New Years Eve in the Province and people are Drunk already!

Sorting my box of fireworks, it's not beer time yet as i watch an older man stumble down the road. He doesn't usually walk like that and hes smiling a lot too, i wonder if he will make it to midnight?

Shrine in Bogo

Visiting the Shrine in Bogo we decide to drop by the doctors office and see what's going on in my body.

Subscribed some antibacterial drugs to finish off the virus, sounds good.

Dropping buy a small electronics shop for a mast head amp or "booster" or signal amp or antenna thing...

VHF only amp with 300ohm input and output, 26db on the unit and 30db on the box. I can't help but wonder how much loss in the 4 baluns in the whole system. 500p for the unit, bargain?

More Family Time

Not 100% yet but still out and about getting rest often as possible.

Bowl pain and blood seem unchanged but now eating more regular.

Recovery

Still with bloody stool but pain is much less and no more cramps. This is the first time i have been hungry since this epic adventure has begun!

More family time.

The winds have come

First wind in 11 Days, is this a sign of recovery?

Rum Theory seems good

Feeling much better with no cramps. Very interesting, but will wait and see what the day brings before praising the all curing rhum!

A glass of T5 Rhum b4 Bed

I had almost forgotten the taste. Much smoother than some of the expensive Rum at home.

They say this stuff cures everything...

Post Xmass

Health wise nothing has changed. 12 Days in Cebu and 10 Days Sick.

All worth it for the family time!

Hello Christmas

It's Christmas Day and i feel ok... until lunch time then the cramps, bowl pain, the bloody runs, ect...

Dia-tabs not doing much again. Taking 2 in the morning and than 1 every 4 hours.

Dec 24 its Family Time

Getting up nice and early its time to head to the province. I can rest their with family sick or not.

Its Christmas time!

Dia-tabs and off the shelf painkillers are better

Back home and back to basics.

Rest and recover.

The hospital in theory is a good place to be if something goes wrong but maybe not in this case.

Having lost faith in local medicine it seems like i was just resting. Not given any medication to help my body to recover or treat symptoms... so nothing special is happening there. I can rest at home in comfort.

Not feeling better but feeling safer and like i will live longer now i'm not in that place they call a hospital.

Escape the crazy house

Watching the clock expecting the doctor to make his first round and reminding the nurse i would like to leave.

The nurse comes back after an hour or so talking on a cell phone. Seems the doctor will asses me via phone. Wow now i'm not sure if he is the best doctor or the worst but i gather he is out of town selling his pyramid health product. It must be no other doctors are in the house.

So i pay my bill and the doctors aditional bills...

convinced my doctor is a nut-job i still follow his prescription of no medical benifit pills and juice. As i read some more of his delightfull pyramid sales rubbish it seems the company has been about for more than 10 years but still can't "prove" anything.

I like faith but common

A few more bubbles in my iv line later

Having given a 2nd sample of a dark cloudy bloody stool sample and the doctor recommending i purchase more of these from his surgery he gives me a box relating to the product.

It's a pyramid scheme. Sell to your friends and they sell to friends everyone is happy and makes this much money per month! Yay...

Clearly i'm just wasting a bed here and paying for it. I would rather rest at home so i ask to be discharged but the doctor is unavailable.

Just before bed the nurse comes in and gives me some more bubbles in my iv line... thanks..

Science and Medicine

Being a hospital i naturally get the feeling "leave it to the experts they will work it out" so in a way relax thinking they will find the correct solution and apply it the safest manor.

But.. Here comes the nurse and informs me this is the medication i must take

1. An expensive berry juice with a label "no proven medical benefits"
2. and a tablet from a bottle also with the label "no proven medical benefits"

I'm sure the "no proven medical benefits" part is not a selling tactic.

The only type of pain killer i have the choice of can only be given every 8 hours and seems to only work for 3-4hours. Asking about other options well not really, give me half then another half of that i can have after 4 hours to try and spread it out can't do that.. I'm starting to think i'm in a bad movie only to see the nurse push an air bubble into my iv line when she gives the pain killer. 

Not taking any notice i kink the hose and point out the 2inch air lock just about to enter my hand. She promptly unkinks the hose and gives it a flick "that's fine" i guess she knows best.

Carefully watching as they replace my iv fluid another air bubble travels down the iv line and i ask again "is that ok?" and she reply "that's normal".

