A review of Wall Pops Peel and Stick Dry Erase Message Board

I bought a removable whiteboard stick-on in National Bookstore which didn’t last a long because it was made of very thin material. Also because my wonderful officemates had a grand time making graffiti as soon as I installed it. It would’ve worked, actually, as long as you write with a very light hand. But since I didn’t want to take the risk of another excited graffiti incident, I purchased a high quality one from Amazon.

Wall Pops is working quite well. The size, although still small for my needs, is bigger than a typical stick-on whiteboard. It also erases quite cleanly without the need to rub too hard.

The challenge was in actually sticking it on, as it has a tendency to create bubbles. Thankfully, I have a teammate who is pretty good with crafts and was able to install it perfectly.

One word of caution though: Some of my high pigment markers didn’t erase quite easily. Had to spritz with a bit of Mr. Muscle.

My first Belo

I needed a facial. And I went to Belo!

Yes, I’m one of *those* — people who avoid going to Belo because it seemed too showbiz, too assembly line. But it was near, and a friend promised to accompany.

So I got the most basic facial in the list (glycolic whatever). It was fast. Too fast, actually. I don’t think it took more than 20 minutes. Either my skin didn’t have any problems, or the job wasn’t thorough. I have a feeling it’s a little of both, as I could still see blackheads on my nose. Not too happy about this.

After the facial, I was asked to see their doctor. As others have warned me, they will try to sell me their products. True enough, “Obagi” appeared in my prescription for a whopping 20k.

I bluntly said I’m not comfortable with purchasing house derma creams, and I’m pretty happy with the ones I’m using. However, I did say I was interested in botox for my underarms (which sadly costs almost as much).

So there and then, I was prepped for my underarm botox. The skin anesthesia took around 30 minutes to settle in. The actual injecting of the botox itself was less than 10 minutes. I was expecting pain, but there was none.

Again, I was prescribed to purchase Belo creams. Again, I declined.

Although I was very disappointed with their facial, I think I’ll be coming back again to try their other services (Hair removal? Thermage? Fractional CO2?). Hopefully my experience would be better.

Update as of Apr 18: I’m pretty satisfied with the underarm botox. I don’t sweat as much anymore. I am aware however that botox has to be injected every 6 months. Doing the computation, it’s basically a P2,500 monthly investment. For someone who suffered have embarrassing sweat glands, I think that’s worth it.

How we “cured” our dog’s separation anxiety

Our dog, Booger, used to have a terrible separation anxiety. Leaving for work was a nightmare — it included a lot of scratching, barking, crying, vomiting, and chewing on the doors.

Nowadays, everything is a breeze. 99% of the time, we can now leave peacefully for work.

How were we able to do it?

  1. We pretended to leave for short periods of time. This is to let him know that his humans *will* come back. We would leave for 1 minute, 3 mins, 5 mins, until we were able to leave him for almost 15 minutes without incident.
  2. Around 30 minutes before we need to leave for work, we lessen the excitement around the house. We keep a calm demeanor. We don’t even acknowledge or look at the dog. We also don’t give him treats or anything which will excite him.
  3. We stopped “tricking” him. Previously, we would wait until he’s preoccupied and them hurry out of the door when he wasn’t looking. We realized later on this actually worsens his separation anxiety.
I sincerely hope these tips would help you. I know it’s not easy leaving your dog behind for 8 to 10 hours, most especially a sad and crying dog at that. 

 

Avoiding jet lag

It’s 448pm Philippine time. 1248am San Francisco time. I am inside the plane, en route to Manila. The lights are turned off, but here I am trying to stay awake. Or at least until 6pm Manila time.

It usually takes me 4 to 6 days to adjust to the timezone on the other side of the world, and this time, I vowed to conquer jet lag once and for all. There were already too many trips that could’ve been more fruitful if I had immediately adapted to the timezone.

I decided it’s easier to avoid jet lag than to cure it. So here I am, trying to adjust to my destination’s timezone as soon as I got on on the plane. I am awake, while the rest of the passengers have already reclined their seats to sleep.

Let’s hope this works.

Update: I highly recommend this. It worked perfectly!

St. Luke’s saves your credit card info in their internal system

This is a letter I sent to St. Luke’s Medical Center in Taguig City. SLMC has acknowledged receipt of letter, yet there is no proposed action as of this writing.

I’m very concerned that the cashier in your Pathology department saved my credit card information in your customer information database.

