Journal of a Lockdown No. 55

I submitted revisions to a personal essay I wrote for a journal. In that perspective piece, I talked about telemedicine and its impact on my clinical practice. I had fun writing it because the process brought back meaningful memories of remarkable people I encountered. Although I did not specifically mention him in that article, Mr. D, my patient for two years, would text me occasionally to ask me how I'm doing. This morning he asked if I was able to go home to Mindanao. He knew that my immediate plan after subspecialty training was to do just that. He was concerned that I had been far away from my family for too long. Mr. D has his own problems to deal with, yet he goes out of his way to ask me how I am. Praise God for people like him. His text added a ray of sunshine to an otherwise bleak day. Last night, the Philippine government shut down the operations of the country's biggest TV network. That I can write this piece in my blog without censorship is a blessing. But if this regime can do that to ABS-CBN, it can silence everyone else. The freedom of the press forms the bedrock of democracy society: it is precisely this freedom that is now at risk.