From Brod Steven Villanueva

Dear brod,

Thanks for replying. I hope this letter finds you well. I graduated from UERM 1981. Collectively, the Alphans were the largest frat in our class. I believe we had new members from our class joining every semester.

Uly Guevarra and Kelly (Achilles) were the 1st to join. We grew to be a strong albeit notorious brotherhood. Academically, there were always Alphans in the top ten.

I have no idea where the rest of the Alphans that graduated 81 ended up. Sad to say, I have not maintained contact with the brods. I don't know if they still ask you to memorize batch members and names. I was the G.A., I believe after Kiko Turalba of Iloilo.

Without hesitation, the brotherhood has been a positive influence in my life. It is our great conceit that after the Alphans that graduated 81, that the frat will not be the same. I want to be proven wrong and hope that the frat is stronger than ever.

Forgive me my ruminations. These are the dodderings of an old fool. Next, I will write about initiations (if I can still remember them.)

Please post for all brods to read and comment. Thanks!

Lastly, a word from Heraclitus:

No man steps in the same river twice, for it is not the same river and he's not the same man.

P.S. I still keep the Alphan If close to my heart.

Steve
 

Points to ponder from Brod Eric Bandola:

this is a really long message with a low priority. please read only at your leisure time.
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hi guys. on a great Friday night, my girlfriend is on duty and I am stuck here at home doing absolutely nothing. with only this computer to keep me company, I had a few moments of self reflection and guess what I found out?
5 years of medical school training, including 1 year of clinical clerkship which includes auxiliary involvement in numerous outside rotations (which took me to the deepest abyss of human tolerance, I must say) and 1 year of
clinical internship at (arguably) the country's last parapet of medical therapy, not to mention a total of 5 weeks of internal medicine pre-residency training in 2 hospitals (which, incidentally, represent the two different sides of the same coin), and I figured that the basic
questions I had when I entered med school have variously been left unanswered. I present them to you now my brothers in an attempt to elicit thoughts on the same matter. don't have time? please save this message and return to it the next time you yourself are alone and bereft of company.
I'm sure many brods in this forum will find this both useful and entertaining. read on…

a certain consultant in a certain specialty once told us, "medical knowledge is divided into 3 broad fields: the nice to know which you tell your patients, the need to know which you tell other doctors of a different field, and the must know which are intricately essential to your practice - this one you tell your peers." in lieu of this, I present you the nice to know stuff (please feel free to agree/disagree):

myth #1: wag maliligo sa ulan dahil magkakasakit ka.

ha! bet you've heard this before. and while there seems to be no real documentation to this belief, there seems to be some truth to it as proven by experiences. I've been asking lecturers and preceptors since day 1 about
this folklore and they have all either avoided the question or told me to read up on it (allegedly, they know the answer to it but wouldn't tell me because they believe that I should find out for myself). fortunately, the
infectious disease service (IDS) of pgh was generous enough to oblige me in my quest one fine day. accordingly, during the rainy season, certain pathogenic and virulent microorganisms are favored, especially certain thermophilic stuff (remember that pathogenic and non-pathogenic organisms have a certain balance in the environment). the microbial load reaches a
certain level that to most of us, our immune resistance just couldn't cope. so what's with the bathing in the rain? with the temperature in the domicile more controlled, there is therefore a lower pathogenic microbial load at home.

myth #2: ang matulog ng basa ang buhok ay mabubulag

a calamba, laguna-borne adage. as a result, no one in my family bathes at night; instead, we all make a mad scrimage for the bathroom in the mornings, before going to work or school. at least until med school when I disproved
everyone and when being in the hospital at 6:00 am (anesthesia!) became mandatory for me. to date, I have yet to meet someone who did bathe at night, slept with wet hair and gone blind. I wonder who would know the origin of this folklore. definitely a myth.

