I was so mentally tired yesterday after battling with a difficult edit…I hate editing pieces from this particular xxx country. I always spend the entire day fixing their copies, fact-checking, etc. By 6 pm, I turned on my email auto reply that says it’s public holiday and I will be back on Monday. I usually do that to fend off the journos from this xxx country who have no sense of personal space. They did that last week when I was on holiday. I already have that auto reply and still they message me on MS Teams… 🤦🏻♀️
To help me destress, I turned to my sewing and finished my curtains for my own room. Hooray! Only three panels left to sew for the windows in the living room.
My hand-sewn curtains in my bedroom. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
Since the curtains are now a bit thicker, hopefully my cats will be deterred from turning into Spidercats and climb up to the windows.
My 10-year-old cross-stitch project. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
To take a break from my curtain project, I took out my Mother and Infant cross-stitch project that I started when I was pregnant with my girls. A decade ago. Since I have more time now, I think I can finally finish this. I have a lot of finished cross-stitch projects that I need to have framed.
I’m going to see a pulmonologist today so I can be issued a medical certificate that says I have chronic respiratory disease. Good luck to me, I will be exposing myself to all things I can catch at the polyclinic near my apartment. 🙄
Plague doctor mask. Photo by Andrea Piacquadio on Pexels.com
My Facebook newsfeed has become an obituary page of sorts, with almost everybody posting that they have lost friends and family due to COVID-19. People are so desperate now that they’re willing to ingest veterinary anti-parasitic drugs to cure themselves or loved ones of COVID. The girls’ dad ordered from somewhere Lianhua Qingwen, a Chinese herbal medicine, which he claims to beat COVID, and had sent them to my maids (Because he perfectly knows I refuse to talk to him). I told the maids to tell him that 1) I am not paying for its delivery (because he told the maids I should pay for the delivery, scumbag) and 2) we are not taking that because it has not been approved by the FDA for COVID. It’s just not even an antiviral drug. The DOH also said it cannot be obtained without prescription, therefore, he got it from the black market. Chinese drugs from the black market…Dodgy is an understatement. I’d rather take Tamiflu, which is like PHP 107 per capsule, even if it is not enough to help cure COVID-19, but at least it can bring down the symptoms of influenza A and B that can occur with COVID.
Anyway, a fellow journo also related the story of his friend who tested positive for COVID and was symptomatic. Instead of going home and risk infecting his family or seeking medical help because hospitals now are bursting at the seams, he chose to isolate himself in his SUV and parked it outside his office in Camp Crame. He was found, with water and food provisions, dead inside his car that had its engine still running. When this journo last spoke to his friend over the phone, he said he could hear his friend was having a labored breathing. That’s how bad the situation is now. People are choosing to isolate inside their cars because we no longer have anywhere to go. We are effing trapped and this government just let us die.
Meanwhile…
Duterte is missing. He hasn’t appeared since his lewd birthday video and sham of a birthday picture were posted a few weeks ago. Cabinet officials have been cancelling press briefings. Duterte’s regular rant session has been cancelled several times in the past few days.
In other news: An Australian Royal Flying Doctor Service Hawker 800XP with call sign VH-RIO, a medivac jet, took off Diosdado Macapagal airport at 1051 Saturday, April 3, and landed three hours later at 1409 on Selatar Airport, Singapore.
“After considering the recommendation of the experts and the current situation of high COVID-19 transmission and limited available vaccines, the FDA is allowing the use of Sinovac on senior citizens,” FDA Director General Eric Domingo said in a text message to ABS-CBN News.
I’ve been told by another journo that Interior and Local Government Secretary Eduardo Año will no longer be able to get back to work as his COVID infection has become worse. An official of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (central bank) was in bad shape for weeks when he was at the Philippine General Hospital and last week he posted on Facebook (we are FB friends even before government service) that he is now recovering. They are the few privileged ones who have higher chances of survival because they can easily get hospital beds. The rest of us would have to take care of ourselves and we will play the Darwinian game of survival of the fittest.
