New Postal ID

        For Pinoys who does not have any  digitized ID to transact with other government offices, you can now avail of the new Postal ID. It is digitized and  recognized  as one of the primary ID's that you can present when transacting with various offices. 

  

         Both my husband and I got hold of our ID's yesterday. It was delivered in our home. We  applied in  Sta. Rosa Postal Office  because it was the nearest postal office that is also a capturing site. For other capturing sites and other info, please visit the Philpost website here. 

         Procedures are almost the same as  with any other government agencies. You'd be ask to fill up three similar forms, attached the required documents, pay for the fees, and have your details encoded and your photo taken. Please also note that the staff who would encode your details will be asking you to review what he/she have encoded. Take your time reviewing because once they have captured and saved your data, it can never be edited. Only when your digitized ID expired.

          The required documents are as follows:

            1. Birth certificate;

            2. Marriage certificate for married women;

            3. Barangay certificate; or in absence of this, any utility bill 

                                with the applicant's name  and address

         I think the delivery dates varies with the postal office that you applied with. When we were applying, the postal teller told us that we should expect its delivery after 22 working days. But ours came a little early. It was delivered in our doorstep within 12 working days. 

          The Philpost website states that the postal id would cost around 414.40. but my husband and I paid a little higher than that. I have no idea why and I didn't dare ask the teller because our line is getting long. 

            

She taught me.

       It was a general-cleaning day. Tambak na naman yung abubot ni Ikay. My daughter loves collecting all sorts of paper. It may be a cute advertisement of her favorite toy, or some magazines handed in the supermarket,  you can bet she will be keeping it. She has more blank notebooks and stationary than any other kid her age. And the more she collects, the more "tambak" there is in our room. Which means, more cleaning duty for me. 

       

         So, here I am organizing her stuff, when I stumbled in these apology notes that Ikay made for me whenever I get mad at her for her misdeeds. 

          Napangiti naman ako at ngayon ko lang na-appreciate yung mga notes na 'to.  How easy it is for her to say sorry, how easy it is for me too, to forgive her. Sino ba namang magulang ang makatitiis sa anak na nag-apologize na thru letter, then verbal apology with hug and kisses pa. :)

          KIDS. They will teach you things in their own little way. Things that will make you question your beliefs for yourself, on how you treat other people, on how to tell things without hurting their feelings, and on how to love unconditionally. Giving away gratitude is very easy for them. Give them a candy, or a toy, and they will love you forever. Give them their time-out and let them think on what they did, and they will give you an apology.

          Pero yung mga grown-ups, na gaya ko, minsan masyado ma-prinsipyo. Ang hirap magpakawala ng simpleng "sorry" lang. Ang hirap mag-sabi ng "thank you", o ng "salamat". Mas pinaiiral ang pride.

One of the many apology letters

She loves me!  :)

         Sabi nga nila, be a child. See the world in through their eyes. Malay mo, may makita ka na instant solution sa problema mo. Simple lang naman ang buhay ng bata, gusto lang nila na mahalin sila, magmahal at maging masaya.

Acid Reflux, anyone?

       Late July of this year, I suffered from a stomach flu. I wasn't feeling right at that time, and I kept on having watery bowels for three straight days. So I self-medicated and had some loperamide. It offered some relief from my frequent visit to the bathroom. But it just did not stop there. 

         After that week, I experienced a lot of discomfort. I felt like there was a ball of air in the lower part of my neck. I'm not feeling any pain, but it was uncomfortable.  My stomach seems to be full of air too. I  kept on belching to take the air out, but nothing  seem to work. Then there also the experienced of water brash or having this excessive saliva in my mouth which made me spit all the time.

          Since I didn't have the time (or the budget) to visit a doctor, I consulted Mr. Google. And he did have the answer to my symptoms. I was actually having an acid-reflux or GERD (Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease). The more I researched about it, the more scared I got and apparently it was stress-related.  I have always been a stressed-out mom, a junk-food lover, and a soda-lover...really a bad eater. I have never been a vegetable-loving person but I do love fruits. 

