I made sure to catch the news that day as I wanted details on his death. They said he died of a cardiovascular attack which they highly differentiated with heart attack. In my side of the world, the news that day even cited popular people who also died of cardiovascular attack. And we had a pretty good number. Scary. And then I did a bit of reading. I thought that there must be something that could lessen the probability of suffering the attack or something aside from living a healthy lifestyle of course. And there it was, according to American Heart Association, Omega 3 fatty acids benefit the heart of healthy people and those of high risk or who have cardiovascular disease. Bingo! Now those Omega 3 health supplements are worth checking, don’t you think? So far, Omax3 seems to be a very good choice as they claim that they have developed the highest purity omega-3 supplement available over the counter even verifying it via their freezer test. Check their website for more details.

We should all start living healthy and there is no better time to start it than now.  Being young is no excuse to not think of our health (yet).

I should practice what I preach! LOL.

The AH1N1 scare have caused so much for people (like us) who usually take advantage of the summer vacation to have a short getaway with the whole family. To date, I know four families (excluding ours) who have canceled their trips abroad because of the virus. Well, we all believe that its better to be safe than sorry alright. As for my in laws who are now in the US, they left before AH1N1 (still called Swine Flu then) has made its presence felt. They flew to US to attend my sister in law’s graduation when the virus has said to hit California and New York (and now other cities and states too). They were supposed to have a side trip to New York for some New York Sightseeing being offered by CitySights NY, a recognized leader in New York City sightseeing that has hop-on, hop-off bus tours operated on a fleet of 60 new double-decker buses designed with top-deck-only seating to provide tourists with the best possible views of New York City’s attractions, neighborhoods and places of interest but they canceled last minute. They opted to stay in Florida and now in Washington where my sister in law moved for work. They didn’t want to risk their health too, of course.

They’ll be coming home next month and hopefully by that time AH1N1 would be out of the scene already so we could take our HK trip with them.  Sophia’s itching to go to Disneyland (again) while I am itching to SHOP and pig out!

Just when I thought we’re over with the sickies in the house, now its the little girl’s turn. She has been running a fever since last night and the paranoid mommy that I am can’t stop worrying. Who can blame me? After my five year old cousin’s bout with dengue last December, I now dread even a simple fever. I hope she gets better asap. As of typing this though, her temperature is down to 37.8.

I haven’t blogged about Mateo diagnosed to have UTI some two weeks ago, have I? Well, I was worried stiff I tell you as I have learned that UTI in children is something serious and doesn’t stop at just having urinalysis and urine cultures. Well, we and my pedia wanted to be on the safe side of course so we were referred to a urologist after the little boy was cleared from UTI after taking antibiotics for a week. That’s the time I found out that an ultrasound needs to be done and a procedure called VCUG where there’s a catheter involved and xrays. Thinking about the procedure made me sleepless for days as it sounded so complicated while it was being explained to me but apparently it was fast and simple. I’m just really glad Mateo’s UTI ordeal is now over and his VCUG result was a-okay. He has no reflux. If he happens to have one, he would need to maintain a low dose antibiotics everyday or worst undergo a surgery would you believe? Hay, thank God wala. However, he is advised to undergo circumcision. So by next week, on the 13th maybe, we’ll have our little boy circumcised na which now makes me one busy mommy. I plan to finish all party related stuff before the 13 as I don’t think I can take it to leave Mateo at home with just the yaya to look after him after his circumcision. So far, my things to do are:

~ finalize cake design
~ deposits payments to all my suppliers
~ buy prizes
~ shop for our outfits
~ food tasting at C3 and pay the full amount already
~ finalize table centerpiece designs
~ and something not party related, finish all my online assignments starting with a certain linear motion task

Hope I can do all these in less than a week! Oh, I just remembered, I also need to have my treadmill test completed by Sunday as part of my executive check up. Whew!

By the way, I just need to say that I can’t believe how a fairly nice (read decent) party would cost these days! Grabe!  Sophia’s 1st birthday party sometime in 2006 is panis! Cost wise ha … Susme. Jon is close to having a heart attack with the expenses.  Me too! And to think the money isn’t coming from my own pocket, haha!

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.

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 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.