Happy Birthday to Me!!

Today was a pretty good day, even though I'm a year older now according to the Western calendar. I had four hours off from work (paid half day off) which I spent sleeping in and then going out with family for lunch at a Japanese restaurant. The food was really great except the kitchen staff forgot about my deep fried bananas. I had golden loaf cake at work today bought by my manager for my birthday. It was so sweet of her. Can't wait to continue celebrating my birthday throughout the weekend with friends. In all, I enjoyed my birthday. :)

Happy Lunar New Year!

I hope everyone had a good Lunar New Year (to all my Asian and Buddhist friends and family). I had a good 2 days off from work (with no pay of course) but back to work was another story. *oh boy* Anyways, everyone take care of your health and hope the Year of the Dragon will bring a prosperous and stable (not turbulent), safe and good health to all. (well, maybe except for the *evil* ones on my detest list)

Happy Birthday to Me!!

Oh, another birthday come and (nearly) gone. 'Tis another year and hopefully the year will be a good one. Hopefully less financial woes and more positive outcomes. :) Celebrated with my family over a good homecooked dinner. Received a few hours off work so it was good for my sanity *chuckle*. Oi.... my creaky old bones... hee hee hee. ;p

Hole in my Wallet

I can't understand why the Money God hates me. No matter how many hours I work, I just can't save. I don't buy things for myself. I don't have a social life because all I do is work. But I just can't save. There's always emergency crap that I always have to pay for, completely beyond my control. What the heck. I believe the Money God laughs all the time whenever I take out my bank debit card. That darn hole in my wallet. If only I can patch it up. It's really so sad.... overworked and underpaid. Seeing it all fly away without even a single interest accumulating on the biweekly pay. Money... difficult to come by (even after long hard hours), but too easy to lose without even trying. I still strongly believe the Money God hates me... must have been "it" creating that hole in my wallet...

My non-existent condition...

It irritates me to no end when no one believes I have a medical condition.

One of the bones in my spinal column at the S1 and S2 nodes are concave inwards with spurs, causing a dip into the nodes, pinching my nerves and creating shooting pain through my lower back, upper back, shoulders, and legs.

Yet no one seems to believe I am in pain with this condition.

I do not scream in agony. I just live with it. I would grimace and grit my teeth and clench my fists.

The pain occurs at random times roughly about 3 times per week, at times when I could just be walking leisurely around or just standing at work. The episodes could last about half an hour to a few days.

I have learned not to walk like I'm in pain. Even the nerve specialist told me years ago that he would never have believed my condition if he wasn't holding my MRI scan in his hands. A good friend of mine informed me that if I limped and favoured a certain part of my body, the other part will carry the burden and will deteriorate even faster. That's why I walk normally like everyone else.

People don't believe I have this condition. They don't have to say it, I could tell in their eyes that they think I'm making it up. It's like I enjoy popping corticosteroids and pain pills and giving myself nausea, stomach cramps, drowsiness as side effects. Heck, who doesn't mind vomiting and being a space cadet driving and at work when I should be alert? Maybe I need to be in a wheelchair for people to understand.

In a course of about six years, I went into the hospital for the initial searing pain in my back, later on I had experienced a temporary paralysis (for about 15 minutes) in my legs, later I had x-rays done, I had a sports doctor from a university who was concerned about my condition and got me into a hospital for a MRI scan really quickly, then I had a nerve specialist run tests along my legs and back, and amongst all this time I was given corticosteroids and pain medications.

All the above must have been in my head for the last six years, this "non-existent condition" of mine...

(pardon me... I will now excuse myself as I need to pop some more pain pills as the pain is spreading from my back, down my legs, and into my toes...)

Curse that alarm system!!

How embarrassing...

This morning I went to work two hours earlier because I needed to catch up on some paperwork. I also went to work earlier yesterday so I already knew how to use the alarm code.

