Aesthetic Enhancements

This evening I had the chance to watch a local soap at home while waiting for our cab to arrive. It's a series about a monkey looking woman who's scorned existence took a 180 degree turn when she met a well respected and renowned cosmetic surgeon who gave her a new face. Talk about luck, eh?

Centuries ago and even a few decades back, cosmetic surgery is an entirely uncharted territory in medicine. Which makes people nowadays very privileged. Imagine if that woman in that series was born sometime in the 1800s. She will be stuck with that kind of face, as well as a lifetime of ridicule. Whereas today, all that one needs to do if one wants to erase laugh lines, trim that beer belly or fill up that flat chest, is to find an expert plastic surgeon with unparalleled level of care for patients. Dr. Bustillo of Miami cosmetic surgery happens to be one of those extra ordnary surgeons who comes to the aid of people wanting a higher self esteem and a better quality of life.

Don't you think we're lucky to be born at this age? Well I do.

Exploring San Diego

If you're off to the Golden state for some rest and recreation, a road trip or for a business convention, i highly suggest that you dont miss out on checking one of the state's finest city - San Diego! The city is simply oozing with a rich conglomeration of culture, which will make your stay a very interesting and memorable one. Check out the zoo, take the old town trolley tours, pamper yourself in one of the city's fab spa or satisfy your craving for more fun by going to one of its hip party places. Whatever you decide to do during your stay, the first thing you need to decide on is where to stay. Whether you're a high roller or a middle-range back packer, there are a variety of hotels in San Diego that will definitely suit your budget and your discriminating taste in hotel service. 

Fountain of Youth

More and more people are becoming more concious about how they look nowadays. With the media hyping on the importance of not looking your actual age, technology is agressively evolving as well in order to meet the demands of today's more-than-ever-beauty-conscious society.

One of the revolutionary way of maintaining that youthful glow is getting BOTOX injections. But don't just go to any clinic providing the said treatment. It is best to go to an institution that is regarded best in these field. Houston botox as headed by Dr. Kridel is known for providing quality treatments to their patients. Where most doctors treat five patients with one bottle, Dr. Kridel treats only four patients per bottle, which naturally means better results for their patients. So if you're thinking of getting this treatment, I'd say you better go to no less than Houston botox.

Check up Blues

Last Saturday, I arrived at UST hospital at 5am. I took the graveyard shift and left the office past 4am. When I got there, I showed my doctor's request to the lab attendant who then printed out the charge slip and told me to pay it at the cashier. After which I got called and I was told about the procedure. The time I took the oGCT, there was another pregnant woman who took the OGTT, so I have an idea that the med techs are going to extract blood samples from me three times. But lo and behold! When I was told seated there waiting for the 100g of glucose to be handed to me, I was told that they will take my blood sample first, I wanted to cry upon realizing that they will be extracting blood from me for four times!!! First was to find out my sugar level after i fasted for 6hours. So there, after the first extraction, I was given the bottle of 100g glucose and was instructed to go back after an hour for the second extraction. I was not suppose to eat or drink anything until the last extraction. Talk about torture!

Hubby arrived from his shift before my third extraction. The last one was the most painful! This time around it was a male med tech who processed me and he is not at all gentle. He had to reinsert the needle since he couldn't hit the vein and then I immediately knew something was wrong because no blood was coming out when he was pulling that lower portion of the injection. It took him a while to finish the extraction and now I have a 1 1/2 inches of blood clot on the area where he inserted the syringe. Hay!

The last extraction was done at 8:25am and we were advised to come back at 11:10am to get the results. Since I am too famished and thirsty and sleepy, hubby and I went directly to my sis-in-law's place. We had brunch and after catching up with my mother-in-law, I was told to go upstairs to take a nap. Kuya louie arrived, which is a good thing, because he was going to take mommy to their family doctor's clinic just a few blocks away from ust, so we got a free ride. We got there at 1pm and my OB arrived at 3pm. We were the 7th on the list, its a good thing my mother-in-law was able to pull some strings for us, thus, the secretary called us first.

