March 2012
This is not starting out as a good month. Very ill, hospitalized, and still not sure what the problem is. However, you should read all below, long as it might be, as it does give you an insight into the event, the weekend and the last couple of weeks demonstrating how things quickly deteriorated to the current time.
I am writing this not because I am fit and well but because (i) I can at last bear to open my eyes and look at an LCD and (ii) this is quite therapeutic as it is focusing my otherwise omni-directional thoughts. Love Mae and I arranged to attend two events on the same Saturday (3rd March), the Kaamulan Festival in Malaybalay, Bukidnon and our cute little 5 year old neighbours birthday pool party at Coco Beach resort. The festival was 90kms away and the birthday party was on route back from there so we chose to travel up on Friday afternoon/evening, maybe sleep an hour or two, shoot the street parade preparing to depart at 5am (yes really) and then head for the party circa noon. The journey was the worst. Over 3 hours and that was driving as fast as possible! The road to Malaybalay in 2009 when I last travelled along it was in bad condition to say the least. However, 3 years later huge sections of that road have simply vanished, being replaced with something that Wells Fargo would have struggled with in 1860 developing the Pony Express! On the way there I was already dreading the way back. And that was in our monster 4x4 truck with 20 inch boots that love off roading! We were happy to eventually arrive having averaged almost 19mph the whole way. Planning on entering the Paris Dakar rally next.
We were hungry and thirsty so parked up and looked around for a nice restaurant. The power in the whole city had gone off so we narrowed the search down to a restaurant that looked as though it had enough portable powered illumination and candles to be able to read a menu. There was one. Mindy's. We ordered a baby back ribs, a spaghetti bolognaise, mixed vegetables, some beef with rice (I told you we were hungry) and a bottomless iced tea to quench the thirst. The Iced tea hit the spot but the food was the worst. My baby back ribs arrived as a single giant rib from what appeared to be something so large that it really should have been extinct. One bite of the tough meat was enough for me to conclude I wanted no more. One spoonful of cold spaghetti set its course back to the kitchen. Never touched the beef and rice and picked at the vegetables. Were were unimpressed already without discovering that the menu prices did not include VAT! After the journey and the food, we were really hoping that this much talked about street parade was going to be worth it.
We always ask for any food that we have not eaten to be converted to a take away and we then find some street children on the way home who are always grateful of a free meal. Now this may sound unjustifiable to some reading this to do this with the food just described but we did this in the knowledge that many people have little to eat and many people are not so fussy about what they eat. We even discussed exactly this topic. I did not bother to complain on leaving as this seems to fall on deaf ears. We simply do not return. But do you know, as hard as we tried, as far as we searched we could not find one street child. It was gone midnight, so none would be awake, but we expected to find at least one asleep. Nobody. We were in the Capitol Grounds area which was buzzing with activity as preparations began for the parade. We have never thrown a take out away but we did this one. Love Mae hovered it over the bin and asked "Sure?" I reluctantly said "Sure." and in it went. We post analyzed our decision in a very bias manner to make ourselves feel good about it by saying the food was awful anyway and we were sure nobody would actually have enjoyed it!
We needed to be parked in a location where we could get in to photograph the event yet not get blockaded inside Malaybalay when the single road in and out of the city was closed for the rest of the day preventing us getting to the party. We moved the truck to a quiet, dark area away from all the activity going on at the end of the street parade route where we could sleep peacefully. However, only in the light of day did I realize that I did this in the style of Del Boy and Rodney parking the Reliant in the dark only to wake up and find the front wheel hanging out over the white cliffs of Dover! The place was alive with people rushing around and we were pretty much at the head of the parade! I exaggerate slightly as we were 30m into a side road so not actually in anyones way thankfully. Immediately upon waking up I was puzzled. At no point before falling asleep did I recall being hit by Manny Pacquiao. This was the only possible explanation for the searing pain that went from my chin to my ear. I was also very, unpleasantly hot. I put it down to sleeping on a pressure point and the combination of photography and time thankfully saw it gradually disappear. We washed and dressed as discretely as one could in an open public space with 30,000 people in. The things we do to "get that shot". We saw little of one another for the next few hours as we captured our independent images. We are never really sure if we are trying to capture a great image or simply one that is better than the others! We love the challenge, we love great events to shoot, we love sharing and we love each other. We bumped into a few fellow CDO photographers along the route and we all tried to allow others to shoot whilst still getting the shot ourselves. Just as well there is no prize money or this considerate relationship might move towards a "long lenses at dawn" duel scenario!
