egged

December 7, 2007

After the last sequence in Woody Allen's 1977 romance-comedy "Annie Hall" - right after Alvy (the male lead character) meets up with his ex-girlfriend Annie - he narrates:

After that it got pretty late, and we both had to go, but it was great seeing Annie again. I… I realized what a terrific person she was, and… and how much fun it was just knowing her; and I… I, I thought of that old joke, y'know, the, this… this guy goes to a psychiatrist and says, "Doc, uh, my brother's crazy; he thinks he's a chicken." And, uh, the doctor says, "Well, why don't you turn him in?" The guy says, "I would, but I need the eggs."

Well, I guess that's pretty much now how I feel about relationships; y'know, they're totally irrational, and crazy, and absurd, and… but, uh, I guess we keep goin' through it because, uh, most of us… need the eggs.

Irrational… Crazy… Absurd… but we all need the eggs.

How true. 

wild week part 10

December 6, 2007

wow, how geeky naman the title. hahaha. kamon, you get it

ANYWAY…

I spent the whole of Wednesday in the ER because there was no available room in MMC. Apparently, the -ber months see a rise in hospital admittances due to the weather and seasonal viruses.  So, after doing some neurological tests, getting an x-ray, sticking me with a drip, extracting some blood, and some other stuff… I had to soldier it out in the ER for almost the entire night.

Between the noisy kids, their PSPs and the chorus of sobs and groans that define the sound of an ER… it was quite difficult to get some sleep. Add to that the chill of the aircon, and good luck to me getting some shuteye.

The ER isn't without its "perks" though. The ER staff of doctors and nurses at the Makati Medical Center were generally very nice and efficient. Also, there were a couple of cases there that were pretty interesting. First was this girl who was supposedly admitted into the ER after being in a catfight (that means two women fighting) and having her ear bitten by the other girl. It wasn't bitten off; but apparently, it was bad. Another of the patients there was this guy who had all sorts of bandages around his jaw area. What happened was that as he got out of the shower that afternoon, he slipped and landed face first on his bathroom floor. He was out for a few seconds (I can relate to that now); and when he came to, there he was lying in his own blood. As far as I could gather, he cut up his tongue pretty bad and needed surgery to repair it. How he was able to narrate that entire incident and keep on talking and talking and talking… and talking, was beyond me. Chatterbox.

THURSDAY 
At around 2:00am, just around the time when I started to chill again and burn up because I couldn't get some sleep, my mom was approached by one of the nice doctors in the ER and she explained that it would be better for us to get the large private room than to stay in the ER. Then they had this discussion about how the admitting department of the hospital was godawful (the admitting people in MMC are TERRIBLE) and how to go about it. Eventually, at around 3:00am, I was up at Rm.750… slightly chilling again and with a 38.7 temperature. Still, it was better than the ER. I was able to sleep for several hours before the nurse woke me up for a routine check. I wasn't able to get back to sleep after that. Nurse's shouldn't do that, imho. I know it's probably part of their instructions, but to wake up a patient who really needs to rest doesn't sound right.

Thursday was relatively uneventful… for me at least. The rest of the country was glued to their TV sets watching Trillianes and Co. pull off this fiasco at the Manila Pen. So at least I had something to watch the entire day.

Mau filed a leave from work and went to the hospital a few hours before lunch. My dad also arrived around the same time. Mau brought her laptop along and we were able to watch some shows, play dota, and surf the web via a 3G connection (oo, pasaway talaga akooooooo). It's hard to operate a PC with just one hand and a thumb :p Hehe.

Boker, Tine and Bhel dropped by after lunch, which was a surprise (thanks guys!) and we talked about what happened to me. They - along with most people who know the story - were surprised first and foremost by how Mau was able to handle me fainting. Haha. What can I say, I am attached to Supergirl :p Bhel asked kung ginulong lang ba daw ako ni Mau papuntang MMC… and Boker was relating how, if Ron and Co were there, how they would video me first (to be placed on YouTube) and have a good laugh before helping me out… Of course we were all just kidding. It was cut short though because I had to have my EEG taken, so I was wheeled out of the room and the three of them went back to work.

Most of the offices around the Central Business District of Makati called work off at around 2pm due to the events in Manila Pen; so later that afternoon, Joyce, Claire, Ron, Sol, Glenn, RJ and Jed also dropped by for a visit (thanks din!). That was a rowdy group, in the good old fashioned fun way. We spent a lot of the time just watching the news coverage of the Trillianes incident and talking about what happened. One amusing thing about it is how Ron and Glenn jokingly repeated exactly what Boker said earlier that afternoon about how they would laugh and videotape me before helping me out :p

Thursday night was quite peaceful and relaxing. I didn't have fever anymore and was feeling good. Mau stayed watch until the next morning, which gave my parents an opportunity to go home and rest. We spent the night just watching House and Bones before getting some sleep. That night was the best sleep I had during my stay at the hospital. No offense to my mom; but even a narcoleptic wouldn't be able to sleep with her. I'm one to talk. Haha.

FRIDAY
B-O-R-I-N-G.

I was hoping to go home already by Friday. However, MMC apparently goes on Holiday! So there was a lot of things that we weren't able to do, like getting a sign-off on the EEG results, and we had to order my ultrasound stat (which means "rushed"). My doctor did get the chance to pass by though and tell me the findings.

