When it rains, it pours. This saying isn’t new, lot of things happens within the clan in a week, it wasn’t that long when my blood rise to the roof and then one of my older aunt had a high blood attack just a week ago, she almost didn’t make it if she didn’t crawled to their porch to call for help. The first relatives who help says my aunt was already icy cold and her blood pressure is soaring to the roof that cause her headache and tremendous vomiting. When I went to their house, she was not in good shape anymore she looked very helpless and very sick, they were getting ready bringing her to the hospital after long deliberation with my aunt. It turns out she doesn’t want to be brought in the hospital and just cried silently but since she is too weak she was rushed to the hospital right away where she was confined for a few days.

Not long after, another aunt had a high blood attack I have heard of it after my cousin’s wife bought an ice pack, I went to my aunt house which is just beside us, she is lying on their sofa chair with leaves on her temples. I have ask what happened then a cousin informed that our aunt had a high blood attack and there isn’t medicine for first aid, upon knowing what medicine they need I immediately went home, there are some aspirin in our home, they were one of my mother’s maintenance medicine but since she developed rashes while taking them she stopped taking those medicines.

[Photo courtesy of unsplash.com/pexels.com]

A younger cousin is set to wed in a few a months but it looks there is a chance it won’t take place because of unforeseen issues that will affect a lifetime.

Anyway, today a very sad news came. A younger pregnant cousin who married a few months ago had an ultrasound done in town and they have found out the baby in her belly has no heartbeat anymore… I don’t know much details since it just happened a little while this afternoon but as what I have heard she will be brought to the hospital before we went to town to shop.

Well, while I am creating this blog post I am hearing some yelling and glasses being thrown and broken into pieces, it looks like a neighboring couple was having a couple fight… ahm dunno…

It was been almost a month since my last update on this blog, where have I been? Well,  I have been nursing myself at home, I have not been feeling well lately it feels like my organs are not working. I have been disturb with my aching head and maybe if I didn’t realized that I am killing myself slowly I will not be back into shape. It started after eating crabs in coconut milk, at first I have thought food intolerance strikes again, headache and non-stop vomiting. I have bought blood pressure monitor for my mother and with me insisting to my sister to take my blood pressure we found out my blood pressure isn’t normal, I have monitor if for few days and it begin to slowly went down but my diastolic pressure is still high than normal. As what I have read from webmd.com the diastolic blood pressure number or the bottom number indicates the pressure in the arteries when the heart rests between beats. This  is the time when the heart fills with blood and receives oxygen. I think I over work my heart that my arteries are struggling that my blood pressure went to stage 2 of hypertension.

My kitty cat waking me up when I was sick

Anyway, I was told by a cousin that the village health nurse advice that I should see a doctor soon and have medical test done because my blood pressure isn’t good nor doing good but instead of following the advice to see a doctor I made sure to exercise daily, eat non-fatty food, less salt and caffeine. Honestly, I have been eating blunt food, no taste at all. I guess I have been paying for pigging out and eating sugary, greasy and oily food with J a few years back, we ate like pig those times like there will be no more tomorrow.

It was quite ironic, I have been abusing myself so I’ll die young and escape life but when I was near death I want to live. If I didn’t push myself out of bed and started working with the stationary bike at home I maybe ended hospitalized and had a stroke like my mother. The thing is one day, I woke up with a headache, sleepy and it feels like my blood isn’t circulating, my legs are inflamed, my body is retaining water and when I exercise, I perspired a lot and was able to breath well and my body felt warm and lighter.

So today, I have been trying to take care of myself, live a healthy life, not to overthink of life and be happy on my own little way amidst of depression and nervous breakdown when things are not going well around me.

My mother and most of my relatives suffered from UTI,  even my toddler cousins does so when I felt sick I thought of the worst having kidney stones, someone thought me to think that way so when it was lighter than I thought it will be relieving (lol).

Anyway, I took plenty of vitamin C and drink a lot of water to flush the infection in my urinary tract; I maybe got it from eating salty and processed foods, junk foods  and not peeing when I have to pee especially when I have to get up at night just to use the bathroom. I was just so lazy to get up and scared of the dark. Lol

The other day my sister complained of stomach pain and not able to pee while the two of us were in town, I almost brought her to the hospital when she kneel in pain. Well, some of my toddler cousins were diagnosed with UTI as well but despite of this their parents still keep feeding them junk foods and unhealthy foods like what happened today,  I told my youngest toddler cousin that her stomach will get bloated if she keep eating the chips but she never listened and almost cried when I took the chips she is eating, I have no choice but to returned it because I don’t want to create misunderstanding with my cousin for interfering.

To identify a UTI, keep an eye out for the following symptoms:

• A burning feeling when you urinate
• A frequent or intense urge to urinate, even though little comes out when you do
• Pain or pressure in your back or lower abdomen
• Cloudy, dark, bloody, or strange-smelling urine
• Feeling tired or shaky
• Fever or chills (a sign the infection may have reached your kidneys)

A new doctor check-up on my mother since today, her second doctor was in Manila and I guess the first one wasn’t around or been busy with other patients. According to the new doctor my mother’s sugar level and uric acid wasn’t too high, his finding my mother maybe had a stroke because of cholesterol, he said that even a person has a lower cholesterol level it can cause a stroke. Her medicine were changed  to tablets already unlike before they were thru IV,  one of her medicine were lowered on dosage.