Which reminds me, I should buy the PPEs and pulse oximeter now online before they run out.
J should get out of the country now before we are overrun by Covid. We are the worst in Asia Pacific right now. We even overtook Indonesia and China in terms of number of cases and deaths. Octa research projects that we will have 1 million cases by end of this month. Hospitals cannot take it anymore and HCWs are thinning out.
On the other side of the world, people are picking up their lives and are already moving on to tackle other issues like #StopAsianHate.
A doctor cycling last Sunday was arrested by a stupid policeman for not wearing a face shield while riding. Of course the doctor resisted arrest since the DOH and IATF already issued memos that bike/motorcycle riders are exempted from wearing a face shield because this is more of a hazard than a protection.
Incidents like this add to my roiling anger deep inside. I called the attention of my colleagues in local media outfits like CNN Philippines, Philippine Star, etc. so that they would be able to cover this. The Philippine National Police is the center of all things corrupt and stupid since 2016. I just can’t stand this. I no longer know how to contain this anger.
Meanwhile, I’m trying my best to help in the donation drive for Silungang Molave, which has been turned into an isolation facility in UP Diliman. I spoke yesterday with Ms. Perlynn and asked for e-money and bank accounts where we can deposit our donations. She also said their priority now is to secure N95 masks and latex gloves.
Paymaya 09173009064 Aleli B Bagawan and GCash 09173009064 Ma. Fatima B. Sapno.
A cousin has just sent money from abroad and I sent half to UP and the rest will be used to buy masks and face shields for delivery guys and to hospitals that may need mattresses or PPEs.
So last night I slept again very late (2 am-ish?) I was booking my vaccine schedule and what I got was 11 April. My neighbors, one of whom is a cancer patient and her mom has several co-morbidities, were able to have theirs today and they were quick. Unfortunately, the venue I chose is one of the busiest and my neighbor said it took her classmate 5 hrs of waiting even if you booked your slot and got assigned to a specific time. So I may have to rebook this again because the 11th is my daughters’ birthday and I can’t be away for 5 hrs.
The email I received after booking my vaccination schedule last night.
I booked via EZConsult, Zuellig Pharma’s telemedicine platform that the Quezon City government is using. It’s easy to use and hopefully the backlogs in the vaccination centers would be ironed out soon. I also need to go to a pulmonologist by Friday so that my medical records can be pulled out of the polyclinic near my house where my recent records are. I need to present a medical certificate that I have chronic respiratory disease i.e. asthma to show at the vaccination center. Good thing also I scanned all my past Rx including Symbicort, which is used for asthma and COPD. I belong to A3 (18-59 years old with co-morbodities) that’s why I should be qualified to be included in this batch. I’m not really eager to get the China vax but you have to get what you can. I’m a single parent and my children have no one else but me.
I’m also preparing for the event that there might be COVID home care at some point so I will have to buy 1) pulse oximeter, 2) disposable and washable PPEs, 3) look for vendors of oxygen tanks, 4) stock up on flu and asthma medicines. The first two items can be ordered via Lazada. 3 and 4 can be obtained from Mercury. Being prepared can’t hurt because Philippines’ healthcare system is collapsing.
This guy is a partylist congressman, who is what I can call a political parasite/whore without any shame at all. I had interviewed him in the past a couple of times but I didn’t produce any story after those interviews because there was no substance at all. Such a waste of space.
Anyway, he has been spreading all over social media that he is freely giving away Ivermectin as cure for COVID-19. This idiot 1) wasted people’s money buying an anti-parasitic drug for animals that 2) could harm people taking it, especially with the wrong dosage. This is what the US FDA has to say about this:
FDA has not approved ivermectin for use in treating or preventing COVID-19 in humans. Ivermectin tablets are approved at very specific doses for some parasitic worms, and there are topical (on the skin) formulations for head lice and skin conditions like rosacea. Ivermectin is not an anti-viral (a drug for treating viruses).
