surviving it all

nicole

on her 3rd year she developed muscle cancer at her right thigh. her hospital at PCMC almost became her home. she had to undergo chemotherapy, hence, all her hair fell off, stamina lost. on & off her treatment, the whole family brings her to tagaytay. there's a small monastery there, often visited by those families who bring a sick relative for prayer & healing. we brought nicole there hundreds of time, praying for a miracle to happen.

a miracle did happen. nicole got healed. that took her a year to recover, to grow all her hair back, to return to good health.

on the night of nicole's 6th birthday, her father benjo went to the 'select' store which was just a few minute walk from their home. in a few hours, a rumble came about involving my 'bayaw', 2 of his other friends & some bystanders. i was just departing a fraternity anniversary that night when i received a text message from my sister anna. she informed me that kuya benjo got stabbed & that we got to hurry & check on the kids so she can go to him at the hospital. that was around 3 to 4am in the morning past nick's birthday last january 21st. we came to their house at don antonio, w/o a smell of panic, anna took some clothes & sheets for kuya benjo then left. ryan drove her to the hospital & myself & a sorority sister were left to make sure their 2 kids were safe sleeping alone in their home. after an hour, i got a call from ryan & said, w/c i distinctly remembered him saying, 'genna, wag kang mabibigla, patay na si benjo' - "genna, don't get shocked, benjo just died". i couldn't say anything to him so i just dropped the phone, looked at my sleeping nieces & cried. that was already almost 6am in the morning of january 22nd. i went out, kids still asleep, looked for his relatives (they live in a compound). i couldn't find anyone for awhile until his grandfather walked out to the garage so i told him immediately what happened. he was shocked as well. kuya's parents were already at the hospital so he got no one else to send the news to but simply sat & moaned. i went inside again & called my parents. a few hours later when the sun rose, my parents picked us up & we all went to the hospital. cause of death, kuya benjo got stabbed in the abdomen causing pints & pints of blood to ooze out of his body & particularly due to the resident doctors' neglicence. no one, for hours, could attend to him. when we came, his body was already covered in white sheet from head to toe. my sister anna & kuya benjo's mom couldn't contain their sorrow. everybody was mourning.

nicole has been fatherless since.

a year ago, nicole suffered a stroke. numbed her right body for a while & recovered in weeks. her heart was detected to be enlarged so she was prescribed medicines to sustain the abnormality, & of what that can do to her fragile little body. months passed, meds still in place, she suffered another stroke. this happend this year, a few days after her birthday, yet again. at first there was no panic since she recovered quick & checked out the hospital after just a few days. on her first day home, she lied down her bed & slept. after awhile we heard her loud cry for help. she wet the bed, couldn't move & open her eyes. it was her 3rd major stroke. she couldn't move the full left side of her body including her eyelid & limbs. we rushed her to the hospital while everybody including her were painfully crying. her veins developed several blood clots cutting off the oxygen supply from travelling normally in cycles to her brain & heart. she was confined for several weeks at the intensive care unit.

more than a month later, she went home healed in a wheelchair w/ therapies scheduled every other day of the week. she started to walk months earlier but we still had to bring the wheelchair every time we go out on anticipated long walks at the mall. it's crucial that her body's always well-rested. ate anna even enrolled her at a school nearby where our cousin studies. she looked so excited on her first day! after a few weeks she got exhausted she had to stop schooling again.

she recently checked out the hospital. not due to her disability but due to a minor accident they, with her mom, a friend and trish, encountered just a few blocks away from home. they were avoiding a cab as they entered our subdivision & one wheel plunged in a very huge hole in the cemented street powerfully jolting everyone inside the SUV. nicole's right face hit the back of the front passenger seat. she cried instantly. my sister & the rest had minor concussions. ate anna & trish walked the few blocks to get home & left nick & her friend at the car to get some help. i drove our SUV & took nicole to the hospital. by the time we got there, the surroundings of her right eye started to blacken & swell. the doctor, by phone, advised confinement due to the complications the bruise my cause w/ the medicines she's taking to clot/unclot the blood in her body. she checked out after 4 days, gladly recovered for the nth time. the inside of her right eye still displaying a huge smear of blood clot but the swelling & darkened skin are gone.

how much more can this fragile little girl endure in her life? how many more pain staking, life threatening events does she have to recover from?

prayers...just a lot of prayers for our baby nick. whatever bad's still ahead, lemme catch 'em. i will willfully take 'em.

ending july

continuation...

july 22

day out w/ dada & rayne. we went to sm fairview, ate at the conggo grill at the 2nd floor & ordered steak & baked mussels. our daughter, as usual, couldn't sit straight for half an hour so we had to take turns looking after her. at her age, she can eat anything we eat so choosing a restaurant or food chain has been easy unlike before when we always had to choose ones who has mashed potatoes, fries or noodles in their menu. i took some photos while we wait for our orders.