[Photo courtesy of Pixabay/pexels.com]

We are told that my mother might be discharged tomorrow, my mother requested the sales clerk in the hospital pharmacy to have a partial account of our hospital bill, she was from our barangay so we knew her. The partial amount was quite high, it was almost three months of my father’s monthly wages as a carpenter (his rate is ₱2,100 per week) and we have already spend almost two months of my father’s wages in medicines and other expenses so the bill was like a fortune for us, quite sad too we have no health insurance.

My mother can now sit without being felt dizzy unlike the last few days that she can’t even raise her head although her affected body has still no sensation but she can move her hands and feet already.  She’s recovering quickly isn’t it?

Had a very bad day yesterday after I accidentally cut myself early in the morning when my family woke me up just to make an instant coffee for my father. I was a bit unhappy since it wasn’t six o’clock in the morning yet when they woke me up. Anyway, since too much caffeine make me sick and nervous without a reason I decided to prepare luke warm calamansi for myself and while cutting them I have included my fingers, I have forgotten  that the knife was newly sharpened last night when my father used it in slicing and cutting meat at a neighbors house who’ll be celebrating his 50th birthday. Well, I immediately wash my hand with water and soap in the bathroom and put iodine but the cuts didn’t stop bleeding making me anxious, I tried to sip it but then I stopped and tried to looked for cottons but can’t find any so I rushed to the moringa tree in our backyard, took some young leaves, chewed it and put them on my cuts, it tasted bitter and it hurts but it is very effective the bleeding stops, I have learned the tricked from my aunt’s husband. When I went back inside our house, found out that I left droplets of blood in our floor, and what comes to my mind is my blood type, what type of blood do I have. LOL

Moringa is one of the most powerful health-enhancing plants, eating it has a lot of benefits since it was very nutritious and  very rich in healthy antioxidants and bioactive plant compounds.

Anyway, late afternoon we are invited to a 50th and 3rd birthday party in our neighborhood,  it’s a father and son’s birthday. My sister was requested to take photos of the celebration but since she isn’t feeling well, she doesn’t want to do it and I don’t wanna do it as well since I have cut my fingers and it is hard to move the lens back and forth when taking photos, and then I am also ashamed taking photos of the who’s and who, the birthday celebrant is school supervisor so I believed most of his visitors are well known people and professionals.

Last night I have asked my sister to buy chicken head barbecue in the street, I have followed her when I heard commotion outside. It turns out, our second degree younger cousin Paolo was confined in the hospital and in need of operation but there’s isn’t a doctor, they can’t find a doctor that will perform the operation so they have been discussing of bringing the patient to Manila and then ask for help to well-known politicians to facilitate the hospital transfer in Manila to avoid hassle of hospital shopping.

Well, with my mother’s idea we went to the provincial hospital to visit Paolo, since he is her godchild, when we arrived at the hospital we don’t know which building and room to go, so we decided to check the patient’s chart but before we able to see it we’ve seen his mother and his older sister in-law waiting for a doctor. His mother brought us to the public ward where two of his older brothers, cousin and friend are looking after him.

[Photo taken from window reflection]

We are told that Paolo was confined since few days ago because of severe pain in his lower abdomen, he was been confined in a private hospital in the neighboring city where he temporarily resides with his older sister but it was said that the doctor didn’t find anything while his health is deteriorating, that’s when her older sister send him home in our hometown where he was confined again and when his laboratory test came out the findings was he has ruptured appendicitis which has pus already. Upon hearing it, I felt scared with my cousin’s life because as what I know once the appendicitis ruptured it is a matter of life and death and without a doctor who will operate on him, he is doomed. Looking at him in the hospital he is severe pain, I can’t count how many times he agonized in pain. We waited a later longer because his mother talked with a doctor and when he comes back, she was crying endlessly. There isn’t a doctor around, there’s one doctor who can operate him but he isn’t around and he was not picking up the call and they were told to wait until the doctor showed up since he was not in duty. It wasn’t a good idea, it is our cousin’s life on the line so we told them not to wait anymore until the doctor showed up for his duty in the hospital or not to think of the operation cost because life is more important, they can find the money but they cannot return a life so if they can do something right away they should do it because every minute counts, that’s when his sister in-law says they could try to go to the doctor’s house which is just around the hospital neighborhood, they would be lucky if he is around or he was out of town like what they are thinking since he isn’t picking up a call. We went out with them, us going home and them going to the doctor’s house.

Well, early this morning we are told by relatives he is going to be operated by that doctor, probably they were able to see him last night. One young politician would like to send him to Manila because she said it is maybe not appendicitis because once it was ruptured you only have 24 hours to live since it is very dangerous once the poison scattered in his body but it was late already since he is already under the table and being operated. So far, we have no news yet how the operation went. We hope it was successful.