By lunchtime we were done and the images will of course be uploaded but actually, I have not even looked at them. Love Mae was hungry, I was not. No appetite at all. I watched her eat enough to feed the army of a small nation and simply drank bottled water to keep myself hydrated. It was not a cloudless sky which meant I did enjoy some respite from the entirely different Sun here to the one that hovers above the UK. It simply cannot be the same one. I agree it is the same size but this one is at least ten times hotter. Every time I fly into the Philippines I notice that the tops of the clouds are singed. But even with the orange topped white clouds defending me on Saturday, I was still hot. Very hot. I was enthusiastic about the pool party so we headed off.
Whilst Mr Appetite had gone AWOL in Malaybalay, I noticed he had slipped back in the truck and was enjoying cruising with us on the return trip. He had his shades on, elbow out the window and was looking to pick up something tasty along the roadside. And there she was. Missy Sweeheeheeheetcorn. Wearing a shiny, skin tight yellow number that displayed all of her perfectly formed curves. Perfect dimensions, long, wholesome, untouched, a real country girl who had no big plans to make it to the city. He sweet-talked her and 7 other equally beautiful friends into the car. Two were so hot and ready he almost got burned. I honestly have never tasted sweetcorn as good as it is here. Purchased on the roadside it always travels further in your belly than it ever did to get there.
We got to the party with some time in hand and I was hot and tired. I pitched out in the back of the truck again and just got hotter. Our host arrived and so, being no fool, I immediately offered to do some photography in the pool. That was great. The party was great and I will upload those images too at some point. We are blessed with really lovely neighbours. The kids wanted to come home bouncing around on the bed in the back of "Tito Peters" truck so I drove home like the guy carrying the last two Dodo eggs. But I did'nt crash.
I had a rough nights sleep and was still not finding a way to lose the heat. I needed an aircon unit with an "Ice Age" setting and to hell with the energy efficiency rating (ironic as that sounds). I felt light headed and decided to postprocess all the pool party images. I burned a disk and we popped round the neighbours to selfishly enjoy seeing their enjoyment of the images as thay played out in a slideshow. Thats a buzz!
But I was then zapped, not feeling at all "right" and still role playing "Thermoreactor-out-of-control Man" (I am sure if that singularly brilliant super hero concept ever came to the attention of Marvel it would fail for no other reason than the impossibly odd logo on his costume). We could not even sleep in the same bed. I needed to be receiving as much ventilation as possible. Love Mae would have been more comfortable cuddled up with The Flying Scotsman immediately after achieving its 1934 100mph speed record. The Sunday night was a worse night for me with some wacky, very real dreams that I dare not even begin to outline or hint at. But she was stunning.
We spent Monday at the hospital. Not admitted, just speaking with a Doctor about my symptoms and getting a lab test done. When I saw him, I told Love Mae that he was so old that he must know absolutely everything about everything. By the end of the appointment I realized I was not entirely correct. I think he was a porter. Patients are called by name, which I guess he had been doing for something close to 400 years. So I am unsure why he chose to call out our apartment name. This also being a Filipino family name we ignored him. After hearing it a few times, each time louder we both "clicked" that it was us at the same time and we both jumped up. We were asked if we were deaf. That was unkind. I suppose I could have asked if he was blind (a distinct possibility) but I am far too charming for that. He asked me what my symptoms were and I told him. I am running a temperature, I have flu symptoms, aching all over, but have no vomiting, no cough, no sore throat. I have a very stiff neck and a bad headache in the lower part of the back of my head. My joints ache and I am very lethargic. I am lightheaded and have difficulty thinking logically.
He handed me a request for a complete blood count (CBC) lab test. No questions, no BP check, pulse check, temp check, never touched me. I was dissatisfied. I said I was concerned about Leptospirosis to which he said "Oh don't worry about that, thats gone away now. You haven't got that.". Whilst simultaneously imagining Lepto having its own passport and booking a flight to watch the first round of the FIA Grand Prix in Melbourne, I informed him that my kayaking friend caught it and it is here in the Cagayan River irrespective of any typhoon. He was surprised. He took back the lab request and added a Lepto test, then passed it back to me. I said I am also concerned about Meningitis. He said "We don't have that here.". I thought "You are a porter".
We did the lab test and it was clear. I did not report back to him. If I had bothered to do so, I get the feeling he would have concluded i was ok. And continued mopping the floor.
