Home in Bed
1:18 PM
March 06, 2009
Ok. I've contracted Shingles, and I've been at home in quarantine for this entire week. Hopefully I'll be well enough to go to school by next week. -_-
I'm getting as much bed rest as possible and trying to limit my activities to certain areas of the house because this thing is pretty contagious. One of our helpers has been getting on my nerves about it, insisting that it's chicken pox when it isn't and insisting that it isn't contagious, when it is. Grr... Her favorite is 1) my face is destroyed 2) when you're poor, you get chicken pox all over your body, but since you can afford medicines, you only get it on your face 3) it's not contagious. Baaah!!!
I've told her a billion times that it's not chicken pox. My mom has told her, even her companion told her it isn't. She just doesn't get it. T_T And she keeps bringing her kid in the room with her to observe the progress of the infection, can't she understand that it's contagious, ESPECIALLY to little kids? Argh.
I honestly hope her kid doesn't get infected.
And the other day, my dad got mad at me for not going to school. Well, sorrreee... The doctor told me not to go. It's not like I want to miss such crucial accounting days during the last stretch of the semester. Honestly. When you're on questioning the chances of passing a course, you don't willingly miss classes for that same course. It's just suicide. And from what I hear from my classmates, things are getting tougher in class now. Every meeting, everyone has to put their bags in front and answer a bunch of exercises that have to be returned to the professor. No one is allowed to keep copies because it's really comprehensive. Everything we've been doing this while semester is culminating in those exercises, and I can't even see them because I'm sick. Shet, I really want to pass this course and graduate this sem. Talk about awful timing. T__T
On the lighter side of things, my mom bought me two of the books I really wanted, because 1) I offered to pay for one, and 2) they must have pitied my horrible looking face and pathetic circumstance. ^^;
More on the shingles. I actually have it on my face, which makes it 1) a dangerous kind of shingles, 2) give me really really severe headaches and 3) impossible for me to go to school. If I had it anywhere else, I could still go to school, and so can you imagine what kind of luck I have? Not only is shingles already rather unusual, it also just had to happen on my face.
And the headaches are hell. I'm not prone to headaches, but these were so bad, I kept throwing up. Thankfully, I was prescribed some painkillers which I have to take daily.
I mentioned that it was dangerous, and that's because it's also close to my eyes (it spread partly on my right eyelid). If it spread further, it could have gotten into my eyes and scratched it and resulted (worse case scenario) in blurry or lost vision. I was horrified. The dermatologist even made me visit an Ophthalmologist for "eye clearance".
But, I'm optimistic that I'll get well before the week is out. We caught it pretty early (and there is a story there too) so hopefully I'll make it for my Monday exam. :D
Anyway, I noticed that my forehead was itchy last week, friday, but of course, I though nothing of it. By afternoon, I was feeling the symptoms of fever, which had me worried since I had to retake an accounting exam that Saturday. I was feeling better on Saturday morning due to several doses of paracetamol. My friend noticed that the red spots on my forehead seem to have spread, but we all thought nothing of it. By Saturday night the fever returned and again, I felt better the next morning. My forehead, however, was really bothering me. The irritation had spread to my eyelids, and it was itching (and tingling) so much I was getting snappy and cranky. I was so bothered I forced my mom to take to to the doctor or something (not a usual thing for me to do), and my mom took me to DermClinic in SM, since she said the clinics in the hospital would be closed. So we went and they said I had allergies. They prescribed all sorts of medication, about 3 pages worth, including moisturizer. -_- I was a bit suspicious (you would be it you watch House and you see how cool diagnosticians are) but I was also relieved it wasn't anything worse. Like shingles. -_-
But by Monday morning, I had a really really bad headache. As in I'd burst into tears everytime I tried to talk, and I was getting nauseous. It was that bad. T_T I begged my mom to take me to the hospital. And one quick look at me and the doctor was grabbing a mask to cover her face. It was obvious what it was. She even said that the doctors at Dermclinic aren't really doctors, and that's just like getting your maid to diagnose your disease for you. Plus all the meds they prescribed were wrong. Baaah! And the doctor was really nice and she showed me pictures and explained eveything all the symptoms, and even why the rash looks the way it does.
Apparently Shingles is the reactivation of the chicken pox virus (varicella zoster) that lays dormant in your system. When your chicken pox heals, the virus doesn't entirely leave your body but sleeps happily somewhere along your spinal cord. Then several years later (for causes still unknown) they'll happily decide to show up again, and they become shingles, which only infects one part of your body, and obeys an imaginary midline, so if it's on your right side, it'll never crossover to the left.
I did a bit of internet research, like the doctor suggested, and learned that since it's highly contagious, you can easily affect others as well. If you infect a person whose had chicken pox, they'll get shingles, if you affect a person whose never had chicken pox, they get chicken pox. Same virus you see. It perfectly explains all the symptoms, headache, fever, etc., it looks right (like the pictures) and it even obeys a midline (I have it on my forehead, and it's only spreading on the right side). But the thing is, I've NEVER HAD CHICKEN POX. I did, however, get a chicken pox vaccine, and that's the only explanation I can offer to this crucial missing bit of the puzzle.
