Sophia has been having on and off colds and cough for the past weeks now. She has been on antibiotics for a week which stopped the coughing and sneezing for a couple of days. Yes, only a couple of days as four days ago, I had to take her to the pedia again because of her excessive coughing, ugh! Her pedia took a different approach this time though as she believes its allergy the little girl is suffering from. I was asked if we had stuff at home such as carpets that actually houses dust and bacteria when not cleaned regularly and properly. Guilty as charged here. We do have carpets at home which haven’t been cleaned for a while or should I say since we bought them, maybe a year ago? So, they are the culprit them huh? Now I badly need to hire a carpet cleaner as soon as possible to end the little girl’s misery. You see, she would have a coughing fit at night while sleeping. Poor baby. I hope her lungs clear up as soon as the cleaners perform their miracle on our carpets.

The husband is back from Macau. We picked him up from the airport last night. While he was away though, I had the scare of my life.

Read on.

Sophia was feverish when the husband left last Friday. I thought it was nothing serious as she was still active on our way to Pampanga after dropping the husband at the airport. Late afternoon though, the little girl’s temperature was 39.5 and she wasn’t her old self already whose very active and talkative. Although I give her tempra every 4 hours, her fever won’t go down so I called her pedia and told her that I am taking Sophia to the clinic the next day.

By 12 midnight, Sophia woke up and started crying. She was so hot!!! Her temperature was 40! She kept telling me her head is “ouchie” and she can’t breath. We gave her sponge bath and I was already in panic. This is the first time my daughter ever complained of something painful. You see, if you know my daugther, made of steel yun! She hardly complains of getting hurt etc so to hear her say that “ouchie” her head while crying, it is something. Knowing that the husband was not with us made me all the more emotional. I felt so alone even if we were in my mom’s house. I guess I’m really not used to not having Jon around. Its actually the first time he left the country without us with him which I doubt would happen again after this incident. We were ready to take Sophia to the hospital when suddenly her fever went down and she said that she feels a bit fine already and just take her in the hospital when its already morning. Wow, the beauty of a pre-schooler. She can really communicate well na unlike if baby pa, we have to guess what’s painful or not and bear with the non-stop crying without knowing whats wrong.

The next day, she was still not active while in the car and she even vomited as her fever went up to 39 again but I was a bit relaxed already as we were on the way to her pedia. When we arrived at the clinic, the pedia checked her and gave her medicines. She wasn’t advised to have a blood test yet though as it was just the second day of her fever. If her fever continues the next day, she will have to undergo blood test already. I was a bit relived though on the way home as she was suddenly active and was looking for sinigang! Hay, as soon as we got home, there she gobbled up on her pork sinigang and went to sleep. Hay, thank God.

Now, the husband while this was all happening was calling me on the cellphone non-stop. He was in panic like me. He can’t believe that his first ever attempt to have a short vacation with his friends abroad without us will turn to be a not so relaxed one. He wasn’t able to shop according to him and only got to buy an air conditioning compressor for a friend. So I doubt if it will ever happen again.

But guess what he got me.

Jon’s “ama” (grandmother in Chinese) is celebrating her 82nd birthday soon. I have long been thinking of what to give her but couldn’t decide on anything. Since she is obviously of old age already, I don’t think she’ll find use for any other material things I have in mind. Besides, she already has everything!

My mom suggested though that we get her Medical Alert instead as this would be very useful for her. Since “ama” is usually home with just the maids the whole day on a very big house, she can get complete protection and help instantly if something happens to her. You see, Jon’s auntie who lives with her goes to work every single day and does not come home until late in the evenings so “ama” is literally all on her own most of the time. As you all would agree too, we cannot count on the maids all the time, right? With Medical Alert, her loved ones need not worry all the time as home and emergency response system is available. I am now wondering if I should get the one for the home which is the Fall Alert detector or the GPS Tracking Bracelet. But since “ama” is just usually home, might just settle for the Fall Alert detector which I think she can utilize more.

I am sure Jon would be delighted with this Medical Alert gift idea of mine as its truly what his “ama” needs these times.

My grandmother died because of the Big C. Everyone in the family was devastated when we found out she had cancer. I guess no one expected it as it is the first in the family so we were all shocked and were caught off guard. Right after we found out, time has never been more precious.

My grandmother instantly complied with her chemotherapy sessions even if she was against it already and kept saying that she’s too old for such treatment and that she’s afraid of the side effects. Because of the family’s persistence though, she gladly obliged. I wonder if it was the right thing to do but since we all wanted her to get well, and going through chemotherapy sessions is the only way we know how, we insisted she goes through the process. No matter how painful, she went through it. We all wished we knew of MaddoxOncology.com then so we could have at least got her cancer products like anti nausea bracelets to lessen her burden. It would have surely helped her a lot. MaddoxOncology.com is a family owned business that provides cancer products selected by survivors themselves to make treatment more tolerable and help patients stick to their treatment regimen. They have different nausea products that can help relieve nausea and uneasy stomach associated with motion sickness and chemotherapy. I remember so clearly how my grandmother complained of nausea back then and would always ask for anti nausea medicines but we couldn’t give her any. It was really depressing and painful. Now, if anyone you know is going through the same stage, there is something you can do to lessen the burden proven by a family who has personally gone through cancer and survived it.  Visit MaddoxOncology.com.

My husband comes from a family with cardiac arrest history. Actually, two of his uncles were victims of Sudden Cardiac Arrest. Because of this, Jon has been vigilant as he doesn’t want to be caught off guard. He wants to familiarize himself with Sudden Cardiac Arrest and the risk of personally encountering this condition as such is responsible for 325,000 deaths per year. Shocking isn’t it? Good thing, at InsideCardiacArrest.com, important information is available so one can better understand the potential dangers and what one can do such as having Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillators, a small battery-powered electrical impulse generator which is implanted in patients who are at risk of sudden cardiac death due to ventricular fibrillation. To learn more, visit their site and you’ll be surprised to find out about this very fatal occurrence.