The work week was pretty successful. No major problems with the roll-out at work. To celebrate, my husband met me in the city to watch The Avengers.
I left my work building and I started having abdominal pain. It was tolerable so I decided to walk from work to Union Square. I figured it was just gas and it will go away after a few minutes. Food in tow, we sat ourselves at the movie theater and waited for the movie to start. The pain got worse. I was fine I thought. I convinced myself it will go away. Half an hour later, the pain didn’t go away, it was more severe. I needed to go to the ER.
Midnight came and I was told I needed surgery to take out my appendix. I had laparoscopic appendectomy the next morning.
Ready for surgery
After the surgery, I was sent back to my hospital room appendix-free. They kept me overnight for observation and I had this for a view.
New York City
Now I stay at home resting… hoping that from all these, I have become stronger and ready to face whatever fate may have in store for me.
We went to a clinic and my dad was indeed having a heart attack. He was rushed to the ER at Celebration. He was stabilized, then admitted.
Admitted at Florida Hospital Celebration
If you remember from my previous post, we were supposed to go on a Disney cruise that day. I decided to take my mom, brother and nephew to the cruise terminal so they can proceed with the cruise and I stayed with my dad.
Dropping them off at the Disney cruise terminal
Dad stayed at the Celebration hospital for two more days. Thankfully, my timeshare accommodation lasted til then.
Floridal Hospital Celebration
Dad was then transferred to the Orlando hospital for a heart catheterization. After the procedure, they kept him for observation overnight. Since I had no place to stay, I slept on the couch of his hospital room.
At Florida Hospital Orlando
Dad was told not to fly until four days after the procedure. So while he was recovering from the anesthesia, I started making a lot of calls. I called Delta to reschedule our flights and went on Hotwire to find us some last-minute accommodations after dad was discharged.
Three days after he was discharged, we were headed for home to celebrate his 67th birthday. Dad is doing great!
Happy birthday daddy, we love you!
I went back to work full-force working 50+ hours for the week of the roll-out of our electronic medical records system.
Exhausted? You bet! Challenges over? Not a chance…
We proceeded to the Budget counter to pick up our rental car (used BCD code Y937800 for a discount).
Waiting for our turn at the rental counter
We got the Discovery Cove Ultimate Package that allows us one day all-inclusive access to Discovery Cove and 14-day access to Sea World and Aquatica. We definitely enjoyed ourselves.
Snorkeling at Discovery Cove
Enjoying Sea World
Tubing at Aquatica
Five days into our trip, we were supposed to board the Disney Dream. I woke up early to prepare when I saw my father on the couch not looking too well. I’ve never seen him like that. My brother and I went to the nearest pharmacy to get a sphygmomanometer, glucometer and thermometer so we could do a home assessment. I tried to take his blood pressure, but got confused coz his pulse seemed very erratic. I asked my brother to do it himself and he noticed the same thing. My father then said he was having chest pains and cold sweats.
It all started with booking two vacations back to back. The first one was a Southern Caribbean cruise for just my husband and me. Right after that was a family vacation with only my parents, brother and nephew. I was very excited!
My husband and I went on our vacation all ready for adventure.
Celebrity Summit
When I say adventure, I really meant ADVENTURE…
Shark Dive
A wild dolphin decided to swim with us on our first dive
Zip Line
Then the last day of our cruise came and it was time to go home. It’s always sad to end a vacation. But I wasn’t. I was ready for my next adventure. Until I realized the cards have a different kind of adventure planned for me for the next days.
Our flight from San Juan, Puerto Rico got delayed for 3 hours and the earliest time they could get us back to NY was 11:05am the following day. I got worried coz the flight for my next trip was at 1:30pm that same day we were now arriving in NY! So here were the events that followed:
I called my parents to take with them an empty carry-on and my portable hard drive (you’ll understand later).
My parents picked us up at the airport.