           With GERD,  one have to continuously avoid some foods though. You must avoid caffeine, soda, milk, citrus, and spicy foods.  Pastries and sweets must be taken into moderation as well as some dairies. 

            My symptoms were mild, the heartburn I felt was never that painful, only some heaviness in my chest area. I never took those medicine that were supposed to inhibit the acid in our stomach because those medicine also kills the good-bacteria in our gut and makes other bad bacteria thrive. Again, after researching, I found this probiotic that can help our  stomach with its good bacteria. So I tried it first and lo and behold, it worked! For me it did. I took one pill in the morning with at least a hour before my breakfast. And then another pill at night, two hours after dinner. A week of this regimen, and you will have some relief from GERD symptoms. The probiotic that I tried was called OM-X probiotic. It is a potent probiotic made in Japan. It was introduced to me through my daughter's pedia when she started having this tummy aches again this year. In their website, OM-X is said to contain at least 92 plant-based ingredients that has been naturally fermented for three to five years. Though it is a little bit pricey and hard to find in some drugstores here in the Philippines (always out of stock), I believe its still worth a try for GERD sufferers.

          

            GERD is a battle. Specially if you love eating like me. When I was younger and things got a little stressful, I would just grab a bottle of Coke and a pack of chocolates, and there's "happiness" back again and "stress" would just flew out of the window. But not now, I cannot do that anymore. I also miss my morning cup of coffee. The good thing with all of this is that I lost some weight. And I gain the determination and the discipline to avoid junk food and to eat healthier. 

              It's been two months now. Half of this time was being miserable and just crying, and half of it was  acceptance and the will to control my life back.

Blank Space

      Words aren't coming out. As much as I want them to flow into my brains, they're seem to be stuck somewhere in my cells. Hidden away in my views. That is what's been happening to me. I'm stuck. With everything. No direction, no where to go.

        Is this mid-life crisis? Siguro naman hindi pa. I'm not that old. I'm not that young either, but I feel like I am sometimes. I am a hands-on-mom/feeling-entrepreneur/all-around-maid rolled into one. I got a very stressful life right now, and to me, writing is something I'd sometimes do to de-stress myself. I'm not saying I'm good at writing, I just wanted to write. Period.

         So, last night, I was helping my daughter to write a poem about our family picture. As I held on to her pencil, acting as if I have this great idea for the picture, I froze. No words. Not  single one. I am just staring at the blank paper. I felt my daughter poke my face. "Mama, nakatunganga ka na naman.", she said. 

          How can this be? When I was in college (17 yrs ago, excuse me...), I was the princess of poem. I even helped one of my classmate who was a band member in composing his songs. Bakit ganun?! How can I have lost the words, and my brain was just rusting away with just house chores? Rhyming words was just "sisiw" sa akin dati. But now, I' struggling to compose a simple poem. So eto ang nagawa ko, too simple but good enough for my daughter's project (sabi ni ikay :) )

Happy Family

This is my family,

my Papa, my Mama, and me. 

There's only the three of us,

but we're contended and happy.

There is always a time  to smile,

a time for us to joke around.

To goof and play like a clown for awhile,

with our laughter as the only sound.

     It's not that good, I know. The good thing in it is that, it looks like it was made by Ikay.  I know I got to practice again, but hey, at least I got something to do on my free time. Kung magkaka-free time ako. Lol.

Scarlet Fever! Yikes!

My first blog for 2015 started with not-so-good tummy ache for my Ikay. A month after, my mother-in-law passed away and we made our way to Nueva Ecija to attend her funeral and burial. It was there that I suspect Ikay picked up something. We went back to Laguna right after the burial and I immediately notice Ikay's silence. She doesn't show her usual "kakulitan" sa byahe namin. She just said that her tummy is hurting again. I thought she was just hungry, so I bought her some cookies and some water. Back home, she still complain of tummy ache so I let her stay for the day instead of attending her class. 