As far as the chills, high fever and fainting spell/seizure goes… They really can't find any conclusive cause. She was quick to add though that in around 90% of these cases, no one really finds out what the cause is. Most of my tests were clean, so she said that it was probably just viral and was aggravated by stress and fatigue (basketball… puyat… helloooooo….). However, the blood tests did reveal some incidental findings:

1. High LDL (in layman's terms, "high bad cholesterol"). My overall cholesterol count is normal, but the bad just beats out the good.
2. High level liver enzymes and fatty change in the liver. Basically, my liver needs help.
3. High uric acid. Now I seriously do not know where I got that.

So, its a drastic change in diet for me. Whoopee… Seriously though, I don't mind. I'm not too crazy about beef, pork or junk food anyway. I am big on candy though, but my sugar level is normal. WEIRD. I was bargaining for the occasional bottle of beer though, but that was a lost cause. Bummer.

Aside from that, they took me off the drip so I was able to move around better. I wasn't able to get much sleep because si mama nanaman yung bantay. Hehe. It's okay really. Not that bad. Although I had to wake her up in the middle of the night because I was getting a headache already and she let me sleep first before sleeping again.

SATURDAY
I was finally able to go home! Whoopee! … … …and the first things I ate were *drum roll*: Rolled oats… quick cooking oats… oats… some bread… more oats…

Ah well.

SUNDAY - TUESDAY
Stayed at home and got some rest for the most part. I was actually still weak during this time. My head would hurt, I'd feel week in the knees, but it got better and I was able to go back to work on Wednesday.

~~~~~~~

I always get sick around the time of my birthday. I would usually just brush it off as coincidence; but when I look back at my life, the worst episodes I've had were on and around my birthday. Now this. Weird. Really weird.

wild week part 1

December 3, 2007

Okay.. lets see if I can sum up the week that was quite nicely…

MONDAY:
I felt relatively weak and slightly chilly the entire day, but it only rose to fever pitch during the evening. I had something like a 38.5 temperature and was really shivering that night, so I wrapped myself in a lot of clothes and covered up in blankets to sweat out the fever. With some help from my parents, I was fine the following morning.

TUESDAY:
I woke up feeling better. No more chills, no more fever, but slightly weak. I figured that my body was still rattled from the night before. So I called in for a half-day sick leave to get some rest. I stayed at home that morning and headed off for work around lunchtime. I brought my basketball gear with me just in case I felt well enough to play that night. It was the finals night of our company basketball tournament, so I was pretty psyched to play.

I did play, I came in second in the 3-pt shootout, and our team won the championship by several points. In hindsight, it obviously wasn't a good decision to play - lalo na na-ambonan pa kami walking to and from the basketball court. Ano ako, si Michael Jordan? Kaya maglaro kahit may flu? Hehe. Oh well… the stupid decisions you make…

After the game, my body was aching all over, but I didn't feel feverish. The muscles were just aching, I guess from the strain and the fever from the previous night. That night, I took a warm bath and slept at around 1am (so I had a fever and still, naglaro pa din ako ng basketball at nagpuyat… mahusay…).

WEDNESDAY:
I woke up feeling fine and dandy. Aside from some muscle pains, everything was like clockwork.  The morning and lunchtime passed without a hitch. However, at around 3:00pm, things took a turn for the worst (naks, parang suspense movie ang dating):

3:00pm - I started to feel cold, so I wore my jacket and tried to continue working.

3:20pm - The cold feeling worked its way up to a chill, such that I couldn't even work. So I walked out of the office and then out of the building to get myself warmed up.

3:40pm - I realized that I felt so bad that I couldn't even go back into the building anymore because of the cold temperature, so I called up Mau to accompany me… called up my dad to fetch me… and texted my boss to say that I needed to go undertime since I felt so bad that I couldn't work.

4:00pm - My dad said he was on the way, and I got the permission to leave work already. So I just soldiered the cold and went up to get my stuff, still shivering, and went back down to meet Mau, who bought me a hot drink. We sat down somewhere outside the building to wait for my dad while I was drinking the hot tea. This whole time, I still had my jacket on and I now had the hood up as well. I probably looked like a terrorist or something.

4:30pm - My dad said that he was already in Buendia, so Mau and I got up and walked to the dela Rosa sidewalk to wait for him there. As we were standing there, my head started to ache and my vision became dim and cloudy. It got worse and worse until the next thing I knew, nakahandusay na ako sa sidewalk and Mau was slapping me just to wake me up again. As soon as I was aware of the fact that I had collapsed, I tried to get back up again (partly to calm Mau down and partly because people were already looking [hahaha, nauna pa yung hiya eh!]) At that point, I really felt the life draining out of me, but I just started to breathe deeply and tried to remain conscious.

According to Mau, around a minute after I told her that my vision was becoming cloudy, I started to sway, and then I leaned forward, my eyes went back, my eyelids started to flutter, my body went stiff, and then I just went down. How she was able to support me amazes me. She attributes it to adrenaline rush. I was out for around 30 seconds.

4:40pm - My dad arrives and I manage to make my way to the car. Apparently, he's alarmed at how pale I am and decides to bring me to Makati Med instead of World Citi (QCMC).

5:00pm - We arrive at MMC. My temp is 39.7 and my blood pressure is 110/50. I'm admitted into a jampacked ER.

Apparently, I had to be admitted for observation but there were no rooms available, so I had to wing it at the ER until 3:00am the following day. That night, I had an xray, urinalysis, blood work, neurological tests and an ECG done on me. Mau, my dad and my mom took turns keeping watch, Joyce and some officemates and friends "kept me company" via text, and Cami stopped by for a while that night for a visit before going to a gimik in Makati.

So that was Wild Wednesday.

Tsaka na yung following days. Thanks to all those who visited and texted their well-wishes