No Flowers Today

And I mean literally, I am simply not inspired.

I am getting tired of going back and forth to my doctor and for laboratory tests. Sometimes, it is every week, other days every two weeks. My internist advised me to visit a cardiologist so he could give me clearance that I need for my cataract operation. It’s been four months and the nurse who is in charge of my papers at the Hub said that those tests I undertook last August are no longer viable. I don ‘t want to go back to their Malasakit Center because of so many patients going there.

I could have all those tests done at The Medical City Hospital because they are covered by my medical insurance but then I don’t know if it is allowed by the doctors at the Hub. All I want is to have the change of my lense free because it is not covered by the insurance and our town hospital has acquired new medical equipments for cataract operations the past months with three opthalmologists in attendance. I’ll be going back to my internist first week of December and also a scheduled visit to my ENT. Hopefully, everything would be fixed at the end of the year.

Didn’t I tell you earlier that I am not that enthusiastic to put up Christmas decor? Since mom is here with us, some of her things are scattered around. She always wants extra clothes and her two small bags with her when she takes a rest or when she has her early naps during the day. She always asks me if it is day or night. That’s how her eyesight has deteriorated. Her sense of hearing is almost nil. Really getting old at almost 94. I know it is hard to take care of her, I really have to muscle enough patience because I’m the only girl among us three kids left. My eldest brother had a brain operation almost two years ago and he fears being stressed when mom wants to visit them. Our youngest Noel is out of the country. When they came for a visit more than three weeks ago, mom always thought of him that he was my youngest son. She was not much affected when they went back to Tulsa.

The plants in the garden are not blooming except for a few Crossandra blooms. My two jackfruits are bearing fruits though which we could wait to ripen or cook the young ones in coconut cream.

No flowers today….sadly😏

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GOD Is Good

Thank God for answered prayers. I AM NEGATIVE of Covid 19.

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It Was A Busy Tuesday

For the fourth time since this pandemic I have to go out again yesterday to get an additional form for mom’s renewal of her Social Security survivor’s pension since it is nearing January 16 which is the date of Dad’s birth.

I was able to contact SSS Cainta branch manager via e-mail. According to him, their branch is already closed since November last year. I have to go to another branch to get the non-remarriage/no co-habitation form, an additional requirement. Mom could no longer write her name so I bought a stampad ink months ago for her thumb marks.

I e-mailed everything, such gargantuan requirements. SSS just want to make sure that the pensioner is still alive.

Speaking of booster shots, I am in a quandary whether to get one. According to a friend whose son lives in Saudi Arabia, they are on their second booster there. Would this be endless meantime that it is in experimental stage? We had about more than 5,000 positive cases yesterday and according to our health department, there are already 7 cases of the Omicron variant. Sometimes, their reports are no longer believable.

Right now, I am on my third book. I joined the 2022 Godreads Reading Challenge. Yeay for 150 books.

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Practical Ways To Combat Covid-19

They’ve been telling us this for quite a while now but some of those in the government are not following the rules. Do they think they are exempted?

Several MRT (metro rail transit) personnel were found positive of COVID-19, how could they do contact tracing now when they deal with  thousands of metro riders every day?  Unless of course, these passengers would opt voluntarily to be tested? We’ve breached the 50,000 mark and it keeps on rising. To think we had the longest lockdown in history of the Asian nations.

 

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Has It Come To This?

 I went out for a while to buy my maintenance medicine for another month. I was surprised  by the number of people at the drugstore, and that is not even the busiest branch of  Mercury Drug.  What is even more surprising is that there are no bottles of Alcohol left on their shelves. All they had are a few small bottles of hand sanitizer for kids and three bottles of hand sanitizer for adult.  I chose to buy the two so I’ll have something in stock, one senior citizen grabbed the remaining one.

There used to be several bottles of alcohol when I went there last month, but they are all gone. Mercury Drug provides free Alcohol  in their counter to rub your hands though. I went to a small grocery store where I bought two bottles of  70% solution ethyl alcohol (yes, combined with moisturizer). I now have five of them in our medicine cabinet.  Last Saturday, I also bought a pack of disposable hand gloves (it contains 100 pcs). Gonna use them when we go to the market and when we go  to the grocery stores. Long ago, I read somewhere that one of the dirtiest items you can ever find in  a supermarket is their push cart. Some people have this habit of having their kids ride on it while grocery-shopping which is not practical because they don’t regularly clean it. When  someone buys cold cuts and fresh food items, the drips are left on the cart.