There's a shingles vaccine, btw, and I wish I'd known about it and had it done before this all happened. What a time to get sick. Just when you think think you're safe. Tsk tsk...
beginnings and endings
11:41 AM
I suddenly noticed: sometimes, when you get to the end of something, you just can't help but think back to the beginning. It may sound lame, but the phenomenon just suddenly hit me.
I was being asked about a memorable CE experience as my farewell to CE (since I'm supposed to be graduating this sem) for Ventures, and the first thing that popped into my head was the Applicant's Orientation I attended with Vigile, Bong and Rachel in my 2nd sem in UP. Of course, Vigile was all: "I already have an org, I don't want to have another. I didn't even want to be in an org in the first place, etc., etc." and Bong was curious since she's never had an organization before, and Rachel really wanted to join because her friend Kevin joined in the previous semester and was already an officer. I was also curious since I didn't have a college based organization, and I thought: "Well, it
IS my college."
There we had to decide what committee we'd like to join, and though we'd originally hoped to join 1 committee, Rachel really wanted to join marketing where Kevin was, while the rest of us were still unsure (though Vij and I were sure we didn't want o join Marketing^^).
I was a bit torn between Operations and Publicity, but the committee presentations eventually tipped the scales for me. Every committee was presenting skits, spoofing scenes from movies like Ang Tanging Ina where the Finance VP, Lady, was the kid who gets slapped unintentionally by Ai-ai. The Publicity committee was the last to present, and all they had was a super cool powerpoint presentation and a little speech by the Pub VP Raul, where he basically insulted (in good humor) all the other committees for lowering themselves to embarassing skits. It was hilarious and impressive.
So I made up my mind (though I knew nothing about Photoshop, etc. at that time) and I persuaded Vigile (who was still changing her mind about joining every few minutes) and Bong (who kind of wanted to join other committees due to a self-proclaimed lack of artistic skills, which is baloney, if you've ever seen Bong's sketches, and she's better then me at crafts, since I grew up to be more techie :p). I specifically remember telling Vij that the committee was into graphic and web design, etc. and I remember hearing Bong saying she'd like to try marketing, but she'd pick the same committee we'd choose. (Bong is so nice. ^^)
Well, what followed was a couple of semesters of fun. We all ended up really loving CE and Pub. Bong even ended up as Vice President. (It was also offered to Vigile, but she turned it down).
The ending was a lot less memorable and disheartening, for me at least. Vigile left CE early on for Tennis UP, Bong left it gradually after her term to focus on her thesis, and Rachel kind of left it when her relationship with Gil ended. So I've had CE for more than a year longer than they did. It was still fun for a while, when Ivan and Levs were still around, but after they graduated, it's been downhill for me since.
Which is pretty sad. I still love the old CE, but the new CE is a little disheartening. The sem after Levs and Ivan graduated, Gil was assigned CE week and I was made a staff for some adhoc. Things happened, and I was so disheartened with CE and how people worked. *won't go into details* I ranted to Gil and he agreed, so it's not just me. He seemed pretty pissed with CE back then too.
There are a few members that still make me feel hopeful, but it's quite clear to me that CE underwent such a huge (negative) change from what it was during that really energetic first Apps Orientation I attended to the current in-tambayan-genmeets. Huge leap. Everyone's asking (even the non-CE people) "What happened?" And even I don't know.
This ending feels like a really tattered edge to me. With pieces breaking off and everything. It has come to a point where I don't even feel sad about actually leaving CE behind. Though looking back, there is sadness there, but more for what CE has fallen to. It used to be such a hopeful, bright and energetic organization, with people teasing each other and healthy committee bashing comments fly around. Now VPs are resigning, committees don't attend another committee's projects, some people don't make an effort to understand their co-officers, members and apps, and there are occasional bitter fights. It's really sadly different.
Maybe I stayed too long. Gil's reconciled to CE again because he's found someone, but I'm still bothered. Honestly, my farewell is a little muddled, I don't know what to say, I don't know how to say certain things I want to say, basically I don't know where to begin.
In the years that I've been in CE, I've heard countless people say: "I wish I found CE earlier, I wish I had more time with CE" when saying their farewells during our tribute genmeet (genmeet for graduating people). Of the people who've heard those statements, only a very few of us remain, and I doubt any of us would share that sentiment. That line has always had a big impact on me, since I was in first year. I've always expected to feel the same when the time came. But I don't. And that's probably the saddest thing about this ending.
I feel like I've betrayed the older CE generation. And I'm really sorry. Sorry to Lyka, Ate Judy, Ate Ainee, Ate Sheesha, Janna, Kate Reyes, etc. Make no mistake, I don't regret joining CE, and I still love the CE of the old days, but things are different now.
Urgh. I sound emo and I;m starting to go in circles. ---______--- I better quit now. If I have any typos, grammatical errors, etc., sorry. I'm really not good at typing, and I kind of feel lazy about rereading. :( So sorry nalang. :P And sorry for the Emo-ness... ^^;