We returned home and I got hotter. Love Mae went out an bought a digital thermometer, surprisingly an electronic device not already in her armoury. I was 39.5 Deg C (103 Deg F). I said I want to admit myself to hospital.
The staff at CDO Medical Centre were great. And a brilliant feature of being hospitalized here is that you are not only permitted but expected to have someone admitted with you. An awfully termed "Significant Other" in my case was my super significant wifey who was with me 24/7 of my stay. I was admitted, BP'd, temp checked, blood let, urine sampled, hooked up to an IV and wheeled into a nice room of my own. That was followed by a horrible night of more disjointed dreams, worsening headache and next to no sleep at all. It was awful to not be receiving any specific treatment while my conditions worsened, temp up to 39.9 Deg C (104 Deg F), and we just waited for the lab results. I declined paracetamol as it conceals symptoms. Oh, I forgot to mention something else that was of some concern. Since travelling to Malaybalay, coming home and going to hospital, not once did my body ever suggest that I should go to the loo for a bowel movement. No need, no urges, no stomach cramps, nothing. Only after five days did a doctor on Tuesday say "I will prescribe you something that will fix that.". She did. It was called a Fleet Enema. It became apparent that she was possibly not a Doctor either. Nor a Porter. No, no, no, nothing so humdrum. She had experience in handling explosives.
A very sweet young nurse attended to this, to Love Mae's amusement, and she was very gentle as I laid on my side. It was a few seconds to "insert" and I asked how long before it took effect as the orally taken medicine for the same job that I took the day before had no effect at all. She said "About 2 minutes." What! This was a very new experience for me. I thought you had to light things with a fuse that short. I began calculating my travel time to the en-suite toilet just 3 metres away making allowances for being slowed down by the IV drip bottle stand with six of the squeakiest, slow rotating casters... AH! GO GO GO!!!
It is suffice to say I went, went, went. The product is one of those that does, indeed do exactly what it says it does on the tin! Brilliant. Thank you science.
The lab tests showed "many, many red blood cells in your urine" and whilst the results of the Typhoid test returned negative, my symptoms suggested I was not. I was given some oral antibiotics but the big gun was the one administered via IV. This I liked as I was giving so many blood samples from the blood donor vein and from fingertips I was like a pin cushion. The injection that hurt the most, well, at all really but a whole lot, was the test for allergy to the antibiotic! This very nice nurse injected, what felt like, a house brick into my forearm. If they ever introduce an allergy test for that allergy test it will probably be fatal.
The IV antibiotic was amazing. Only two side effects. First, the most amazing chills, shivering and shaking that Love Mae maintains was a seizure. It was not. But it lasted around 15 minutes and was exhausting. It was so strong and so violent. Love Mae actually laid down on me at one point, hugging me, trying to both warm me and to restrict my flailing limbs. I was in no pain at all. I tried to speak but my jaw was shivering so wildly that it just sounded like a superfast stammer "aw aw aw aw aw an an an an an a a a a a a a pe pe pe pe pe pe" and we both began laughing hysterically! It was a truly bizarre moment for a couple to share. And share with a nurse too as she went about her duties in my room. It got funnier as Love Mae realized I was trying to say "I want to pee!". My violent shaking resulted in me doing the best demented garden sprinkler imaginable!
