Reflections on an Experience as a Geriatric Doctor in an Elderly Home

Last December 2019 my cousin who is a nun under the Congregation of the Daughters of our Lady of Pieta asked me if I would be okay to provide medical services to the elderly women they take care of in the convent. I, having not have done hospital practice since February 2019 (maybe I will write another blog on this one too… maybe…), immediately accepted the opportunity and agreed to visit them once a month regularly, and to be on-call whenever needed.

It was a first time experience for me to manage my own medical practice as a primary caregiver in an elderly home. I was very excited. I have experienced managing a clinic in a small primary and secondary school at my province (maybe I will write about that too…soon…) and that new challenge of another kind of patient population was exciting for me. It was an opportunity to connect with patients again, to review my clinical eye(s), and to be able to formulate my own system of patient-physician consultation and record keeping. I was given free reigns and I was very delighted and a bit nervous (of course we MDs never admit we get nervous, but it does happen).

47(a)(2) Visa Downgrading for Foreigners in the Philippines

This is a straightforward no fuss article regarding the steps necessary to downgrade a 47(a)(2) work visa issued by the Philippine Bureau of Immigration. Bear in mind that you don’t always have to do this. The best example of why you will have to do this individually without a representative (e.g. an HR personnel) is when you’re contract from work has been terminated without your knowledge and the HR has not been able to reach you. It may also be that the company refuses to assist you in the visa downgrading, for whatever specific reason.

It seems like a very daunting situation. I know it is, but fear not. You can do it! I will walk you though the steps.

Malapascua, take me back!

After having my fill of Cebu City, I was ready to take the bus and head way up north to see Malapascua. I’ve heard a lot of things about the place, especially the thresher sharks. Oblivious of what I may find, the first thing I saw when I reached Malapascua was the coast lined with small houses. From afar it definitely looked like any small Philippine village. At 4 in the afternoon it looked sleepy, with the seawater receding gently and not long after the light would slowly turn warm.

First glimpse of Malapascua

The Traveling Doctor

While traveling solo around Cebu – from the North to the South of the province, I’ve been to conversations with several backpackers on hostels I’ve stayed at. Some of them have traveled for 7 months to several years all over Asia or the whole world. I can’t help but admire them all and have thought to myself if I could do that too.

I really love traveling. You wouldn’t be reading all the things I’m writing in this blog if I didn’t. Sometimes I feel like it’s not just the destination, but it’s also that feeling of moving through places that makes me ecstatic about traveling.

The Privileged Patient and the Grateful Patient

I have made a casual observation that charity inpatients are kinder and easier to empathize with than “pay” patients. Charity patients look at their doctors with such respect that they are afraid of disobeying their instructions. What you tell them, as their physician, is taken in full confidence. If the doctor says so, then it is so.

Of course this isn’t always the case. I have encountered charity patients that have gotten to my nerves but I have put forward this observation in order to present my view regarding that feeling of “privilege” among patients.

Anilao – a breather from Manila

When clinical clerkship duties already feel overwhelming, I close my eyes and imagine the sea. I remember the sound of the waves, the cool breeze in contrast with the bright warm rays of the sun, the sharp broken pieces of dead corals battered and eventually ground to powder form, and the varying shades of blue created by the water and the horizon as it meets the sky.

Tropical Fishes of the Philippine Seas

In all my snorkeling trips at Balayan Bay of Anilao and Bauan in the province of Batangas and at Misamis Occidental in Mindanao, I have accumulated several pictures of fishes. I have planned for so long to make a sort of “database” that lists their common names and scientific names (haha sorry it’s one of my compulsions and passions). Finally I got the chance to do it and here is the preliminary list 😀

Picture Perfect Nagsasa Cove

Three years ago I and three other friends first visited a place so picturesque it felt like looking at a life-sized postcard. The water was so clear, as though percolating through hundreds and hundreds of rocks and pebbles had given rise to such purity.