Healthcare Conversations with Lola

 

In Filipino, Lola means grandmother.

I was remembering how my lola Sising and my lola Flora were both working girls helping to make both ends meet to provide for their families.  Although they were not medical doctors or homebodies, they knew how to take care of their children when they get sick.

Tonight let us remember the things we learned from our grandmothers and their approach to healthcare, tonight at 9PM MLA time on #HealthXPH.  See you on Bluesky!

T1.  What alternative medical treatments did your lola expose you to when you were growing up?

T2.  What have you learned from your exposure to your lola's approach to health and wellness?

T3.  What health advice did you receive from your lola that you could also pass on to future generations?

LET THEM Theory

The LET THEM THEORY helps you save energy and get more work done.

Four big ways that you've turned other people into a problem:

1.  You let people stress you out.

2.  You consider what other people think about you.

3.  You allow emotional immaturity in other people and in yourself to dominate your actions and how you move through your day.

4.  You constantly compare yourself with others and this makes you feel that life is unfair, and that other people are against you or competing with you.

All four of these obstacles are simply not true, so let them!

When you no longer allow people to stress you out, you have more energy.

When you allow other people to have negative thoughts about you because whatever negative they think about you is beyond your control anyway, let them.  Focus instead on the things that are within your control.

When you operate in a way that makes you proud of who you are, you authentically don't care about other people's negative opinions.

Be better than you were yesterday, no matter what others are achieving you are competing only with yourself.

We meet ourselves

I realize that no matter my approach to people, no matter if I put on a brave or friendly face, if peope don't like you they will snub you and overlook you or completely ignore you.  It doesn't matter how much effort you put into meeting them halfway.  If they are not willing, then it simply is not worth it.

On the other hand, there will be people who watch out for you and care enough to correct your mistakes and teach you how to move forward.  These are the people who matter.  Be motivated to work and improve yourself so that you can be like them.  

 

Survive

 

Learn something new everyday!

I decided to try learning how to use the Canva app on my phone.  I heard that students nowadays hardly use Powerpoint anymore because Canva is allegedly easier to use with lots of templates and designs... so i decided to try it out.  

After all, the best characteristic for learning is the willingness to try something new.

It started out with me making inspirational posters for my brother as part of my gentle reminders for him to take his maintenance meds... one poster per day from pictures grabbed from facebook and sayings/messages from my newsfeed.  Better you know it, I had created 10 designs!  I've started to get used to Canva.

As they say, practice makes perfect.  If you want to learn a new skill, you if you just want to maximize the use of an expensive cellphone so that you don't regret your purchase...

T1.  What new skill did you learn recently?

I remember when I was 17 years old, I was soooo excited to get my learner's driving permit so that I could learn to drive my car... I think my father almost had a heart attack when I was starting to speed up and didn't break abruptly when he said to stop.  He then delegated the rest of my driving lessons to my uncle Tony.  Today I enjoy driving because of the freedom it affords me.

T2.  Is this new skill a milestone?  How does this new skill impact your life?  Why?

The first time is always memorable.  

I remember singing the psalms in church the first time.  I was given a tape to listen to then the next day I sang in church.  No biggie.  I kept singing the psalms on Sundays until I had to leave for college.  This taught me how to be confident in my God-given talents.

I remember the first time I rode on a bus by myself to UP Los Banos and to rent a room and live away from home.  This was a new phase in my life when I had to learn how to budget and how to motivate myself to wake up on my own in the mornings, how to fend for myself and decide whether to walk or to ride the jeep... This was a lesson on independence and self-reliance.

I remember the first time I performed cesarean section as the primary surgeon during residency training.  My eyes were as sharp as an eagle's.  My hand was as steady as a sewer.  My heart was as brave as a lion's.  I had to keep in mind that surgical mistakes can spell the difference between life and death.  This taught me humility in service, accountability and stewardship.

T3.  What skill do you hope to learn someday?

My mother is a great homemaker.  She goes to market and makes sure she gets her money's worth.  She cooks and bakes.  She sews me dresses and bed covers and curtains and blankets.  She gardens.  She cleans the house.  She even does her own carpentry and paint jobs.

If I can only learn one of these homemaking skills, I would be more like my mother.

BRANDING

 

Last January 13, 2025 I was officially relieved of being the division chief of the Professional Allied Health Services (Health Information Management and Medical Social Services).  I gave my endorsements and I left all the group chats.  So now I can focus on leading the VSMMC Research Institute - to genuinely provide an enabling environment for research, as well as the KAAMBAG Clinic HIV/AIDS Core Team - to target enhanced awareness and control of HIV/AIDS in Cebu.

THIS WILL BE OUR BRANDING:  the way we make others feel will be our trademark.

Our strategy is to find ways to streamline our process flows so that nobody is indispensable.  All the staff are empowered to take on office functions in the absence of the other co-workers.

We spend hours on meetings, discussing our strategies and identifying our priorities to avoid getting overwhelmed.  After all, the journey of a thousand miles begin with a single step.  Ever forward we go, not allowing our fears to paralyze us, trying to do things differently each time until we find the best solution.

Go ahead and write.

I read Ronnie Baticulon's post and was genuinely happy for him.  His first book is still selling well in physical bookstores.  To all medical students out there, I highly recommend you get your copy of this memoir of a neurosurgeon, and the very real challenges of being a doctor in the Philippines.

Even our staff Alden Arsenal was bold enough to self-publish his book "Walay Bayot sa Langit" in Bisaya.  This gives me courage to pursue a collaborative effort to come up with the KAAMBAG Coffee Table book and start producing booklets in installments as both a way to raise funds for our programs and to reduce stigma and discrimination against PLHIVs because they are humans too, who need love, care and respect.