I was happy when I stepped down the weighing scale since my weight did not increase. For the last 2 visits I had I was told to put a halt on eating a lot. Apparently, despite having the same weight (59k = 129.8lbs), the little guy is the one who increased in size. He is now 24.5cm or 9 1/4in! and we still have 3 months to go. Oh and when we had the ultrasound (April 13), he was already 694grams heavy. good luck to me!

Going back to my narrative, my OB was not at all pleased with the results. For 2 of the extractions, my blood sugar is higher than what's normal. We were asked to comeback the following Monday (April 23) to see an endocrinologist. She told us about her other patient who lost her baby who was already due for delivery for another week. The explanation was that the baby drowned in sugar since the mom has a very high blood sugar. Hubby started scolding me after the check up and was already paying a closer watch to what I eat after.

Monday, we went back to UST. As expected we waited again! We were told the doctor's clinic hours are 4pm-6pm. She arrived at 5pm and she was able to attend to us at 5:50pm. She just went over the OGTT results and pricked my finger for a quick check on my sugar. Then she told me I'm positive for gestational diabetes. I will be placed on a 2 week diet for observation. If after that time, there is no considerable decrease in my sugar level, I will be required to take insulin. HUHUHU

Now everything that I eat has to be checked since I am only allowed 1800-2000cal per day. Oh and we are looking for a dietician since they all left by the time we were told to go to the UST Diabetes Center for a lecture on calorie counting and conversion and for the meal plan I was supposed to get.

Oh well there goes the updates guys. Hope the diet works. I cant even drink Gatorade, just plain water till I give birth. I absolutely hate needles and I don't want to be inserting one at me everyday for the insulin shots. I just pray that the diet will work.

Showbiz Talks

There's no business like show business! True indeed! A lot people who are blessed aesthetically are trying to bank on their good looks to make it into the glamorous world of show business. There are people who really had a hard time early in life and made it big in show business later on. The late Anna Nicole Smith being one of them. It is indeed a paradigm shift from being an ordinary person to becoming the most talked about actor/actress in hollywood later on.

People find celebrity gossip a very safe topic to talk about. Who broke up with whom? who's dating who? who just got pregnant? Who's going to rehab? These are just some of the common buzz among people about show business.

Sometimes it's good to keep yourself updated with what's happening around you, not only politically but sometimes, well in fact most of the time, it helps to know about what's the latest celebrity buzz. It's an interesting and less debatable topic compared to religion and politics and makes for good conversation. As for people like me who has to spend more time in front of my lap top than the boob tube, a better way on catching up on the latest in celebrity gossip is thru the internet. Another good reason to be thankful for evolution of technology!

Nosy Business

One of my former staff told us about her grandmother who lives in London, who went home here in the Philippines for a visit about two years ago. Her granny was then 85 years old. Apparently, she doesn't work anymore in London. What she does is to take part time jobs by ironing clothes of fellow Filipinos who then pays her a handsome amount of 6euros per hour. She was able to raise money because of that, aside from her pension. When she got back here in the Philippines, what totally surprised her family and the rest of their relatives is that she went to one of the top hospitals of the country and got herself noselift! Apparently, she was preparing for the day when she will be finally laid to rest and she wanted to still look beautiful by then.

All was well a few days after the surgery. However, the old lady started to feel all of a sudden uncomfortable with the outcome. She came up with a list of complaints and brought it up to the surgeon. Thus, came the need for a revision rhinoplasty. To cut it short, the old lady felt that the surgeon could've done a better job. Well as they say, the enemy of good is better. It's a good thing the surgeon was very professional in receiving the feedback of his patient and was able to provide her with the ideal nose that she wanted to get.

Personally, I think revision rhinoplasty is a very difficult medical procedure in plastic surgery. Having a rhinoplasty in itself is something that scares me, despite the fact that a lot of people attest that the procedure is safe. What more if you have to do it the second time around? Not only it is scary for the patient, this procedure requires a lot of patience and professionalism as well on the part of the surgeon. The doctor will have to address the expectations of his patient and must be able to manage them by telling them what is feasible and not feasible. On the other hand, it is also important that the surgeon performs the secondary procedure with the same level of enthusiasm when the initial procedure was done.

At the moment I'm still not sure if I would like to go under the knife to enhance myself aesthetically but who knows? May be I'd change my mind in the future.

newsflash!

 We need suggestions for the baby's name.

