Therapy

Photo by CallMeCreation.com

I cooked brunch today then I slept again after that. It’s unbelievable that I was still exhausted from yesterday’s trip. Then I woke up a little past noon when I was asked by my daughter to sign a proof of delivery as some industry friends sent me baked lasagna and blueberry cheesecake so I didn’t have to cook a midday meal or even dinner. My daughter, Twin I, and I gardened in the afternoon. I transplanted this flowering plant (I wasn’t able to get its name) and herbs I bought yesterday along CP Garcia Ave on the way home from UP where I bought our vegetables.

Basil and dill in our “dirty kitchen”. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

Then we planted some vegetable seeds in new plastic pots that I will transfer to our “dirty kitchen”/laundry area because this area receives so much sunlight all day. The vegetables and herbs will be protected from aphids outside plus we can just pluck leaves from our kitchen “garden” when we cook.

After gardening, I slept again and when I woke up, it was already dark.

Gardening is some kind of therapy for me these days as I still couldn’t go out due to fatigue. Watching something you grow and nurture is also fulfilling, like having my girls with me.

Speaking of nurturing, the stray cats that reside outside our compound have moved inside the compound as our neighbor had also been feeding them and tamed them. We also have been feeding these cats since we moved in here in October 2018–exactly three years ago! Our neighbor had put pet collars around them so people would know someone had already adopted them and think twice about abusing them.

Brushing him with a toothbrush. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

So this white cat has been trying to make himself cute to us while we were gardening this afternoon. He would lie down and go belly up and curl, something that my inside cats would do when they’re begging for some petting. Of course I didn’t pet it with my bare hands so what we did was we got a toothbrush and brushed it so it can have some grooming and belly rubs. It loved all the attention and loving touch. The girls were begging me if they can give the cat a bath, I said no because it’s not yet tame enough and we don’t know what kind of diseases it has. We have to tame it completely before we can do that. The compromise was we brushed on flea powder on it and the cat loved the brushing so much that it begged for a repeat tonight when I was checking out my partially charged fairy lights.

Kittykat waiting for us to play with him. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

When this cat finally becomes tame, I would bring it to PAWS to be neutered, checked, vaccinated and de-wormed. Then we will give it a bath. However, it will still have to live outside because I don’t want to have chaos in my house. We will just make some kind of cat house outside so they will be protected from the elements. I would have to buy wooden crates and I have some fiberglass roofing here that I used for my “dirty kitchen”.

They say a woman who has sworn off marriage and choose to live single the rest of her life would become a crazy cat lady. I guess I’m turning into that now…which is fine by me. Cats are obnoxious animals but when they do give you love, it’s real. They don’t give you bullshit.

Mockery

Duterte’s camp is really making a mockery of the electoral process. They fielded a clown to run for president alongside another clown, Bong Go, as vice president. Because you know what they will do? The last minute, they will do a substitution, with Sara Duterte running as president with her demon of a father as VP. They will make so much drama out of it, and the script would be like “people are clamoring for us to run so we will be making the ultimate sacrifice so we will, for the country.” And all of the DDS would be all applause.

OR

At the last moment, they will make a substitution, Sara Duterte will run alongside Bong-bong Marcos as his VP. If her ego can take it.

They have done it in 2016, they will do it again.

God save our country from idiots.


It has been two months since I last been in UP campus to buy vegetables and milktea for my kids.

In front of Bahay ng Alumni, UP Diliman. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

Prices have gone up. I could feel the rising inflation month-on-month and the problem is this is a supply-side issue that cannot be addressed by monetary policy alone. It is structural that requires some fixes in the real economy.

Anyway, after the veggies and the milktea, I went to Sarang Mart because I am running out of shampoo. Even before J came, I had been buying shampoos and side dishes in that Korean grocery store. I had been using either Korean on Japanese shampoos (Japanese Lux or Shisheido) for several years now even if they’re more expensive initially but they do last a long time. I remember in my last trip to Japan, I lugged several shampoo bottles of Lux back home because it was way cheaper compared to anything I saw in Singapore and even in HK. Then I found Lux in SM, which was much more expensive than the Korean Kerastase sold in Sarang Mart but a lot cheaper than Lux in Singapore (which I often bring back home whenever I have to report for work there).

So I had to replenish my stock. Bought Korean curry (which my girls liked), dried seaweed, dried kelp (which I use as kombu in some Japanese dishes), beef strips for hotpot, mandu, side dishes, furikake, ramyun, and I no longer remember what else i chucked in my basket.

Photo by CallMeCreation.com
Photo by CallMeCreation.com

When I was going back to my car, I lost my balance, sprained my ankle, grazed my foot on the pavement (was wearing slippers), and fell flat on my back. I didn’t realize that I was that exhausted with my short trip to buy foodstuff.

I am NOT yet ok. I’m still sick with Covid symptoms, mainly fatigue, even though I am no longer infectious and I can function somewhat normally. I still easily get tired and right now my head is aching. I woke up this morning coughing and wondered whether this was still Covid or allergy.

I think I will be sleeping my weekend away.

