Blog - May 7^th & 9^th, 2010

Left: Felicitas has her picture taken with her visiting cousins and Fuda nurses.

 

[May 7th] Yanggi's condition is slowly but steadily improving. She still stays in bed all the time and gets up only to go to the bathroom. Medyo masakit pa kasi yung surgical sites but the doctor says healing normally takes somewhere between two to three weeks. Her appetite is good but we have to be selective with her diet coz of her diabetes. Medyo limited din ang activities ko. I alternate between eating, sleeping and watching TV. Sounds boring but I don't mind it a bit...:) at least not yet.
 
I don't worry as much anymore. Yanggi sleeps well most of the time and i do too although yesterday it was a bit of a struggle coz of the thunderstorm. Ang lakas po ng kulog at kidlat and nonstop thru early morning. But when I went out to buy breakfast, there was no trace of storm. The streets were wet but that was it. Kung sa Pinas ito I would think namamangka na ang mga tao sa umaga. 
 
By the way, since I'm glued to the tv most of the time, medyo up to date ako sa progress ng  upcoming Philippine elections and also Willie Revillame's controversial absence from Wowowee. Pagbalik sa States baka mahirapan akong mag-adjust sa trabaho. Okey din lang palang walang masyadong responsibilities. I'll try to make the most of this time and turn it into a positive experience. I do have a little project in progress, doing short video clips featuring Yanggi with her nurses and doctors. Hope I don't screw it up. Who knows this may be the next entry to the Oscar's for short documentary film. Nah.
 
We had visitors (husband and wife) from Victorville, California a few minutes ago. The husband happens to be the brother of Yanggi's friend who lives in Yucca Valley. He's here for follow-up treatment. They're still waiting for a room assignment so we had some time to bond. Lovely couple. Naturally, the conversation centered on cancer and treatment received from Fuda. I captured  part of their conversation on film.  
 
Oops medyo mahaba na yata. Till next email.
 
Take care everyone. 

 

[May 9th]
Fact: In China, couples are allowed to have only one child. Per our doctor, there are some minority nations (tribes) not subject to this law.
Another fact: Also according hospital staff, Chinese families do celebrate Mothers Day and Fathers day too..........next month.
 
Yesterday was quite an exciting day. Yanggi said ok for me to go out shopping with some hospital buddies and so off to the mall I went. Actually, I did a dry run early morning around 9:00 taking the free Vanguard mall bus that took me to the mall and back to the hospital. It was about a 30-minute ride. I didn't get off the bus coz I know I won't be able to find my way back and besides I didn't carry any ID or enough money with me. Smart thinking it turns out to be coz I didn't even realize until later that the bus has a number and only bus #3 goes to the hospital. After that joyride, I attended the Catholic mass on the 9th floor along with the other Filipino patients and caregivers (mostly caregivers). This was the second time I attended and it was again by Father Peter, a Chinese national who, despite language barrier, was able to communicate his message of love, peace and hope across quite effectively. For patients who are unable to walk or not quite mobile yet like Yanggi, he visited them in their rooms and gave them Holy Communion. You would think that China being Communist would ban or restrict Christian religious practices. Apparently not. There is in fact a Catholic church not too far from the hospital but you'll have to take a taxi to get there. That will be another adventure. 
 
In the afternoon, our group, which included husband and wife, Cindy and Edu (Edu is a pancreatic cancer patient at Fuda who's now tumor free but still receiving treatment to prevent recurrence) headed to the mall. We got on bus 250 for 2 RMB ($1 = 6.75 RMB or yuan). Our fearless leaders (Cindy and Zoe, a caregiver friend of a breast cancer patient) who had just gone the day before got us to the train station. We bought our train tickets for 3 RMB each, proceded to Line 3 for a train to GanDing. This is the Computer City. Boy, they have all types of electronic gadgets here including hacking devices. You need to know how to haggle chopping 2/3 of the price as a starting offer and work yourself up. Cindy said they'll have the Ipads (Made in China) next month. I'm not techy but it makes me want to be because the items seem affordable. The vendors offer one-year warranty too. To give you an example, they have mini-laptops (approx. 8" x 10") for 500 yuan or roughly $75 US dollars. The image is quite clear. Hmmm...very tempting.
 
Much later in the afternoon, we headed to VanGuard where we bought hopia, and some fruits while waiting for VanGuard bus #3. It took forever for the bus to arrive but this gave us some more bonding time. In fact there is a couple (husband is a lung cancer patient) that used to live in La Palma, CA but now resides in Quezon City, who had actually been to Kaunlaran. Small world. They're actually returning back to the Philippines today and plan to vote tomorrow. They are Noy-Mar supporters.
 
By the time we got back to the hospital, it was almost 7:00 pm. My patient was maybe a bit hungry but not starve.......not yet at least. She wanted the leftover soup, hard-boiled egg, and some veggies from the nearby restaurant operated by the hospital.
 
Yanggi and I watched some tv (Filipinas Got Talent) and fell asleep soon afterwards. 
 
Today I'm headed for another adventure with my master's approval. Till next mail.