I planned to make an entry for my first week of school I was swamped with requirements and I was trying to stretch my last few days of vacation so here I am, writing about my first 2 weeks of second year instead.
I twisted my ankle on the way to school during the first day so I am still limping. What a great way to start the school year 😂. Day 2 was no different, we were all so tired already. You can easily distinguish us second years with the first years. Yes we still have the same uniform but we looked very tired while they looked fresh. They also looked so excited. How I wished that we felt that way. We were so stressed and scared especially for Pathology. And with that, I would like to “orient” you on my second year, first semester subjects, or at least try to explain it 😅😂
Med 1 – Clinical medicine
– this is where we will learn how to do a physical examination and proper history taking. I’m excited but kinda scared for this subject. Excited because we finally have our stethoscope and other physical examination equipment!!! My stethoscope’s color is plum and it looks so beautiful 😍💜 I had it engraved so that if someone accidentally grabs it during duty, they know it’s mine 😂
Anyway, back to the subject, we will be given “patients” (with ” ” because they aren’t really sick but we need people who will act as patients) who we will be examining and it’s kinda scary but again exciting because we are no longer just reading/studying but now we are really one step closer to being a doctor. We have to act like a doctor, be a doctor. Checking blood pressures, taking temperatures, interviewing, and etc. There’s so many things we need to memorize, questions that are needed to ask from the patients, in order for us to diagnose properly what the patient’s problem.
Pathology
– one of the deadliest subject. This is where we learn the how’s of a disease, in a molecular way. A patient had a heart attack? How did it happened? Where did it start? What was the state of the cell/DNA/etc before, during, and after it had happened? As for our laboratory, it was slightly easier for me since the lesions (manifestations??? of disease) in the tissues are very distinguishable unlike in the normal tissues where everything looked like pink smears/circle for me. 😅
I can’t find the exact meme but this is actually so true:
I’m able to identify the type of cell injury thus able to identify the cause/disease and the organ. That’s kinda a big achievement on my part so yay! 💕
Surgery 1
– I thought at first this was only about where to cut or how to cut but!!! it turns out it wasn’t just that. Since our first topic was surgical oncology, statistics were discussed, there were also about the causes, how to stage properly, types of surgery done for checking/confirming if the tumor is cancerous or not, types of surgery for removing tumors, AND how to tell the patient about their state like what stage is it, or the pros and cons of the surgery, what they should expect after the surgery, and even what type of medication can they eat/drink. I really don’t want to be a surgeon because I don’t like gory stuff but I was surprised that I’m kind off enjoying our surgery class. Hopefully I’ll love this subject (and all my subjects) till the end of second year 😅
Psychiatry 2
– We still haven’t had our class here but I think this subject is self explanatory??? I’m excited for this because if you know me personally, I’m kinda a magnet for those people who have or are struggling with their mental health. A classmate told me that he thinks I’ll be a good psychiatrist or even just a counselor because, after talking to me about their problems, it felt like a heavy burden was lifted from them(????). His words, not mine 😅 I don’t think psychiatrist and counselor is the same 🤷🏻♀️ but whether or not I become a psychiatrist, I really want to learn so I can understand, encourage, and help people in their journey.
Pediatrics 1
– I’m also excited for this because this is really my first choice of specialty. So pediatrics actually has 3 “stages”. Infant, young/elementary age, and teenage. So I guess this is also a self explanatory subject??? 😂 I really want to be a pedia, then maybe I’ll take a second specialty–psychiatry. But we’ll see what happens in the next…3 years? if I’ll be taking my residency in Pediatrics 😌
Pharmacology
– medicine!!!! medicine like drugs 😂 this is another “oh” moment for me. I thought we would just memorize the type/generic name of medicine and as to what disease/sickness it is for, but oh my, we also need to learn how to calculate the appropriate dosage for the appropriate age/weight/etc of the patient. Pharmacology is also where we study the different interactions of each drug. All I can say is that there is a lot of memorization in this subject 😨😭
Oh! Last Thursday we were taught on how to write prescriptions. It was a lot more that just writing the medicines but this is where the calculations were applied. It was kinda confusing but very exciting because again, we felt like doctors already 💕
Parasitology
– as the name implies, the study of parasites and its effects on the body and what are the manifestations when a person is infected. The laboratory was a nightmare for me. I thought histology and pathology was already hard but this is harder. All I can see are…dirt 😂 here’s an example: 
there’s a small, shiny looking microbe/parasite there at the end of the pointer. Good news is that some are bigger looking so it is actually easier to identify them.
Microbiology
– like Parasitology, it is the study of microscopic pathogens which causes disease (???) we haven’t had our laboratory here yet but from what I saw, we will be taught here how to prepare stained slides. So I guess it’ll be exciting??? 😂
* I would love to explain Parasitology and Microbiology more but I am still “lost” in those subjects 😅 hopefully by the end of this month, I understand more about the subjects 😅😂
So there you go, my subjects for the first half of my second year. If I remember correctly, all are yearly/annual subjects except for Parasitology and Psychiatry, which will be replaced with Physiological Obstetrics and Family Medicine 2 next semester.
I hope to enjoy, learn, motivated, and just be excited for second year even though all doctors and interns have said that this is the hardest year in medschool 😨 but as always, lalaban para sa bayan 💪🏻💕 kaya? Kakayanin with God’s help and your prayers. 💪🏻🙏🏻
Lumalaban,
💜 Issa Gan