Knocked out

My Totoro collection. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
They make me smile. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

And just like that, my Sunday passed by like nothing. I slept the entire day. Literally the entire day. Covid is a traitor. Just when you think you’re already well, it suddenly saps your energy and knocks you out. I also thought my coughing is gone but here it comes again. I woke up this morning coughing like crazy. So all my good intentions for this day flew out the window. I was thinking of going to Quezon City Circle to buy gardening supplies but I could barely keep my eyes open today.

I don’t know how long I will be like this. Whenever I feel annoyed with my condition, I remind myself that I am one of the lucky ones who didn’t have to go to the hospital considering that I have asthma. Many friends’ and acquaintances’ family members, despite being fully vaccinated and young, have succumbed to this disease.

In other news, the live action series of Cowboy Bebop will soon be shown on Netflix. At least they kept the music of the original (how can you replace Yoko Kanno???) and is faithful to the campy intro of the original anime. Years ago I was hyped to learn that they were thinking of having Keanu Reeves as Spike Spiegel but he’s too old now to play Spike and instead they got Korean American actor John Cho, who looks too broody.

I hope this doesn’t disappoint. At least they could try to be the live action of Ruruoni Kenshin, which turned out ok for a super fan of the original anime and manga like me.

I lost weight

I now have somewhat sunken cheeks or my cheekbones became more prominent and my face more pointed. I did not weigh myself because it’s too exhausting to excavate my weighing scale under my bed. Not being able to eat well for two weeks will do that to you.

I call it the Covid weight-loss program.

But then–kapoof! I celebrated today with food because I was able to publish again today and edit three stories. It got out of hand though…

No meat. Vegetable salad, pinangat (taro leaves in coconut milk and chilis), noodles and a bit of omurice. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

To celebrate the fact that I can already taste some food, I wanted something spicy and so I had pinangat that some Bicolano friends of mine sent me when I was in the middle of my Covid-induced sleep marathon. I ate a lot tonight so I have to refrain from doing that if I want to keep my current post-Covid weight.

I am now used to not having breakfast and only a shot of Berocca to start my day. I should keep my Covid appetite.

Maybe tomorrow I’ll try some crunches, if I am not going to chase my breath. But fixing my dinner tonight took a lot of effort on my part and it kind of left me breathless so let’s see.

Long haul COVID symptoms

24/7 live streaming of lo-fi music. Photo by CallMeCreation

To make my confinement a little bearable, I’ve been live streaming 24/7 lo-fi music either via Youtube or Spotify. I hope my Edifier speaker won’t conk out on me for abusing it.

I’ve been arguing with my sisters and mom regarding my Covid symptoms. They insisted that I should consult other doctors because of my lingering symptoms. To make them stop nagging me, I booked another teleconsult, which I doubt would help.

Number 1) I had Sinovac for vaccine (and my mom had it too) because we were the first batch of people to be vaccinated (people with comorbidities and senior citizens) so that’s why my symptoms were worse than my sisters’ (they had J&J) as they only had one day of fever and just loss of sense of smell and taste. Sinovac is known to be less effective for other variants of Covid compared to the initial variant when it first appeared in China. So my cousin who had Covid last year before the vaccinations began said in our chat group that it took her four months to completely recover. She had fatigue and often had to chase her breath when exerting effort, which I suffer from these days especially when disinfecting the bathroom. I no longer have fever and cough, only fatigue and random headaches, which my cousin said are normal long-haul symptoms. And also hair loss. Lots of it.

Number 2) I am also taking other medicines for my other illnesses, specifically for my PCOS, which may or may not have contributed to my heavy menstruation, which is an anecdotal but documented symptoms of some female Covid patients or those who received the vaccine. Not enough research is done on this so what can the doctors do? Prescribe more medicines when they don’t even know why are some patients are heavy bleeders and some aren’t? The most that they can do (which I read) is to recommend to the patient to supplement with iron. They cannot over-medicate me so that is that.

Number 3) People do not have uniform responses to Covid as it depends on how their bodies responded to the vaccine, the kind of variant that hit them, and other pre-existing conditions. When I had my initial dose of Sinovac, my body responded like I already had Covid: I had allergies and flu-like symptoms for 48 hours. So I guess it is not surprising that I have lingering symptoms now.

I am just thankful that that vaccine I had, albeit less effective than what others had, kept me from being rushed to the hospital. Otherwise I would have been dead by now because of lack of beds here in Metro Manila or intubated in an ICU. Because I have a chronic respiratory disease (asthma).

I also read that those fully vaccinated who became breakthrough Covid cases would have better chances of withstanding other future variants (Mu) that may come given that they have more antibodies now.

So to keep my sisters and my mom from panicking, I cited all these things.

I am fine and just thankful to be alive.

Positive

I knew all along I was positive for Covid the moment I lost my sense of smell. So when I got the RT PCR result today, it was not a surprise that there it was, in glaring red font, that I was positive for Covid.

So what else to do? Nothing really. I have my teleconsult tomorrow and I will just have to wait for the barangay health officers to contact me. And convince them that home quarantine is the best because viral loads in isolation facilities are higher and I would have to share a room and bathroom with somebody sicker than me. And besides I have zero contact with the rest of the household.

I’m putting too many tablets and capsules into my mouth that I’m fearing for my kidneys. Damn you, Covid.

On my 8th day since my symptoms started. More than 48 hrs without fever. I still get sleepy throughout the day but I’m getting better.