Me loves

THESE!

looky who's inggit!

Thanks, Buds! Thanks, Enzo!

Meet Perry

:D

Perry as in pericardiectomy. Hihi.

When daddy was wheeled out of the operating/recovery room last January 18, he was clutching Perry with his right arm, like a little boy seeking comfort in his most favorite toy.

I asked Ronald, the nurse, “Who gave him the teddy bear?”

According to him,  all heart surgery patients each get a bear (or a heart-shaped pillow). How sweet!—I thought. Later, I found out what Perry was really  for: for daddy to hug whenever he needs to cough or take deep breaths, to protect the wound on his chest.

Anyway, it’s been over a week since he was discharged from the hospital (January 25), and I’m happy to report that he’s doing very well. Thank you, again, for all your prayers, and many thanks too to those who donated blood—R, Roy, Joenel, Maki, Tito Boyet, Arnold, Raymond, Saint, Gerard, Jerrick, Omar, Tim and mommy’s students—generous people whom I’ve dubbed as Daddy’s Angels. We shall forever be grateful.

Now I promise to blog on more cheerful stuff from this post on. (Next on my to blog list: my new booties! )

Just waiting.

This isn’t exactly the New Year post I had in mind, but I guess this is all you’re gonna get for now.

As some of my close friends and relatives already know, my dad’s in hospital right now and that’s where he’s been since Monday night. He was supposed to pick me up from work that night; he even texted me at 7pm to say that he’s already at Puregold Shaw. So you could just imagine my surprise when my mom called at around 7:30 to say that they won’t be able to pick me up because they (she and driver Naldo, whom she called just a few minutes earlier to go to Puregold and drive the car) were going to bring daddy to the ER. Apparently, daddy was having chest pains again.

I got worried of course, but not too worried—daddy’s had episodes of chest pain before, but they’ve always been easily relieved by meds and some rest. So anyway, kuya picked me up instead and then we called mom to know dad’s status. She said they’re still examining him and that we should just go home. In my head, I thought, ah, nothing major; just some meds and they’ll be home, too.

But at around 9pm, mommy called and said the strangest thing: they’re going to bring dad to the ICU. When she said that, I think my heart stopped for a moment—before beating like mad. I asked, “Huh? ICU? Bakit?” Mom gave the worst possible answer. “Basta.. Punta na lang kayo dito.” Of course, I got intensely nervous. I mean, isn’t the ICU for the critically ill? How could that be, when just the previous day my dad appeared as healthy as a horse!

Fast forward to us getting to the hospital. When we arrived, we saw daddy in one of the beds, with all these contraptions attached to him. Heart monitor, ECG machine, etc. Based on the initial examination, he’s got unstable angina, and his blood pressure’s dangerously low they had to hook him up to dopamine to stabilize his BP. Without the drug, his BP could continue to drop and result to—well, I don’t even wanna go there.

So he was admitted to the ICU at around 2am, Tuesday. Later that day, with his BP continuing to fluctuate, he underwent an angiogram to check for any blockage in his arteries that could be causing his erratic BP. The good news? No blockage. The bad news? They found something else. Constrictive pericarditis—that’s what they call it. There is inflammation of the pericardium, or that thing around the heart, and it’s inhibiting the heart from pumping normally. It’s not the usual kind, too—the kind that can be treated by meds. In dad’s case, the only solution was heart surgery.

That’s when I felt it—the most intense fear I’ve ever felt in my whole life. For 24 years, I’ve never faced a problem, or a situation, as grave as this. I’ve lived a very blessed life, and I’m very thankful for that, so you could just imagine how hard this was—this is—to swallow. It’s my father, for heaven’s sake. And it’s his heart. Buti kung appendix lang, or finger, or any minor body part. But the heart!

Anyway, he was originally scheduled for surgery on Wednesday, but then they had to move it to Monday since they have to wait for the effect of some drugs in his system to go away—anticoagulant drugs that cause blood thinning (I know so many medical terms now!) Plus, his case, as it turns out, is quite an unusual one, as I keep hearing from the doctors. It would’ve been simpler if his arteries were blocked and then they just had to do a bypass, which is very common. But for him, they needed to do more tests and study his case even more to prepare for the operation. Worse, the cause of his condition still remains “a mystery.” They’ll only find out for sure after performing a biopsy on the removed pericardium thingy (Oh how I wish Dr. House is real so he can figure this whole thing out stat!).

