back, yet again...

Well, sorry... I am PLHIV working on a call center and I was not exactly in tip top shape to be able to blog everyday... but now that I walked out of the company I was working in... perhaps... no promises... I could do this again...

What happened was, months before, I had already been asking for leave of absence... with pay will be much appreciated... but I am fine without pay... as long as I take time out as I was feeling so stressed out... and it was showing already... it got to me mainly because of sleeping patterns... I am usually in bed after 8 in the evening... and I wake up early... my sched starts at 1pm... and it was way far my bed time already... I tried to request for an earlier schedule, I do have team mate who would love to have my late schedule, specially the mothers but to no avail... and so I was stressed out... adding to that, we were given a week night shift schedule for training... we came from a regular day shift and they insisted we get trained at night... some were welcoming of it, night differential, for me they can keep the night differential... we were to be back at the day shift after the week training... not worth all the stress...

I was still pleading for a leave of absence but to no avail...

But then I started having dry cough and fever... at first, I ignored it but it got worst and worst.... I just thought I caught a flu... normal, I thought... the season was changing, someone without HIV was bound to get sick, what more to an immuno-challenge person... so I tried to, as the Englishmen would say, "keep calm and carry on" I still went to work but then it came to a point that I can't anymore.... walking out of our subdivision made me pant like hell which hadn't happen before....

So, I stayed home... fever come and goes... it got worst... even going to the bathroom was an effort... the coughing was also giving me so much grief....

I was off work for 4 days, then 2 days off... I called my TL, that I caught the flu the first day, after that... I assumed that he was intelligent enough to understand that it will take a while before I recover... 

Monday, my brother insisted we see a doctor, worried about my ever worsening condition... we went to Medical City armed with my Maxicare HMO.... They wanted to admit me... I was willing... but there was a catch... the last time I was hospitalized, it was last year, it was TB... I was open to it during pre-employment medical... and I told my attending physician about it, as it was important....I was told that they would admit me, work me up and figure out what was going on with me... but if it turns out to be TB again, I would shoulder all expenses as it would be a pre-existing condition...

Medical City is really an expensive hospital... no way would we afford so...

The following day, Tuesday... My brother insisted I get medical attention, and decided, despite the distance... we would have to brave EDSA and go to Alabang... to RITM, where I was hospitalized last year... I was not given a choice about it...

I was admitted... 

It was just me and my brother and RITM requires a patient need to be with someone--a bantay... and note: we were at Alabang, Muntinlupa... office was in Cainta... my TL keep calling demanding for med cert... explain to him the situation but still he insist... tipong naghihingalo na ko, med cert pa rin, di ba makakapaghintay yan!?

It was not TB, it was pneumonia... I stayed in the hospital for 6 days, as sputum test requires three consecutive early morning sample... plus they have other concern like low hemoglobin... me being malnourished/underweight... but they let us go Monday... 

My mom and dad were not able to come, mainly because it was pick season and plane ticket is sky rocketing... so mom just have to be frantically worried over the phone and papa calls periodically... and that they decided that right from the hospital, I would be bought home in the province, in Calasiao, Pangasinan... and recover further and if ever possible stay here!

When we were to be discharged, I did not use my PhilHealth, pissed off of my company, we refused to communicate with them...

Monday... a day short of a week, I was discharge off the hospital... took a cab to 5 star bus station and off we go...

I'm home now...