Has it come to this?

I have a friend who went to the supermarket yesterday to buy only a few items. She was so surprised when there was a line-up of cars at the parking lot and so many shoppers were buying loads and boxes of groceries as if there is no tomorrow. They’re in a panic that this corona  virus might bring further damage to the country.  She only intended to buy three items and ended up with three bags  full of groceries.  Only  those who have enough in their pockets will be able to because an individual with a lowly job could not even afford to buy grocery items in bulk. Nakakalungkot.   I am saddened by this turn of events.  People are growing crazy, so much more if you have a government whose priority does not include the health and well-being of its citizens.

I read  the report of a journalist friend saying that private hospitals don’t have their own test kits.  Department of Health admitted in a Senate hearing a few days ago that they only have 2,000 test kits and the number of cases is increasing.  The budget for the department was slashed by 10B and went to the coffers of the president. They substantially increased the budget of the Office of the  President by the billions. Even The Department of Education was not spared.

This contact tracing that they are doing and not reporting the true numbers of positive cases here is just alarming.  The local residents who were found positive with COVID-19 might have infected others too without their knowledge.

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The Dreaded Covid-19

Yesterday, we just had a confirmed case positive of NCov19  here in our town, the fifth one according to Dept. of Health (DOH). I wonder  if they are telling the truth or hiding something so as not to create panic or offend their big boss who said a few weeks ago that “this too will pass”. There is something not right.

Even if the place is quite far from us, I am still wary of public places where there are so many people. Reports say that the patient has no history of travel but regularly visited the mosque at Greenhills, San Juan City. He is now confined at RITM (Research Institute for Tropical Medicine).

Our town mayor, Mayor Atty. Kit Nieto has posted this message on his Facebook page a few minutes ago:

“I am constrained to suspend classes in all levels both public and private from today (assuming there are) until Tuesday to provide ample opportunity for the general services office to distribute additional masks on top of the 50,000 pieces we have already distributed a couple of weeks ago.. all cainta students will be provided face masks and protective sanitizers and vitamin c to mitigate the probabilities of the virus spreading.. more directives to come.. all trike drivers. And puj drivers are likewise directed to wear masks while plying their routes.. GSO Lyndon Camacho Batanes procure what is necessary should the resources be inadequate”.

With his health team, he visited those places close to the patient to distribute face masks, disinfectant and vitamin C  and letters telling them of the latest news by DOH.  Good thing our town mayor is proactive. It might be hard to contain this virus when it spreads but at least the people are aware of what to do. Salute Mayor Nieto 🙂

 It’s now code RED for DOH, his wife was also tested positive.

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Matthew 5: 13-16 And Other Stories

I posted this reflection back in February 6, 2011. Those were the times when “like” was not yet a feature of the WordPress app. Now you can convert it to emoticons and you can also use other emojis provided by the  WordPress editor. There are no limits 🙂

These are the same gospel  readings today.  And here’s a short reflection that I made back then.

Salt and light are the metaphors used by Jesus in today’s Gospel.   I love how the two words are intertwined – the earth is dark because of our sins and our lives  seem bland because there is no salt in it.  We are included in the mission that Jesus gives us, to proclaim and to announce His Kingship everywhere and to invite people to enter into His Kingdom.  Being a Christian is not just through words, we must make good use of ourselves, our talents, we give taste to whatever we do in life. Christian life is how you relate to people.  Only when we follow Christ’s teaching and examples that we will see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Going back to this morning’s mass, I sat in a pew different from the one I usually sit on. And during the homily, I noticed these carvings  like: “CALL ME at this number_______ and something  like : I need a GF with another cell phone number _____. I smiled and thought, maybe, those who have written these words badly need friends. But why would they destroy  the pristine  varnish/coat of the pew to get noticed? I  remember those days when I was still in college, students would leave chain letters near the church fonts or at those seats in the library where I used to work.  I never believed in chain mails/letters even if they contain some religious one that you have to pray for to obtain favors. Faith and worship are not conditional. Either you believe or you don’t.

