively long absence. As to what we've been up to: Eating. Watching movies. Sleeping - lots of it. A few encounters with crazy patients and crazy doctors.

Photo by Gellai Ursabia. Originally posted in Instagram.  

Saw "On the Job" today, "Mama" last night, "Now You See Me" the night before, "The History Boys" on Thursday night, and "Superbad" on Wednesday night. The last two were second viewings - "History Boys" because it's the kind of high school education I wish I had, "Superbad" because it's unabashedly nastily funny. "Mama" is stylish crap, but then again, the things I do for my love Jessica Chastain. "Now You See Me" is very entertaining, a festival for the eyes, but Vishnevetsky (Chicago Sun-Times) just about summed up my thoughts - look up his review. Go see "On the Job" now!    

And there's the summary of the first week of NeuroPsych, taddah!

Here's another photo of another leisurely lunch. That cut is Mr. Waiter's finger.

Finally, words of wisdom (verbatim) from a great psychiatry consultant:

On dealing with psychiatric patients: "You must learn to be comfortable in doing funny things. It does not spare the brightest."

"A non-sexist person equalizes men and women? Not always."

On methods of the patient interview: "... ANOTHER way of doing things, not a BETTER way - bakit ba kailangan may perfect o mas magaling?"

On interviewing psychiatric patients: "Please do not listen na parang may tama o mali sa pamumuhay ng tao. Try to find coherence to what's going on."

On crazy moments in his life: "I quit premed. My parents asked, 'Really? What do you want to do?' I want to swim everyday!"

"There is nothing special with psychiatric patients. It's more difficult to deal with our friends - or lovers."

This is from a high school classmate's sister's 18th birthday last Saturday (not yesterday) at the Makati Sports Club. That's the classmate (semi-drunk and daring), letting the bartenders do a making-fire-from-alcohol trick in her mouth.

And a final thought on this peaceful Sunday night: Another Palanca year gone, and life goes on.