The Fillipino Spirit is Waterproof

The Filipino Spirit is Waterproof.

That was the subject of the priest's homily last Sunday (August 12) for the 6am mass ni Silang, Cavite).

The priest even showed the video taken from TV patrol about the same topic.  It shows that despite the floods that affected a lot of areas in Luzon, Filipinos can still manage to go through a wedding in a Church deep in water and wave to cameras while waddling thru floods to name a few.

It just made me realize again how blessed I am.

I tried to count my blessings, but I guess they are too many to mention.

Thank you, Lord, for all the blessings.

EEG Results back BAER: Need to try again

We got the results of Kiefer's EEG results last Friday and test results are normal for his age so we can rule out seizures now.

The next step would be BAER test to rule hearing problems.  We tried that last Saturday, Aug 11, 2012.  Kiefer would also need to be asleep when it is done.  We deprived him of some sleep (he woke up at 4am for the 10am test), gave 2.5mL of Benadryl at 10am, he fell asleep but he wakes  up when the technician inserts the probe to his ear.  We even made him drink another 2.5ml of Benadryl again at 11am but he was no longer able to sleep.

We will try it again on Aug 20.  Hopefully, this time, we would be more successful.  But maybe we can just skip this process altogether as I honestly do not think there is anything wrong with his hearing

EEG for Kiefer

Last Saturday, Aug 4, 2012, my son Kiefer underwent a medical procedure called EEG.  This is one of the tests that needs to be done on him after he was diagnosed with Global Developmental Delay (GDD).

We have him scheduled for a sedated EEG at the Asian Hospital in Alabang.  One requirement of the procedure is to deprive Kiefer of sleep the night before the procedure.  He is scheduled at 1030 am.  So the plan was for him to be awake already at 3am and then sleep at the time of the procedure.

Unfortunately, we were not able to do that and he woke up at 530am.  So we have to rely on a medicine induced sedation.  We got a prescription from Kiefer's pedia on what medicine to drink to induce sedation.
Anyway, we also called Asian Hospital and they said that if ever we are not able to complete the EEG test, we can just go back to complete it without additional cost.

So we still went to Alabang and hoped that the medicine (Benadryl, 2.5 to 5 mL) would be enough to induce him to sleep well to complete the EEG procedure.  We let him drink the medicine at around 10am.  When we were in the room, he was still so active but finally, at 11am, he fell asleep.  The technician started connecting a lot of wires/probes in his head and then started the EEG itself at around 11:18am

For about 45 min of the procedure, Kiefer was sound asleep.  But readings must also be taken with Kiefer awake.  Readings were also taken with the following scenarios:
1.  The technician flashed a light in his face for different frequencies
2.  A loud clapping on the background
3.  Kiefer was also pinched on the finger
4.  Television running in the background

He still kept on trying to go to sleep but since we keep on disturbing him, he finally cried that he started to stand up and wanted to go to me.  He also removed some of the wires in his head.  Fortunately, the technician said they have enough data and we do not have to repeat the process again

The results would be read by a neurologist and we should get it in 2-3 days.
We will be going back again on Saturday, Aug 11, to do the BAER which should also be done while Kiefer is asleep.

Ninang Juana A. Valbuena (1919-2010)

Last Monday, May 10, 2010 Juana A. Valbuena, Ninang as everyone calls her passed away. She was 91 years old. Ninang was a first cousin of my father. She is a public school teacher and I think before she retired she was either Principal or Asst principal in the school where she taught (sorry, cannot remember the school already).

We lived in a duplex house in Quezon City, one of the houses were owned by Ninang, and our family owns the other one. Since she never married and never had kids, she treated us very much like the kids she never had and our children her grandchildren.

What do I remember about her? I guess before she became really sick that it is a risk for her to be out of the room, she is precisely what we call her..ninang or godmother. She was my godmother during my confirmation. She was also also there during important occasions, birthdays, weddings, graduations...

May her soul rest in peace.
For those who knew her, her body now lies at 22 Mahabagin St, Teachers Village, QC.
She will be buried on Saturday, May 15, 2010

Our April Doctors Check up

Last saturday, April 9, 2010. My daughter and I went to the hospital for our monthly check up. Same Hospital but different doctor.

Good news!

It is the 2nd month of KC's treatment for her primary complex. She has shown improvement with her steady increase in weight (although still less than a kg increase). She hasn't been sick though although for the occasional asthma and allergy attacks which her doctor said we would treat after her 6 month treatment for the primary complex.

