a vacation it is?!

[eq_oddyssey]

i miss manila. the more i miss it, the more i stayed indoors. hah! everywhere i go it's tempting to eat and shop. i don't know where i wanna go first. oh my, almost 2 weeks since i arrived and i have only been to these places:

1. pancake house in blue wave--- i arrived 7:30 am last Feb. 15. We boarded the jetstream from semirara at 6:55. It means that we were already fetched to wait for our plane in the hangar before 6 am. Our flight was supposed to be at 6:30. The jetstream came from Manila and will just fetch us. no re-fueling. the moment it lands, we board. Never had time to eat breakfast at the mess hall although it's open at 4 am. I want to eat in manila. My Dad got caught in traffic since it's a wednesday so we were fetched a little past 8 am. He asked where we want to eat and automatically it's pancake house. i ordered for Martin's cinnamon toast, vienna coffee, spanish omelette while humpy had toast, 2 eggs (as usual- like in semirara) over-easy, bacon, hash brown and brewed coffee. We ordered extra corned beef rice. It's like breakfast in semirara... my dad ordered for continental breakfast... hmmm. why didn't i order for pancakes? we took a stroll around blue wave, i ran my hand across the door of my favorite spa--- BAY SPA and remembered... hmmm Manang Aida gives me massages at least once a week for a hundred bucks in the convenience of my unit. i guess i will just have a body scrub in manila...


2. we went home, humpy stayed until dinner. We just watched dvd while lounging in our den. --- THE GAME.


3. National Orthopedic Hospital--- I went to see Dr. David Alagar, a classmate in pre med , who is now a hand specialist. My right hand, particularly abduction and adduction of the thumb initiates pain that radiates to the middle of the dorsal side of my forearm. Sometimes, there are certain hand and wrist rotating movements that are painful. I can’t bear using a heavy silver spoon. This is the condition I tolerated for 2 weeks. It all started one sunny Sunday afternoon, upon waking from my afternoon nap, there’s pain. I treated it as a sprain on the wrist. I can’t move it. It’s painful and swollen. I took my Myonal- a medicine I brought along with me for my myofascial bands. We ran out of Rudis ER. Humpy placed an elastic bandage. Imagine how I managed to write prescriptions and orders. Toxic pa naman ako. I see an ave of 20 - 30 patients per day. The bulk of which comes in the morning. I have a hard time bathing and shampooing my hair using the left hand. After 2 days, the pain is still there, my wrist is still swollen. I suspected Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. I called up Dr. Rene Rivera, my classmate and he prescribed Gabapentin (Neurontin) or Lyrica and my NSAID of choice, I took Celecoxib. My medicine has to be flown in from Manila. I called Manila, I got my medicine the following day. First available flight. One of our nurses is in Mindoro, I called in and she brought with her other medications available. Stubborn and lazy as I was, as soon as relief set in, I stopped. The pain recurred. As soon as I landed, I called David from the hangar. He set up an appointment the following day.
   His diagnosis: De Quervain’s Tenosynovitis. --- either from overuse, osteoarthritis, a tennis / badminton hand or diabetes (diabetes excluded, my sugar is normal) He took me to the occupational therapist, who customized my splint that I have to wear 24/7 for 4-6 weeks. Now, I go around wearing this…
   
   
   yet most of the time, I cement myself at home…



4. Friday and Saturday passed slowly… spending nights with humpy chatting on the phone



5. Sunday service and afterwards--- My family and I went to church with humpy. Yes, he attends Sunday service with us. Wow! It’s been a while since i last attended church service…hmmm…. mabait pa naman ako… after which humpy and I went to rustan's taste in makati. I saw it’s opening on tv and I just can’t wait to check it out. I have this craving for Nestlé-Carnation After Eight hot chocolate drink mix, that has a hint of mint. Nada. Only chocolate thins are available. We ended up buying whatever we can get our hands on. We had dinner at bubba gump in greenbelt after making up our minds as to eating at Metro Recipe’s (miss the general’s chicken!). we’ll chow there next time. Humpy doesn’t want fish na. His Icthyosis flares with seafood in general but can’t help eating fried fish, shrimps and king crab. We have yet to determine the culprit. The lesions are dry for now thanks to oilatum. We indulged in Max Brenner (chocolates by the bald man…) after dinner and I sampled their Australian strawberry dipped in chocolate. Wow that is one sweet meaty fruit for a hundred and 20 bucks ++ e-vat. Their java dark choco is something I missed as well as their swiss choco with orchid oil and the other one with rose hints-that’ll be next on my agenda. To wrap the night other that being warped and wrapped in each other, we went to seattle's best in grrenbelt 3. I have been looking for their Premium Chamomile tea. In semirara, humpy and I drink coffee after dinner before he plays table tennis and then with a cup of twinning’s chamomile tea before retiring. Guess what we went home a little past 12, and still I longed to go to old swiss in… by the way, we eat rice at 3am if we are up and treating a patient. (that explains the healthy look)



6. even with a hard time shifting gears while driving, last feb 22 I went to meet up with a friend as well as to send some evening gowns for JS to the island for the Thursday flight. Thessa, a college barkada and I met up in blue kimono ken at blue wave. She celebrated her birthday with me and treated ourselves to a spa that afternoon. Unusual but true--- I got home before dark.



7. at the height of the edsa brouhaha… I stayed at home and had a facial and hot oil
   
   
   



8. of course I went to SM. I just want to go there. I tagged along with my brother, my cousin jep, his wife techie and baby iele.






9. Sunday was supposed to be mega mall day after Sunday service for me and humpy but due to the activities in fort bonifacio, it became squid balls and kikiam day with a dinner at World Tops and a Choco Mint Mousse cheese cake at Annabelle Lee’s. After which we drove by National Bookstore to buy Magazines. Yep I missed magazines and I’m thinking subscriptions for regular delivery and courier through our regular flights to the islands. Newspapers… hmmmm I get to read at least 4 for the last four months. I see news and current affairs on tv via CNN, BBC and GMA 7. There used to be ABS-CBN but last feb 1 the contract with dream cable and the network went under negotiations. So no channel 2 for us, quite a relief for humpy since it means no more enduring PBB with me. --- read: yeah I watched it. And had a great time commenting. For people like us… watching the show is one comic relief too.



10. I met with armi and ging yesterday at town center after enduring a long drive. I think my healing period will really take time. Imagine, after being away for quite sometime and getting stuck injured at home… and I call it a vacation. Of course I we went to Cable Car and feasted on my very much missed sisig rice and chicken fingers! I went to Beauty Bar for my Glow Scrub Salt and Eucalyptus glycerine bar and then enjoyed my favorite Black and White Mocha at Seattle’s Best. I passed by PowerBooks in an attempt to purchase i-witness docu dvd… nge! 350 pesoses…. Each volume… so I put it on hold for as long as I can resist… going home was a round trip ticket to the metro… alabang-greenbelt (to fetch my sister from work, that I used to do when I was still manila based)-binindo ek ek

So much so… a lot of friends I’m dying to see… a lot of places I miss and I want to go to… fact: I think I do miss the heavy traffic…. For now, I stay at home.

I have so many things to do yet I opted not to lift a finger pending the answer of a doctor on whether he’ll go to the island and assume a post or not, putting us and our vacation with work on hold until now and it’s been a week. --- talk about consideration! This subject is lj worthy… Rant! Rant! Rant!