I'm already looking forward to...

- not being on call (i.e. having to sleep right next to my perpetual-silent-mode-phone so that I won't miss an emergency call)

- sleeping on time and waking up on time (for a change)

- having a schedule that I can live with

- reading a few more chapters of the Lord of the Ring Trilogy

- meeting a few old friends, and making new ones

- escaping the intrigues and all (no comment!)

- real rest while still being productive!

A lot for just five days, isn't it?

It's been a hectic week (finally about to end this Saturday!) since I went on double duty then had to forgo the usual every-three-day rotation to be assigned to the MRI during office hours while the MRI consultant is out-of-the-country for a conference.

It's hilariously exhausting to:

- Have the DCC (Disaster Coordinating Council) a.k.a. tandem of J.M. and K.L., the most junior MRI-techs giggle hilariously over one mis-scan (mistakes while scanning and or filming) after another.

-Almost freeze to death everytime R.B. arrives from travelling 2-3 hours from his hometown and turning up the central air conditioning again.

- Deal with patients demanding results when results cannot be promised at the usual 24-hours after sccanning release time (pending if Doctora is not exhausted enough to open the sent images and type them.

-Re-edit the results and signing for them (and also wasting a lot of yellow sheets --- try editing something techinical when you just had been woken up a couple of times at dawn!).

-Listen to the racket (some MRI-techs love their noisy music --or is it noise masquerading as music?).

-Snack without fear of being found out...

-Have the MRI-techs almost caught by the hospital medical director playing NBA via bluetooth sharing on PSP while on hospital duty.

-Make the call on sequences to be taken (and decide if contrast administration is necessary-- yikes!)

I enjoyed it, though... Unfortunately, I haven't found the time to complete my study goals for the next in-service exams because of this.

I thought about this post when the currently rotating senior clerk/intern in our department said to me: "Doc, I don't think you would ever grow old rotating here with such funny people to work with." And it's true... The radiologic technologists (radtechs for short) can be crazy... Majority of them (I'm beginning to think it's a requirement before you get hired at our institution) can make a gay impersonation close enough to fool any consultant radiologist (the sonologist actually got tricked into thinking this, when currently none of the radtechs are male homosexuals). The CT-scan techs did do Tuesday Vargas' ditty which went "Hindi ako bakla..." complete with costume for last year's Christmas party celebration. I also had this intern last month who would don two-three lead gowns the entire time he was assigned to the ct-scan.... No wonder his next 15 days of rotation was spent at the psychiatry department of the local government hospital. In the MRI, we usually hide the food in the drawers or in the dressind room, but i think the consultant knows that we eat in the control room when she's out. At lull periods, they are quick to hide their PSP's when she drops in at the control room, and everybody then pretends to be busy. We have also been hiding the water dispenser from the administrator in the IR dressing room for almost a year or so (water deliveries done only after office hours). Then, there's the free for all internet access from one of the network computers (the provider knows that we use it for the access because of some sort of team-sharing and the fact that the radtechs have shown not a few websites and message boards to the engineer while he was visiting). Crazy.... But this is where I work... ;)

One day, the potter came by an open field. There he discovered the finest pure clay he had ever seen. He brought a large bagful with joy in his heart back to his workshop. Sitting at his wheel, he began to work with his hands after adding a few cupfuls of water to the clay. A few more spins on the wheel soon revealed the form of a high-quality jar. Excited by the result of his hard work, he decided to add a rainbow-colored glaze to finish off his masterpiece. Now, tested in fire, his work was completed. He then placed it on his shelf.

A few minutes later, his careless children came to the room to play a game of tag. The little boy got off balanced as he was chased by the little girl. The little boy bumped into the shelf, and the glazed clay jar came crashing down the floor and shattered into a million pieces.

The potter came into the room when he heard the sound of broken ceramic hitting the floor. He was dismayed at first but he just shook his head and motioned for the little girl and little boy to help him clean up the pieces.

"Don't worry," he told them as they cleaned up the mess together. "I am not angry with you, since I can always make another one more beautiful than the one you broke. I can even show you how." Afterwards, he took the little boy and little girl to the field to get more clay and then make another glazed clay jar in his workshop.

~ o ~ o ~ o ~ o ~ o ~ o ~ o ~

When we make mistakes, things can come crashing down into a million pieces it seems. There are things that will never be the same again. But we can always build something new, something better in our lives. It only takes for us to realize that God leads us to help make amends and start anew again.

Rumor was not true at all...

The truth is, certain (in)famous person came to our institution to visit current (or is it ex?) paramour's sick father confined in the icu. This was confirmed to me by the radtech who happened to be about to take the portable chest radiograph of the said patient when the visit occured. I guess not a few staff took camera phone videos of him when he was spotted in the hallways. Since this is Cebu City, most likely people took their shots from a distance, nobody crowded around him, and after looking his way for a few minutes, everyone went back to his own business. Yes, culturally, we are that cool with celebreties...

So how did we all know that he was up for a visit?

Well, the sick patient happens to be one of the sponsors at the wedding of one of our consultants several decades ago. He also is the one who reads all the sick patient's imaging studies.

Sick patient also happens to be my "assignment" (the consultants assign us certain patients for preliminary reading, everytime he/she gets an x-ray the resident assigned has to submit a preliminary reading to be checked by the radiology consultant before the final official radiology report is encoded and printed).

Thus is summary: Certain (in)famous person came to visit the current (or is it ex?) paramour's sick father confined in the icu who happens to be the wedding sponsor of our consultant who has given me sick patient as my "assignment".

Now, how's that for a few degrees of separation!

Certain (in)famous person is set to have medical check-ups at our institution starting tomorrow.... My traning officer told me so herself, though I still have a hard time believing her... And I happen to be on duty tomorrow... Will I get to meet this personality? And more importantly, will the imaging results be unremarkable? Stay tuned...