Plans For the Upcoming Months

It was back to "normalcy" last Monday after a hectic February month. When I arrived in my RHU, I immediately went to work, consulting around 15 patients that day, including counselling a young teen-age girl who was having some signs of depression. She went to my clinic complaining of headaches and dizziness. Her dizziness was aggravated or precipitated by sudden change in position and would be relieved by rest. Her headaches were associated with auras before the onset of the headache. It was almost an easy diagnosis but I noticed her to be soft-spoken, slow in her words, quite emotional as well, and has been absent in her class for almost a week already. Further conversation revealed her to have this feeling of sadness, lack of interest to join school organizations and activities (which she would once actively join) and has been having trouble sleeping. I talked to her mom and told her of my initial impression. I told her to come back to me a few weeks later just to check if she would still have the same signs and symptoms. I advised her to talk to a trusted counsellor. All she might need is somebody to talk to.

The following day was a hectic day. Our delivery room was filled with patients. We had around 5 deliveries that day, with one mother delivering to twins. All 5 consented to have their babies screened (Newborn Screening). Yesterday, I went to my usual barangay visit and in the afternoon, conducted our general staff meeting. The agenda was to get feedback from our heart month celebrations and how to improve it further.

With the feedbacks given, I am positive that the same support will be given by all barangays during our heart month 2010. In fact, since Tuesday, the municipality has already strictly implemented the hataw exercises at the public plaza every afternoon. Our hataw exercises are led by the municipal employees and participated by students, employees, even the general public.

This morning I went to Bacolod to attend the workshop on Voluntary Blood Donation Program. I am happy to know that based on the data presented, Candoni has improved its blood collection. We had 5 bloodletting activities for 2008, with around 300+ volunteers screened and 298 donors. For 2008, we have also decreased our blood utilization, to around 89 only. This is due to the fact that we have aggressively campaigned against Dengue, which is usually the common cause for blood transfusion, especially platelet concentrate. For 2008, based on our data, we only had 4 Dengue cases compared to 17 last 2007. Most of our blood utilization was due to OR procedures and correction of severe anemia due to various factors, including profuse vaginal bleeding.

When I checked my email today, I was happy to note that I was accepted to attend a short course training in Nairobi, Kenya on June 2009 on Strategic Leadership in Health and Development Programme. The course fee is only 300$ but it does not include evening meals, accomodation and travel expenses. Kenyan hotels are not as expensive as I have thought they would be. A good hotel room would cost 2500 Kenyan shillings or around 31 US dollars per night. What is expensive is the air fare. I am not sure yet how to get to Nairobi from Manila but based on my initial researching, a round trip would cost around 3000US dollars including taxes already. That is around. That is already the cheapest alternative route, taking KLM Royal Dutch Airlines Flight 804, from Manila to Amsterdam, Schiphol, Netherlands then to Nairobi, Kenya via connecting flight. That's around 113,633.88 pesos according to today's latest exchange. Hay....

Anyway, before June arrives, March is already hectic. Next week will be another round of meetings. The week after that I will be reporting to Iloilo (third week) and the last week of March will be another round of meeting. I am looking forward to April, considering that the Holy Week will be another respite for me.

How I wish though that I can go to Nairobi, Kenya. Haayy....





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