A little bit alarmed thinking i haven't been watching every time they touch the line no doubt i'm gonna start ballooning with all this air entering my veins? A quick jump on google gives me some data on how much air it takes to kill a person... those bubbles in the IV line are not very much i suppose.

The Solution

The doctor is here with a solution!

Seems i have a very common virus, that my body isn't used to. So i suffered greatly but currently my white blood cell count isn't up so all must be good except for the 30 times a day toilet run and liquid and blood coming from the wrong places....

The solution is non-medical approved tablets that can only be purchased via his surgery.

I smell something fishy but what can i do...

Large hospital and some dodgy doctors... can't say i didn't get warned.

WiFi @ Mac-Tan Doctors Hospital

There is a free public access point somewhere around the hospital. In the reception area signal is fluctuating but workable. Shame no access from the wards :/

I don't think it's in the hospital maybe next door somewhere. Smart signal is full bars but data rate is poor with heavy packet loss, this is going to be a long night.

Emergency @ Mactan Doctors Hospital

Awake for some blood samples, than some urine and stool samples...

What one is the urine and what one is the stool? Both liquid but the one with blood is the stool that's the give away. Nurse looking slightly alarmed.. Like this for 4+ days? Yep.

Will be kept in for observation over night, just waiting for a bed to be available.

While waiting 2 other people come in with same symptoms. One of them a whitey.

Back to sleep before the painkiller wears off....

Admitted to Emergency @ Mactan Doctors Hospital

Not really an emergency but what else can we do. Pay the money and they will help i'm sure...hah

The nurse weighs me first up and i have only lost 3 kilos in 4 days that's no biggie, i didn't want those kilos anyway. On the bed i don't really show signs of dehydration despite fluid exiting my body at an alarming rate.

My urine is only a light yellow and the pinch test seems to suggest my fluid is up but that's only my thoughts.

Next a male nurse hooks me up to a drip, very quick and painless but the sticky tape used to hold the IV line must be the budget kind or i'm more hairy than i think i am.

Next up some painkillers to help with the cramps, shortly after the pain level drops so do my eye lids and i get a good afternoon nap.

Sick in Cebu

Now it's clear i'm getting worse, now with the addition of puke, Spew, throwing up!

A wise man once said "don't get sick"

We stop at jollie-Bee thanks to my sons keen eye (despite my attempt to make him not notice the 60 foot bee).

Great place to puke i guess, and consider if seeing the doctor might be a good idea.

Down to Mactan Doctors Hospital we go and try to find one of those nice family doctors outside. After a 2hour wait at one doctors office hes not accepting anymore for the day so we go to the next and wait another hour. Only a few patients in line but not sure how long things are going to take.

After another hour we decide emergency entrance of the hospital might be the go. A little extra fee and maybe these people can help...

I guess its a waiting game

I guess i have to wait until my body beats the virus, so i'll rest but still need a little more shopping before heading to the province. A little bit of ACE HARDWARE and CD-R KING for bits and pieces.

Not feeling great but the traffic is light today through lapu-lapu. Fuel price is down a little woohoo!

Dia-Tabs Not working anymore

Dia-tabs the tablets you take to stop the waterworks malfunctioning. 2 tablets at first then 1 every 4 hours untill stool is firm.

It's been a few days now and they seem to have no effect. I'm going every 15min like clockwork. At this point i'm right off food too.

After going 12 times before lunch and i haven't drank that much water i should be well de-hydrated but my pee is clear so that's kind of odd. Tuesday is a write off! Back to bed.

Wondering SM Cebu

Up to this point i haven't seen any beggars. Downstairs in the supermarket part of SM i'm carefully browsing the cold drinks looking for an energy drink that is cold, i'm struggling with the cold part.

Happy with my choice i'm on my way to the checkout until i run into another white fella. Often greeting other whiteys unless they are drunk as 12 men or look like some kind of mass murderer.

We exchanged greetings then i was about to move on when he starts with the small talk. I hang around and try to understand his American English. Filipino English sounds like American English but its not as bad. I'm a fan of Asian and British accents. With all the different Asian accents its quite interesting how their local tones and influences are mixed with English and British to me everything they say sounds like Shakespeare. I'm sure it's not all of them just what i have been exposed to. South might sound totally different to north or young and the old.

