Last June 26-27, the first year residents of the Department held their “Genograming Activity”, in Hotel Dominique, Tagaytay. With the objective of promoting personal and emotional development of the new resident trainees to better equip them for their responsibilities in patient care and service, this has been a regular feature of the training program. Dr. Lanie Nicodemus, Training Officer and Dr. Josie Isidro-Lapeña, who are both experts in the field, served as facilitators.
The following account of the experience, written by Dr. Louell Sala, illustrates what went on in the activity.
Past lives
By Louell L. Sala
I have no memory of the life I had before I was born.
The farthest I could remember was crawling over some wooden floor and a
beautiful face welcoming me to the world. No, this is not some random
daydreaming, rather, this is the farthest memory I could recall about my
life. So it was short of an epiphany when we had a Family Genogram
activity for the Family Medicine Residents a few months ago.
Let
me begin by defining a Family Genogram. You see, it is a pictorial
display of a person’s family relationships and medical history.
Popularized in 1985 by Monica Mcgoldrick and Randy Gerson, we use it to
describe and identify diseases as well as hereditary traits that pervade
in the family – diseases like Hypertension, Asthma, Diabetes and even
Cancer, in the hope of finding association with the present predicament
of the patient. But more than identifying diseases and heredity, it can
also give us the relationship of each of the family members and if one
is extremely lucky, a glimpse of the behavior, attitude and
psychological patterns that affect the patient’s present life.
It was fascinating because there were things about myself I did
not even know existed. Idiosyncrasies I swore never to do but ended up
doing anyway. Repetitive behavioral patterns I never fully understood I
guess, until now.
And more importantly, there was a realization that there was life, before I even existed.
The past can affect our behavior, the disease entities that
afflict us and significantly, our perspective and the way we deal with
stress – which is why it is very important to understand and make peace
with it. For only then can we hope to give meaning to the present and
go out in the bright sunshine, proud and free.
