Slipped My Mind... I Mean, Disc

The other week or so I was diagnosed with having a Grade II (prolapsed) herniated disc. The bewildered look on friends' faces when I informed them of my condition turned to one of surprise and concern when I used the layman's term --a slipped disc-- immediately after. Guess that pain in my lower back that I've been experiencing since Bora was more serious than I thought.

Ok but how serious is it, really?

After our family friend/spine surgeon saw my MRI films and expressed "Hmms" of concern, he immediately showed me a Powerpoint presentation (either he's been at this profession for a while or my condition is more common than I thought) discussing the problem and possible solutions, both involving surgery. Option A was involves a bigger incision and at least an overnight hospital stay. The latter uses a smaller incision and is an outpatient treatment. Both involve slicing away the "slipped" portion of the disc (w/c will not regenerate, mind you), but he says the former is more effective than the latter. So much for efficiency being the better way to go.

Suffice to say I had mixed feeling about the situation, but to give you a sense of my priorities my second thought was how will this affect my workout schedule? Doc said I'm gonna be limited to just doing bench presses, or any heavy lifting will have to be done lying down. I was almost resigned to that situation before the benefit of internet research and some phone calls/texts.

Huzzah! Seems it is still possible to continue kettlebell workouts in my condition. (No-no on the regular sit-ups or crunches, though.) Still, online information is sparse.

An online reply from Sadrina suggested I contact Dr. George Canlas, sports medicine doctor for our local Olympic team (start at the top, why don't we...) who supposedly charges a thousand bucks for a consult. A text from Lisabelle, a Bowen Technique practitioner, referred me to Sandro Toledo, a "Connective Tissue Mobilization Specialist or Acupuncturist." When I met w/ Dr. "Strix" at one his clinics (located, oddly enough, at a hair salon), he looked me over, gave me some pointers on proper sitting (admittedly that sounded less silly in my head) and told me surgery should really be a last resort. He also looked my at my MRI films and said my condition (and he's seen much worse), while not completely reversible, is definitely treatable.

Maybe it was the painkiller I took the other day, but I felt real relief from hearing that. The next day he sent me the number of Rheysonn Cornilla, PT for the Coca-Cola Tigers, now known as the Powerade Tigers. (NBA names teams by state, PBA does it by corporate sponsor.)

Two days ago Rheysonn came by the house for our appointed PT session. The cheapskate in me was grateful he didn't charge by the hour, coz he was around for almost 3 hours showing me butt, back and core-strengthening exercises I can do on my own, as well as answering my 101 questions on what past exercises I can still do (weighted obliques no, sumo deadlift and jump squats yes) and even what sleeping positions are good for the current state of my back. While checking my back he also delivered some well-placed pokes that would've brought me down if I was mugger and he was Spock from Star Trek. He also gave me some common-sense pointers when it came to dealing w/ the dull pain the slipped disc caused. (A dull pinch that starts from my right buttcheek that crawls down to just below the right knee.)

I am grateful to be out of my worrisome funk and back in the game. I'm reminded of Chris Rock's joke of how Man will not cure AIDS ("because the money's in the medicine") and instead will just find a way for people to live with it. I hope that my newfound knowledge I will learn to live w/ my Grade II (prolapsed) herniated disc and still do the things I wanna do with the physique I wanna have w/o having to undergo surgery.

Blast from the Printer Past

Found amongst a collection of papers from the office clear-binder. Ah, 1999, with all the enjoyment of youth matched w/ self-righteousness.

F.A.G. (For Ana G.)

'Rents are in China for the week, so BoiT & Family took over the Master Bedroom for the duration of their absence.

I was feeling the pangs of d-loaded media-viewing burnout. (Finished the last 34 episodes of Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood's 64-episode run yesterday and today.) Today (Monday) was a holiday thanks to the Barangay-SK elections. I had nothing else going on and nothing keeping me home. So it was just good timing (around 9:30PM) that while chatting w/ Ana Gonzales (as she was hosting her radio program The Disenchanted Kingdom on 99.5RT) she asked if I was free to meet up for drinks and a chat after her show's over. In Makati. Past 10PM. Tonight.

