A Day In The Life Of A DTTB

My typical day begins at around 7 am. As soon as I wake up, I would usually turn on my laptop and perform my daily ritual: listening to my iTunes music. A good 30-minute meditation, practically just lying in bed and listening to good Christian songs or slow songs would be enough. I would then take a bath and change into my clothes. Usually it would only take me around 20 minutes. The remaining 10 minutes before 8 would be spent on my breakfast. Breakfast would either be a hot oatmeal or hot chocolate drink. At exactly 8 am I would step out of the quarters and greet everyone who is already in a "Good morning", hopping from one office to the other, starting from the Public Health Office up to the Lab.

If there are patients admitted the night before, I would immediately perform my rounds. There was one time that I had 3 patients lying in my observation ward. 1 was a post-partum patient, another was a hypertensive patient who just wanted to take a rest and another was a case of moderate dehydration. After my rounds, I would then check the OPD and ask if there are patients already lined up for the usual morning consultation.

If it was a Monday, we all report to the Municipal hall to attend the weekly Flag Ceremony at exactly 8 am. After the flag ceremony, before heading to the Main health center, I would usually visit the offices inside the municipal hall to check on pending requests and other transactions. Usually a quick chat with the mayor would follow after the flag ceremony.

If it was a Tuesday, morning is spent doing consultation with patients. If there are only a few patients, I would then spent the rest of the morning going over reports and documents pertaining to monitoring and surveillance. A quick meeting and brainstorming about possible actions and review of actions taken in the past would be inserted in the morning.

If it was a Wednesday, the entire morning is spent on barangay visit, accompanying the EPI team on their scheduled immunization. Before heading for the barangay visit, we would usually conduct our Flag and Prayer Day every Wednesday. If it was a first Wednesday of the month, the afternoon is spent for staff meeting.

If it was a Thursday, after doing consultations with patients, we would do program implementation review whether it would be weekly or monthly. At times, the Local Health board is scheduled on a Thursday depending on the availability of the Mayor. Bloodletting activity is also scheduled on quarterly on a Thursday.

If it was a Friday, then the entire day is spent attending to patients and organizing our paper works, finalizing weekly reports and ensuring quality of monitoring reports submitted. We usually conduct classes and meetings with other agencies or organizations during Fridays, such as schools and barangay captains.

I would then have lunch at around 12 noon and sometimes take a quick nap after lunch. At around 1:30 I am back in my office either consulting patients or attending a meeting at the Municipal hall with other agencies or even doing field visits when needed. At around 4 pm, we would spend the remaining hour hanging out with the rest of the staff having some snacks and sharing of life stories over banana-q.

At around 5 pm the rest of the staff would start to leave the office. As for me, I would start to freshen up and change into my "house clothes". At around 6pm, one of my staff would then deliver my previously ordered dinner in the office. 6:30pm is official dinner time and also TV time with the staff, watching the news while eating dinner with the night-shift. At around 8 pm, after taking a call from my wife and kids, I would then head back to my quarters where I either continue writing my unfinished letters or memos or modules or spend the next remaining hours watching old videos of "Whose Line Is It Anyway" on my laptop. Most of the time I would already be out at 9pm.

The week ends whenever I would come home to Bacolod Friday afternoon. If there are scheduled seminars or meetings in Bacolod, then I would usually go home earlier than usual. By Monday, I would be back again after a 4-hour early morning bus ride.