The thing with people is that we always try to find the easy way, or that we try to get everything for free even though we know we're capable or paying for it. 

I don't mind conversing with friends and being asked about certain diseases and medications. Those are just friendly conversations. In my many years of working (please don't make me mention my age), I have crossed paths with certain kinds of people. And it is in these many years that I've honed my skill of detection. I can sense a question when it is trying to squeeze something different from me. And then an alarm turns on inside me. Face starts to heat up, everything inside me starts to buckle up. If I am trying to be cynical, I would say, "Google not helping much?" But I try to be nice and so I say, "Let them come and have the doctor try to look at it and tell you what it is." 

Red Stethoscope with Red Waterman Fountain Pen

Although we took an oath to never do harm and help sick people, this doesn't mean that you can abuse our kindness... or our intellect, whatever the factors may be. We will try to be as courteous and as helpful as we could but please do not abuse us. We know your kind. We also know the kind of people who grabs every opportunity, not minding other people who might get hurt.

My advise is, "If you're not feeling well, come and see a doctor yourself. We would like to see you up  close and personal and examine you. We would be very happy to help you in your ailments. If you did not get well, come and see us again. We would like to know what happened. Don't go shopping for doctors. We are not mere commodities you find in the supermarket. Tell us everything and we would be happy to be your friend."

PMA National Orientation and Leadership Seminar

Last weekend, I was blessed to attend the Philippine Medical Association's National Orientation and Leadership Seminar. Mind you, I used the word "blessed" because first off, the 9:05 am Cebu Pacific flight was cancelled due to problems with the aircraft. We almost, almost decided not to attend. But since we were with some doctor friends, we decided to go anyway. And thank God we did. And thank God the flight landed safely. Well with the delay in our flight, I came in late. 

The first day was an orientation of the structure of Philippine Medical Association (PMA), which for new officers are very very informative. There are now 119th Component Societies and Davao Occidental Medical Society is the newest component society (woohoo!!!). Well being a new society comes with much work. 

The second day was more informative as we had great speakers to end the seminar. First off, let me just say that the President, Dr. Minerva Calimag is a techie. She has done a lot of techie stuff for the love of education and mind you, she's very active in facebook too.

We also had Atty. Marc Fabian Castrodes who spoke on Excellence in Motivational Leadership. A very inspiring speaker. He had so many to share, info on good books to read like "Drive" and "The Power of Habit". Maybe I'll try looking for his books as well, he said he wrote books too. And he is from Davao.

And of course, no seminars would be complete without the photo-op. Here with officers of other component societies of Southeastern Mindanao with our governor, Dr. Maria Lourdes G. Monteverde who is seated on the farthest left.

Blood Donation

Last November 26, 2011, a Saturday, the Barangay Kagawad of Malita held a blood donation in partnership with the Davao Blood Center. This was done at the Poblacion's barangay hall.

We had approxiamtely 45 blood donors. A few were not allowed to donate due to hypertension, low hemoglobin and a few others were late.

This is done quarterly at different locations here in Malita. Here are shots of what happened during that day.

I am hoping that one day, I may be able to donate. I've been wanting to since I was in college but I did not pass the hemoglobin test:(

Newborn Screening

Recently I attended a 2-day seminar last October 27-28, 2011 at the Grand Men Seng Hotel. This was my first training since I worked at the RHU. Along with fellow doctors, nurses, midwives and medical technologists, I was able to experience it first-hand. Facilitators from the Newborn Screening Center were also there to teach us different techniques and guide us on how to properly do it. Except for the very congested OB ward, everything was great.

Our facilitator, Ms. Clarose Mascardo

Newborn screening has been started since 2004 in the Philippines. But other countries have done this for quite a few years already. I only knew about it when I had my eldest daughter last 2008. That's when I first heard about it. What's so good about it you ask? Basically it tests for the five (5) most common cause of mental retardation among infants. It tests for Congenital Hypothyroidism, Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia, Phenylketonuria, Galactosemia and Glucose-6-Phosphate Dehydrogenase Deficiency. These illnesses when left unattended would lead to, as I have said, mental retardation and eventually death.

This is why Newborn Screening has been passed into Law and which is now known as the RA 9288.

Why the need for training personnel to do such a simple thing? Although it may look simple, it takes a great deal of practice to collect samples of blood. And it takes a special skill to do a simple task like the newborn screening.

During the presentations of action plans, a few maternity clinic owners have planned to include it in their delivery package. That way most of the delivered infants, if not all, would be screened. As for us in the Rural Healh Units, it would be an entirely different story. We would have to come up with a better way of encouraging parents to avail of the NBS.