Under normal circumstances those last 3 points would have me disappointingly decline the invite, but hoorah for me, this was not. Next thing I knew I showered, put on black T-shirt and left my comfort zone, driving to Makati. As serendipity would have it as I parked the car and got out I spotted Ana G walking down the street heading for her condo (bar we were supposed to meet in was already closed), so we just went to the roof/hot-tub deck (where she held her 30th bday party) to down her complimentary bottles of Kristov Vodka Cruiser (stuff's tamer than Barcardi Breezer) and shoot the breeze.

Judge Not, Lest Ye Be Asked As a Favor to Do So

Last Friday old Dopeyz member Claudette asked me and fellow Dopeyz Lynette (no relation, just rhymes) to act as judges for a couple of marketing presentations done by some of her students as part of their final grade. Being completely unqualified but opinionated, I said "Sure" (If Donald Trump can host --and own-- beauty contests...) and drove to Philippine Christian University, blithely parking by their basketball court and leaving the guard w/ a "Oh well, he already got in," look on his face while I lamented the lax campus security. Ah well, so long as parking is free. While waiting for the students Claudy treated us to a McDonald's breakfast.

Having started late and w/ some students more than ill-prepared, we watched only 2 groups present their case for the reinvigoration of Maggi Instant Noodles. Group 1 had a commercial jingle and even a new mascot in their plan. Group 2 presented "eco-friendly" packaging (in actuality was more buzzword than sincere, but at least they shaved off an entire minute off the fictional 3-minute cooking time). Oddly enough both groups, while deciding to give an encyclopedic written history of Maggi Noodles (kids, no-one cares it originated from 19th Century Switzerland, unless it tasted like cheese and kept accurate time), failed to mention the most recognizable symbol of their product: Tita Maggi herself. It was like ignoring the ginger-haired, freckle-faced girl of Wendy's, Aunt Jemima on her pancake syrup bottles or a Playmate of the Month's bunny tattoo by her... nevermind.

It was sadly possible (and indicative of my age) that these kids were born after the mid-80s and have never actually seen Tita Maggi in those noodle commercials. Or they tried a Google image search and came up w/ bupkis. (If it's the latter I can sympathize, as I tried the same thing to help accentuate the blog entry). So while I busy poking holes in their presentations (one girl in Group 2 was giving us the Evil Eye) Lynette disputed the figures in their budget plan. Group 1 was fine w/ spending about 7M pesos per month for an arbitrary 4 months, while group wanted 1M per month for 3 months, and really really wanted Vice Ganda to be their celebrity endorser.

I hope the final scores I gave them don't end up failing anyone, as some the students who presented today clearly have no interest in Advertising, but just took the class as a requirement. As for those who do want to learn about the biz, I may have inadvertently gave them a hint that people in this line of work will have other people telling you that you suck. A lot.

101010 (Not Binary Code)

Had Sunday lunch w/ Dee at Cafe Mediterranean in SM MoA to help pass the time as the 'Rents attended a birthday lunch party at Century Seafood. For the first time I didn't completely finish my moussaka.

Later that evening I ran into Dee's sister Marilyn at Jehan Sia (Li)'s wedding reception at Sofitel (went w/ BoiT and Dionne), seated at the table next to ours. Since Jehan's little brother married my cousin Eliza it was no surprise that the Hao Chins were present, as well.

The newlyweds seemed to have a allotted a significant portion of the wedding budget to photographers. Aside from having 2 shutter-guys (Jervy Santiago among them), the now-obligatory photo booth was replaced by an actual photographer standing by w/ her DSLR camera, while her partner worked on a laptop and portable photo-printer.