She also had her chicken pox vaccine that day which fortunately did not cause her any fevers.
Her doctor also recommended deworming her tummy so we would be buying the medicines and do that over the week.

I also had my monthly ob-gyne check up. I am already 12 weeks pregnant. It might still be early but we tried listening to heartbeat of my baby using the doctors doppler device. And good news, we heard it loud and clear!

Ultrasound Results

Yesterday, I finally had my second ultrasound to check the viability of my pregnancy as suggested in the previous ultrasound.

And I have good news! We already saw our baby and the heartbeat is already measaured.
Based on the ultrasound, I am 8 weeks and 3 days pregnant. Fetal heart rate is at 159 bpm which my doctor said is normal.

Thank God our prayers are answered.

Just wanted to share the Good news.

I'm having a baby?

During the last week of February, I thought I was having my period but the volume was so low that I decided to take a pregnancy test...It is positive.
It should have been a very happy moment for us but the bleeding made me scared. You see, this is already my 3rd pregnancy. I already had a miscarriage during my second pregnancy so I guess you can understand why I am scared.
I consulted an Ob Gyne (Dra Abigail Robledo-Austria) and she explained that it could be 3 things:
1. Ectopic pregnancy
2. Threatened abortion
3. Blighted Ovum
I did a transvaginal Ultrasound and ectopic pregnancy was ruled out, usually, the drs said ectopic pregnancy is really painful and thank God I am not feeling any pain.
The gestational and yolk sac was found but no fetal pole, meaning, I am really pregnant but no fetal signs or heartbeat was detected yet, due to this, my pregnancy could be blighted ovum.
I have been reading a couple of misdiagnosed online and I am hoping this would turn out one of those stories. The doctor did say to wait for another 3 weeks to do the ultrasound again.
It might be just because the baby is still too small that we did not find the baby during ultrasound or as my ultrasound report says, I have too much gas in my ovary that it is obscuring the view to my baby.
Due to the bleeding, it can also be threatened abortion so the Dr gave me Duphaston 10mg for 2 weeks every 6 hours.
I guess this event put me closer to God again since I started to pray the rosary again.
And today, I went back to work after being one week on bed rest, and I am glad to hear their concern and support for my condition.

I hope in 2 weeks time, I would be writing a blog again, with some good news.

Cough

KC started her PTB (anti-TB) medicines Feb 3, 2010. My husband has been diligently providing KC with her meds at 5am in the morning.

But today, KC had her asthmatic cough again and we are not really sure what triggered it.
For a couple of weeks now, KC has been having colds and her eyes would most of the time look puffy. We did not really give her any medicines for the colds but we as much as possible let her drink a lot of water.

Since she is having difficulty again with the cough, we started to nebulize her again every 4 hours. My husband would also be bringing her to her pedia tomorrow to have her checked.

On the good side, her appetite seems to have increased a bit although we have to still force her to eat at times.

It really worries me that KC is still very sickly even after all the medicines she is drinking. We have even limited the things she can eat and the time she can play she might not be enjoying her childhood anymore :(.

A while ago, I can hear her cousins merrily playing outside but she did not play with them probably because she is not feeling that well.

Next week would be KC's foundation day already, I hope she is already well to be able to participate in her activities.

Joining SocialSpark

I just joined socialspark last Friday, Feb 5. I joined since my officemate has been earning money through blogging and SocialSpark. I started blogging way back October of last year but only joined the SocialSpark this year since my office mate said that the requirements are at least 90 days of blogging and 20 posts so I had to complete that first. I would also need to have a paypal account but I have not started that yet pending how my enrollment in SocialSpark goes.

I was able to register to SocialSpark sucessfully but to tell you honestly, I am not really sure how it works. I was able to see the opportunity to earn $5.00 by doing a blog upon signing up in SocialSpark which is what I am doing right now but I do no know how I can put in my blog that I am joining.

I did see in Izea that we can get educated by enrolling in some courses but some of the terminologies scare me. And when I finally got the chance and the nerve to enroll in one of the courses, the Izea University does not recognize my account when I thought and it is the same as the one I created for the SocialSpark. Then I realized, that I would have to do register a different account for Izea. It was easy enough to do but once I enrolled in one of the courses, I still get confused with the terminologies. :(

I guess I still have to spend a little bit more time to get to know how the SocialSpark works.
I will let you know how that would go in my future blogs.

