Cast & Curious

Tag: personal

  • It’s personal but not too private: Why Are we stuck with writing and blogging? (TBR:VFD II First Ed)

    Inoxcrom?

    We love to write, no question about that. Like Doc Stef , most of us would love to write the Anais Nin way:

    To write. To sit down with pen and paper, to think, and rethink, and put your thoughts in order…with nary a thought for whether your current piece is going to be “popular” or not –The Anais Nin Way, Last Minute Madness

    If there’s one thing that brought us all in front of our computers and online, that is the urge to write. They have papyrus before, parchment papers and lately the mighty pen. Type writers became synonymous with writers in the 60’s and towards 80’s.  We, we were borne in the age of the internet. Writers get stuck with writing, but

    Blogging as my platform

    their platform evolve, if you believe what I say:

    I happen to be born in the age where blogging is the platform..- Stuck with Writing, in the Age of Blogging, The Orthopedic Logbook

    Blogging might have evolved into a microblogging platform like tweets and status updates.  None has so far came near the huge space (and the Nobel Prize?) that blogging has to offer, in keeping a (online) journal, as Doc Mel says.

    ..it remains true to the ideals of keeping a paper journal…-WHY ARE WE STILL BLOGGING? (Got my cross-hairs on the Nobel Prize), The Philippine Daily Idiot

    What about blogging then?

    Cebu MD's "house" online

    It’s very personal if we ask Cebu MD, “it is like my house, online”.

    I can do whatever I want with it and put my personality with it. I can choose the layout that I want. I can put the widgets of my choice. I can even monetize my blog..-Why I’ll not stop blogging even when there’s FB and Twitter, Cebu MD.com

    Doc Ian has turned his blog into a “life’s time stamp and online picture frame”

    ..capturing and displaying snapshots of daily events and once in a lifetime triumphs. It’s a record of what has happened, events that may ultimately be forgotten if they were not written about..-Why I Blog?, So Far So Good

    Wanna Say Something?

    We blog because we wanna say something.

    I felt like I had something to say- Words and Life, An Adventure Called Life

    I Blog therefore I am

    Something about anything, everything and sometimes, nothing (Like Doc Ligaya‘s first post).

    I blog to voice out, rant, shout out and say to the unknown audience what I think about the things I write about and the world we live in.– I Blog Because I Am :Scrubbed Out

    Often that something is about ourselves, our thoughts (I write because I think ), egos (right Doc Anakat?), frustrations (get off me!) or floating thoughts.  We may not care if somebody reads or listens:

    I don’t care if I have a loyal following on this blog. I’m not doing this for any audience- Blogging for my Ego, The Saga Continues

    Because at times, we wanted our blogs to be our mirror- a reflection that wouldn’t punch us in our face when we call it “stupid”. No not the one we get on Facebook that invades our “wall”, our privacy. Sorry Doc Cherry, you can’t delete your blog.

    Oh, yes we  blog to the advancement of the human specie- environment, political, scientific or religious. We blog whats close to our heart, like Doc JA‘s pro life advocacies,

    To give a show of support to a cause very close to my heart: the pro-life movement.-Why I Blog the Way I Do? Ripples from the River of My Thoughts

    Yes, maybe.

    We felt we have a voice wanting to be read by the millions on the internet. Even if there’s virtually zero readers on your RSS feed, we still feel good because we thought we said something to advance a cause, or halt an avalanche of deviants. A Nobel prize? At least that, we can do in our blogs.

    Why not on FaceBook? On Twitter?

    ..call me old-fashioned. Blogging is like being in a coffee shop with a friend. Communication is unhurried, you can both stay up all night, and go home to your respective places without one needing to know what the other person wears (or does not wear, perhaps) when sleeping…-Why Blog When It Is As Obsolete as MIRC: The Last Song Syndrome

    Personal, but not too private. The blog is such a thing.  You can build it to your taste, show it to everyone (if they wish to) but they should never, ever write on your “wall”.

    I just realized then that my blog survived the ‘delete’ button because unlike everyone else, no one can create my posts, much less, immortalize my thoughts in here. In this page, I am the boss of me.- You Call It Narcissism If you Like : Merry Cherry, MD

    I would agree. We love to write for a a myriad of reasons or none. We were born in the age of blogging. Our writing evolve in it. Revolutionary in the early days. Then we stuck with it even if it fades away. Why? We want it to be personal, without someone else tinkering with our privates, or our “wall”. No body wants someone else to write in his wall, like in this video.