Back to the white American guy asking about what i do for a living and what he did or does. At this point in time hes in a bit of a rut and could do with a bit of cash... Slightly alarmed "rich foreigner" asking for money. Now i have instant recall of an uncle who once called me a "rich foreigner" and a yahoo group where someone mentioned white guys don't often greet each other thinking the other guy might cry poor and ask for money.

I gave him the all my spending money for that day excluding money for my items i was about to purchase. I started to think what if he does that all day and makes good money out of people like me. I work 12 and sometimes 16hours a day so i can save up and have a holiday. Working hard at 3 jobs to get what i want but maybe this fellow is working smarter not harder.

I despise the "rich foreigner" term as i have to work hard so i can spend money. I don't stand around and watch the clock to get paid, i have to calculate, compile and find solutions with heavy deadlines than on my day off i do physical work climbing through roofs, under houses and climbing ladders. Getting jobs done fast as i can before the bills pile up. I guess that is kinda hard to understand.

Monday is a New Day

Monday is a new day and i'm going out well or unwell. Watching the morning traffic from the balcony i decide that i'm going out shopping.

I have a shopping list and it's not going to get itself. Some of it reads UPS, Tools, a new 3-3 RCA cable, extension lead, Screws, Smart-Bro stick, Long USB cable, energy drink, beer, wine and no doubt these items will lead me to a few extra impulse buys.

An AVR would have been fine but i feel safer with a UPS and try to avoid using the old desktop with just an old AVR. You pay for what you get so i happy with the extra cost of the UPS. Replacing the PSU in the tower and each time buying a more expensive AVR would likely cost more in the long run let alone the trouble of down time and buying parts when that would be the one day i just wanted to stay home.

abbreviations used above

• UPS Uninterrupted Power Supply (often found attached to servers or important work stations)
• AVR Automatic Voltage Regulator (name suggestive but only to some degree, not perfect)
• PSU Power Supply Unit  (the box inside your computer that takes the power in and gives everything power)

Sick Sunday

A light shower then a very nice day is in the making but i'm not going anywhere until the dia-tabs start to work.

The unwell feeling of yesterday is now in full swing and i feel like hell. Seem like it is possible to get bali belly in Cebu!

Hawaiian Pizza

Not exactly a local food but it's my favourite and every place makes different pizza. Places like pizza hut don't change much to the eye but the taste is very different.

Comparing any pizza AU to PH. Pineapple always tastes better in PH. Ham always tastes better in AU. I dare say it seems like AU uses canned pineapple and PH use canned ham! Well that's what it tastes like.

In PH they don't seem to fuss the same over the pizza base. Sometimes under cooked and sometimes burnt and still under cooked. Ordering a takeaway pizza in AU takes 10-15min, Ordering in PH might take 30min and the pizza looks like it has been in the oven for only 2 minutes.

I'm a fan of hot sauce but they never have that on the table in AU. Maybe some things they adjust to suit local taste.

Something not right

A funny feeling greets me first thing in the morning and i start to review the meals of previous days.

Could have been the chicken on the plane, it did seem not right. More not right than usual for airline food and we always give such food a wide margin for flavour or missing flavour. More likely it was the pork on a stick i was eating last night. How can any food on a stick be bad when it tastes so good?

Doesn't seem that bad, a little relaxing and i'll be right tomorrow.

Road side food an hour after landing

I wonder how long that meat has been exposed and at room temp...

Tables everywhere of family's enjoying their late dinner, a few tables of young ones, a few old white guys and a loud TV in the corner. Seems some things never change.

The rice looks fresh and things look clean, time to eat.

Touchdown in Cebu

A nice late flight left little people to be processed through immigration. Possibly the only Filipino in the Philippines that never smiles is that person who stamps the passport. I wonder if they really enjoy their job and its just the cultural difference that stops me from seeing their extrema delight.

With a 1Yr BB stamp i'm happy and on my way to pickup my bags, one lock missing and a big white X on one of my bags..inspection time i presume. I wonder if the lock was broken off in transit or it was cut off to assess the insides. Both bags had the same lock so i don't see why they wouldn't just cut the lock if that is what they did with the other...

Possibly AU immi checked one bag and PH immi wants to check the other. The boarder guy asks is there a computer inside, yes with a small pile of other electronics but all my personal toys just a lot of them.

All good and i'm out the door to feel that first wave of Philippines heat on my face.... Wasn't that hot, its December and it has recently rained. Only 33 Degrees.