Hurricane Katrina

Why is it that every time they name a natural disaster after me, it turns out to be the one of the worst things in the history of that place?

When I was in high school, we had Typhoon Katring which closed school for about 3 days (or was it one week?) and left Luzon a wreck. Now, the USA is suffering from Hurricane Katrina, causing massive oil price hikes and destroying the Superdome roof.

Man, do I blow or what?


Hospital Stint

We gave a party for my 13-year old cousin last Sunday with my relatives and her relatives (cousins-in-law) in attendance. The food was great and I ate waaaay too much (so much for my so-called diet). It was an affair that was set for lunch and lasted until merienda. I was supposed to head off for the dorm a little after lunch (had to do our integ and study some) but Monday was declared a holiday so I decided to return to the dorm the next day.

Anyway, on Sunday night, when 11pm hit, I was already a bit sleepy but since I had missed my books so much, I was (finally!) reading a book I haven’t read before. When midnight arrived, I was getting ready for bed and that was when my tummy started aching. I thought at first it was just either gas or your normal LBM although the pain wasn’t quite like what I remembered gas/LBM pain to be…

Anyway, I sucked it in and figured that it’d either go out or go away, either way, it’ll be gone soon, right? But the pain didn’t go away or go out (I'll assume y’all know what that means), in fact, the pain worsened. We’re talking gut-cramping I-have-to-be-in-a-fetal-position can’t-breathe-through-it pain. Seriously. I’m the type of person who rarely gets sick and I think I have a pretty high pain tolerance, but I think this was a bit too much. I kept thinking that giving birth must be like that. Just… really painful and in order to bear the pain, you have to hold your breath. At least, that’s what I did.

I figured, since nothing was going out, either via the north or south exit, it must be something else, right? Maybe gas, right? But the type and location of pain didn’t add up. I thought I’d suck it in until morning and if it still hurt, I’d take medicines and tell my parents or something. So there I was, lying down and occasionally curling up and holding my breath, and yet still trying to sleep. The pain worsened as time went by, though, so was it any wonder that I didn’t get any sleep? When two came, the pain was coming more often (in labor terms, I’d probably be near birth as the ‘contractions’ were ‘coming closer’) and lasted long enough that I had to take short bursts of breath during one, uh, ‘contraction’. At this point, though, I’ve already gone to the bathroom twice.

I went over to my parents’ room and woke up my dad and had another bathroom break after some time. After an hour and a half or so, we woke up my mom coz we decided to head off to the hospital coz the pain was really too much. And besides, if it really was due to food, then we couldn’t figure out why I was the only one who was in pain. I was getting all weak at this point and made a quick stop to the bathroom before we left. We arrived at the hospital at about 3am and went through the motions. When the resident began asking me some questions, I decided to cut to the chase (hey, I was tired and wasn’t sure I had the energy to answer all her questions, and what if the pain suddenly came again?) and gave her a complete HPI (history of present illness) from start to finish. After, I gave her this weak smile and was all, “Kumpleto na ba hpi?” and she gave this little laugh and was like, “med student?” “Yeah…” “what year?” I had to raise two fingers of one hand coz the other was gripping my tummy.

Did I want to get admitted? She asked. My parents answered for me so they fitted me with an IV, gave me medication (Buscopan) and began the process of admitting me. Y’know, IV (intravenous) is really the fastest way of administering medication (remember our bunny experiment?) coz only, like, 5 minutes after, my dinner decided to show up in reverse. Sadly, as I was covering my mouth and trying to hold it in, the stupid ER room (there were small private rooms in the ER of the hospital) didn’t have any vomit basins and since the nurse had erected the bed boundaries (what do you call ‘em things on the sides of hospital beds that prevent the patient from simply going over the side?) thus barring my way to the sink, I had no choice… but to spew all over the floor. And splattered some on my sandals too. Ew.

I know, I know, totally gross. And really, not my way to go. I hate spewing. I really do. And to spew on the floor – double, triple icky factor. My only consolation is at least I didn’t throw up on anyone, right? I apologized to everyone involved and even the nice janitor who offered to clean my sandals. Finally, I got admitted into room 921.

I was diagnosed with some sort of gastritis (which is, I guess, the med version of “food poisoning”) and stayed in the hospital the whole day. I know I sometimes miss being in a hospital but, really, I’ve forgotten how inconvenient it is to have an IV stuck in the back of your hand. The lying and the sleeping and thumb-exercises (read: watching TV… and sadly, the cable kind of sucked) were all acceptable. The food was acceptable too, but really, it’s the IV line that kind of gets to me. Although it’s not so bad either.

Anyway, I was feeling better in the afternoon and I wanted to get out already. When evening came, the associate of the doctor assigned to me came by and said that I could go. But then she came back after reviewing my chart and told me that I can’t go just yet coz my WBC count was high, which signified an infection, and they had to do another CBC to make sure I was ok to go. Coz if it were still high, then they can’t let me go and they’ll have to start me on antibiotics. So, I waited for my second blood extraction within 24 hours. The results came at around 930 and although the count was still high, it was low enough that I was allowed to go out. I was out at 1030pm.

Isn’t it weird? It feels a bit weird to know that I was admitted in the hospital for barely 24-hours, barely one day. Parang… anong ginawa ko dun? Natulog lang?


Tagged By A Friend

Got tagged... si Lee kasi, pahamak :p hehehe

List five songs that you are currently digging - it doesn't matter what genre they are from, whether they have words, or even if they're not any good, but they must be songs you're really enjoying right now. Post these instructions and the five songs (with artist) in your blog. Then tag five people to see what they're listening to.

Oh, man! This is going to be so embarassing! I'm not even into listening to music anymore. Oh, well, here goes nothing... See how much of a loser I have become, especially in the music scene LOL

1. Same Ground by Kitchie Nadal - I still haven't grown tired of it and I finally saw the video during my hospital stay yesterday.

2. These Boots by Jessica Simpsom - I'm not saying the song's fantastic or that I'm "digging" it, but the song tends to stick in my head for some reason. And so does the video. Ew.

Yeesh... I think that's it. Really, I don't get to listen to the radio anymore or even watch MTV or Myx or anything. So... those two are basically it.

Aaaanyway, I tag... uh... rara_avis, earth_angel12, hail_ro (altho I think Lee already tagged you), simply livin... that's four... uh... uh... ah! I also tag Judy_angel.