We went to UST Hospital last Saturday for my OB check up. Prior to that we were tasked to go to the lab for me to have my OGCT - dunno what that stands for but that is to check whether the baby will be diabetic. we got there before 8am. My name got called in the lab at exactly 8am. I was given glucose in liquid form which looks and tastes so much like on orange soda. We were then asked to go back after an hour, since we have to wait for my body to absorb the glucose before they take my blood sample. So off we went to the Ultrasound section at the second floor. They were open already and we were the first one there, apparently the bad news is that the doctor that was assigned to me by my OB will be arriving at 10am. Gee! Talk about luck! We then decided to go to Medical Arts building to have my name listed for the OB check up. But then again, we're too early and the offices are still closed. So off we go out to eat at one of the fastfood fronting the hospital, which used to be a plain parking lot.

When the clock hit 9am, we went back to the lab to have my blood sample taken. Gee i so hate that procedure, not only do i dislike needles but what makes the whole experience more stressful for me is i have baby veins which makes it difficult for med techs to extract blood from me. Well anyway, after that we were told that the results will be out after 3 hours! Previously it was 2 hours now they made it 3 hours. So after that, we went to the ultrasound section, since I was too exhausted to take a stroll. Take note, I came from a graveyard shift that night. So we were expecting that the doctor will be there by 10am. Apparently he was late. We even saw my OB dropped by the ultrasound section. I told her the lab results will be out by 12nn, and she told me that she needs to go to Fatima for a lecture and will be back by 2:30pm. Good luck to us that means more waiting time. I already fell asleep at the lounge and the doctor assigned for my ultrasound arrived at 11:40am. Hay! Said one of his patients from the other hospital had labored prematurely. Hay! Oh well I was down to my last straw and close to tears and vexation, but it all disappeared when hubby and I saw our baby. Everything is great, the only thing that made the doctors concerned is that the baby is big. In fact he's already at the maximum size for his age. The dad of course is beaming the whole time we're seeing the baby. Sex determination was the last thing that was done and he was very anxious. When the doctor exclaimed that it's very obvious that we're having a boy, hubby's smile was from ear to ear. I wish I had a cam in hand to take a picture of his smile. Im so excited to have the 4d ultrasound by end of May.

Going back, after the ultrasound, we went to the lab to get the results. Without anything else to do and much time to spare, we went to SM San Lazaro, where I was rewarded a hefty lunch at Congo Grille by my super ecstatic husband. He was soooo thrilled and in a state of pure joy, that he even bought Go Nuts Donuts for my OB and her staff. We headed back to Medical Arts around 2pm. Doc arrived at 3pm and since we're the third on the list, I was already called around 4pm. Hay grabe! She felt the baby and went over the results of my ultrasound and my lab test. Apparently I have high susceptibility for gestational diabetes so I was scheduled for another exam this coming Saturday - April 21, for OGTT. Huhuhu what makes it really hard for me is that, I will have to fast for 6-8 hours, no food or water. When I get there, I will be asked to drink 100g (yes grams not ml) of glucose and the med techs will have to take a blood sample every hour for 3 hours. WAAAAAHHH!!!! oh well, I just have to think that it's for he best. But its still scary. Anyway, we got home at already 7pm, since it took a while for us to find a decent cab and traffic was really bad since it's a pay day Friday.

This morning, I gave not only my hubby a fright, but as well as my mom and our dogs - Pebbles and Coffee. I was dressing up for work and was putting lotion on my tummy while I was lying down our bed. When I was about to sit up, I saw my tummy and I saw the form of a feet!!! hehe exciting. I screamed my heart out calling my hubby (he was at the living room playing PS2). Our dogs who are then beside me at the bed looked at me with puzzled expressions in their eyes and when I kept on screaming, they were alarmed and they started licking my face as if to pacify me. When hubby opened the door of our room to find out what's going on, mom peeped in as well. When I told them about it, mom scolded me for scaring the hell out of her and she went back to the kitchen. Hubby went inside to see for himself and was really amazed as well. The dogs were licking my tummy while I was telling them that there is a baby inside my huge tummy.

