My mom celebrated her birthday yesterday. I won’t mention her age because she’ll probably disown me if I did.
We celebrated her birthday in a simple but great way. My dad was supposed to take her out for dinner at some restaurant but she didn’t want to go. Instead she wanted to spend it at home. My brother prepared dinner instead.
My mom’s birthday dinner consisted of deconstructed French Onion Soup. Deconstructed because the cheese and bread were served separately. I asked my brother if that was really a style of serving it and he said no. The reason he served it that way was because he didn’t have a broiler hot enough to melt the cheese properly and make sure that the cheese was on top. I don’t really fully understand what that means… Hey the only cooking I ever did was to heat up some corned beef when I was young.
We also had salmon for appetizers, a salad and for the main course Paella. I must say that my brother’s Paella is pretty good. It also didn’t contain any pork because my dad doesn’t eat pork.
For dessert we had Mango and Cream Cake which my cousin prepared. Peachy, my cousin is one of the best “cakers” in Manila. She’s also like a daughter to my mom and dad and so she had to be with us for dinner.
Apart from my dad, mom, brother, cousin and I, we were also joined by Imee, my brother’s longtime girlfriend.
The dinner was simple and yet extremely enjoyable and delicious. It probably was a better alternative than my dad’s original plan. I’m sure my mom enjoyed it as well.
Mom, you know I love you very much and each birthday you have I am truly thankful to God for having blessed our family by making your our mom. You’re the gel that holds our family together. I don’t know where we’d be with out you.
Happy, happy birthday mom! May God grant all your wishes. I love you.
P.S.
Oh, don’t mind the walls in the picture. We’re having the house repainted and now it’s still a mess. The girl in picture making a funny face, that’s my cousin Peach.
This is a little late for Christmas but just in time for New Year. I hope that your Christmas has been a good one. You got a chance to spend time with family, laughing, catching up, exchanging gifts and well wishes. I hope that you’ve had abundant blessings, while it may not be material things, simply by being with your loved ones, being healthy are more than adequate blessings.
As 2008 draws near, I want to with you health, wealth and happiness. May the coming year be great. I wish you a life as blessed as mine.
A Happy New Year you!
The Christian world welcomes one of its newest members, baby Adam!
Adam is the son of my cousin Melvin and his wife Farah. Born on Nov. 3, 2007, Adam is the second child of the couple. Ashley, the eldest child is a proud big sister.
I was really flattered when Melvin and Farah asked me to be the God Father of Adam. Melvin and I grew up together and were really close when we were kids. We’re almost the same age with just a little less than 6 months separating us.
Being a God Parent is something that shouldn’t be taken lightly. I know I can’t give much in terms of monetary or financial support as of now but I’m quite confident that I can be a good example to Adam as he grows up.
I’m not sure if I’ll ever have kids so I’m at least happy I have several God children. Although I feel bad because some of them I have not seen for awhile. I hope to see them soon.
So, to Adam, welcome to the Christian world. I promise to do the best I can to be a good role model for you. I look forward to seeing you grow up to be a great man.
So my heart rate problem has finally been solved. I think… From the tests we did (2D Echo and ECG), there seemed to be nothing wrong with my heart. So my doctors looked into other causes of my rapid heart rate. The most obvious reason was my BiPap settings. It might not be adequate for me already and I’m not able to expel carbon dioxide enough. The build up of carbon dioxide can lead to increased heart rates.
The doctors had us adjust the settings. After some tweaking, we finally got a setting that seemed to work. The downside was I got soe gas and nausea for the next few days. But I slept better and my heart rate slowed down.
On hindsight and upon asking other Pompe patients, it was more obvious that it was the machine settings.
I’ve been getting headaches when I wake up. I would also wake up in the middle of the night and find myself breathing rapidly. It also came to a point that when I would wake up in the middle of the night I would have to sit up for a few minutes to feel better.
Other patients felt this and all of them said that it was caused by BiPap settings that needed to be adjusted.
So I hope that’s all there is to it. Wish me luck.
It was around 6 a.m. when I woke up to turn in bed. I can turn partly but not all the way and I need to ask someone to help me. I tried to call my aide when I suddenly felt my heart starting to race. I started to panic. It’s a good thing that my mobile phone was beside me. I dialed my parents room and asked them to come to my room.
They found me with my heart racing and pounding so strong that when you put your hand on my chest you’d really feel the beats. It was racing so fast I honestly thought that it was the limit. My heart would not go any faster. I was scared that it would stop.
My mom held my hand and asked me to try and relax. As the minutes passed by my heart rate started to drop. In around 3 mins it was almost back to normal. Whew! That was quite a scare. I spent most of the day in bed resting.
We spoke to the doctor treating me with Myozyme and we also tried to call my physician but he was out of the country. It could not have been Myozyme related because it was almost 2 weeks since I had my dose. It should have been out of my system already.
After a whole day of resting I was feeling much better. Well enough in fact to go out. I still managed to go about with my plans for that weekend.
We scheduled an appointment with a cardiologist the following Monday. It was just right before checking into the hospital for the Myozyme infusion. I wanted to get an all clear from a cardio before getting the infusion.
The cardio listened to my heart and had an ECG done. She said that my heart seemed fine. The rhythm was good however it was still slightly elevated. She asked if I was taking any caffeine, I told her I drank coffee in the morning and iced tea during the day. She told me to stop it until we figure out what’s wrong.
She cleared me for my infusions and so I got my Myozyme the following day. The infusion went without a hitch and I was home at our scheduled time.
In my opinion it could be several things. First could be cause not getting enough oxygen while sleeping. The settings of my machine might not be right for me anymore. The next would be the caffeine, however I did not take that much caffeine. The doctor said that my metabolism might be changing and that I could be more sensitive to caffeine now. The third would be that the Mitral Valve Prolapse I have is getting worse. Among all three I really hope it’s not the third.
A 2D Echo before we started Myozyme showed that I have Mitral Valve Prolapse but the cardio that looked at it said that it was insignificant. The efficiency of my heart was still good. In fact in a 2D Echo done 6 months after it showed that the efficiency improved.
My gut instinct tells me it’s the machine settings. To be on the safe side though, I’ll be getting the 2D Echo done again. If it’s the heart I’m thinking it should happen when I’m awake as well. It happens when I’m asleep or just woken up. So I’m really thinking it’s the machine setting.
A part of me is really scared to find out. Dealing with Pompe is hard enough and I don’t think I can deal with another disease. Not at this time at least. So I’m really hoping nothing serious is wrong with me.
I’ve put two Ivan Acuña paintings I have for sale. I got these as payment for services rendered from the artist himself. I would have liked to keep one of them but due to my current problems, I’m putting them both up for sale to raise funds.
These are abstract paintings that are perfect for interior decoration. In fact one of them is actually on my office wall but I need to part with it.
I was supposed to use the proceeds to fund my sabbatical from work to focus on physical therapy but given my current BiPap woes, I’ll use the proceeds for that.
The details are:
Painting 01
Size: 4.5 × 3.5 ft
Painting 02
Size: 4.5 × 4.5 ft
If you know anyone who’s interested I’d appreciate it. You can leave me a message here as to how I can contact you or the interested buyer. You can also email me at juan@sparkplug-studios.com
Here are thumbnails of the paintings. Click on them to see the bigger picture.
