Yes to NUKE!

To keep my heart beating, the Radio Active Iodine therapy (Isotope 131) was a must for my thyroid disorder. It was the first line of defense for my condition. I was scheduled to be in therapy from December 10 to 14 and the competitive spirit in me was targeting to complete the process in under 5 days.

Day 1
I’m back in the 10 square meter room at my favorite hospital, St. Luke’s Medical Center. I don’t actually like the process of undergoing therapy but I’d choose it any day over surgery. To borrow a doctor’s line “surgery will destroy this young man’s life.” Anyway, the procedure is that you’ll pop a NUKE pill (200 mill curie) the size of the regular tablet, then you need to be confined in a room with the objective of flushing out the nuclear content out of your body in the fastest time possible. This is my third radiation treatment in 3 years hence it’s beginning to be an annual affair. My batting average is 4 days in the hospital and this time I’m targeting 3 days to flush out the toxin err medicine out of my system. The nuke man wearing a blue space suit said I’m currently at 50 MRs. I can be discharged at 2 MRs.

Day 2
After one whole day of trying to make the laptop work with 3 possible data connections (1- wifi using my aircard, 2- weroam using another type of aircard and 3- 3G via my Nokia N70 celfone), I’ve come to a realization that connecting to the internet was just not meant for me during the session. Maybe I was meant to rest instead and watch TV. At around 9:00AM, Mr. Rad-Man (the radiologist) measured my radiation level and it was at 12 MR. My life savior a.k.a. my doctor said I can be discharged from the hospital if my rad count is less than 2.5 MR hence that was my target.

Day 3
The first visitor for the day was Mr. Rad-man who was in my room as early as 8:00AM. I just woke up that time and was eating breakfast so I asked him to come back around 9:30AM. Apparently, he didn’t follow my instruction and we was back around 9:00AM so I told him to return after 9:30AM because I wanted to take a shower before he waved his magic wand. E nagtampo ang mister so hindi na bumalik. I asked the nurse around 2:00PM to check my radiation count and they sent Mr. Rad-man around 3:00PM. Lo and behold! My rad count was 2.1 MR!!! The first thing that I said was “Can I go home now?” I was SO BORED that’s why I had to go home. I texted my Doctor and he said he already gave instructions that I be discharged before 5:00PM. So I was on my way home around 6:00PM.

Day 4
I had to go back to St. Luke’s Medical Center for the Whole Body Scan. Technically speaking, this wraps up my therapy with just a little concern, I had to re-take an exam which means I have to return the following day for a 15 minute process. It was perfectly okay, anything for my health and as long as I don’t spend another night in the hospital.

Day 5
I was back for Whole Body Scan partial re-take.

The whole therapy process including test amounting to P 150,000 was bankrolled by the company. Thank God! That would have been a huge sum if taken out of our finances. Seems like I’ll be staying with this company for a longer time.

Keep Walking!

Did you know that the walking pace of a person is an average of 5 kilometers per hour (about 3 miles per hour).

I live about 600 meters from my office which is roughly a 10 minute walk. Health advisories say it is beneficial to walk 10,000 steps a day. In fact, there are dozen of companies that advocate walking to their employees. Walking 10,000 steps which would take 240 minutes is equivalent to burning 12080 calories. In more mortal terms, walking 10,000 steps a day can burn enough calories to trim off 35 pounds in a year.

When I'm in the mood (or even when out of it), I engage in alot of pedo exercise. Probably the longest and most recent walk for me was in NYC when I walked almost the length of 5th avenue. I walked from Empire State bldg to Central Park. That's in excess of 5 kilometers (3 miles). In the Philippines, one of the longest walk I can recall is about 4 kilometers which was a walk from Tiara hotel in Malugay st., Makati to Sanctuario de San Antonio in Forbes Park, Makati. That's more than the length of Ayala Avenue.

Solitary Confinement

Last October 9 to 13, I underwent a therapy (Radio Active Iodine) at St. Luke’s Medical Center. It was a ‘doctor imposed’ solitary confinement cum therapy to correct the misbehaving cells inside my body. The result of the therapy was positive because the medicine and the misbehaving cells met and are now in the process of challenging each other. The battle will take 3 to 5 months and I pray that the medicine wins the battle.

Let me tell you about the therapy process. A patient has to drink a specific amount of radio active stuff then you have to flush it out of your system as fast as you can. Sounds weird, huh? You drink a medicine that aims to cure you but you have to flush it out of your system asap! You are confined in a room where nobody can visit you until the radiation level is safe for other human beings. Sabi nga nung intern “Sir, how does it feel to glow in the dark?”

How did I keep myself busy for 5 grueling days? I watched TV, prayed the rosary, watched TV, read magazines, watched TV, slept and watched TV. By the way, did I say I watched TV? I watched so much TV that I think I used up the remote control battery. Of course that’s exaggeration raised to the Nth power. I prepared myself to watch TV that I printed out the program schedules of HBO, Cinemax, StarTV, ESPN, Discovery Channel, NAT GEO, et al.

During my last day, the doctor said that I had to stay 1 more day because the test result was flawed and they had to do another test. I said 1 more day in this hospital will drive me nuts so I told him that I’ll just come back the following day and do the re-test. Sheesh! He wants me to watch more TV! I wasn’t prepared for this, I printed out TV skeds until Oct 13 only. Besides I miss my family already so I just had to get out of that joint, pronto!

On Health : A common denominator between man and computer is GIGO!

The computer term GIGO or GARBAGE IN, GARBAGE OUT was first introduced to me 2 decades ago by my high school computer teacher which we fondly call PREKEK. I’m not actually sure how that monicker was born, either he mispronounced free kick (a penalty shot in soccer) or an output in computer gone wrong.

As I write this journal, I have 2 misbehaving cells inside my body which are driving me nuts. I’m determined to delete them from my system soon before they recruit more of their kind. Come to think of it, it was really I who placed them there through the food that I eat. It can’t definitely be attributable to my lifestyle because I’d like to believe that I live a relative sports centered lifestyle.

For the past 2 decades of my life, despite my parents ultra frequent reminders to eat healthy food and my wife’s same level of reminders, I still continue to eat “earth friendly food” (a term I concocted which means bringing you closer to earth at a faster pace). I’ve always placed inside my head the “I’m still young and I can eat whatever I want” attitude. It’s time to wake up, Mister DyLac!

As my lovely wife puts it, let’s go for the most appropriate medical treatment, proper diet and regular family prayer. My equally lovely mother completely agrees to this.

My game plan is simple: let’s annihilate those batardos!!!