the perils of

Time: 11:23 PM. Current mood: miffed. I didn't get the IV infusion done today because my skin test showed a positive result for TB exposure. In terms of respiratory health, this means virtually nothing, since 90-99% of Filipinos are TB exposure positive. But this makes all the difference for me in my arthritis treatment, because now Dr. Ong says I need clearance from a pulmonologist before I can start my infusion. Which will take around 1-6 months. I'll elaborate more in the morning. I came here just to vent. I've been achy lately. Usually it's just my elbows that are in pain, but today and yesterday it's been hurting everywhere. Elbows, knees, wrists, ankles, even jaw. They all hurt not so severely, but the fact that they're simultaneously causing me pain just adds a whole new layer of ache. So I guess I'm feeling extra cranky and tired tonight. I find myself getting inwardly upset over all the things I usually just ignore, like the mess in my room...

I was bracing for impact last Saturday, expecting the side effects of methotrexate to incapacitate me for some twenty four hours. But nothing happened, thank God. I felt the same as any other day - achy in the elbows, springy everywhere else. It was fine. I did feel a little sleepier than normal, but that feeling went away around lunchtime. Feeling fine and dandy, I was able to attend Rap's condo blessing. Some Health Sci friends were there and it was nice being with them again. (Oh, he's still looking for one more roommate. His condo in the Ortigas area, near Robinson's Galleria. Rent is 8k a month, with a lot of awesome freebies that come with the deal! Let me know if you're interested!) Afterwards, Rap's mom took us to Greenhills. Jeth needed to get his phone back, and I needed to go buy some extra strong Vitamin D3 capsules, as prescribed by my doctor. So Tita Tet took us to this store in V-Mall that sold imported goods, and when I found what I needed, s...

I'm pretty tired, so this will be very short. Rap and I went to ASMPH earlier to submit some last-minute confirmation documents, and because it was conveniently nearby, I got my PPD skin test done at Medical City. It cost me around P550. Prior to today I did not know that a PPD skin test meant injecting something beneath my skin and drawing a circle around the swelling in pen ink. I still have to go back twice so that they can get two "readings." Until then, I should take care not to soak that arm, lest the pen ink wash off. Today was my first day on metothrexate, and I'm preparing myself to be bogged down in bed all day tomorrow because of the side effects. I'm not feeling anything now (aside from tiredness) but they'll kick in by tomorrow. I partially wish that I wasn't informed of the side effects of the treatment, because now I'll be expecting them, and of course because I'm expecting them, they'll probably come. Anyway. Than...

(Still can't think of a better name for this series) I went for my second visit to Dr. Ong yesterday at Cardinal Santos. She's the rheumatologist I keep mentioning. In the waiting room I was greeted again by her loyal patient, a Miss Lourdes. She's roughly 80 years old and walks with a cane. She has arthritis, too, and she prefers natural medicine over commercially sold drugs. I know all this because during my first visit last week, we had a really long chat about life as an arthritis patient. She had probably been surprised to see a person my age at a rheumatologist's waiting room, so she had asked me what my sickness was. That kind of spurred a conversation that literally lasted for hours, with her doing most of the talking of course. She gave me all sorts of pointers, like how oranges makes the pain worse, how fish is the best, etc etc. Okay anyway, she was present again yesterday, and we sort of compared notes. What did Doc Ong tell you last week? How have y...

Lookie, I'm blogging from Android! So cool. Finally, I can blog while lying down (isn't that The Dream?). However, because I'm not using a keyboard, it isn't as easy as blogging on a laptop. I also make a lot more typos on a keypad. But I get the extra benefit of being able to write on the go. And I can just directly upload pics from my tablet instead of first bluetoothing them to my laptop. So I guess I'll be using this technology for making short, quick posts like this one. Technology is wonderful. Anyway. Today Rap took me to HealthDev, a lab/clinic in Ateneo, so that I could get to work on those lab tests I need for my treatment (for my rheumatoid arthritis). Since the clinic is just on campus, we dropped Caitlin off at school along the way. Sadly, HealthDev didn't do serum Vitamin D assays, a blood test that I needed to have, so we had to go elsewhere. We drove to LabWorks upon his mom's suggestion and then I got the tests I needed done in less th...

I think yesterday marks the first time that my sister and I have ever spent Holy Week away from home. (It also marked my three-year anniversary with Rap, but more on that later.) Sort of spontaneously, Cait and I decided to get these tattoos. Guess which wrists are mine. We drew these on ourselves using a cone of henna ink that I stumbled upon in Little India during our visit to Singapore . I'm so glad we bought it! It was three for ten Singaporean dollah, so that translates to about P106 each cone. Considering that there's still a lot of ink left, I'd say it's a pretty good deal. Here's what it looks like: Like I said, it was my third anniversary with Rap that day. Unfortunately for us, it happened to fall on Maundy Thursday, so most of the restaurants around the city were closed. We ended up spending our anniversary evening at a crowded Jamba Juice down by Serendra. But before that, while we were walking around, Rap presented to me his ...

Our agenda for this day: Universal Studios! Typically, the way to get to Universal is in a cable car that goes from Singapore to Sentosa Island. But that would've cost around 30 dollahs per person, and we were on a budget. So we took the cheaper alternative, the monorail. I think it was a 6-dollah trip, and that already included the return trip!   The view from the train. You can see the cable cars, they look like tiny little dots. Hah. Those suckers paid twenty six bucks to see the same view that we did!  The monorail stops first at Resarth World and then goes on to two more stops. You have to alight here to get to Universal Studios. Anyway! Everything looked sweet and yummy... ...Including me. Nyehehehe. (But that, my dear children, is considered cannibalism, and is frowned upon by most societies.) When you get to Universal, the first thing you do is take a picture with the famed Universal Studios globe.  But of course you have to wait...