Weekend passes, she's back to normal and I sigh a sound of relief. She was able to attend her classes on Monday up to Wednesday (2/23 - 2/25). It was "exam week". She even helped me put up her loot bags after review. 

The next day, was Ikay's 8th birthday. We were planning to give a small party the next day (Friday), and Ikay was also excited to distribute her loot bags  that day. As I prepare her for her school, I kay told me that her poop that morning was watery. I inspected her poop and it was indeed, with no sign of any hard or formed poop. But she told me that she was feeling fine and that her tummy was not even hurting. So off she goes to school only to be called by the school nurse later that Ikay was rushed to the clinic because of her stomach ache and she even vomited. So I fetched the birthday girl and went straight to the hospital for check-up.

Her tonsils were swollen. Ikay complained of even having a hard time swallowing her saliva. It was also that time that fever is starting to show up, signalling an infection. She was given two bottles of antibiotic (good for 10 days)  and a dozen of  questions for me about her tummy history. She was somewhat diagnosed with IBS (Irritable Bowel Syndrome).

Arriving home, while Ikay was resting, I made my way to Mr. Google, and all of Ikay's previous symptoms whenever her tummy hurts is due either excitement or anxiety, common for children with IBS. 

But this time, Mr. Google also proved to me that Ikay's recent tummy aches and loose bowel and vomiting was due to her strep. Yes, her strep which turned to a Scarlet Fever, because that evening, fine, sunburned-like rashes started to spread all over Ikay's body. 

I thought she was just allergic to the antibiotic she took. But her pedia told me that antibiotic allergies would not look or feel like that. Alsado daw at parang mapa. Antihistamine was added to  her list of medicine to take. 

A week after, Ikay was all better. She lost a lot of weight and she feels ugly because her rashes started to peel. From her face, her hands, her feet, even her little buns were covered with peeling skin. The only thing that I can do is to slather her with loads of moisturizer. All over her body, even in her pelvic area and her buns.

And give her loads and loads of love.

Tummy-ache

     2015. My first post for the year.

     Pope-fever is on here in the Philippines (that's another story).

     Ikay's tummy-ache is also back. 

     You see, when my daughter was barely a year old, she suffered from Rota-virus. Every mom by now has heard it, or sadly, one of their sons or daughters must have also contacted it.  My daughter was hospitalized because of it, and not just once but twice (the second one was when she was 15 months).  It was a heart-breaking and exhausting experience. It was hard seeing her with the tube in her arm and losing all that weight because of the constant diarrhea and vomiting. 

     

     When she was around two-years old, she suffered  yet another attack of this virus. No watery poop this time, only vomiting. It was a milder form of the virus, and she was back to her old self by day 3. 

      Then came the years after that, same stories. She would usually have these episodes of tummy aches on the month of January and May (don't know why). Her doctor think it wasn't the rota-virus. She was tested of course, every year. Test for dengue (because she would have fever and diarrhea at same time), test for parasites, urine test (symptoms can be for UTI), blood test, etc.

    Since all her test shows negative, two culprits are there. She's either having dyspepsia (indigestion) and stomach-flu.  Sometimes my daughter has the tendency to eat "a lot". If she's bored, she would eat. And I always try to control these "eating habits". Sabi nga sa amin dito sa Pilipinas, masarap daw kumain ang anak ko. Pero mahina ang tiyan. 

     So Ikay's tummy-ache is back. She's been on a soft diet for 4 days now. No sugar, no oily foods. Her vomiting has subsided (thanks to Motilium). She's taking some probiotics for her tummy. and a lot of TLC from me and her Papa. She still pass a lot of gas, and her tummy has been aching on and off. She also missed some days on her class. 

      I hope tomorrow when my daughter wakes up, her tummy-ache will be gone and she will back to her sweet self again. I miss my little miss "matara".