The information I saw the cashier enter in her computer are the following:

  • Credit card #
  • Name on credit card
  • Expiration date

These details are considered confidential, and pose security risk to credit holders. It is also unnecessary in processing of payment.

May I request SLMC to reconsider this practice, as I have already been a victim of onlinecredit card fraud, and am very concerned that a known establishment as SLMC is employing this practice?

A story on credit card fraud in Makati

My colleague went shopping in a major and reputable appliance store in Makati (Clue: Starts with an A). When it was time to pay, she handed her credit card to the sales lady, who mysteriously disappeared for more than 15 minutes.

When the sales lady came back, my friend asked if there was anything wrong with the credit card. She said no, and quickly processed the payment.

The next day, my colleague got a call from her credit card issuer, and reported a number of unusual activities in her credit card. Thankfully, the transactions were reversed.

Lesson learned: Don’t let your credit card out of your sight.

Of course this is easier said than done when paying in restaurants, that’s why I usually use Smart Money to pay in restaurants because I am informed in real time when the card is head, and it needs to be unlocked with a code before it can be used for online purchases.

Hopefully we could also start implementing in the Philippines the practice of the waiters bringing the credit card swiper to your table so that your credit card is never out of your sight when paying.

The fire in our condo

It was a barely audible “pop.: And another one. I sleepily asked my husband to look at the source of the pop. He stood up, went outside, and then started shouting. There was a fire in the guest bedroom.

He grabbed the fire extinguisher and told me to get a pair of scissors. There was a cable tie locking the pin of the extinguisher. After snipping the lock, I quickly made a frantic call to the lobby, which was answered after 5 rings, told them there was a fire, and hung up.

My husband was still trying to put out the fire. To give him as much oxygen as possible, I opened the windows, the fans, and the door. I turned on all 3 exhaust fans. The smoke was still too much. I couldn’t breathe. I knew right there and then why people die of smoke suffocation.

In between, I was trying to get the dog to get out from under the bed. But he was frightened and continued creeping back in. Finally I was able to grab him and let him out in the hall.

When the building administration arrived, the fire was gone. They were able to determine the source of the fire: a rechargeable flashlight I got as a gift from two Christmases ago. I decided to charge it for the first time, and that decision would probably haunt me for a long time.

I still wonder why it took so long for the receptionist downstairs to answer the phone. Or why the smoke detector didn’t go off. Or why the sprinklers didn’t work. That’s something I would probably ask our building administration in the next few days. Maybe the fire wasn’t strong enough? It sure was enough to practically suffocate us. So I’m not very happy about that.

I’m thankful, however, for the decisions we made when the unit was still being finished: the fire-proofing, from the paint, to the type of wood, to the floors. I’m also thankful that we rarely have generic china-made gadgets, and have invested in a kick ass fire extinguisher.

Most of all, I’m thankful for having a husband who didn’t think twice on being our protector. He was and always will be my hero.

A review of the Clarisonic PRO Sonic Skin Cleansing for Face and Body

I finally got a Clarisonic. I wanted to see what the hype was all about (and since I just found out I had lupus, retail therapy is all I have).

Grey is my color of choice because I can’t stand seeing dirt marks appear on my beauty gadgets.

I got the Pro model because I wanted the body brush and attachment. I really don’t want to spend that much money on my face alone.

The package came with the following:

  • Cleansers (which I gave away)
  • Body handle (which I end up not using, since I don’t use it on my back)
  • Charger
  • Regular face brush
  • Body brush

The first time I used the Clarisonic on my face, the first word that came to mind was “meh.” It was definitely underwhelming. I was expecting some rigorous action, not the soft massaging pulse.

The second time, I did notice that my skin felt smoother – but only immediately right after. The feeling was temporary, but it felt good just the same.

I just ordered the deep pore replacement brush which hopefully will remove some of the “meh.” (By the way, just found out Amazon is the worst place to buy replacement heads. Most are fakes.)

I have been using Clarisonic more often on my body, too. Ironically, I stopped using the body brush handle, since the only place I can’t reach is my back, and I don’t see any reason to use it there. Plus, the body handle can get quite slippery when soapy. As with the face, there’s a fleeting smooth feeling after using it.

It would probably take 2 to 3 months of use for me to finally get the verdict of how useful this gadget is. In the meantime, my reco would be to buy only if you have the disposable income to do so.

Stress & Sun: The Enemies of Lupus

The doctor had a long talk with me last Thursday. To sum it up, he said I need to change my career.

There are two major enemies of lupus: stress and sun. Sun, obviously, is easier to control.

