Want to surf for free? Smartbro subscribers can avail of the 15 minutes per day of free surfing without the hassle. Just login to the internet using your Smartbro account and the first 15 minutes is on Smart. What’s more? Get the chance to win prizes from 100 pesos worth of unlisurf from Smartbro, new cellphones, a 16GB iPad or even a new 64GB Macbook Air every hour (sorry, no binoculars ). Just simply login to The Smartbro 15 Website, register and check-in every hour from 9 am to 12 mn everyday until December 20, 2010 for a chance to win any of the 15 prizes at stake every hour.

It’s undeniable how 2010 is close coming to an end but before we welcome 2011 with a bang, everyone will have to go through the holiday rush and Christmas fiasco. Can you smell Christmas in the air? I do. =)

Holiday shopping can be exciting for some and a nightmare for most, especially for those who seems to have no time to buy everyone a present. Back when I was still in college, shopping was not a problem for me since I studied practically next to a mall but things turned differently when I stepped into medical school. Little did I know that Holiday shopping will be harder for me when I started clerkship and internship. I used to spend my weekends scouring over the goods at Divisoria aka cheapskates heaven. With a good and discerning eye, you can actually get a good deal without compromising quality and style. But now that even my weekends have to be spent in the hospital (or sleeping at home on a from-duty status), holiday shopping has almost become non-existent. I thought that I was doomed. Until I stumbled upon those vouchers-for-a-bargain sites one Cyber Monday that seems to be fast becoming a favorite among Filipinos who spend almost the entire day online. Gift vouchers for Christmas? What a brilliant idea! As one friend quipped, “there’s a lot more fun buying someone an experience than a material thing.” Well said!

Cashcashpinoy – Established on June 2010 (or at least that’s what the whois lookup said), Cashcashpinoy has become a favorite of about 5,690 Pinoy facebook users as of this writing. They offer discount vouchers that range from spa services to hotel accomodations to meal discounts at various establishments. Get up to 70% discounts with their vouchers. So how does it work? The latest available deal is posted on the homepage and a counter runs on the left side stating how many hours/minutes are still left for you to make up your mind and buy. Although there seems to be an option to buy the voucher “as a gift to a friend”, it actually does nothing aside from sending the link of the deal to your friend. You can perhaps, buy the voucher for yourself and just print it out for your friend/relative as a gift. I haven’t actually tried printing it out as a gift yet, but according to their FAQ, you can. Will update this once I’ve tried. =D

Think that sniffing with colds around children is not good for their health? I say, staying around sick kids is even worse. Try rotating in Pediatrics and you’ll understand what I mean. Pedia rotation is notorious for making even the healthiest clerk/intern around sick and I salute the Pediatricians worldwide not for their dedication to their profession but to the health risk they’re willing to put themselves in just by being around children. I – for the nth time – have fallen casualty to the virulence of children having gone home one afternoon ready to crawl into bed and sleep for eternity. Upper respiratory tract infection is one, if not the worst, kind of illness you can pick up from children what with their endless coughing and sneezing without covering their noses nor mouths causing germs to spread everywhere. I’ve been countless of times been on the forefront of the battle, having to inhale perhaps a gazillion of viruses from a child’s single sneeze. So if ever you’re thinking of taking up Pediatrics as one of science jobs you’re willing to try. Think hard. And harder still. ‘Coz being both the doctor and the patient is not the best career in town.

Getting stressed with school or work? According to studies, the best way to cope with stress is still to take an occasional breather and enjoy a stress-free life for a couple of days. A visit to the museum, theme park or an occasional movie night can spell a difference and actually lessens the incidence of stress-related sleep problems, migraine and bodily pains. Some people even take it to the next level by going to must-see places every now and then, like, for example a visit to the “Live Music Capital of the World” where guests are treated with eye-catching attractions and great live music shows in one exciting vacation. Choose among a hundred live shows to watch across town or visit the Hollywood wax museum to get up-close with the famous stars (or at least their replicas!) while staying in a posh Hilton room during your entire trip. So what are you waiting for? Book for a Branson vacation package today! Click the link! =)

Seven catches. That’s seven babies in one Sunday duty, not counting the baby delivered at 3:30 am this morning. For a Sunday duty, that was one toxic day… and that’s not even half because of the two STAT caesarean sections we had yesterday: one, a twin pregnancy wherein one baby is in fetal distress and the other was for cord prolapse. For a private tertiary hospital like St. Luke’s that was a remarkable duty day. If I were in East Ave., I would have felt much different. Emergencies happen there left and right. But here? The life of both an OB-Gyne and a Pediatrician are far from the goings-on in a government hospital. This exactly what made think about my future as a private doctor. I still don’t have any clear plan on what to take up for residency. I don’t even know yet whether I’ll be staying here in the Philippines or will be leaving the country to train in a foreign land. But I realized how I shun toxicity and clamor for it at the same time. The rush of adrenaline in an emergency situation pumps me up and scares me at the same time.

Last night was one of those select moments I held my breath for what seemed like an eternity. It was about 20 or so minutes when the baby’s cord prolapsed into the introitus. Then, when everything was all set, it took the OB 7 more minutes to take the baby out of his mommy’s tummy because of his position inside the womb. When finally he was laid into my arms, he was pale and wasn’t moving. As soon as I had put him safely in the warmer, the race against time started for us in the Pedia service. Luckily, we were able to make him cry and he gasped for his first breath of air at one minute after he was born. We gasped along with him.

I’ve always loved children and babies. But not all of them would come to you chubby, cuddly and happy. A handful would be toxic and unfortunately, a number would be dying. If I were to be asked five years back what I wanted to specialize in after I get my medical degree, I would have said Pediatrics without batting an eyelash, but after having seen children die or be in their deathbed gasping for their last breath of air, I now would have to think twice about the decision that could change my life.

Some one year and seven months after I first entered the realm of hospital duty, I still don’t know what’s in store for me. Perhaps, I should be going back to sleep. Memory foam mattress, anyone?

Having a bad case of chapped lips is not easy to nurse. I remember how a friend back in grade school would walk around with peeling lips for everyone else to see. It looked horrible – until the tables were turned and I find myself struggling to have pink, supple lips. Like my classmate back in grade school, I am a sufferer of lip-licker’s dermatitis (who would have thought there was such a thing!)

Lip-licker’s dermatitis is characterized by cracked and dry lips due to chronic lip-licking. While most of us think that moisturizing the lips with saliva is a cure for dryness, it actually makes the problem worse since saliva easily dries up exposing the lips to the heat and the harsh environment. Oil-based products and emollients such as lip balms or the lowly petroleum jelly are a lip-licker’s best bet to saving those puckers from drying up. Although there are a lot of lip products in the market aiming to keep your lips from drying up, most are actually petroleum-jelly based. Hence, making petroleum jelly a cheaper alternative to those high end products that may cost you a gold bullion. Applied hourly, petroleum jelly provides longer-lasting moisture to the lips allowing it to heal. Just like the skin, scrubbing your lips with sugar after you brush your teeth also helps in exfoliating the epidermis and in speeding up the turnover of epithelial cells of your lips.