Busy weekend

I gave back-to-back lectures over the weekend. Those speaking engagements don't happen all the time, but when they do, they often arrive in bulk. I could not say no to Dr. Kath Paras and Prof. Marj Evasco.

On Saturday morning, I talked about cancer screening and prevention during Koronadal Internists Society's postgrad event in Marbel. The event was well-organized. The parking lot was full by the time I arrived. And I was 30 minutes early. I gave bite-sized information on cancer screening, based largely on the PHEX guidelines to general practitioners, internists, and other doctors. Even I spotted a radiologist, my mother's friend, in the crowd. There were nurses, too. On the table next to ours were ICU nurses from Isulan. I shared the table with my schoolmates from Notre Dame, Carlo Non (pulmonary medicine), Mikey Lay (cardiology), and Ronald Jariol (internal medicine). The event organizers were so strict with time. I loved it. Dr. Tam Estacion did a wonderful job emceeing. 

You may access my slideset here. 

After lunch, I headed back home to prepare for a lecture with Prof. Marj Evasco's students in her graduate class at De La Salle University. My talk was "The Words We Leave Behind," which I came up with even before I finished the outline for that talk. I based my talk largely on Atul Gawande's Being Mortal, easily one of the best books I've read this year. Here's an excerpt.

Atul Gawande ends his book with chapters about his father who died of cancer. In the epilogue, one can sense that the author grappled with his reality and tried to make sense of the purpose of medicine, in general.

“Being mortal is about the struggle to cope with the constraints of our biology, with the limits set by genes and cells and flesh and bone. Medical science has given us remarkable power to push against these limits, and the potential value of this power was a central reason I became a doctor. But again and again, I have seen the damage we in medicine do when we fail to acknowledge that such power is finite and will always be.

“We’ve been wrong about what our job is in medicine. We think our job is to ensure health and survival. But really it is larger than that. It is to enable well-being. And well-being is about the reasons one wishes to be alive.”

The graduate students were brilliant and kind. They asked probing questions after my talk. I'm certain my answers didn't do their inquiries justice, and I could have done better. For instance, Dr. Seann Tan-Mansukhani asked me about my fiction piece, Nap9, and why I chose to highlight male friendships. The story featured the bond between a scientist and his childhood friend Jim. I don't remember what I said in response, and when I watched the recording I fumbled, trying to piece together a coherent statement. What I wanted to say, I suppose, was that friendships are not required for survival but they make life bearable and meaningful. In my own readings, I don't encounter male friendships often. (Among my favorites is The Distance to Andromeda by Gregorio Brillantes: those two boys coming from after watching a film in cinema! Ah, it brings me to tears every time I read it.)  I was trying to remember C.S. Lewis's essay on Friendship in his book, The Four Loves. 

There were several questions about burnout, the ethics of writing about patients, the difference between being a student and teacher by way of learning, and what books have influenced my writing. They were questions which required deep answers, but there was no time and I was nervous. Les Samson did a great job moderating. Janelle Tanguin and Dr. China Castillo read excerpts of my works beautifully. Prof. Marj gave the closing remarks, reciting a poem by Robert Frost.

What a weekend!

 

Screenshots by Prof. Marj 

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I love this shaky photo: an aerial view of General Santos City at night.