Taking large doses of this drug is dangerous and can cause serious harm.
If you have a prescription for ivermectin for an FDA-approved use, get it from a legitimate source and take it exactly as prescribed.
Never use medications intended for animals on yourself. Ivermectin preparations for animals are very different from those approved for humans.
What we need are vaccines, not anti-parasitics drugs for horses! I just want to hit his face with my classmate’s urn.
Meanwhile, I’m presenting my haul from the last two Lazada sale (3.3 and birthday sale)…I got 480 pcs of sticker tiles to make my ugly bathroom more tolerable. My landlady didn’t even fix the bathroom when we moved in. I refuse to spend so much for tiles to make my bathroom more presentable. Even this already cost me PHP 3,000.
Photo by CallMeCreation.com
I just have to solve the problem of the floor tiles. I don’t know if re-grouting will solve its dingy-ness or I should waste money for something that is not mine and have the floor re-tiled. I don’t think my landlady will be willing to shoulder an expense like that for aesthetic reasons. Maybe I should just buy more exchange traded funds (ETF). I bought it at PHP 100 per share last week and now it’s at PHP 98.35. I have to even out my portfolio.
So I have to hold out and make do with what I have and be satisfied with just repainting/refreshing the walls of the apartment. I should save up until I have my lot and tiny house constructed. My friend just told me the other day that there is a 150 sqm lot that is for sale somewhere in our hometown for PHP 1.6m, which is a bit expensive given its location. Maybe I should look around some more. I wish I can drive to Anilao and check out some lots…
Patience. Patience. No one is chasing me. A better option will come up.
Another friend asked me, are you still angry? I said, hmmmm somewhat. If my anger is triggered, then I will be a seething tiger and I’ll be in a bad mood for two days. But most of the days I try to bury it and try to move on. I just pray that he doesn’t catch COVID and his lover doesn’t mangle his home care if ever gets sick of it–he has an abnormally high risk of heart attack due to elevated LDL. If she turns out to be that young bitch, then I don’t know if she can handle 24/7 care of another person while she is still very much under the supervision of her parents.
Taking care of critically ill loved ones requires you to put brakes on your own life. Their needs come first before your own. I’ve had experience taking care and raising premature infants in the neonatal ICU (they allowed me to stay there for more than a month since I had two infants). My children battled sepsis, pneumonia, and a host of other things for more than a month and everyday I didn’t know if they would live or die. I was running around Metro Manila and Laguna looking for blood for transfusions. I diligently monitored their O2 sats and heartbeats every moment I could while watching various tubes sticking into their bodies that were barely bigger than my hand. I didn’t cry at that time; I could not afford to be emotional during those days. I learned how to be level-headed and be lucid in times of intense emotional moments. I’ve also nursed my parents, especially my father, when he was in and out of the hospital for years. I don’t know how I was able to do those things. I’ve schooled myself to be a highly functional individual and learned to compartmentalize so I could cope. That’s why when my father died, I was the only one who was functioning in my family even if I only had three hours of sleep that entire week. I facilitated the legal procedures, the paperwork, the arrangements for the wake, the housekeeping, the financials, the cremation, etc. Then I crashed after all was said and done. I crash only when I allow myself to crash.
So would you help if he gets sick, my friend asked. I said if I’m asked to, I will. But I just wish he’d just leave the country soon because he’s going to be safer elsewhere than here because this country is going to the dogs. You still love him, don’t you, my friend said. I told him, that’s already a given, I’ve already come into terms with that; you don’t easily pull a switch and that is that. Unlike J, who just–poof!–love is gone. I wondered if he really even loved me. Maybe it was just infatuation.
I am just waiting for the moment that I will become indifferent. It has been almost four months. Four fucking long months. I wish i could just fast-forward time and be done with it.