myth #3: pag naligo ka sa gabi, bababa ang dugo mo

I wonder what green-minded 18th century conservationist started this belief and decided to save water 2 centuries earlier? perhaps at a time when water was not brought in by pipes to one's home, and bathing was tantamount as
having to walk a considerable distance to the nearest lake, notwithstanding the ebony blanket of the mysterious night, I would understand how parents may have tried to discourage their offspring from what would have been a foolhardy activity. still, what made them to think about a decrease in hemoglobin? or were they referring to blood pressure? if blood pressure is the case, then bathing cold water in the cold of the night could lead to a
reynaud's, open up our peripheral vessels, and decrease the blood pressure. hm. this is possible, at least theoretically, but how could they have deduced this at a time when korotkoff's were probably virtually unheard of?

myth #4: wag itatapat ang electric fan sa likod kung hindi baka
magka-pulmonya ka

this one I'm sure was thought of at least after thomas edison discovered electricity and, say, 3D made the electric fan available to the consumers. maybe because doctors persistently auscultated the bare back did people think: aha! now that's how I got it! in truth, perhaps a case has yet to be documented and this is merely folklore, meant by the same people whose mantra has always been better safe than sorry. what do you think?

myth #5: kumain ka ng ampalaya para luminis ang dugo mo

we all know that bitter gourd does help in lowering the blood glucose (its one of the 10 medicinal plants acknowledged by the DOH) but to clean the blood? I've said this before and I'll say it again: I for one believe that the first person who discovered that ampalaya was, in fact, edible is to me one of the bravest and courageous men of his time (and most likely, extremely hungry). maybe this was just a technique used at a time when our elders tried to make us eat whatever is on the dinner table. clever. but who knows? as the forest people always said, there are till so much more medications waiting to be discovered in the flora of our country, maybe even the cure for aids and cancer.

myth #6: wag babasain ang pagod na kamay o paa kung hindi baka mapasma ka

this one I hope brod benedict can enlighten all of us. what really is the medical term for pasma? I sincerely hope its not parkinson's. most likely to those otherwise predisposed, a general epidermal cleaning is always good, tired or not. but who truly knows? there are many people who would quickly swear to the fact that their tremors and incessant shaking were brought by pasma than anything. hard day at the office, tiresome walk from the shopping mall, or any other activity involving the use of any of our extremities we become apprehensive about bathing. once I asked my
highschool coach if its okay to take a bath (or shower) after a game of soccer and he said, yeah, just make it under a minute and use cold water. and because I found it utterly ridiculous to go to my homeroom class smelling like a pig, I decided to try this method. (have you tried taking off all that grass and soil off your body after a merry game of soccer within a minute? it requires skill and a certain amount of stupidity.) needless to say, after only a month into the regimen, I quickly dropped it, and instead opted to relax tired limbs for a full 15 minutes before bathing. this one worked. wonderfully. on the other hand, and while you're at it, could you possibly propose a pathophysiology how this same practice leads to the development of varicose veins. thanks.

myth #7: ang masyadong malamig na tubig, kapag ininom, ay nakakapagdala ng
ubo

I know that cold ice cream, eaten really fast, leads to toothache and sharp headaches. but upper respiratory tract infections? several times in the past, perhaps between 5 to 10 years old, this practice did bring about certain bouts of urti (at least to me) though at the present, drinking cold water only brings about a very good sense of refreshment especially in such a tropical climate as the one we dwell in. opinions?

myth #8: wag matutuyuan ng pawis baka magkasakit ka

this one I refer to as a great mystery. while the possible pathophysiology escapes my mind, no matter how I try to rack my brain, experience tells us that as we were growing up, more often than not, this does hold true. what
could be the reason. its quite possible (and this is simply a matter of conjecture), that a child's homeothermic mechanisms are so underdeveloped that he is then more prone to disease (?). I honestly don't know.

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that's all I could think of right now. if you guys have any more myths in mind, please do send them. these are questions many patients would ask us (I for one, have been asked by one really chummy patient sometime in clerkship - unfortunately, all I could come with was a smile while maintaining a stern look on my face: "wala pa hong experimento tungkol sa
mga bagay bagay na yan"). hope I didn't bore you.