my weekend roundup & emails

It has been a busy week and I was hoping that I could catch up with my blogging last weekend. I’ve got so many things to blog about but I didn’t have enough time. One thing are the loving goodies I received from Odette. I received my orders of lunchcards about two weeks ago. I’ll blog about it maybe this week if I have some spare time.

What made me busy aside from work?

Hubby was sick all weekend. It started last week Thursday when he was having persistent colds. Friday came, he was having slight fever and some dry coughing. Saturday, he’s feeling all sore and chilly that he needed to wear his pajamas and a sweater with fox fur to keep him warm.

Our Friday and Saturday were spent with foodies, DVDs and lots of sleeping. Just looking at Hubby dozing off after taking his medicines, my eyes also get droopy at the same time.

Last night, I was so worried of his rising temperature. Every two hours or so, I would suddenly wake up to check on him, like if he needs a new shirt as he sweats heavily even if he’s telling me he’s cold. I gave him a cold press on his forehead to minimize his temp. After several cold presses, his temperature finally came to “almost normal” (as I don’t have a thermometer at hand).

I feel relieved this morning when I touched his neck and forehead. It was a brand new experience for me as Hubby seldom gets sick.

Luckily, I still managed to grab some 5 hours (all in all) of sleep throughout the night. It’s not really good to have your first day of the week, at work, feeling all sluggish then dozing off to your desk by noontime. It’s global crisis everywhere and there is no complete assurance that your job is still there when you wake up from your “dozing off to your desk” moment.

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In the office, first thing I do among my morning routines is to open my Outlook and check for incoming mails. I had five in my Inbox:

1. First one was sent by a colleague last Friday (8 May). So that means she went to work on a Friday? (which is equivalent to a Sunday). Anyways, it was about me moving on the other side of the building where I’ll be sitting next to this colleague. New office. New seatmate.

2. Second mail was sent by my guy friend P yesterday (9 May) at 1:58 AM! P works for an audit firm and the reason he’s still awake at this hour is because of audit deadlines. We were supposed to go out last Friday but he cancelled it since his manager had asked him to work in the weekend.

3. Still on 9 May, third one was from my boss. This, of course, is work-related.

4. Fourth one was from my other guy friend who is love-struck to my other girl friend. He just sent one of those forwarded mails with big “.wmv” attachments. Subject: The VocaPeople. I haven’t opened it yet due to the fact that the speakers of my office PC are disabled. I dunno why.

5. And the last one was from a former colleague who now works in the island of Cayman. She sent me an invitation to twit with her in the Twitter world. Unfortunately, Twitter is blocked in the office. “Tin don’t worry, I’ll twit you na lang sa Plurk. Lol”

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Right now, I am waiting for the IT guy to get my things (PC, files and office thingies) moved on my new office with my new seatmate.

And I hope I won’t forget to send an invitation to Tin (to plurk instead).

pain, pain, go away

i took a day off today as i'm again not feeling so well.

i've been having sharp abdominal pains that are gastric-like since saturday night and it was getting difficult getting up from the bed or standing up from the chair. also, the past week i also started having chest pains once or twice in a day.

i've stopped my medication last week thursday, so the pain is creeping back to my senses. passing urine, stool, as well as gas, really hurts my tummy muscles.

hubby asked me not to force myself on long walks and too much movement as it might slow down my way to full recovery.

this morning i decided a trip back to my doctor so he could explain what's happening to me. he performed the physical examination in my abdomen and also pelvic area, then asked the nurse to take me to the laboratory for a urine test, stool test and blood test.

i wasn't able to provide my stool even if i tried my very hardest to force it out in the toilet. i've had two trips in the toilet and stayed there for some ten minutes, but still, no stool. i went back to the doctor after some 30 minutes when the urine and blood test results were in. he didn't bother much about the "stool" thing when i asked him anyway.

the doctor's verdict on me:
-slight UTI
-gastritis
-and a trip to the pharmacy for my prescription

and my biopsy result was released already. they did not let me have a copy but i took a peek on the reports (aside from the doctor's explanation that the ovarian cyst is benign). my doctor said it would be safe to be preggy after 3-6 months as i need to fully recover from the major surgery i had.

i'll be seeing the doctor after two weeks. or sooner if the gastric-like pain doesn't go away [hope not].

i'm on leave

ooopps! i've been out of the blog-loop for two weeks already and i so missed my rubbish ramblings. well it was not because i was busy with work (i wish), or was on vacation (i wish more), but i was so unfortunate to be locked-in for torture in the hospital.

it all started on mid-february when i began to feel some on-and-off pain all around my abdomen. i often feel gassy and constipated, too! but the thing that got me more worried is the pain on my lower right abdomen that comes and goes. my first guess was appendicitis but since the pain is just the simple "kirot", i tried to brush it off my mind for two weeks.

