It was my first time to be on 3 to 11 p.m. duty at the Philippine Heart Center today and we have admitted 4 new patients filling up all the 7 suite rooms. Some of the patients were previously admitted there and they were surprised to see new changes in the room set up. Big flat screen TVs can are now stationed in each suite and the patients compare it to bell tv tv abroad.

I am really moved by my uncle’s and cousin’s generosity as they did not forget the gadgets that I need to perform my duty as a nurse. They want to make easier things for me so they bought me some electronics. I have now digital blood pressure monitor and pulse oxymeter. I really found them dandy in my course in the ward but something tells me that this is just the start of something.

Being here in the Philippines during the holidays, my niece who grew up abroad cannot help but be amused seeing artificial christmas trees in the mall. There are so many things that he found amusing here. Like the pirated softwares and movies on DVD and the imitation of designer stuff. He got so excited that he bought the complete 3 seasons of Entourage on DVD. I was so darn worried that he might get caught and put in jail but lucky for him is pulled it through and is now enjoying his show.

Late last night, I had my dinner. It was a very heavy dinner composed of soup, rice and adobong pusit finishing it off with ice cream and Kahlua cake for dessert.
I felt so bloated that it took me until 3:00 am to doze off and the annoying part is that I get to wake up every now and then feeling some grinding in my stomach with surges of acid at the epigastric area. At around :00 am, I tried to pop in Nexium to soothe down the rising acid level but after two hours , the ill feeling did not subside. With feeling of empty stomach, I still decided to pop in my immunosuppressant and the after two hours the upset stomach has escalated. It is now giving me heart burn then I decided to induce vomiting. I felt relief but I know that I still have so much to throw up. True enough, without doing anything, my stomach contents came gushing out of my mouth. As I drain my gut, I feel the cold sensation all over my body. I was sweating hard. I felt like a crap the whole day and I was not able to get out of bed until this evening. My back was hurting a bit. Fearing of getting hypoglycaemic (I actually felt weak), I sipped on orange juice and nibbled some sweets. I did not take anything solid for the fear of throwing up again.
I do not think it was food poisoning because everyone in the house got the sample of the food I took in last night. It must be an upset stomach.
I am about to have my first meal today.

For the first time in 10 years I get to enjoy the long weekends. November 2 has been declared a holiday. Accompanying my addiction to Stairway to Heaven, the local version, is a menu suitable for a couch potato like me. My interest in refreshing my memory about its original Korean version has been awakened. I am doing the marathon of it now on YouTube. So while having a recap of this tragic melancholy, I am stuffing myself with foods that will surely go straight down to my belly. With my physically demanding work and with special consideration on my budget, I do not think I could hit the gym anytime soon. So instead of jumping on the bandwagon of shedding off love handles overnight, I do my cardio workout in the hospital. All I have to do is to run while wheeling the patients to and from the laboratory for their work ups. These short sprints are absolute fat burners without draining my pocket