The second side effect was vomiting. No warning, just enough time to get to the edge of the bed. Very messy. But after that, I felt much better. I spent three days in hospital, and PHP32,000, with my temperature spiking up and down and having a constant headache and flu symptoms. I did not feel that being there was any benefit to me than being at home so I discharged myself. I was also suffering some wild hallucinations and visions that were so real that it took all of my intelligence to convince me they were not. I saw Dr Frias as an outpatient and we changed my antibiotics. We tried to see a neurologist but could not get any appointment. I took another lab test and found I still had red blood cells in my urine too numerous to count. Not good. Went to see Dr Longno about that and he is puzzled as I responded to IV antibiotics for something he thinks is a virus. I have more meds to try and sort the stray blood and must report back for more tests in another 5 days :-( I am now suffering this mystery illness 12 days and I would really like to be fixed please. I seem to be running at half speed with something running around inside me that does not live here. The good news is the hallucinations and visions have gone and I no longer have flu type symptoms. So I am feeling much better but still a way off right :-( I have always said, there is no substitute for good health. And these last couple have weeks have reinforced this. Hopefully I will be fixed up soon :-)
Images from the Kaamulan Street Parade 2012 can be seen here:- http://www.clevercaptures.com/Festivals/Kaamulan-2012-Malaybalay/Kaamulan-Street-Parade-2012
Read MoreI am writing this not because I am fit and well but because (i) I can at last bear to open my eyes and look at an LCD and (ii) this is quite therapeutic as it is focusing my otherwise omni-directional thoughts. Love Mae and I arranged to attend two events on the same Saturday (3rd March), the Kaamulan Festival in Malaybalay, Bukidnon and our cute little 5 year old neighbours birthday pool party at Coco Beach resort. The festival was 90kms away and the birthday party was on route back from there so we chose to travel up on Friday afternoon/evening, maybe sleep an hour or two, shoot the street parade preparing to depart at 5am (yes really) and then head for the party circa noon. The journey was the worst. Over 3 hours and that was driving as fast as possible! The road to Malaybalay in 2009 when I last travelled along it was in bad condition to say the least. However, 3 years later huge sections of that road have simply vanished, being replaced with something that Wells Fargo would have struggled with in 1860 developing the Pony Express! On the way there I was already dreading the way back. And that was in our monster 4x4 truck with 20 inch boots that love off roading! We were happy to eventually arrive having averaged almost 19mph the whole way. Planning on entering the Paris Dakar rally next.
We were hungry and thirsty so parked up and looked around for a nice restaurant. The power in the whole city had gone off so we narrowed the search down to a restaurant that looked as though it had enough portable powered illumination and candles to be able to read a menu. There was one. Mindy's. We ordered a baby back ribs, a spaghetti bolognaise, mixed vegetables, some beef with rice (I told you we were hungry) and a bottomless iced tea to quench the thirst. The Iced tea hit the spot but the food was the worst. My baby back ribs arrived as a single giant rib from what appeared to be something so large that it really should have been extinct. One bite of the tough meat was enough for me to conclude I wanted no more. One spoonful of cold spaghetti set its course back to the kitchen. Never touched the beef and rice and picked at the vegetables. Were were unimpressed already without discovering that the menu prices did not include VAT! After the journey and the food, we were really hoping that this much talked about street parade was going to be worth it.
We always ask for any food that we have not eaten to be converted to a take away and we then find some street children on the way home who are always grateful of a free meal. Now this may sound unjustifiable to some reading this to do this with the food just described but we did this in the knowledge that many people have little to eat and many people are not so fussy about what they eat. We even discussed exactly this topic. I did not bother to complain on leaving as this seems to fall on deaf ears. We simply do not return. But do you know, as hard as we tried, as far as we searched we could not find one street child. It was gone midnight, so none would be awake, but we expected to find at least one asleep. Nobody. We were in the Capitol Grounds area which was buzzing with activity as preparations began for the parade. We have never thrown a take out away but we did this one. Love Mae hovered it over the bin and asked "Sure?" I reluctantly said "Sure." and in it went. We post analyzed our decision in a very bias manner to make ourselves feel good about it by saying the food was awful anyway and we were sure nobody would actually have enjoyed it!
We needed to be parked in a location where we could get in to photograph the event yet not get blockaded inside Malaybalay when the single road in and out of the city was closed for the rest of the day preventing us getting to the party. We moved the truck to a quiet, dark area away from all the activity going on at the end of the street parade route where we could sleep peacefully. However, only in the light of day did I realize that I did this in the style of Del Boy and Rodney parking the Reliant in the dark only to wake up and find the front wheel hanging out over the white cliffs of Dover! The place was alive with people rushing around and we were pretty much at the head of the parade! I exaggerate slightly as we were 30m into a side road so not actually in anyones way thankfully. Immediately upon waking up I was puzzled. At no point before falling asleep did I recall being hit by Manny Pacquiao. This was the only possible explanation for the searing pain that went from my chin to my ear. I was also very, unpleasantly hot. I put it down to sleeping on a pressure point and the combination of photography and time thankfully saw it gradually disappear. We washed and dressed as discretely as one could in an open public space with 30,000 people in. The things we do to "get that shot". We saw little of one another for the next few hours as we captured our independent images. We are never really sure if we are trying to capture a great image or simply one that is better than the others! We love the challenge, we love great events to shoot, we love sharing and we love each other. We bumped into a few fellow CDO photographers along the route and we all tried to allow others to shoot whilst still getting the shot ourselves. Just as well there is no prize money or this considerate relationship might move towards a "long lenses at dawn" duel scenario!