Collection Area at the Newborn Screening Center at SPMC

Each test cost only Php600. An increase of Php50 would only be allowed in very far flung areas as suggeted by DOH. They have a copy of places that can add the P50. It has been observed that some maternity clinics and even hospitals have been posting high cost of this test. To ensure proper pricing and monitor the number of cases, DOH personnel have been roaming around the nation checking if everything is being implemented as ordered by DOH.

A sample of Newborn Screening Kit

The training ended well and everyone was excited to get their certificates. I know I was:)

Head Lice Invasion

It's been known that children sometimes get head lice due to the constant exposure they have under the sun. But not too often they get them from adults who indeed have head lice, adult and eggs. Just is the case of our house helps and my kid.

Not only were the other house helps infected, so why my eldest daughter. It is not something that I am proud of and I know a lot of kids do have them. So when yaya found a few eggs in my daughter's hair, I immediately bought permethrin for my kid. I told hubby about it and he suggested that we treat everyone in the house. So I held a meeting with them and told them that mass treatment must be done.

For some who grew up in the province, I never thought of any negative reactions. But they didn't accept it lightly. Of course here comes the denial that they can never have it. I explained that this needs to be done to prevent it from spreading. Eventually they went with it.

When I gave them the sachets of shampoo, one yaya asked if she could use a conditioner afterwards. I told her not to use any when using the shampoo. It might react with the permethrin. Next thing to buy would be fine tooth comb called "suyod".

I do hope in the coming weeks, this will soon be over.

P-Noy as Guest Speaker

I'm not really the type of person who gets so hyped up when celebrities come to town. I was not really excited to see The President either when I knew he was going to be the guest speaker for our PMA Annual Convention... until he was in the room.

Sure I was not able to see him in person because I was already on the second floor and they had this projector set up in the room. The room on the first floor were already filled so we had to take the rooms in the second floor. It was like watching manny fight, only it was the President giving his speech.

He talked about what achievements he had done since he sat as president. One was "Iligtas sa Tigdas ang Pinas." Another was how pollution in NCR has lowered since his term. He also touched bits and pieces regarding RH Bill. In the end, it was like he's saying his PRO-RH.

104th PMA Annual Convention

May 17 to May 21 marks the 104^th convention. I was thinking of not going at first. But what am I going to lose if I go… right? Sure I have to pay P1500 for on site fee, but I’m pretty sure I’ll be learning a lot. Here’s a list of program activities:

May 17, 2011, Tuesday

6:00 am                                         1st PMA President's Golf Toumament

1:00 pm - 5:00 pm                        Registration

1:00 pm - 5:00 pm                        Board of Governors Meeting

7:00 pm - 11:00 pm                      Welcome Reception

May 18, 2011, Wednesday

8:00 am - 5:00 pm                        Registration

8:00 am - 10:00 am                      Opening Ceremonies

10:00 am - 11:00 am                    Ribbon Cutting, Opening of Commercial Exhibits

11 :00 am - 12:00 nn                    Plenary Session

12:00 nn - 2:00 pm                       Simultaneous Luncheon Symposia

2:00 pm - 4:00 pm                        Simultaneous Scientific Sessions

7:00 pm - 11 :00 pm                     Fellowship Night

May 19, 2011, Thursday

7:00 am - 5:00 pm                        Registration

8:00 am - 5:00 pm                        General Assembly

8:00 am - 5:00 pm                        APMA Convention

8:00 am - 10:00 am                      Plenary Session

10:00 am - 12:00 nn                     Simultaneous Scientific Sessions

12:00 nn - 2:00 pm                       Simultaneous Luncheon Symposia

1:00 pm - 5:00 pm                        17th PMA-GSK Resident's Case

2:00 pm - 4:00 pm                         Presentation Contest

May 20, 2011, Friday

8:00 am - 12:00 nn                        Registration

8:00 am - 12:00 nn                        47th Dr. Jose Rizal Memorial Lecture & 20th Dr. Jose Rizal             Awarding Ceremonies

10:00 am 12:00 nn                        Simultaneous Scientific Sessions

12:00 nn - 2:00 pm                        Simultaneous Luncheon Symposia

2:00 pm- 4:00 pm                          PMA Awarding Ceremonies

5:00 pm- 6:00 pm                          Thanksgiving Mass

7:00 pm- 12:00 nn                         Closing Ceremonies and Induction of New Officers

May 21, 2011, Saturday

9:00 am - 12:00 nn                         Board of Governors Meeting

See you there!