8 posts tagged “health”

I've finally figured out why I've been feeling so sick the past few days (specifically, getting asthma attacks every night, which hasn't happened to me in more than a decade!). At first I thought it was a combination of my last few bouts of mild insomnia (for lack of a better term), and maybe sick house syndrome (I have so many books and stuff lying around). But just today I've got it - I've been getting sick because of the renovations going on in the apartment unit below us (which is being converted into four more apartment units, which are seriously overpriced and undersized, IMHO).

We've been having pretty cool weather the past few weeks, so I've been going without the A/C for quite a spell. Bad move - when the renovations are going on during the day, all the powdered crap and dust rise up and settle on the higher floors... with our unit being the first stop.

At first I was wondering why my table had these tiny, gray bits of stuff that looked like eraser sheddings in the mornings, when I hadn't even started drawing yet. Then we saw the same thing in our patio, which had sort of a vertical vestibule (I don't know what other word to use for it) shared between three floors, leading up an opening on the top floor.

I'm using the A/C everyday until they finish renovations from now on. (I'm just glad I don't pay for our electricity).

Whut?

Had a checkup done today. My regular HMO thing still isn't in the clear, so I had to head over to one of the nearby clinics. Doc was worried that my symptoms had lasted up to six days now, and ordered an additional blood test. On the other hand, I was worried about his handwriting on my medical certificate, and if the people who are gonna understand anything beyond "To Whom It May Concern".

Decided to just take the blood test tomorrow.

Anyway, Dad just got well today, which is endlessly annoying to me. Mas nauna pang gumaling saken yung hinawahan ko lang ng trangkaso! This is pathetic! I can't believe the immune system of a 40 year old man is better than that of a ruggedly handsome, awesomely sexy 20-year old! How can that be?!

Oh well. At the very least, I hope that my employers will be able to decipher the cryptic, ancient glyphs that my doctor wrote down in my medical certificate. Perhaps they may be credited with the discovery of a long-lost civilization that my physician seems to belong to.

I seriously can't understand it!

TEM of influenza virus

Been a lousy week. I caught the flu. Again. Second time in three weeks. I've missed about 9 days of work total because of being sick. I've also had  consecutive asthma attacks (just mild ones, though), which is of note since I have not had an asthma attack in a very long time. (I hear that once you've gotten past the flu, you'll be immune to that specific viral strain. I've had the flu lots of times now. How many strains are there?!)

The first time I thought maybe it was just something I caught on the train. Second time, I had a pretty good idea where it came from: during a meeting, I was seated next to a barista who was coughing and just generally trying to stop snot from pouring out her nose. Wonderful.

This sucks. I want to work, but I keep getting sick. Plus, being sick is insanely boring. I hate being stuck in the house!

Today was pretty crazy. Hordes of people came in, ordering tea lattes like there was no tomorrow. The ENB (espresso-based beverages and regular ole' brewed coffee) station was pretty much overwhelmed, swamped by tea latte orders by the fives, sixes, sevens and eights, and there was but one portafilter to work it all through with (we seriously need another for tea lattes!).

Most of the day I was stationed at the ENB, doing all those tea lattes and espresso based beverages in between. Another barista would come and help me by pulling shots while I steamed milk and mixed and finished beverages. I'll be honest with ya, I've only been on the job a few weeks, and while I've gotten pretty comfortable with most of the beverage preparations, I'm not that fast. But I ain't slow either. I just do my best to make sure that the drink I'm making meets the set standards I was taught and nothing less.

That's why I got seriously pissed when this veteran barista starts getting on my case to go faster. I told him I was doing the best I can, and going as fast as I can, and he says that's not good enough. I say that I can't do what's not possible. I could only do what I could to the best of my ability. And this guy goes "that's no excuse". Douchebaggery! *fingerwag*

This is the same guy who told me to slow down and try to focus, when he saw me making mistakes when I tried to do things too fast. Now he tells me to go faster than I realistically can... which will likely make me make more mistakes and thus slowing down everything in effect.

