Boracay again

Just got home from paradise. It was a great 8-day duty. I enjoyed my cases, I get to meet a lot of new people and I had a better salary than the previous one. The last part means I saw quite a number of cases than my previous duty. I also enjoyed the beach this time because most of the days are sunny. My eyes are locked to the turquoise waters everytime I get a chance to have a glimpse of it from the main road in boracay. I wonder how can I ever leave this place? And the Philippines for that matter?

There are some notable cases I had during my duty that I want to share:

18 year old British girl. She called me up to see her in the resort that she's staying with her boyfriend. It turns out that her tongue was "twisted" and cannot open it so much. She was crying and really anxious about her condition. When I asked her to open her mouth, her jaw was deviated to the left and her big tongue was obstructing the view. My first thought was an infectious cause. No fever. Allergic? No history. Neuro? No other deficits. I just asked her one question: "Did you hear a click when this happened?" Yes. It was a simple temporomandibular joint dislocation. I just reduced it back to its place and the girl thanked me profusely, meanwhile, I, walked out from their room in a cloud of valiant air.

I had several trauma victims. Most of them were drunk and had picked a fight with another person. No spilling of guts, though. Damn.

First time to take out a toenail from an infected ingrown nail: my patient is a native of Neuva Ejica, also visiting boracay for a conference. She came up with a swollen toe. It was almost as big as a tomato. Plump and juicy, also. (Sorry for the munching people out there.) The infection got worse because she went to dive before the day she made the consult. She was pretty much grossed out to see her nailless nailbed but happy to get all the pus out. She promised to teach me how to dive. Although I did a digital block. I bet it hurt like hell.

Dig this. I had a patient who works for Albert Einstein in Jacobi! Waaay too cool. He promised to take me around the hyperbaric facility which he operates. He's a very interesting guy, actually. He has businesses in Boracay and Cebu but he goes back to the US every other month. He lives in Westchester and he would love to entertain me whenever I visit. He told me that he will tell the people of AE how I took care of him. Swell.

I had a malingerer chest pain patient who got to my nerves. And another one who had an abortion. She was even smiling when I went to her house. Grrr. I charged them twice...no, thrice my actual PF. Serves them right.

During my stay I read a couple of books too:

1. Devil in the White City: Murder, Lies in the Fair That Changed America. I think every Chicagoan (?) should read this book. Its about the World Columbian Exposition of 1984. The biggest fair at the end of the century which rivalled the Paris exposition. Many American firsts came from the fair: Aunt Jemima, hamburger, Juicy Fruit, Cracker Jack and the Ferris Wheel. And a nice gory serial killer hunt interspersed between the pages. Very entertaining, well-researched work.

2. Opal Deception. The latest installation of the Artemis Fowl Series. Best of the four Artemis Fowl series. Took me just 6 hours to read it. Hard-to-put-down book.

3. Chronicles of Narnia. Got through the first, second and half of the third book. I'm excited to see the movie!

I was planning to have an intro dive before I leave but I felt guilty spending that much money. It was P2T bucks for a dive. My patient is willing to give me a free lesson in Palawan, so why bother if I can get it for free. I just hope it will push through.

And now m back in my room. Back to my backlog books, to my Step 3 reviewers waiting to be opened and to my dial-up internet connection that I'm trying to upgrade to a DSL connection. I'm trying to figure out where to get the funds for that. Ugh.