I realized that I lost it when I couldn’t smell my shampoo when I was having a hot shower. I was alarmed because my nose is no longer clogged so I began smelling things all around me. I sprayed all my perfumes and room scents. Nada. I couldn’t smell.
I could taste saltiness but that’s it. My sense of taste is dulled because I couldn’t smell.
I contacted the barangay officials for assistance because 1) it is my civic duty to report that I’m a suspected case and 2) the private home service Covid test that I booked is still pending. Probably demand is so high that I couldn’t even get a slot. Probably I could get better response from Red Cross with the LGU’s assistance.
So far my breathing is ok. My O2 sats are still ok. My fevers have gone down but I have diarrhea and still have those pesky headaches.
I never thought that I would be the end-user of this contraption. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
What worries me is that the protocol now is for single-bathroom households, the patient will be taken to an isolation facility. The girls will be left with just the househelp. How can I also work since chances are the Internet connection there is near-zero? My cousin said I could request to book a hotel that I would pay for so I could work. That could be an option.
But God, please don’t let it be positive. What will happen to my kids while I’m gone?
The earliest schedule available for home service Covid testing is next week. 🤷🏻♀️ Might as well treat my condition as Covid. I haven’t gone out of my room since Tuesday night except for bathroom use and everytime I use it I disinfect it. I still have a fever and headaches. And cough.
It has been 3 days of temperatures like this. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
I just do nothing but sleep. Which is fine so that means my mind would not wander off to parts I would never want to revisit again—which caused my immune system to weaken some weeks ago in the first place.
That was pure hell. What I’m feeling right now is nothing compared to what I’ve been through those horrible weeks. So I still should be thankful that I’m still in a good disposition now albeit I have trouble breathing through my clogged nose.
I’ll survive. I’m fully vaccinated. I don’t believe I would need oxygen but I have nasal cannula and pulse oximeter. I need to order an O2 regulator online, just in case.
My girls are fine and now I got that nasty flu. Worse than what they had. I started having series of fevers last night and continued until today. I couldn’t file for sick leave because we’re out of one or two editors today and there were so many stories. I managed to file one story based from the round table discussion I attended yesterday.
It’s suicide, I know.
In between work I slept. Taking flu tablets and slept some more. I’m isolating because I don’t want to take chances.
The telemedicine stuff that they advertise? They’re a fluke. KonsultaMD is like a call center for doctors and you wait for a looooong time before you can get connected. With so many people sick these days, it’s a miracle that you can get through.
If I don’t get better tomorrow, I’ll drive myself to a drive-and-swab center. One app I was about to try for Covid test swab requires at least two pax. Annoying. RT-PCR tests are not cheap.
Oh wait, I can’t. I have an interview tomorrow. 🤦🏻♀️ No rest for the weary.
Meanwhile, I’ve ordered my meds through Mercury online and there’s one branch less than 300m from me. But guess what? It’s already almost 9 pm and they haven’t processed my orders yet that I will have my househelp claim for me in that branch. Why don’t big companies invest in IT? It’s like an afterthought for them. I ran out of cash because I sent my househelp to buy vegetables and eggs with the last cash in my wallet. So the only way I can buy medicines is through online means. And it’s a mess. 🤦🏻♀️
Like everything in this country is a mess.
This is Duterte’s latest public address in a nutshell.
Meanwhile, shameless Bong-bong Marcos…
I ought to be packing my bags and move to New Zealand.
Our new COVID-19 daily case has hit an all-time high of almost 22,500 today and yet the government will be loosening the lockdown. Even in my hometown all hospitals are already at capacity and can no longer accept patients.
We are really headed for disaster. The overpriced purchase of face shields could have been diverted to buying more remdesivir and tocilizumab for hospitals in dire need of it. The government goons decided that we are better off with granular lockdowns without proper contact tracing (Duque even admitted to Senate that the govt contact tracing app is useless) and mass testing. COVID swab tests are so expensive, even for the middle class.
Malaysia and the Philippines are in a contest now for who got it worse.
As for my girls, their fevers had gone down today and they were able to attend their online class. I had them take paracetamol when they had headaches tonight but their temperatures didn’t go beyond sinat so I wasn’t that worried. I need more data to gather before I schedule a tele-consult with a pediatrician tomorrow. I was kind of panicking at 2 am this morning when I woke up to check one of my girls and thought about having us all tested for COVID.
To cheer us up today, our books I bought from Big Bad Wolf in June finally arrived.
Photo by CallMeCreation.com
They’re enjoying Horrible Histories. I am reading that now, too. Fascinating horrible stuff.
I’m slowly recovering and was able to co-write a time-sensitive story today about Philippine Airlines’ bankruptcy. Last week was a struggle for me because I couldn’t write. Or even transcribe an interview. Meds made me lethargic and I kept on sleeping during odd hours. At least I started the week right today, despite the lack of proper sleep because I was watching over my sick girls.
Over the weekend, a high school friend invited me to join them on their Youtube talk show, which started off like a podcast about nothing in particular that ended up as an interview platform about anything under the sun. They added me because all of them are guys–most of whom were my friends from way back high school or post-college when we played in a band. They needed a female co-host to sort of balance the show. And I think they chose me because of my interviewing skills. They were drinking buddies at some point 10-20 years ago.
So my plan to do a podcast with friends has sort of come into fruition. However, instead of a just a podcast, this is a live Youtube video show that requires me to face the camera and be presentable. Anyway, a podcast or a video talk show is one of my personal goals, including keeping this blog alive (albeit private), so I have other things aside from work that I could pay attention to.
Because J has fallen in stature in my eyes, thinking about him hurts less now. Or maybe this is because I have been sleeping better that’s why I can talk like this now. Maybe if I start to become sleep-deprived again I would be back to being emotional again.
He used to be the only star in my night. Now that star has died.
Maybe I needed that jolt that I’ve experienced these past weeks to be able to realize that, hey, he isn’t really that special. And he is not a nice guy after all. I died several times over this person but he really can’t destroy me. I know who I am and what I am capable of. I may not be a CEO of a company or a high-flying executive that he could admire but I know I’m very good in what I do. I have everything that I needed. I have a home and I have love in the form of two not-so-little girls.
While he doesn’t have those.
Death of a star. He has now become a stardust.
To add to our worries, here comes another variant. We are going through the entire Greek letters while the Duterte administration is raping us wide eyes open.
To calm my frayed nerves, I ordered new cloths to make into masks for my friends’ children in appropriate kid sizes.
From Shopee. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
The weekend is coming soon. Let’s see how many I can make.
This incident with J chasing the kid in my circle has slowly peeled off the blinders that has taken a hold of me for years. Maybe he wasn’t really a nice guy after all.
I remember him asking me the week we first got together if I thought he was with me because I am a journalist of xxx that would give him advantage. I said no, it didn’t enter my mind. Now, I am doubting myself and his intentions toward me then.
I’m confused. Like it shattered my core belief and everything I thought was the truth then.
Was everything a lie?
I can’t believe he could sink that loooowwww, pursuing that kid 🤦🏻♀️. I had held him in very high esteem, even during his most difficult time the last time he was in the US. I even admired him for toughing it out there. But now?
But maybe I was wrong about everything.
Maybe I fell in love with the person I thought he was and believed it. Maybe he was just like any other mercenary out there taking advantage of vulnerable people like me. And he’s still out there looking for another victim. Just like that kid.
This is giving me a headache. My emotions are in a turmoil. I don’t know what to feel. It’s as if I’m going through grief again but this time I am grieving over his death… The death of a person I thought he was.
