World AIDS Day 2025

 

📢 Key Messages for HIV Awareness and Control in Cebu

These messages focus on life-saving treatment, access to services, and overall wellness.

1. Treatment Works: HIV is Not a Death Sentence

 * Antiretroviral Vials (ARVs) are provided for free by the Philippine government through DOH-accredited HIV Treatment Hubs in Cebu (e.g., Kaambag Clinic at Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center).

 * Undetectable = Untransmittable (U=U): Once a person living with HIV (PLHIV) consistently takes their ARVs and achieves an undetectable viral load, they cannot sexually transmit HIV to their partner.

 * The Goal: With consistent treatment, PLHIV can live long, healthy, and productive lives, and prevent new infections.

2. Know Your Status: Testing is the Gateway to Care

 * Testing is the First Step: HIV counseling and testing is the crucial first step to accessing comprehensive treatment, care, support, and prevention services.

 * Confidential and Accessible: Centers and community-based organizations offer free, confidential, and safe testing and counseling.

 * KAAMBAG Clinic is open on Mondays, Tuesday, Thursdays, Fridays from 6:00AM to 10:00 PM.

 * Prevention and Protection: For those who test negative but are at high risk, Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) is available in Cebu's treatment hubs and clinics as an effective prevention method.

 * A Call to Action: Cebu officials and health advocates are normalizing testing, urging Cebuanos to get tested and integrate it into routine health check-ups.

3. Live Long and Strong: Healthy Lifestyle and Adherence

 * Adherence is Key: Taking ARVs daily, as prescribed, is the most important factor in achieving an undetectable viral load and maintaining good health.

 * Holistic Wellness: Maintaining a healthy lifestyle (good nutrition, exercise, and mental health support) is vital for PLHIV to live long, productive, and fulfilling lives.

 * Erase Stigma: The commitment to a healthy life and the success of U=U helps in reducing the stigma and discrimination that remain significant barriers to prevention and treatment in Cebu.

Minimum compliance

 

My mother spoke some harsh words to me that shocked me to my core, that I did not know how to communicate well.  I was actually not practicing non-violent communication because she felt that i needed to be always right.  

I heard this as well from colleagues who said to my face that I didn't know how to listen.  Worse is that I was described as a leader who always needed validation.  So insecure. So needy.

Today, the phrase that stuck to my ears is that "I am not in the same boat as the rest of the team."  It had to reach this level of severity that I had to endure the humiliation of mutiny. I have somehow failed in connecting with my team so make sure we were aligned with the same targets, a bitter pill to take.  Such a humbling experience.

My first instinct is to quit, realizing that I did not have the moral ascendency over my team.  I had a smalled tight-knit group of trusted leaders, but they failed to convey these concerns directly to me until the tension spilled over and the team needed courage and strength in unity to confront me with their concerns 

I've never been one to settle for minimum compliance, but I've learned during my masteral courses that "DONE is better than perfect."

76th Philippine Hospital Association Annual Convention and Exhibitd

Attended the 76th PHA Annual Convention and Exhibits at the Manila Hotel with the rest of the EXECOM members.

Surgery: it's like riding a bike

Soon as I arrived at the airport, I rushed to the hospital because I had a patient with ovarian new growth in complication, and we had to do remove the ovarian mass, the uterus and the contralateral ovary.  I realized that even after a long time bot doing surgery, I still know how to operate.

The next night, my pregnant patient who was term, was supposed to have routine non-stress test.  In the end, it was her doctors who got stressed because the baby's heartbeat dropped 70 beats below the baseline, and we had to do an emergency cesarean section.  Just like my midnight operation the night before, it was the same team: same anesthesioiogist, same scrub nurse, same circulating nurse, different patient.  I realized that I still know how to do cesarean section!

There is muscle memory and once you learn it, you know it for life. It's like riding a bike!

Digital Transformation

 

Our top management is wondering why with a lot of manpower, the hospital cannot still submit insurance claims on time compared with a private hospital that only assigned 13 staff as claims revirwer and insurance processing staff?

The answer:  electronic health records!

Treeplanting part of Disaster Risk Reduction Management

Doing a root analysis of the flash foods that ravaged most of Metro Cebu, the forests in the uplands have been denuded to pave the way for development of housing projects.

How do we encourage people to plant trees and continuously care for these trees if they keep asking "what's in it for us?"

It's not enough to do tree planting because the people who live in the mountains just cut off trees for firewood.

Overachievement

This post I came across on Instagram got me thinking about what I think is emotional constipation.

Everybody says I am a workaholic, and I find that it is abnormal that when my time is suddenly freed up of meetings or workload, there are times I suddenly feel lost or that the rug was suddenly pulled out from under me... is this the reason why? Have I been using work as a clutch to fill in the void of love and self-worth?  Do I feel safe so long as I am productively achieving goals?

Is this sense of independence of not needing anyone or choosing not to connect so as not to be hurt a way to self-regulate, a coping mechanism?

Exhaustion is how I sleep.  There lies an urge to maximize the waking hours to be productive and not to waste time.

This resonates so much in me because of the childhood trauma of hearing "why are you so incompetent?" which pushes me to try harder to become better and opening the idea that I am not enough as I am.

My worth is not earned.

I am enough.

I am loved.

I am enough as me.

I don't need to meet expectations other than my own.   At the end of the day, I don't have to be strong or to achieve.  I can be soft and be accepted for all my flaws and scars.  It's ok.