But in the meantime, I would still continue to write blogs, especially as I discovered, this is a good venue to save a record on the health update of my daughter. I wonder though if the information gets deleted after some time. Hmmmm.

KC's health update

Last Jan 30, 2010, KC and I went back to the doctor for a check up again since she still has the slight cough although she no longer has the asthma attack.

She lost weight again, from 15.1 kg to 14.9 Kg. Her ideal weight for her age (she's 5) should be at least 18Kg. And she still has the wheezing sound when she breathes.

So the doctor gave her antibiotics (Klaz - clarithromycin) on top of the steroids (Prednizone) and the Duavent (nebulization). Her pedia also did a skin test to check if my daughter has primary complex. We got the results back tuesday, Feb 2, 2010.

Here cough has improved and the doctor no longer said she can no longer hear any wheezing so she recommended that the Prednizone and the Duavent be stopped already. She has to continue though with the antibiotics upto Feb 12.

Another bad news is that KC is confirmed to have stage 3 Primary Complex which means she is already has the disease. I don't really remember what stages 1 and 2 are though.
The good news is that this is curable. The treatment process is 6 months long. She has to drink 3 anti tuberculosis medicines every morning before breakfast since it needs to be done with an empty stomach. Her doctor gave us Kidz Kit for tuberculosis which already is already composed of the 3 medicines she needs to drink.

The doctor also had KC go to a liver test to avoid further complications that may arise from her drinking many medicines.

Primary complex as explained by the doctor can come from various sources but we need to make sure that we do not have a source from our household itself. We have been hearing our household help having on and off cough, so we had her X-rayed and go to the sputum test to rule her out. We would get the X-ray result on Sunday (Feb 7) and the Sputum test on Wed ( Feb 10).

I pray that no other complications would arise and that she would be able to get the Primary complex out of her system.

Asthma attack

Today, I brought KC to her pedia for check up due to fever and difficulty in breathing. We have been nebulizing her with Duavent starting Monday morning, and KC would temporarily feel OK then have difficulty in breathing again.

When we told the doctor that, she then confirmed that KC indeed has asthma (she just called it hyperactive airways before)

So aside from the nebulization, the doctor also added a Steroid intake. (forgot what the medicines name was) She would be drinking 4ml 2x a day for 3 to 5 days at full stomach since this medicine can cause ulcer.

Also, if she still has fever up to tom, then a CBC and urinalysis would be done to find out if other sickness is also causing this. She had a fever at around 3pm at 37.8C. I hope she does not have any more fever because she seems to be enduring a lot of needles lately. She would have to undergo the work up for primary complex and that too has a painful test.

I hope and pray my daughter gets well already

KC's 6 in 1 vaccination

Last saturday, Jan 23, 2010, was the scheduled vaccine of KC. The shot is a long overdue booster for 6 in 1 (see below). It cost us P3900. It was administered by her doctor.

Infanrix® hexa

Infanrix® Hexa is a vaccine used to prevent six diseases: diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis (whooping cough), hepatitis B, poliomyelitis (polio) and Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib).

The vaccine works by causing the body to produce its own protection (antibodies) against these diseases

Before the shot though, he pedia checked KC first. She heard that the lungs are clear although KC still gets that occasional cough. Her weight went from 15.5kg to 15.1kg, so that is a concern. Her allergies on her arms are still there so the doctor said we should still continue with the hydrocortizone for another 5 days. KC's ears was also checked and it looks better now unlike the first time the doctor looked at it.

She also suggested the Smartgrow vitamins for KC which we will purchase once her Cherifer is already out.

If there is no improvement on her weight and occasional cough, we might already be doing a skin test on KC to test if she has primary complex (this is another test that hurts :( ... )

KC cried as soon as she saw the needles because she know what's going to happen already. But although she is crying, she still did not move so that we can inject her with the vaccine. She was not really able to move her arm for at least a day.

The following day though, the occasional cough that she has became a constant cough. So we decided to also bring her to Lola Idad (a manghihilot or a quack doctor) since she effectively heals KC whenever I bring her there. That evening also, she had a fever and she had difficulty in breathing again but not too much like what she had at the start of the year wherein she could not sleep. But since it is still there the following day, we decided to nebulize her using Duavent (I nebulized her 8, 12:45 and 5:45), while still continuously monitoring her temp bec she still gets the fever from time to time. Since she just had a vaccine, the fever was normal but not the fast breathing.

