Dialogue with the Doc

After a whole month of not joining any activities at the Buddies Center, last night after buka puasa, I went to the Center to join a dialogue with our good doctor from the Ipoh GH ID clinic.

You see, we usually have our meetings on Tuesday nights, with the Board meeting being fixed on the last Tuesday of each month. But last month being Ramadhan, and I didn't want to miss my terawikh, I decided to be a bit selfish as I needed time for myself. There was the fellowship sub-committee meeting to discuss on our planned Deeparaya Night, but I told our Fellowship coordinator to proceed with the meeting without me. I'd follow whatever the majority decided.

As for the last Tuesday of last month, it was the night right before Raya. No more terawikh, but I was so busy at home to prepare for Raya. At first I thought maybe the Board could still proceed with the meeting with the Vice Chair taking charge, but apparently our Honorary Secretary too was not around during that time, and since we usually have just ngam-ngam quorum for Board meetings, with 2 regulars missing, chances were they may end up not having enough quorum to proceed with the meeting. So we decided to cancel last month's Board meeting.

Apparently, this month, the last Tuesday will be the day immediately after Deepavali. This time we've got to consider our members who celebrate Deepavali. So again, no meeting on the last Tuesday of this month. And since there was no meeting in September, we decided to hold this month's meeting in the middle of the month. For 3 consecutive Tuesday nights this month, we have activities at the Center. Last night was the dialogue with the doctor. Next Tuesday night will be our Board meeting and the next Tuesday night will be our Deeparaya gathering - held specifically for volunteers only.

Out of our over 20 volunteers, only 11 made it to the dialogue last night. The rest either had other commitments they had to attend to or something cropped up last minute. It was the Doc's second time at our center, the first time was more than a year ago. We made it an open dialogue so we could ask her whatever questions we had in mind. Most of the questions asked were more on the HIV medication especially on the latest developments and the side effects of the drugs. Also discussed were matters relating to CD4 count, viral load tests etc.

Actually we volunteers do need to equip ourselves with at least some basic knowledge because our clients sometimes tend to ask us the medical-related questions instead of asking the doctor or nurse direct during their appointments. We even have clients who, after doing the viral load test and with the results showing that the viral load was undetectable, happily telling us that they no longer have HIV. Haiya, how to explain the situation to them like that??

The dialogue enabled us to update ourselves with the latest developments, and a good refresher course on certain other matters.

Hmmm... I wonder if I can use the 2 hour dialogue session to top up my CPD hours required this year to renew my professional association membership for next year... am still short of a few more CPD hours and am too lazy to attend the "make-me-sleepy" seminars! YAWN...