By lunchtime we were done and the images will of course be uploaded but actually, I have not even looked at them. Love Mae was hungry, I was not. No appetite at all. I watched her eat enough to feed the army of a small nation and simply drank bottled water to keep myself hydrated. It was not a cloudless sky which meant I did enjoy some respite from the entirely different Sun here to the one that hovers above the UK. It simply cannot be the same one. I agree it is the same size but this one is at least ten times hotter. Every time I fly into the Philippines I notice that the tops of the clouds are singed. But even with the orange topped white clouds defending me on Saturday, I was still hot. Very hot. I was enthusiastic about the pool party so we headed off.
Whilst Mr Appetite had gone AWOL in Malaybalay, I noticed he had slipped back in the truck and was enjoying cruising with us on the return trip. He had his shades on, elbow out the window and was looking to pick up something tasty along the roadside. And there she was. Missy Sweeheeheeheetcorn. Wearing a shiny, skin tight yellow number that displayed all of her perfectly formed curves. Perfect dimensions, long, wholesome, untouched, a real country girl who had no big plans to make it to the city. He sweet-talked her and 7 other equally beautiful friends into the car. Two were so hot and ready he almost got burned. I honestly have never tasted sweetcorn as good as it is here. Purchased on the roadside it always travels further in your belly than it ever did to get there.
We got to the party with some time in hand and I was hot and tired. I pitched out in the back of the truck again and just got hotter. Our host arrived and so, being no fool, I immediately offered to do some photography in the pool. That was great. The party was great and I will upload those images too at some point. We are blessed with really lovely neighbours. The kids wanted to come home bouncing around on the bed in the back of "Tito Peters" truck so I drove home like the guy carrying the last two Dodo eggs. But I did'nt crash.
I had a rough nights sleep and was still not finding a way to lose the heat. I needed an aircon unit with an "Ice Age" setting and to hell with the energy efficiency rating (ironic as that sounds). I felt light headed and decided to postprocess all the pool party images. I burned a disk and we popped round the neighbours to selfishly enjoy seeing their enjoyment of the images as thay played out in a slideshow. Thats a buzz!
But I was then zapped, not feeling at all "right" and still role playing "Thermoreactor-out-of-control Man" (I am sure if that singularly brilliant super hero concept ever came to the attention of Marvel it would fail for no other reason than the impossibly odd logo on his costume). We could not even sleep in the same bed. I needed to be receiving as much ventilation as possible. Love Mae would have been more comfortable cuddled up with The Flying Scotsman immediately after achieving its 1934 100mph speed record. The Sunday night was a worse night for me with some wacky, very real dreams that I dare not even begin to outline or hint at. But she was stunning.
We spent Monday at the hospital. Not admitted, just speaking with a Doctor about my symptoms and getting a lab test done. When I saw him, I told Love Mae that he was so old that he must know absolutely everything about everything. By the end of the appointment I realized I was not entirely correct. I think he was a porter. Patients are called by name, which I guess he had been doing for something close to 400 years. So I am unsure why he chose to call out our apartment name. This also being a Filipino family name we ignored him. After hearing it a few times, each time louder we both "clicked" that it was us at the same time and we both jumped up. We were asked if we were deaf. That was unkind. I suppose I could have asked if he was blind (a distinct possibility) but I am far too charming for that. He asked me what my symptoms were and I told him. I am running a temperature, I have flu symptoms, aching all over, but have no vomiting, no cough, no sore throat. I have a very stiff neck and a bad headache in the lower part of the back of my head. My joints ache and I am very lethargic. I am lightheaded and have difficulty thinking logically.
He handed me a request for a complete blood count (CBC) lab test. No questions, no BP check, pulse check, temp check, never touched me. I was dissatisfied. I said I was concerned about Leptospirosis to which he said "Oh don't worry about that, thats gone away now. You haven't got that.". Whilst simultaneously imagining Lepto having its own passport and booking a flight to watch the first round of the FIA Grand Prix in Melbourne, I informed him that my kayaking friend caught it and it is here in the Cagayan River irrespective of any typhoon. He was surprised. He took back the lab request and added a Lepto test, then passed it back to me. I said I am also concerned about Meningitis. He said "We don't have that here.". I thought "You are a porter".
We did the lab test and it was clear. I did not report back to him. If I had bothered to do so, I get the feeling he would have concluded i was ok. And continued mopping the floor.
We returned home and I got hotter. Love Mae went out an bought a digital thermometer, surprisingly an electronic device not already in her armoury. I was 39.5 Deg C (103 Deg F). I said I want to admit myself to hospital.