I don't know exactly what happened but I must have either punched in the wrong code by accident or didn't press the buttons hard enough, because the alarm system activated and the sirens were blaring loudly for about five minutes.

I was literally in a state of panic so while the sirens were on, I rushed to the back of the store and called my manager on the cellphone. Fortunately she was awake so she told me how to inactivate the alarm.

She told me that the police may come by even though the alarm company was alerted (by her) that an employee is in the store and not a thief.

Indeed, minutes later, two squad cars pull up in front of the store and I ran outside to tell them that it was not a break-and-entry. The male cop wasn't too pleased with the situation but the female cop was more understanding. At the very least, she was smiling instead of frowning, unlike the other one. I must have looked mortified to be standing in the parking lot with passerby out for the morning walk gawking at me explaining to cops.

It was such an embarrassing and horrible morning. Now, in the future, I will think twice before deciding to go to work earlier.

An apple a day keeps the doctor away...

Today I had a doctor's appointment. If you remember from another post before, I had mentioned that I found a doctor in the city who was taking on new patients (the city I live in has a doctor shortage). It's been over seven years since I last had an actual physician visit instead of a clinic emergency.

I made sure to bring all my pain & sinus medications so that the doctor can write scripts for them. That way I can label all my boxes for the flight to Japan. The airlines required all medications to be labeled. They're not medications I take on a daily basis, just when needed for my allergies, hayfever, and back (spine) & knee (patella cartilage) pain. It's important to have on hand when I'm in a foreign country and can't find what I need in a pharmacy there.

I also got four x-rays taken of my knees due to cartilage deterioration. The doctor told me that they'll contact me when my MRI has a date scheduled at the hospital. It won't be till months later since there's only one such machine in the city. I requested the MRI since it has been about 5 years since the bone in my spinal column changed in the S1 and S2 nodes (which affects the nerves that runs down the legs and feet). I wanted to start fresh with this doctor so she can tell me the straight facts about my condition.

Since 6pm tonight, I have been fasting. I have blood work to be done at 8am tomorrow so it's a 14 hour fast. The doctor wanted to check my iron, glucose, Vitamin D, cholesterol, et cetera. It's been over 10 years since I last had blood work done so I'm nervous about the results.


I've cleaned up the tags on my blog (located on the right-hand side of the screen). There were too many and was getting cluttered. I hope you like the neater look!


As of now, I have to sleep early. The lab is opened at 8am.

Good night everyone!

Feeling quite drabby...

I have no idea why or how I became so drabby and listless lately. Ever since the end of February, I felt like I had no energy. I guess it doesn't help that the weather is pretty gloomy. Combine that with a lack of consistent sleep at night. Ugh...

I went with my family on a small weekend vacation out of the city. I went shopping at the Chinatown and bought some Jay Chou and Mayday cds and dvds. Ate out a lot and had a great time overall. Now I can't wait for the anime convention in May. I'm going to have a blast. Spending money on manga and food. Yeah!

My family and turtles are doing well, except I'm concerned about my father. He is over 70 years old and has been showing signs of memory loss, confusion, worsening of eyesight, et cetera. He refuses to get eye operation done and wear eyeglasses during driving and walking. What can we do as children? Sigh...

I have so many music videos and live performances that I want to share but there's no time to post it. Will do that soon... hopefully...

Already breaking resolutions...

I'm so awful. It's only the beginning of the third week into the new year and already I've broken half of my new year's resolutions.

Good thing one of them wasn't "sleeping early" because I would've broken that on the first day. ;p

It's past midnight and I should be sleeping.

Good night boys & girls!

(zzzz...)

Bah! Merry Humbug!!

'Tis the season to be angry at the world...

... or at least direct the anger towards the nasty person who stole my auto windshield washer fluid.

It only costs $2.48 but a mean individual decided to make off with my item which I had purchased this past Sunday at a local grocery store.

Fortunately, the cashier let me grab a replacement after I explained the situation.
I hope lightning rains down on the culprit or, at the very least, receive manure in their stocking this year.