This whole experience is really amazing!

updates

i was having a hard time coming up with a creative title so there goes, for the lack of anything better i thought of that word as a title to this post.

as for the last entry, i told you guys that we will have the ultrasound last april 10, however due to some things that needs to be attended here in the office, i had to take the night shift for that date and thus will need to sleep and rest on that date so we had to resched the appointment. Tomorrow marks the day when we will find out if we are having a girl or a boy. Hubby wanted a to have a bet and he is damn sure we're having a boy. at the start of my pregnancy i really wanted a boy as well but now i good either way, we just wanted the baby to be really healthy.

on my latest addiction…

i just finished watching project runway cycle 3 and america's next top model cycles 4 and 5. when i watched antm's cycle 4 i was so into kahlen who was the runner up for that cycle. thought the following cycle would pale in comparison to the 4th, but i was damn wrong! initially i didn't notice nik pace (runner up), but as i watched the following episodes she has totally caught my attention. i was disappointed that the judges didn't pick her, especially with twiggy saying that she thinks nik will not be as capable as nicole linkletter (winner) in coping up with the modeling world, just because she is a "gentle soul". if you watched the entire cycle you will be really salute nik for not saying anything negative about anyone in the show, despite one incident when one of the girls (jayla) sort of stole her line and caused her to weaken her performance for that week, landing her on the bottom 2. on top of that nicole, though she is very pretty, looks the same whatever make up you put on her, whereas nik is like a chameleon and she remains stunning all throughout. in fact just to show you what i mean, i have placed several pics of nik. she is absolutely gorgeous and im sorry but this is my opinion, i think she is even prettier than tyra.

i went through some forums and threads about antm cycle 5 and a whole lot of people felt that she deserved to win. i could only hope that she has a better career than that of nicole. but i would sure like to have a baby girl if she'd look like her. hehe. will blog again soon. have a great weekend ahead.

a little humor

our little one apparently is showing signs of taking a lot from his/her dad this early. aside from his/her appetite (hehe peace hubby), he/she has taken his/her dad's sense of humor.

almost two (2) weeks ago, hubby and i were fooling around the house (old house in Makati, we now moved to a bigger and better house in Cainta). he downloaded new mp3s as ringtones for his mobile. one of the songs he got was a novelty song popularized by a noon time show - Eat bulaga. That song is titled "Itaktak mo". I told him I really don't like the song and as if to annoy me even more, he was placing his mobile so much closer to me while he had his other arm and his legs pinning me (he calls it the CooCoo lock). And then our baby decided to join in the fun and conspired with his/her father. All of a sudden I felt him/her kicking hard several times. To which I asked amidst amazement and laughter: "Hoy bakit ka sumisipa jan?" while rubbing my baby bump. My husband who then became hysterical with laughter decided to play the song again and put the phone closer to my tummy. While I was trying my best to block his hand with my arm. We ended up laughing really hard and talking to the little one inside my now big tummy.

Gee, can't wait for the ultrasound that we're going to go through on April 10. Will blog about it as soon as we're done with it.

first kick

eighteen (18) weeks and one (1) day at around 1:15pm yesterday, my baby kicked me hard. my reaction was somewhat late since i was unfamiliar to the sensation and was then having lunch at my mom's place. i had to stop chewing for a few seconds to think about what happened. after about a few seconds, the realization that the baby just kicked me finally has finally sink in. and i was darn ecstatic. that was perhaps two (2) or three (3) hard kicks.

when i went back to our house (2 streets away from my mom's), i roused my husband from his deep slumber to tell him about what happened. his sleepiness left him right away and he started feeling my tummy and talking to the little fellah inside asking him to do one more kick for daddy. too bad the baby is probably asleep already or no longer in the mood. his dad had to sleep off his feelings of jealousy. im sure in the future i will be pleading with the baby to lessen the kicks, but more now we're just way too excited.

this morning he kicked again while his dad was watching an anime dvd. seems like the little fellah wanted to tease his/her dad that he/she stopped kicking the minute i placed hubby's hand on my tummy. hubby is so excited and he kept on asking me how does it feel to have the baby kick me. and i guess i just really dont have a way to describe it to him. i mean yeah its easy to say that something is kicking you from inside but then again when i havent felt the baby do that, i was also wondering how it will feel. oh well, it is amazingly wonderful.