I bought a few groceries at SaveMore on my way home from church. There is a glaring absence of morning shoppers unlike when  the 2019nCoV was still unheard of.  Maybe like me, they are wary too. Everyday,  we get  updated of deaths and  individuals showing signs of the virus.  You’ve got to have these at home – alcohol (bought a few bottles), rolls of tissue paper and  hand sanitizer. Good thing there is no panic buying here except for finding unavailable face masks for the people’s daily use.  As I have said before in my previous blogs, I often wear face masks (either washable cloths or the disposable ones) when I go out. That started when I got sick more than ten yeas ago. Chemotherapy affects the immune system. It weakens it. And I am afraid of the pollution brought about  by vehicles and motorcycles on the road.

Have a blessed Sunday all.

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Where Are We Going?

We are not being racist but Chinese immigrants have grown to millions since the president took over back in 2016. Now those occupying apartments/condominiums in the South of Metro Manila are Chinese, depriving some Filipinos of affordable places to live in. I read in some reports that they pay double or triple the amount that is supposed to be paid and they pay in advance. A very lucrative business to those Filipinos who grab the chance to earn more.  Come to think of it, they have constructed housing facilities too. The president welcomes them with open arms.

What are best friends for anyway? Duterte said that it is unfair to impose travel ban considering the closeness of the two nations. It behooves me to understand that China is far greater important to him than his own people who he promised to serve when he got elected. 16M die-hard duterte followers.

We have POGO now (Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators) owned and managed by the Chinese. Lately, there are  prostitution dens being patronized by these people. They come in without visa, and the Philippines issues visa right there and then upon arrival.

Now we have our first case of the coronavirus. A Chinese woman who came from Huwan, passed by Hong Kong, landed in Cebu City then went to Manila. Now she is confined at  San Lazaro Hospital, a public hospital for communicable diseases which is so close to the university belt. I fear for those small kids who have to commute to and from school exposing them to the danger of the virus.

Finally, they have to wait that one gets infected before issuing travel ban but according to reports it is only confined to Huwan province but reports also say that the virus is now all over china.Oh,I guess issuing a travel ban now is moot because China has lockdown. Too late the hero, that’s how uncaring our government is.

We don’t have those  modern facilities to address this just like other nations so we must really be wary of the happenings here. No enough training even for health personnel to handle it. And the “good” secretary of health seems to be just following orders from his boss.

Philippines, I ask this once more, where are we going?

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Between Mother And Son (Feeling Heartbroken)

Nate: “Mommy, how many days left before I can hug you? I miss you and want to hug you na.”

Then he starts crying.

And I start crying.

 Nissa: “I miss you more than you’ll ever know, anak. Mommy’s doing this for you so we just need to soldier on. I love you so much!”

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P.S.

I am also wondering how long it would take before Nate could hug Nissa. For three straight days when she underwent radioactive iodine therapy, Nate was not able to see her.

Nissa said it would take two weeks for Nate to be able to hug her, just to play safe.

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It’s Gone

The sun is showing its face….finally.

The typhoon is now on its way to the West Philippine Sea but we are still under signal number 1. Most schools here in Metro Manila don’t have classes yet. It is still windy outside but the sun is shining bright and early.

I took some shots in the garden. Here you’ll see the lone calamity  of typhoon Tisoy, a bent street light in front of the house.

I have good news for you guys. Nissa is going home today. Just talked to her a while ago and she said she will just take a Grab car on the way home.

They measured the level of toxicity  (radioactive iodine) from the patient via the distance from where one is standing. When one is a meter apart, it measures ten, but if you are near her throat, it measures a hundred.  She’ll have another body scan next year. She told me her doctor is also surnamed Isidro so maybe, he is a distant relative of Obet. They came from the same province. Obet is from a family of doctors too. His aunt, uncle and cousin are all doctors.

Again, thank you for all your prayers. I forwarded your messages  to Nissa and she said you are all so sweet 🙂

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