I went to work and then my husband texted me at around 9 that her breathing became fast again and her temperature is going up again. I have this theory that it looks like her fever is causing her allergic reaction because when I was a kid, my eyes would always become swollen everytime I have a fever.

Anyway, I will be bringing her to the doctor again tomorrow after work and then I would also bring her to Lola Idad (the hilot is a 3 day process) so that she can be completely cured. Some would say that one form of healing can make "kontra" the other form. I hope this not the case for me since I believe in them both that is why I am trying them both.

MGMS Foundation Day

This afternoon I went to KC's school (MGMS) for our meeting with regards to the coming Foundation Day. It would be held the last week of February.

We had a couple of agendas on the list:
1. The Nursery and Kinder would have Hawaiian theme on the cultural night on Feb 26. Sis Divine asked us to look for (and create) costumes for our kids. On the side is a picture of what the costume should look like. I hope I can find a floral tops and tights terno, and then I can just add in the straw.

2. We also talked about who would be doing the float for the parade on Feb 27. I suggested that we just try to find somebody we can pay to do the float. This is based on my experience last year wherein it should be the parents who should be doing the decorations on the float. We had a difficult time gathering the parents at that time so we had to bring in reinforcements. We would be contributing P300 for these.

3. We need to bring junks like old newspapers, plastic bottles, etc for extra fundraising
4. We were also given raffle tickets worth P1000 which we are required to sell.

As compared to last year's foundation day, this year hopefully would be cheaper. Last year, the theme of KC's class is Cotillon. The gown itself already cost us P1000. Hopefully, the hawaiian costume is cheaper.

Bayot Look-alike Meter

MyHeritage: Family tree - Genealogy - Celebrity - Collage - Morph

Business Trip to Malaysia and Singapore

Ramir is going on a business trip and Malaysia and Singapore on Feb 7-Feb 12. Although I am excited for him for his chance to visit other countries, I also have some little concerns

Tagaytay Fiesta in on Feb 10-11....although this is really not a big deal for me since I typically do not celebrate fiesta's, it would have been to have him around on those days, not really for my sake but KC's sake. So she would have him during those days.

I guess the main concern is since I am working nights, Nanay Betty would just be the one with KC at night. I hope that is OK

UPCAT Results (for SY 2010-2011) is now out

UPCAT Results (for SY 2010-2011) is now out

You can view the results in: http://upcat.up.edu.ph/results/

My niece is a 4th year high school student in Ramon Magsaysay High School (under the science program, which is similar to the more popular science schools) in QC , she took the UPcat exams but unfortunately, I did not see her name in the list :(.

I can still remember how happy I was when I found out that I passed the UPCAT exams. Back then, we had to go to UP Diliman to check if we passed or not. You can wait for your letter but that would take a couple of weeks.

It would have really been a big advantage for her (and for my brother and mother who is taking care of her schooling) if she passed because not only is UP one of the best schools in the country but is also considered on of the cheapest. They have this stratified tuition fee scheme wherein each student would have a bracket with 1 being the most needy. During my time, 9 is the level wherein you would no longer get discounts. At level 1, all fees are free plus the student would get a monthly stipend from the State University.

But there are still a lot of good schools out there. Plus a lot of scholarships she can apply to. I heard she took the entrance exam at Ateneo. It is also a very good school but I would not recommend that she go there even with scholarship since almost (if not all) students there are very rich. She might not be able to cope up with the expensive lifestyle of the students there.

Alvin and the Chipmunks, the Squeakquel

Last Sunday, Ramir, KC and I watched the sequel to the Alvin and the Chipmunks. The part 1 of this movie is actually the first movie KC watched ever. I think she was 3 back then (she is 5 years old now).

How was the movie? It was OK but it still did not hold up the attention of my daughter the entire time. She would just be attentive when we have the Chipmunks and the chippets (not sure if it is spelled that way) are on the screen and they are singing and dancing. Story-wise, it is not that engaging.

Also, our very own Charice is there as one of the contestants in the singing competition the Chipmunks joined but it was really very short stint so if you blink you might miss her :). The other other contestants which is a dancing group for me is more impressive than Charice though.