Tonight was also the largest gathering of Ad Extremians (aka SJCS Batch 1994) in formal wear since our Senior prom. Tim Yap emceed and did improv for the evening, while Jehan's dad performed w/ his Argentinian Tango dance group, same as last year. I was also surprised to see Joy Lua since I thought had already formally settled in Australia. Also on my list of "Hey, it's you!" sightings: Winston Co, Richard Uy, Jane Kingsu, Ritchie Ang, Peterson Tieng (actually that shouldn't come as a surprise since he officiated the church wedding) and 2 DLSU professors, including Julie Tanada. Unfortunately the other guy's name escape me, although we did recognize each other.

Déjà View

I need to come up w/ new poses...

Missed the Boat

This Saturday was the Galeón Andalucía's (a replica of a 17th century Spanish galleon used during the galleon trade between Manila and Acapulco -- thanks, InterNets) last day docked at Manila's South Harbor, where it arrived October 6 and was open to the public. For its last day visiting hours were only going to be from 8AM to 12 noon, so Lola and I woke up early and arrived at a quarter to eight.

Guess we should've arrived earlier, because the line outside South Harbor was already insanely long. Even as we were able to sneak past the gates (told the guard we had an appointment at the Manila Standard), we only ended up on the tail end of an even longer line, because like us they also decided to check out the boat last-minute like. On the other end of the line was a sign posted on the gate of the registration office that read Please be ready for long lines. Registration is from 9-10:30AM. I thought things were looking bleak, but Lola the optimist wanted to stay on.

(Incidentally that's where I also caught sight of a guy dressed as Abraham Lincoln on 3-wheeled motorized scooter. Boy, the things you find on street corners...)

Around 11AM the combined stifling heat and frustration that the lot of us may be lining up for naught were making some people in line antsy and very vocal about line-cutters. One guy, who wore a ring as a necklace while his curly white chest hair was poking out of his shirt (Lola couldn't stop laughing when I whispered that description of the guy has he walked past us) even grabbed a long piece of wood, presumably to look bad-ass and show line-cutter he means business. Right, like he'd risk assaulting someone and face possible jail time because someone wanted to get on a boat earlier than him.

By 11:45 we had to leave the line because I was due to meet Eileen at Robinson's Ermita in a couple of hours (to watch The Town), my feet were killing me and I wanted to eat lunch first since I only had one tall glass of Ovaltine before I left the house this morning. When we got the gate the crowd outside was even bigger than when we last saw it. Good luck, suckers.

Two meaty meals, Royce chocolate samplings and drinks of Cafe Mocha later Eileen found us at Starbucks. Unfortunately Lola didn't join us for the movie because she was determined to clean up her room today. I'd cross my fingers, but based on her past attempts to get her room-cleaning started I'll just end up w/ sore fingers.

After the movie it was "official:" I've been out of the house all day, but once I got home I showered and changed, preparing to join and drive the 'rents to a Chinese Sweet Sixteen (he's a dude) birthday dinner party in President Tea House in Binondo. And what better way to celebrate your 16-year-old Chinese son becoming a... late teenager than by giving guests boxed bottles of Johnny Walker. My head still hurts from being bombard all night by Chinese KTV.

Kara's Day

Today I became Ninong to one Kara Naomi Uy Chong (named after Battlestar Galactica and anime characters, respectively, yes-the-dad-is-a-geek), home from Hong Kong w/ her parents Richard and Aimee.

(Lookit that, isn't she a whole-round bundle of CUTE?)

I more or less arrived early at the Santuaro de San Jose in Greenhills but still failed to get a decent parking spot. Fellow godparents included SJCS alumni Marilyn Chua, her hubby Allan Go-Alcantara and Christopher Uy. Pretty much went off w/o a hitch, and afterwards we headed for Gloris Maris for lunch.

As a gift I got her a couple of Supergirl T-shirts because my inner geek would like to believe she was half-named after Kara Zor-El.