complete fam'ly picture

after lunch we headed to the ace hardware to get rayne's bathroom rubber mats. she slipped in that bathroom floor before while i was bathing her. she suddenly disliked taking a bath in her inflatable 'duck' bath tub. she wouldn't sit & if forced, will make her cry non-stop. anyhow, after we got the mats, we strolled a bit in the mall, got starbucks & donuts from go-nuts then drove home. back home, we had a dvd marathon. ryan bought several movies which we watched together that day. we watched 'three', 'vacancy' & 'the prestige' 'til the wee hours of the morning.

july 28

brought my nieces to the trinoma mall for early dinner & shopping! i brought along my darling daughter ofcourse plus mom & sister. we ate at chef de angelo at the small food court located inside the mall. i was craving for their tuna pesto but unfortunately they don't have it on their menu at that branch. after meals i brought my daughter to the play library at the 3rd floor. mom looked after her while my sister & niece nicole shopped at the toys 'r us. myself & trish went to another store to shop for her toy gadget & ended up buying an electronic scheduler/calendar w/ phone set. we went back to rayne after an hour. nicole wanted to play as well so we stayed & strolled the mall for another hour.

rayne's kakulitan shots:

july 31

i felt extreme body pain during the night i didn't go to work this day. i had mild fever & could barely get out of bet so i filed a sick leave. ryan brought me 2 slices of different cakes from mocha blends after work. we watched an anime/manga series which he discovered from a workmate. titled 'death note', apparently popular, so out of curiosity, i watched it with him as well. it's a story of a 'shinagami', japanese for 'death god', who accidentally dropped his notebook, called a 'death note', on earth. it's ownership landed in the hands of a student who eventually used its powers to 'kill' all criminals by writing their names in the notebook, to make the world a 'better place' to live in. creppy huh?

ryan mentioned there was a film about it which we are yet to know where to find. i browsed the internet & apparently there's already a part 2!

harry potter & the perfect lunch

just to catch up on my whereabouts last month:

july 14

finally, ryan took me to the mall of asia. my first moa experience was when the office had a team building. we went ice skating & watched a cartoon at IMAX. this is actually ryan's first. our plan was to have late lunch & watch harry potter's order of the phoenix. the IMAX theater seats were sold-out so we settled with normal seats. we ate at the fish & co. which was superb by the way! i'd recommend it to everyone. it's at the outside corner of one one the buildings near the theater mall. here are some pics while we relished on our 'so-gooooood' meals.

it's a little expensive though, P500+ per plate/order, but i assure no regrets!

then ofcourse the movie...w/c was not exactly as good as everybody expected. the theater seats we got was terrible we had to actually sit at the first row to get a perfect view of the movie!

july 19

rayne's new yaya from the agency wanted to leave so i reserved for another. they gave me an older yaya. she has been staying for almost a month now. filed a half-day at work to meet ryan at eastwood for dinner.

HK panic

mom's hounding me for the hongkong trip treat i promised her since last year. she failed the canada visa interview this year so to help alleviate her frustration, i made a promise to treat her abroad since she has never left the country, ever. she's studying again for a second interview w/c the canadian embassy has yet to schedule.

anyway, cebu pacific dropped prices on airfare so i reserved the lowest fare for september (august was sold-out). i paid via credit card via phone 2nd week of july. by end of july, i got so freakin' mad & felt so badly cheated by the airline. they dropped the airfare prices by 50% as an impromptu marketing strategy. i vented my frustration & anger to the agent i spoke to & eventually asked for a supervisor. it was so unfair for my part coz not only was it 50%, i paid for seats scheduled on very late flights just to get their 'supposed' lowest airfare rate! also, they were advertising in their website & their hotline IVR that customers book their flights early to avail of the lowest rates! eventually, through several debates & disputes & points given w/ the callcenter's team leader, i was suggested to what she said was her 'best' advise, to refund my previous payment, refund fee waived, then book again. downside is, credit card refunds take about 2 months or more so i have to wait til then.

anyhow, i have been browsing the net daily for any travel & shopping tips i can find. been looking for the best but cheapest hotel nearest the shopping districts in HK. i have yet to book for one, deciding whether i'll book through a travel agency who has a disneyland trip on the side. so wish me luck!

reserving was easy, despite my very busy schedule at work. i was still in deep waters with my project last month, expected to please the users so i had to not only expedite but modify alot of the items i've already finished. inbetween, i had to train our techs from the UK on how to use the application, work w/ the application's vendor whose techs are from india, to troubleshoot some of the issues i was running into during the development.

i just went back to the supervisor chair last monday & all's been running smoothly still. gladly enough, i received compliments from my manager on my first day on how i handled, w/ my team ofcourse, a critical outage.