The staff at CDO Medical Centre were great. And a brilliant feature of being hospitalized here is that you are not only permitted but expected to have someone admitted with you. An awfully termed "Significant Other" in my case was my super significant wifey who was with me 24/7 of my stay. I was admitted, BP'd, temp checked, blood let, urine sampled, hooked up to an IV and wheeled into a nice room of my own. That was followed by a horrible night of more disjointed dreams, worsening headache and next to no sleep at all. It was awful to not be receiving any specific treatment while my conditions worsened, temp up to 39.9 Deg C (104 Deg F), and we just waited for the lab results. I declined paracetamol as it conceals symptoms. Oh, I forgot to mention something else that was of some concern. Since travelling to Malaybalay, coming home and going to hospital, not once did my body ever suggest that I should go to the loo for a bowel movement. No need, no urges, no stomach cramps, nothing. Only after five days did a doctor on Tuesday say "I will prescribe you something that will fix that.". She did. It was called a Fleet Enema. It became apparent that she was possibly not a Doctor either. Nor a Porter. No, no, no, nothing so humdrum. She had experience in handling explosives.
A very sweet young nurse attended to this, to Love Mae's amusement, and she was very gentle as I laid on my side. It was a few seconds to "insert" and I asked how long before it took effect as the orally taken medicine for the same job that I took the day before had no effect at all. She said "About 2 minutes." What! This was a very new experience for me. I thought you had to light things with a fuse that short. I began calculating my travel time to the en-suite toilet just 3 metres away making allowances for being slowed down by the IV drip bottle stand with six of the squeakiest, slow rotating casters... AH! GO GO GO!!!
It is suffice to say I went, went, went. The product is one of those that does, indeed do exactly what it says it does on the tin! Brilliant. Thank you science.
The lab tests showed "many, many red blood cells in your urine" and whilst the results of the Typhoid test returned negative, my symptoms suggested I was not. I was given some oral antibiotics but the big gun was the one administered via IV. This I liked as I was giving so many blood samples from the blood donor vein and from fingertips I was like a pin cushion. The injection that hurt the most, well, at all really but a whole lot, was the test for allergy to the antibiotic! This very nice nurse injected, what felt like, a house brick into my forearm. If they ever introduce an allergy test for that allergy test it will probably be fatal.
The IV antibiotic was amazing. Only two side effects. First, the most amazing chills, shivering and shaking that Love Mae maintains was a seizure. It was not. But it lasted around 15 minutes and was exhausting. It was so strong and so violent. Love Mae actually laid down on me at one point, hugging me, trying to both warm me and to restrict my flailing limbs. I was in no pain at all. I tried to speak but my jaw was shivering so wildly that it just sounded like a superfast stammer "aw aw aw aw aw an an an an an a a a a a a a pe pe pe pe pe pe" and we both began laughing hysterically! It was a truly bizarre moment for a couple to share. And share with a nurse too as she went about her duties in my room. It got funnier as Love Mae realized I was trying to say "I want to pee!". My violent shaking resulted in me doing the best demented garden sprinkler imaginable!
The second side effect was vomiting. No warning, just enough time to get to the edge of the bed. Very messy. But after that, I felt much better. I spent three days in hospital, and PHP32,000, with my temperature spiking up and down and having a constant headache and flu symptoms. I did not feel that being there was any benefit to me than being at home so I discharged myself. I was also suffering some wild hallucinations and visions that were so real that it took all of my intelligence to convince me they were not. I saw Dr Frias as an outpatient and we changed my antibiotics. We tried to see a neurologist but could not get any appointment. I took another lab test and found I still had red blood cells in my urine too numerous to count. Not good. Went to see Dr Longno about that and he is puzzled as I responded to IV antibiotics for something he thinks is a virus. I have more meds to try and sort the stray blood and must report back for more tests in another 5 days :-( I am now suffering this mystery illness 12 days and I would really like to be fixed please. I seem to be running at half speed with something running around inside me that does not live here. The good news is the hallucinations and visions have gone and I no longer have flu type symptoms. So I am feeling much better but still a way off right :-( I have always said, there is no substitute for good health. And these last couple have weeks have reinforced this. Hopefully I will be fixed up soon :-)
Images from the Kaamulan Street Parade 2012 can be seen here:- http://www.clevercaptures.com/Festivals/Kaamulan-2012-Malaybalay/Kaamulan-Street-Parade-2012