    Would you? I would prefer you’d write your comments below, and not on my wall!

    (This is Blog Rounds: Voice of the Filipino Doctor Season 2 ,First edition. Whew, It was both fun and challenging! Thanks to you all who joined! And those that didn’t, join us in our next rounds!)

  • Stuck with writing in the age of blogging.

    Blogging is expensive. The time, money and effort you invest on it, is capricious. On many occasions, I and a hundred or so human being would ask this writer, what good will blogging bring? Money?Fame?Better English?Save the world? If you’re following my blogs, you would know by now, that I have totally none , zero, nil, of those.

    Yet, I still blog.

    Last Blogger’s Day, a fervent writer doc,  wrote an interesting post entitled “I’m not a blogger“. Of course  the title caught my attention but what hit me most is this:

    “…Someday I’d like to be a writer who happens to have a blog…”

    Then I realized, with all honesty,  I too, I’m a writer. A bad writer maybe, but yes, I’m still a writer.

    “But what do you write, doc?”

    I’ve been writing blogs since its inception years ago. Blogging is an emotional and experience outlet for me back then. I was so happy ranting out things that many bloggers nowadays would consider “too mushy”. In fact, many bloggers have taught me to be more “focused” on purposeful blogging, and blogging with finesse. The harder I tried those, the less I am happy with my write up, strangely. So I’m re learning emo-blogging, by heart.

    After years of soul searching and writing for each of those niches (medicine, hiking, photography, sports, personal) I came to one basic realization common to them all. I write to reminisce an experience. The simplest experience can be so elaborate (or verbose) when you write it and musical when you read it. I relish reading my experience. Or those by others, when written nicely.

    Sometimes, I write to shape a “dull” or fill an “empty” mind. That mind is usually mine or on few occasions, others’. The former is to educate mine, the latter, is usually to fill minds with laughter, of wanton bliss and rarely with altruistic intentions. I have few success with the latter’s  “intentions” usually because, I too cringe when someone else tries “to shape” my mind. So I stick with my own mind filling garbage.

    Still on very few occasions, I write to empty my mind. Yes, empty. Empty frustrations, guilt, desperation and hopelessness. I wish I can just empty it like that and press ALT + Ctrl + Del so it goes away, pronto. I’m successful at times, but often, those hopelessness and frustrations just go to “sleep mode”, like my mac would do when its bored with me.  I’m already happy with that.

    You see, I’m stuck with blogging right now. I happen to be a writer born on an age where blogging is the platform. I’m a writer on evolution, or revolution perhaps. When blogging will become cliche and it goes a way, I’m still stuck with writing, maybe on another platform who knows. But I’ll continue to write.

    It is my passion. The blog(s), happens to be my yellow paper, like the canvas to a painter.

  • Why am I stuck with writing?Or blogging?: The Blog Rounds Season 2 starts!

    I'm stuck writing!(Photo from this site http://www.webunlimited.com/blog/search-engine-optimization/25-sure-fire-blog-headline-templates-you-can-use-now/)

    Why are you pounding those keyboards on your computer to journal your thoughts , experiences and maybe, your wisdom? Are you stuck?

    With the explosion of other more convenient and uber popular social medium like facebook or twitter, it’s common nowadays that I get annoying questions like “You still blog? Why not just shout it out in facebook or twitter?”

    Yeah, I’m beginning to ask myself this: Am I stuck with writing?or blogging? Are we a dying breed? Or more importantly, why are we (still) writing or blogging instead of hanging out with facebook or twitter?

    Those questions I will throw to you all my fellow doc bloggers for the first ever blog rounds second edition! I’m hosting it too here at The Orthopedic Logbook. This is my call for articles. I’m sure many of you have one reason or many, personal or commercial, emotional or political to stay on writing this thing we do. I’m sure would be very interested.

    Again read the rules of engagement for the blog rounds here.

    Invited docs are listed here in my links. I’m adding a few others and I’ll tag you by FB (Blog Rounds closed group) or twitter with hastag #blogrounds2

    Deadline: Maybe Sunday May 15, 2011 at around 12 noon? Just give me a link to your post, by commenting below, as soon as you can. I’ll do the rest as the HOST.

    Well, lets just say I miss the blog rounds. Are you all game???