So much for vaccine diplomacy. We should have had the 10 million Pfizer vaccines by now if DOH Sec Duque did not “forget” to sign the papers for their procurement. Some people in my industry say that the “dropping of the ball” happened to favor the China vaccines because no one in the country wanted to be vaccinated with it, based on polls. Now China dangles the Sinopharm and Sinovac vaccines as part of their vaccine diplomacy in exchange for this:
Chinese vessels, believed to be crewed by Chinese maritime militia personnel, are seen at Whitsun Reef within the Philippine exclusive economic zone on Saturday [Philippine Coast Guard via Reuters]
The Philippine FDA hasn’t even approved the use of the Chinese vaccines for healthcare workers nor senior citizens nor those with co-morbidities and yet we have subjected our healthcare workers to these vaccines when there should have been better alternatives.
Given the blatant disregard for Philippine sovereignty and the evil Philippine president has already sold the country to China, Defense chief Delfin Lorenzana is breaking away from the stance of the Duterte administration and has given hostile statements against China for the second time. Usually whenever Lorenzana issues statements like these in the past, he comes back to recant his statement or divert the issue after probably being scolded from above. This time he can’t take it anymore and continues to be on the offensive.
Meanwhile, I’ve learned from a veteran journo in my FB network, Quezon City has started the vaccination for senior citizens and residents with co-morbidities. I signed up via the Zuellig platform, which handles the database for QC. I learned that asthma is counted as one of the comorbidity, making me and my daughters high-risk residents. I just tried but I’m not counting on it since there are more vulnerable citizens in my area.
Ikaw ba ay kabilang sa A3 Priority Group? Ito ang mga indibidwal na 18-59y/o na may controlled comorbidities (chronic respiratory disease, hypertension, cardiovascular disease, chronic kidney disease, cerebrovascular disease, malignancy, diabetes, obesity, at iba pa) pic.twitter.com/lo71gpXm6R
I hope my hometown is able to procure as well so that my mom, a senior citizen, and my brother (who has hypertension) can be vaccinated soon.
At the home front, I finished the curtains for the girls’ room and are now hanging there:
I’m quite proud of my handiwork. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
I’m now finishing mine so that I can hang it in my room about three days from now. Sushi always accompanies me while I sew. She always sleeps at my feet or at my chair’s headrest.
My cats could not leave me alone. My girls are now protesting, “Mommy, why is that they always stay with you but not with us?!”
MY babies. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
Hmmm, I should restain the floorboards with varnish. They get so much wear because of my rolling chair.
We logged 15,310 new COVID-19 cases the other day and 14,000 yesterday, with a 24.2% positivity rate. If there’s mass testing, we may see that one in every four Filipinos is positive–it’s that high.
… If you have an extra mask please do give them, the brightening of their faces is so different whenever they receive one, and they wear it at once. They’re also scared of the virus but they don’t have any choice but to work. Not everyone has the capacity to buy a mask regularly…
Cheap face shields and masks. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
I started giving out free masks and face shields to Grab and FoodPanda drivers stationed at Robinsons Express near our apartment. It’s what the original poster said, the happiness and gratitude of these guys are different. It’s as if no one had been really kind to them all this time and when they do receive small acts of kindness like this, their reactions are unparalleled.
I have been giving packs of rice and veggies to jeep drivers and barkers near my apartment since lockdowns started last year. Also solicited donations and facilitated the delivery of milk to an indigenous tribe in the north last year. I felt I was too blessed and needed to share the blessings for those who are in need.
Thankfully, I haven’t contracted the virus whenever I buy and distribute these goods. I know God will not let something happen to me but of course I am careful, I just don’t leave it to Him.
If we can just be kind to one another, we can at least ease the burden of our most vulnerable brethren. Love our brothers just as Christ loved us that he died on the cross. That is the essence of Christianity.