Robredo, not Robredon't

Tonight --upon 4-Ku's initiative-- we hosted a small dinner for my Ninong, "acting" Secretary of the Department of Interior and Local Government and current crab mentality victim Jesse Robredo.

Jesse and his wife Lenny --close family friends since my parents were kids-- were selected to be my godparents for my Catholic Confirmation in SJCS. (Another pair was being considered but eventually passed over because my sister thought they would've spoiled me rotten.) To my knowledge they're the only living godparents I have left and ones I had a say in choosing, as I know next-to-nothing about my baptismal godparents.

The man is barely 2 months into his post and all it took was one disgruntled, most-likely crooked, trigger happy ex-cop, a bus full of tourists and a media $#!+storm to threaten the good he's barely done and will do. 4-Ku wanted to see him and ask how we was doing. His worrying was for naught (reading the papers lately doesn't help), since Ninong Jess said he's doing fine (not reading the papers helps him stay that way). You don't get to be a man w/ this much integrity w/o being thick-skinned.

It's also this integrity that makes me believe him when he said was informed too-little-too-late about the hostage situation (w/c was horribly mishandled and mismanaged), and that he really wants to help the PNP grunts, but of course the power to do so was taken away by The President.

He says he won't resign, but won't fight if he's fired for the sake of politics. Any would-be replacement won't do the job better than him, but will probably be more willing to "play the game." Oh, and Jesus Versoza is a real boob and should've retired earlier.

If all this is coming off as one-sided and name-droppish that wasn't my intention. He doesn't need me to defend him, and he already knows that family and friends are behind him all the way. I'm doing this for me. I'm proud to be his godson. I'm lucky to know someone who's good at what he does and will do it for the good of others. To know that there's a good guy in government gives me the kind of hope having Noynoy Aquino as president never will.

(Yes, the irony of Ninong Jess campaigning for Noynoy does not escape me; but I with Dick Gordon called him, instead.)

More Ketchup, Please

This is becoming a regular feature in my delayed-and-w/o-too-much-detail blogging lifestyle. (Ah, well. Beats having to open a Twitter account.):

Aug. 14: The Contessa's newlywed friends Elwood and Sarah Mae invited us to their lovely new home in Quezon City, a 2-storey structure featuring the current architectural fad of horizontal beams, large exterior ornamental stone designs and super-high ceilings. Guys like me went gaga over the 54-inch plasma TV in the living room (w/ surround speakers installed in the ceiling over the couch), while the ladies went lala over one particular lamp next to the couch.

I also had the pleasure of meeting Sarah Mae's cousins Rhea and Racquel (and her husband Alfred). While the rest of the grown-ups were chatting I was playing Build-a-Cup-and-Coaster-Castle w/ Racquel's daughter (whose name escapes me at the moment, but seeing as she's only Prep I in SJCS I doubt she'll hold a grudge).

Aug. 15: Hanging w/ Lola at our usual Starbucks joint (Ash Creek), secretly making fun of the cabal of teenage-to-adolescent Chinoy males huddled at the table behind her. It was like watching the gathering of the Asian cast of Revenge of the Nerds.

Aug. 23: Arya Greenhills for a double dinner date (The Contessa would probably object to the "date" part, but rest assured I'm only in this for the alliteration) w/ Rhea (see how fast I can make friends?) and her friend Dino. It should have been a sextuple supper but Sarah and Elwood had to leave early, so apologies for them for only taking out the camera after they departed. No Robin Padilla sighting this time, but we did see Angelu de Leon having dinner at the table across from ours.

Aug. 28: Spent the late afternoon and evening w/ Amie, Lyndon's friend whom I met coupla years back. After I had a massage we went to Marina at Metrowalk for some dinner.

If anyone noticed that the path of these meetings took me from Quezon City to San Juan to Mandaluyong, well.... correlation is not causation. :p