on march 6 (friday), hubby accompanied me to new medical center for a consultation coz i got him worried already. the pain still comes and goes. i had my urine sample tested as i told the indian doctor of my history in urinary tract infection. after waiting for another 30minutes, the result says that i only have slight infection and it's very unlikely that it causes the pain. so she said that it might only be gastrointestinal disorder then gave me a prescription my constipation and flatulence.

on march 7 (saturday), i was all okay as me and hubby went at deira city centre to meet cousin tony. we had a delicious lunch at 3pm, bought a book (Princess by Jean Sasson), then watched Watchmen at 5pm. Watchmen was ridiculously hyped by movie magazines here when it hardly satisfied me and hubby.

march 8 (sunday) is a non-working holiday for the public sector, but since most of our entities in the middle east are also on holiday, our company opted to have its offices closed for today too! hubby went for work while i stayed at home sneezing (achhuuu!) and reading Princess the whole day. by midnight, i was already having a temperature.

the next day, march 9 (monday), even if i was having fever, i still went to work to meet some reporting deadlines. before lunchtime, i was already feeling very chilly and shivering uncontrollably. can't even hold the mouse steadily. my colleagues suggested that i should just leave work if i'm not feeling well. so after eating my lunch, i left the office and hailed a cab going back home to sharjah.

when hubby got home at 6pm, we decided to go to another doctor for consultation. so we went at prime medical center and had my urine and blood tested again. my temperature says 39.5 degrees Celsius. the indian doctor here is more convincing than the previous doctor as he had made more physical exam on my abdomen. my CBC result came and the doctor said i have blood infection which may be due to an inflamed appendix. also the reason why some parts of my abdomen feels rigid etc. he insisted that i should be admitted in the nearest hospital right after the consultation. i can't remember how the news really felt in me. i was too weak to react that much.

as we are not familiar with the best hospitals here in sharjah, the doctor referred to us the central private hospital. good thing that i have medical insurance as being hospitalized here in the UAE is like a fortune. even if i'd like to go back to philippines to have my treatment there, an inflamed appendix is like an urgent case that a rupture would come any moment. some friends came over that monday night, as i was admitted in the hospital. they took some x-ray test and more urine and blood test. i was beginning to feel scared everytime i see needles pricked on me. at 11pm, my dextrose started. that also started my "fasting". as in no water, no food!

the next morning at 10am, i had my full abdomen ultrasound. the result of the scan did not came to us immediately from the doctors but from the gossip made by the nurses. it was like i was suddenly the talk of the town in that hospital. they were saying that i have an inflamed appendix and that they saw a mass in my right ovary, by which the doctor is suggesting ectopic pregnancy! i got really tensed about it but i still prayed that it's really not ectopic pregnancy.

night time came, at around 9.30pm, i had my laparoscopic surgery for the removal of my appendix and ovarian cyst (as they saw through the camera inserted on my button belly during the surgery). at least it was not ectopic pregnancy. i was not aware of the whole procedure as i was sleeping the whole time. my hubby said the operation took about 1 and half hours and that he saw the appendix and the cyst. the cyst was about the size of the old one peso coin in whitish color. the doctor said the biopsy result will be out after two weeks.

some facts:

1. i stayed in the hospital for a total of 7 loonngg days!

2. i had two blood transfusion because my hemoglobin level after the operation was just 6.5 (normal is 8-12)

taken on 13 march, groge pa ko jan

3. since admission, i was fasting for 5 days!

4. since my operation, the nurses would take blood on me for blood test at least twice a day.

5. during my stay in the hospital, i have had 21 needle pricks on my two arms and three on my butt.

6. my IV fluid set was changed three times (twice on my left and once on my right) because my hand would swell so much that my fingers have become human sausages!

my third set of IV fluid

7. i have cough while i was in the hospital, which made my wounds hurt more.

8. i have three small cuts in my laparoscopic surgery (two on my left and one below my belly button)

9. got discharged on monday night, march 16.

10. hospital bill for my appendectomy is 19,356 dirhams!!!! (fortunately it was covered by the insurance) while the ovarian cyst cost us 6,000 dirhams!!!! i don't want to think of converting it to peso.


and now i'm at home already for 3 days nows. it's much better being at home as i feel much stronger. and more movement. the doctor said i still need another 2 weeks to rest before i become fit to work again. good thing that my company is very supportive.


thanks to my families, friends and officemates who were checking on my status everyday. and also thanks to the very kind nurses in the hospital amidst my irritability and crying moments with the needles.

and most importantly, i thank God for all the blessings and the strength He has given me while being tortured with pain.

gaining something or nothing

yesterday, i have googled my food listings for calorie counts.

then, i came across this caloric needs calculator and the result for my current weight?

tada!

i need 1,125 kilocalories** a day to maintain my current weight of 90 pounds.

but! i also just discovered from this website how many calories i need to take for my dream "100-pound yummybite".

the requirement? 1,250 kilocalories, at least.

easy-peasy

after all the googling and finally making a food/calorie table. i printed it out and planned to post it on our closet door. i could have posted it on the door fridge but we don't have our own (common fridge with other flatmates), as a constant reminder sana while preparing our meals.

nevertheless, i just want to share how much calorie intake i had yesterday.

see that yellow highlight?

oh yes! i've had 1,434 kilocalories yesterday!

i've reached and surpassed my goal even without the desert and the bread i've eaten in betweens, with which i don't know how to compute the calorie contents.