At the “pick-up” area, I transferred my dirty laundry from my previous trip to the empty carry-on.
A lot of the photos my husband took from our trip were for his project that was due in a few days. They were all saved in my laptop. I started copying the photos to the portable hard drive so my husband can take it with him.
My husband took over the car and dropped the family at the other terminal for our 1:30pm flight to Orlando.
My husband parked the car as we wait for all the photos to get copied to the portable hard drive. There were 70+gb of photos!
After all photos were copied, my husband took the car, portable hard drive and the rest of our luggage from the first trip and went home.
My family and I checked in, went through Security and waited to board our plane. I breathed a sigh of relief looking forward to the vacation that was about to start.
My first reaction when I saw the photo of the Blood Pressure Dock at Brookstone was “Cool!” After a few seconds of brain death on my part, I came to my senses. Why would I buy a $99.99 sphygmomanometer + iPhone dock when I can buy a pretty good sphygmomanometer for about $50 and a dock for less than $20?
The Brookstone blood pressure dock would probably be more useful if it were more portable. The point of using my phone for a lot of my everyday requirements is portability. Since the Brookstone blood pressure dock is as big as most sphygmomanometers, I’d rather just have a dedicated sphygmomanometer. I actually have a manual sphygmomanometer that tends to be more accurate than the electronic ones.
Would you buy the Brookstone Blood Pressure Dock? Share your thoughts.
The geekiness in me came out and I just had to post this video. It’s so cool. It gives you a visual of what’s going on in our bodies on the micro level.
This video shows a neutrophil (a type of white blood cell) chasing a staphylococcus aureus bacterium. The video was recorded by biochemistry professor David Rogers of Vanderbilt University in the 1950s.
With the Swine Flu (H1N1) outbreak, retailers and designers joined medical supplies manufacturers by creating their own version of flu masks. Some are humorous and some are indeed fashionable.
As we are still planning to go to Cozumel in 2 weeks, I am planning to pack some masks and a few protective items. It would be fun to purchase one of the humorous ones. I like “oink!” one. But I’ll settle with the good old fashioned N95 that they provide at work.
I know first hand how hard and expensive it is not to have health insurance here in the United States. With the unemployment rate at its highest, more people lost their health insurance. The drugstore Walgreens has started a program that offers free healthcare to those who lost their jobs and health insurance.
Walgreens opens its 341 Take Care clinics to people who lost their jobs after March 31, 2009, including spouses and children who don’t have health insurance. Patients can be tested and treated at the Take Care clinics for minor ailments such as respiratory problems, allergies, infections and skin conditions, among other ailments. Prescriptions, however, are not free. The clinics open Monday throuh Friday from 11am to 3pm. The program is expected to run through the end of 2009.
This is perfect for people like me who are planning to get fit at the start of the new year. If you’re like me who can’t drag themselves to the gym or think the gym is too boring, a Wii Fit would be a perfect tool to getting fit the fun way!
I know lifestyle and family health history affects life expectancy. Well, I just found a tool that will give you a number. Life Expectancy Calculator – isn’t that interesting? It’s not really meant to scare you. Though limited, I think it’s a nice tool to let you know if you need to change some things in your life.
I plotted down my info and got the following results:
ResultsÂ
Based on your answers to the above questions, your current life expectancy is 90 years. If you’re not happy with the result, consider that by adopting a healthier lifestyle and avoiding various risk factors, you can increase your life expectancy by up to 15 years.
Your “ideal” weight for maximum longevity is: 123 lbs.
The three biggest positive factors that you have going for you are:
   1. Age
   2. Gender
   3. Personality type
The two biggest negative factors that you have going for you are:
   1. Family health
   2. DietÂ
I agree that I defnitely need to improve my diet. But it’s nice to know that my current weight is close to my ‘ideal’ and I don’t need to obsess about losing weight.
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I know lifestyle and family health history affects life expectancy. Well, I just found a 