If you’re reading this, I ask you to please help us pray for a successful operation. It’s Saturday now—two days before the big day. His surgery will start at 7am on Monday and it will probably take 3 to 4 hours minimum. If you can, kindly offer a prayer for him during those hours, and let’s all hope that when the surgery is completed, his heart will be able to function normally again and that he’ll be able to make a full recovery. I believe he will, but prayers will surely hasten his healing. Please pray for his team of doctors, too. We did our research and they say they’re the best here; I’ve met them and they all seem to be very competent, so I’m no longer worried about that part. Please help us pray for nothing to go wrong, and that when my dad wakes up post-op, he’ll be back to his old self, with his heart beating as mightily as it did before all these happened.

P.S. No visitors allowed muna ah, except for the immediate family. Though he’s very conscious (and still laughs at our jokes ), he needs as much rest as possible.

Oh, Brittany.

As Tai in Clueless

It’s official. 2009 is Hollywood’s worst year.

As if losing Patrick Swayze, Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson (and many, many more!)  in one year isn’t enough, another star falls:  this time, it’s Brittany Murphy. And she’s just 32!!! TMZ is reporting that Brit’s been sick and had been vomiting for the past couple of days, and that she’d been taking prescription drugs for her illness.

This is just so sad.

And to think, just the other day (or was it last week?), I was complaining of this weird Brittany Murphy movie on cable called The Ramen Girl, and wondering what ever happened to her career. Now,  I’m wondering what else could’ve happened to her career had she survived this day.  Sad, sad, sad! I can’t imagine what her husband and her family are feeling right now—just four days before Christmas!

Oh, Brittany. I loved you in Clueless. You shall be greatly missed.

R.I.P.

Today’s Top 10 Awesome Things

10. No commute for me today! Thank you, Dada.

9. That yummy Mongolian Quick box for lunch.

8. A looooong to do list that’s now filled with check marks.

7. Aia’s inspiring email—a compilation of Chace Crawford’s makalaglag-panty photos.

6. Lady Gaga’s Monster Fame CD. For free.

5. Syndication texts (a.k.a stories from OK!’s international versions) that require minimal editing. Hallelujah.

4. Salt & pepper spareribs, Chinese pancit canton and siomai—with toyomansi and chili garlic!—for dinner.

3. Knowing that there’s a tub of Chocolate Truffles ice cream in the freezer.

3.5. And oh, a whole bar of dark chocolate in the ref (that nobody else knows about).

2. The fact that it’s only 10:55 p.m. and I can still Facebook/blog/watch series/read for another hour or so.

1. That awesome news.

Kulotoinks.

Went to Shine Girls Salon–my faaave Korean salon–yesterday to (1) revive my dying curls, and (2) introduce Lhen’s perennially straight hair to the wonderful thing that is “Digiperm.” And voila! Happiness!

The only downside to getting a perm? Not being able to wash your hair for two full days  to keep the curls intact (first cardinal rule of perm maintenance according to Elle Woods!). And yes, may hair’s currently icky since I haven’t washed in over 36 hours now. Curly pancit canton, anyone?

Crazy girl

Before last night, I wasn’t exactly what you’d call a Katy Perry superfan. Now, I’m a certified Katy Cat!

That girl is amazing! And such a sweetheart, too–it was really nice of her to turn her concert into this fundraiser for the Ondoy-ed Pinoys. But her goodness of heart aside, I love that she’s so cheeky and sexy and naughty and adorable. Exhibit A: Towards the end of “You’re so gay,” as she sang, “And you don’t even like boys… And you don’t even like…” She stopped, went to those at the front row and asked, “How do you say ‘penis’ here?”

Then she goes, “Po-to-tay? Po-ta-tay?”

Ops.

Also, as she closed the night with “I Kissed a Girl,” she went up to the crowd and, well, kissed a girl. Sayang, if only I was a couple of meters closer! Nyaha.

Anyway, I’m definitely downloading getting her album na. KP rocks.

P.S. Thank you, MTV, for the tickets! And Aia, for your generosity. It wasn’t the same without you and Lhen, my concert buddies! :s

October recap

No, I’m not yet dead. I’ve just been a very, very bad blogger–again. Hay hay hay. Plus, October’s been a pretty busy month, too: there’s us being displaced by Ondoy (ergo no DSL for two weeks), birthdays left and right (mine and Andy’s, included!), and then of course there’s work and rackets and friends and love life and Cafe World and a ton of other stuff. Like I always say: So much to do, so little hours in a day.

Anyway, being the busy girl that I am (teehee),  here’s a quick and lazy-ass recap of the highlights of the past month and a half:

—-

I turned 24!

Ugh. I hate the sound of “24.” I feel like I haven’t been 23 long enough. Plus, it saddens me to know I can never sing Plumb’s “Real” with the same conviction anymore (“Look at me I’m 23 / Beautiful, a sight to see tonight…”) Boo!