Also, before watching the TV, I read some reviews so I did not really expect a great movie, but I was entertained and that is enough for me. I Chippettes are really cute specially when they are doing they sexy singing numbers.

KC's 3rd Quarter Exam Results

Last week was KC's 3rd quarter exam. We just got back the results today.
Her subjects in Kinder are Reading, Writing, English, Math, Science and Health, Filipino and Christian Living.
I reviewed her in all her subjects except for Math and Filipino where Ramir reviewed him since I did not have the time.
Guess what, she got a perfect score in Math and just one mistake in Filipino. Math is actually KC's favorite subject so it is her strongest subject but Filipino is actually her weakest subject so I my husband really did a good job in reviewing her.

I am a little disappointed though in the other subjects where I reviewed her. I started reviewing her in Reading, English and Writing the weekend before, so we had at least 2 days worth of reviewing. She had 5 mistakes in Reading, 6 and Writing and maybe 5 again in English. I am disappointed not because she did not get perfect scores but because I obviously have wrong methods in teaching her. I was able to cover in the reviewer I created for her the questions that was asked. My husband said I should have focused only on the topics where she is having difficulties on. I think I did that. But during the review process, I always get mad at KC. That might be a big factor why she is not paying attention to what I am saying. :(

By the way, I am not really sure but I think she had 3 mistakes in both Science and Christian Living.

I do not want my daughter to feel that I am disappointed at her because what is more important for me is that she learns and she enjoys while learning.

Dahil May Isang Ikaw (Teleserye)

I was able to follow this series the first few weeks it aired on television. I liked the plot since the main protagonists are lawyers. Did you know that when I was a little kid my dream was to become a lawyer since my father was a lawyer and a RTC judge before he died. Don't ask me what happened, but I think I am too shy to be a lawyer.

Anyway, the story is also about 2 pairs of lost loves and how love, if meant to be, finds it way. There is also a lost love between a mother and a child.

Last week the series ended, so I spent my Saturday night watching the last 2 episodes in youtube. I missed the stories in between but that is OK since the ending sort of just confirmed all the loose ends and hence the happy endings.

I love happy endings.

Application to another company

Last month I applied to another company. It is a company that has a very similar environment as the one I currently work with but it supports another product.

Let me first say that I love my current company right now. I like the working environment plus I am still satisfied with the compensation that I am getting. I also like the fact that the company (especially our department) offers a lot of opportunities since it is still expanding and opening up new teams or groups.

Then why did I apply to another company? Well, you might have noticed in my other logs how QA scores conscious I am. That is because, we have been warned, time and time again to have passing QA scores or else..... To make a long story short (since I have been getting a non passing mark for sometime already), I got scared with regards to stability to retain my job in the company. So aside from praying really hard to have passing QA scores and always trying to do my best in my calls, I decided to look for my options just in case the 'or else' happened.

So I immediately thought of this other company wherein a couple of my former officemates from my former company is working. I also loved company (I worked here for 6 years) but is already closed now. They have very good feedback with their company (as I said they have the same working environment as the company I am working for with now plus according to hearsay, pay is better). It just so happens that they have my exact position posted in Jobstreet, so I applied online and after a few hours of applying online, their HR contacted me.

I was planning to go until I received news from my current company that I have Agent of the Year and Perfect attendance Awards(I do have other posts for that). So I texted the HR and said I would not be able to go since I am scared of being absent (I believe that is the # 1 reason why you would be given papers to go in our company). Plus I was thinking this was a sign that I should still be OK with my current company. HR called me up and rescheduled me. So I went and I was interviewed by 2 engineers.

Here comes the conflict....I did not tell anybody from our team that I was applying. 2 of my officemates knew because we all go home at the same time. It just so happens that one of the engineers is friends with our Department head and as the story goes, the engineer told our dept head that I was applying (Kakahiya, di ba?)

Well, Dept Head talked to me along with my supervisor and to have the gist of it assured me that my job is secured which is I guess what is really important to me.

I just hope that my applying to another company does not have an effect on my performance evaluations (success factors) since it is time for that already.

As for the other company, they have not called me back. I guess they did not find me fit for their company. I take that as a definite sign that I would be staying put in my current company. Which is actually what I had hoped for when I first became an employee here...I hoped that this would be a company I could grow old with.

Whenever I see some old friends of mine and they ask me how I am in my current company, my consistent response?
"So far, so good"
I hope it stays that way.