Well, I just decided to shrug it off. What's he gonna do, crack a bullwhip to make me work faster? Shyeah. (Truth is, dude's actually a pretty cool guy. I guess the situation just got to him and it stressed it even more that a newb barista [me] wasn't working as fast as he would have liked).

If I work hard enough, I think I can get to be as good as that guy someday. But right now, I'm just me.

Anyway, I completely missed lunch due to the hordes of people coming in. We also ran out of milk, and we had to ask other nearby stores for help. Everything was running low and the counters were a mess. Paper cups, cup lids, cup sleeves, you name it. We were also seriously undermanned, which made matters worse. People were piling up at the pick up counter demanding that their drinks be served yesterday, and complaining that they've waited x number of minutes and so. We just tried our best to reassure them that we were working as fast as we could on their orders, but it didn't seem to satisfy them.

Things even got so crazy that at one point, some people just left and didn't claim their orders, just leaving them on the pickup counter. Well, those go on the wastage form, and I hate having to be the one to report stuff like that. Makes it look like it was my fault (which of course, sucks, anyway you look at it). I also prepared some tea lattes that on of my finishers (some baristas rotated in and out as my starters/finishers) didn't finish for some reason, and those too went on the wastage form (again, I hate being the guy who reports these things).

Oh well, it's a learning experience. I just hope that the next time I have to "learn", we're not understaffed so that we'll be well-equipped to deal with and satisfy everybody's orders.

Other stuff today:

• My Great-grandma died this morning.
• My throat infection seems to have gone away. Hooray for garlic as an antibiotic.
• ...Still got to do something about this lack of energy, though.

If last week was marked by going on for days without sleep, this week was branded by the exact opposite. Since Monday, I have slept for 12 hours upwards almost each day.

+ Mon: 12 Hours
+ Tues: 15 Hours
+ Wed: 10 Hours
+ Thu: 13 Hours

Also, the times I spent being awake and doing stuff, I was almost always tired, lethargic, and my energy always got drained pretty quickly. It's this freakin' infection. I mean, I got a throat infection that's been on the verge of going away for the past four weeks already. I've got no colds or fever, I've functioned normally, until this week. All I have is a slightly itchy throat and this sometimes yellow, sometimes white crud on my tongue that's an obvious indicator of bacteria.

Grrr.

Still, I should stay optimistic.

Guh, had to drop everything I was doing today 'cause my left oblique was killing me. I shot over to my chiropractor to have it looked over.

Turns out that my left inner thigh muscle was inactive, so my oblique was compensating for it - actually, it overcompensated, and now it stiffened up and cramped. I just played full-court basketball this past Monday, and this was the consequence.

Anyway, it's fixed now, so I'll just make up for lost time tomorrow.

I'm just plain flabbergasted today. I have lost 5 inches off my waist in just five months.

I was at the mall shopping for a pair of jeans, since the smallest size I've got is 32 inches around my waist. And it just falls off without a belt. So I imagined, yeah, I'll get a 31. When I got to the mall, 31 was loose on me. So was 30. And 29 was just right around the waist; a perfect fit. Whoa. This was the most awesome thing I've experienced next to seeing my new six-pack abs a few days back.

And to think I had a beer gut only a few months ago! Last November, my waist measured at 34 inches. Now it's freakin' 29! And all I did was cut out sugar, rice, bread, and pasta! I basically eat whatever I want and however much I want of it! That, and the most physical activity I was doing was walking around the mall and commuting!

I've also lost about 10 pounds, but I feel great; I'm not tired or anything. In fact, my energy is through the roof. Gah, I just feel so great today. I couldn't stop looking at the mirror. For years I hated seeing my gut, now I feel awesome. I feel so great, I can't think straight. Whatever.

I can't wait to see what happens when I hit the gym!