I still don’t know how to react to this. A part of me got confused because I think I actually felt more stressed whenever I couldn’t work.

Maybe there’s a way for me to reduce stress while still doing the things I love most?

Lessen meetings? Meetings are one of the most stressful activities in the office, and they happen every single day, sometimes even every single hour.

Take up yoga?

Strictly work for 8 hours a day? We usually work 10 to 12 hours a day. Not that I’m complaining. It’s just the way it is in the company.

I have lupus

The fever started Wednesday. By Thursday, I had to leave for Boracay, something I have been dreading since I never liked the beach, the sand, nor the sun. I pretty much stayed put in the hotel until Friday because of my fever, which I tried to relieve with rest & paracetamol. By Saturday, my fever was gone, although I still had joint pains which lasted until Sunday.

I was back to work on Monday and was actually quite energetic.

On Tuesday, at around 10AM, I asked one of my teammates for water. I already felt something funny happening in my body. The water never arrived, and my chest started tightening. I haven’t had an asthma attack in almost 5 years, so this was quite unusual.

Barely 10 minutes later, I couldn’t take it anymore. I felt I needed a Ventolin puff. I left the meeting, hurried to the clinic and plopped on the sofa. The receptionist saw my white face and didn’t bother to make me fill up any form. She quickly pulled me to the doctor’s office.

I mumbled “Ventolin, can’t breathe.” But barely a minute after the words were out of my mouth, my body started shaking. I felt cold.

I could feel my muscles & joints becoming painful real fast. I couldn’t move.

I could hear people scrambling around me. I closed my eyes, and concentrated on relaxing my body so I could control the chills. People were starting to arrive, panicking – my husband, our secretary, my brother, etc.

I felt myself being carried & placed on a stretcher. I could hear commotion on which car would bring me to the hospital, about the 5F parking doors being locked, etc.

The company doctor insisted on coming along. I mumbled “no.” I knew she was pregnant. But she was strong willed. Loyda, the nurse of SMART who has always been there for us, also came along.

Before I knew it, I was already in the ER of Makati Medical Center, but things move slowly. Too slowly.

There were a lot of questions, forms, staring, fumbling. I was begging for pain killers. It was unbearable. For the first time, I wished I could die. It was *that* painful.

They said they can’t give me anything. They first need to know that I wasn’t pregnant. Was I sure I wasn’t? Last time I checked, I didn’t come with a built-in pregancy kit in my body. Of course I’m *not* sure.

The nurses would check up on me every 30 minutes to ask if I already urinated. I couldn’t, and I didn’t know why. I was drinking *a lot* of water. Why the hell was I not urinating? Was this dehydration?

After more than an hour, I snapped, said something probably mean, because they finally gave me some meds. They said I was wheeled to xray later on, but have no memory about it.

I knew there was a lot waiting, maybe 3 to 5 hours. Something about a room not being available. It was all so weird. A room?

Finally, I was in a private room, and gone are inefficiencies of the ER. I was suddenly surrouned by 10 to 15 doctors, all screaming my lab test results, debating over my body.

My husband asked if I was going to make it. Noone answered.

I was injected with more morphine. I heared the words stroke, heart attack, blood clot, my kidneys failing, my organs shutting down.

I was strangely calm. I was looking at my doctors faces. I knew they were going to save me.

“Lupus!” Someone shouted. They knew what to do.

I was immediately transferred to the ICU. I don’t remember a lot of things about my stay there. I knew there were a lot of tubes. There was even a tube sewn in and out of my stomach. I remembered going thru dialysis, and a lot more painful things. I also remember a lot of vomiting, and not being able to eat more than a spoonful of broth.

Only family members were allowed, and even then, they were to wear a mask at all times and to take a pill before entering my room. My brothers knew the drill – my mom is not to know anything until we were sure I was going to be okay.

On my 4th or 5th day in the ICU, I could tell I was feeling better. I gave the go signal for my brothers to tell my mom (who practically ran to the hospital as soon as she found out).

It is now Day 16. I am already in a regular room, and have been allowed to accept a few visitors. There are still a barage of tests, ultrasounds, and biopsies. But I am feeling a lot better.

My kidneys, sadly, have already been damaged. There will be maintenance meds, lifestyle changes, avoiding the sun, maybe even chemotherapy. As of the moment, only bits & pieces of information are available.

But one thing’s for sure: It does feel great to be alive.

To my family, my dearest friends, former & current officemates, classmates, colleagues, online friends: Thank you for all your healing thoughts & prayers. I couldn’t have made it without you.