Anyway, I celebrated with a mini-pizza par-tay at the office on the 14th (too bad I don’t have pics!) and a seafood par-tay on the 18th with my crazy high school friends. And if you’re wondering why my cake says Happy Birthday, Wynona,  trivia: I was actually a big fan of Winona Ryder back in the day (in large part due to Reality Bites). But then she got a little too loony for me after a while. So that’s that.

Back to my birthday: Long story short–at Dampa, we stuffed ourselves with my favorite things in the world: buttered shrimps, baked tahong, ensaladang mangga, and heaps and heaps of laughs. Dangerous combination, if you know what I mean.

—-

Andy turned a year old!

The baby’s now a, er, lady! Andy turned a year old last October 26. Kuya got her a bag of yummy bacon treats,  Dong got her a pretty name collar–in pink, too!–while I gave her a gazillion kisses and nipple twists. She loved everything.

—-

I spent Halloween writhing in pain.

No accompanying photo for this one, unless you want to see me in my vomit face.

The only thing you need to know? Don’t buy from Sisig Hooray in Robinsons Pioneer. They make good stomachs go really bad.

—-

I now have rubber shoes!

I no longer run in my Crocs, thank you very much. I now have my own “real” pair of rubber shoes! (I say real since apparently, those Tretorns I used in grade school and HS don’t really count). I got these right after Kathy, a trainer at the gym, told me I couldn’t work out in my Crocs since it was against the rules (huwaaaaaaaat). So I scoured for the prettiest (and discounted!) pair I could find, and found these. The next day, I tested my new rubbers and ran five kilometers for the Pasig River Run in Roxas, only to realize later that I had forgotten to take off the price stickers (yep, stickers as in plural: the original and the discounted price). Kahiya.

Okay. That’s it for now. Will Cafe World muna.

Later!

Gusto kong magswimming…

NOT!

pakisipsip na, please?

Saw a couple of “binatang butetes” in the water yesterday. Afraid! (“Binata” since they’re no longer baby tadpoles, but not yet fully developed frogs. Mukhang eels. Eek.)

it's starting to smell, too

Oddly enough, it’s been like this since Saturday. Apparently, there’s nowhere for the water to go. So not unless authorities can pump the water out outside our village soon (where it’s worse), I’ll be lounging outside in my bikini…. NOT! (again)

Hay hay hay.

Back to work!

Ay, Ondoy!

Yesterday, while I was sulking about my ruined Saturday plans,  fuming over my uncooperative USB (which refused to let me watch any of the shows I brought home!), and whining about how my day had gone to waste, thousands of Filipinos were already up to their necks in rain water, many unable to go home due to the torrential floods, and dozens already dying! And yes, it made me feel really, really bad.

Haay, Ondoy, why did you even have to come???

I used to think how lame a thing it was to die because of a storm—I’ve always thought it was such an unlikely, even ludicrous, thing! Probably because I grew up associating storms with happy, school-free days spent playing at home, eating champorado by candle light and enjoying the cold as we watched the rain pour harmlessly outside.

But now, after watching videos of  people and cars being whipped by the raging floods, “Death By Storm” doesn’t seem so implausible. And the statistics prove it, too—73 are now dead!

As for our situation here at home, we’re still flooded in (though thankfully, the water didn’t go beyond our garage). Out on the street, it’s still knee-deep; while according to some friends in the area, it’s still waist-deep right outside our village. Ergo, it’s impossible to go in or out–not unless you’re riding a jetski! My mom actually still hasn’t come home yet because of the floods. But don’t worry, she’s safe and sound in our lola’s house, also here in Pasig.

So far, no serious harm done—in our case, at least. Power’s back on (obviously!), though still no cable, and no Globe or Sun signal (Consequently,  Frances, my boss, thought I was seriously flooded in because I wasn’t replying to her texts! Hihi. Sorry for the heart attack!) Anyway, I’m not gonna post pics of the flood situation here anymore; it’s NOTHING compared to the situation in Cainta/Marikina [though technically, we're in Cainta nga pala...]

Swimming season?

For now, I can only hope and pray and wish.

I wish the water recedes soon—since yesterday, the flood hasn’t even gone down a bit! It’s gonna take a miracle!

I wish all those who needed rescuing have already been rescued at this hour, and that they’re warm, dry and have food in their stomachs.

I wish for love and comfort for those who’ve lost their loved ones in the past two days. I do not know what else to say.

I wish for strength and hope for those families who lost their homes, or are still missing family members.

And I wish we can all move on—and learn—from this. Pray, pray, pray, everyone!

And oh. Boo you, Ondoy!

Photos from REUTERS