  • Why you should not be your parent’s (or any other relative of yours) physician

    Ugh! (photo from here)

    It’s hilariously difficult to even get an IV line inserted. “Jesus, are you going to pin prick me to death?“

    Or get a good symptomatic history. ” I had my stomach pains and vomiting since 10:30 but I could handle it till 1:00am so you can bring me to ER” She was dehydrated by then.

    They have their own diagnosis. ” I only ate small amounts of pancit…maybe its my UTI!” Maybe. But her blood sugar is also 290. With some signs of dehydration..

    And their treatment : “ I’ll just lessen what I eat so as not to perk up my sugar“

    And discharge plans: “I’ll go home tomorrow, where are you?“

    They also can be your chief of clinics :”When are you going to see me? Who is my doctor, what time will he be here??“..

    Ugh, well. I just resigned my job and endorsed my patient! I’d rather just be, “the Son”. Good luck doctor!

  • Notes to the knife II: The opposite of humility

    Again? Yes. Again and against.  I will write about humility in knife wielders until this amazement transforms into a virtue. In the professions of demigods, any opportunity to get enlightened on humility doesn’t come by so easily .  So when it knocks, one should not wait for two or three knocks before opening the door.  The great student doesn’t need the winds to howl before opening his heart to learning. Humility, I should say, comes right into your face before you even knew it did. Like what happened to me recently. When I took the role of patient..

    My mortal lessons
    Notes to the Knife II

    It probably was just a viral infection but before the lab result got out and the diagnosis made, I took the role of the patient religiously and found time to interest myself with observing people around me. A physician admitted in room 204 is something a phenomena to everyone else. Including myself. Not the fondest role any physician would want, but certainly the most engaging. Of course, not until some real patients ask you about this ‘anomaly’.

    Being the patient, in the reversal of roles, is it really that easy for you? You know, relative to us, real patients, you (the actor patient) have almost everything you needed within your reach.(Unlike us patients, where we often cry for help on this and that..)- real patient X.

    Hell, NO.

    When this  knife wielding body go awry for one infinitesimal  reason, our chaotic hordes of Hippocratic knowledge put more distress on thyself than any other patient could ever think. Let me exaggerate. A hundredth decimal change in our body temperature would trigger a bazillion neuro impulses on our cerebrum that would then, extrapolate a gazillion more differential diagnosis that are rarely confirmed that is true. In short, we have more worries because we knew a bit more. Yes, my dear patient, sometimes, ignorance is bliss. Knowing something worse than just cold, flu or skin allergy as a differential diagnosis is no fun! It burns our distress horns more than you can imagine.

    Knife wielders are good actors. But we are not that good as a patient. We are the worst patient a doctor can get. Of course we really wanted to act like we’re patients when we are the patient. But it ain’t easy when you know for example, that a skin test is more painful than a deep laceration. I for one would rather sew myself up  than have someone stick a needle into my arm. There’s too much pain when you know whats coming right into your skin.

    IV bottle
    Opposite of humility

    Okay you try to act like the patient, but does your doctor treat you like your the patient?The nurses?The x-ray man?How many times did you peek at your own chart? In fact, most physicians of physician-turned-patients never mutter a single piece of conjecture to this patient until he or she is 101% sure about the diagnosis. The convoluted fear of the so many possibilities is staggering.   Easy patient huh?

    Last, and probably the most interesting phenomena I’ve noticed- when the knife wielder gets sick,  other people  would then say “he’s got it!he’s got it! We’ll get it too!’ This ‘when-doctors-get-sick, its going to be doomsday-on-us’ charade is very annoying. Exaggerated? Maybe. Got something related to the profession’s supposed infallibility. But then again, is it really that way?

    Where does humility stand in all of these?I’d say below your humility our dear patients. Doctor turned patients swallow a large chunk of their infallibility grid to be treated adequately. It takes humility to accept diagnosis a mile away from what you knew. It takes a hundred more strength just to keep shut your mouth instead of whining in pain  receiving a cut not from your own knife. It takes humility to be just a patient for even one second. It takes more humility than just humility.

    Bottom line is this. When doctors get sick, the implications creates waves more than what a regular patient will. Sort of a celebrity thing but more than that. The ripples are often beyond entertainment. Some even wreck havoc on some patients perception of their health. So maybe this is why some knife wielders need to be good actors and actresses whenever they exchange roles with their patients. Celebrity easy?!Obviously not.