*happiness*

*fingers crossed*

seriously! hah!

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and with the variety of filipino food, ingredients and other pampalasa, just how can i calculate the calorie count of adobo, sinigang or kare-kare?

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Note: on most food labels, kilocalorie = calorie.

source: http://www.weightlossresources.co.uk/calories.htm

plus/minus

most people on this planet gets very desperate finding ways to lose weight and burn down those calories piling up on the belly sides. the real world will never get tired coming up with solutions whether using high technology or the natural way. even the world wide web won't run out of resources for those too eager to dispose the "extras".

"weight loss" would return 117,000,000 results from google and typing
"diet" would return 162,000,000 results.

yahoo has a much wider resource for the same terms, you would get 531,000,000 and 870,000,000 results respectively.

as you see, there were too many helpful sites about losing weight and diet thingies that the net is overly crowded with advertisements (mostly).

for the most (or whole?) part of my life, i've never been interested with losing weight. i'm on the other side of the fence.

slim, petite, underweight, malnourished, buto-buto (all bones and no muscle), kite (as in saranggola ni pepe), yatot, payatot, poste, anorexic, bulimic

these were my categories ever since, and forever and ever na yata ito.


i'm the one at the center

i am neither anorexic nor bulemic. i eat a lot actually. and i get hungry all the time. and i love chocolates and ice cream and pasta!

just today i've tried searching the net for "gain weight" and yahoo has returned 185,000,000 results only compared to diet and weight loss. but but but...it's still in the milliones side so it's still okay. i won't be able to look on to all of the searches anyway. i'm pretty sure that only a handful would be truly helpful and genuine.

the net is flooded with advertisements and promises. the worst is that some of these ads are really harmful and would cause side-effects that would only put you in danger. e.g. steroids

i had my own experience back in college with this chinese herbal medicine called "ling zhi" (not the complete name) that promised to boost my appetite. it did worked on me putting up some 10 more pounds within 2 weeks of use (sorry i don't have pics of me) but it didn't feel right at the same time. the first week i've taken it, i had palpitations, and i can't stop eating. even when i'm already on my bed at 11pm and really really sleepy, my tummy would release a growl that will surely frighten the person next to me (like my sister who would sharply turn her on my side). i would have 5 heavy meals as in with a plateful of rice everytime. i even remember having my stomach so full that i had a difficulty breathing.

that of course alarmed me. and my hubby too (then boyfie). he told me that although he loves hugging the new "tabachingching" me, it doesn't look right on me. parang nagmamanas daw coz my upper body remains the same (except for the face where the manas is evident).

tsk tsk tsk!

so i stopped it eventually even if i'm so tempted to go on with it. good thing i did not gave in to temptations. too risky.

i once searched the net about the herbal medicine and it turned out it contains high level of
parang candies...heehee...

that routine lasted until 6th grade coz in high school, i started the caplets of Centrum naman.

hmmm...up til now, me and my siblings are still wondering where did the vitamins went.

i have tried so many things useless and thoughtless. my cousin told me i should eat more fast-food so i would grab a burger or fries or pizza any chance i got. nothing happened. just feeling bloated with the trans-fat that came with it. my other friend asked me to eat more chocolates coz it worked for her and she thinks that it would work for me. i think she lied to me *silly me*

it is so difficult pa naman for me to gain weight. if i have this routine of eating 4 heavy meals for 6 consecutive days gaining 1 pound per day, just missing the routine on the 7th day would burn down the 6 pounds i've earned. back to zero again!


tipping the scale is like suspense to me everytime

i know, i know. that most people (girls) would envy the slim-ness of me. i'm a size "0" or size "8" (UK). but then, i don't get to see much of my sizes on the clothes rack. i also get frustrated with the limited range of "extra smalls" on shops that i so love. especially with jeans! i love skinny jeans but most pairs i adore are either too long for my petite-ness or just too roomy for my skinny legs. how can i even call them "my skinny jeans" if there's still a room for one more leg!

dang! [thinking about the most coveted dress that i can't wear unless repaired, which is not so fabbity]

this is me. just being whiny and unpredictably ungrateful.

was this just purely hereditary or simply high-speed metabolism?

or both?