Love this time of the year at home

November 3. I have been trying to remember when it was last year that we thought it was cool enough to not have to run the aircon all the time. I was hoping it was coming up but i am thinking it must have been in January. It is very hard to cook because it takes two hands to do most things. Dad is good to help. I can not sweep very well either as the brooms are so short you have to bend over to sweep. Bending over hurts quite a bit because it causes my arm to shift, so Dad has to do the sweeping also. We don't have a vacuum (nobody does here) so everything is swept. It also hurts to spit in the sink from brushing my teeth and washing my face because I have to bend over to do that also.

Mendero Hospital

Emergency Room

I got my staples out on Friday. It looks like it healing pretty well. I was concerned with the sanitation where they took the staples out. They had a tray that had old news print down on it that they gathered up and threw away before they started to remove the staples. they didn't put anything else down on the tray and it didn't look real clean so I was a little nervous. The nurse dug through a bin to find the staple remover. I watched carefully to see if they were sanitized. She did take them over to another area and it looked like she may have dipped them in some alcohol. I was glad to see that she didn't set them down anywhere. When finished she put the staple remover back in the bin with all the other tools that she had taken it out of without cleaning it. She put the gauze and staples in the garbage that had no liner in it. Cleanliness is kind of important to me so I am glad I didn't have any other procedures there. 

There is a store here, near where I get Physical Therapy called S&R that is very similar to Sam's Club back home. They even carry some Kirkland products. I was able to find some gel Vitamin E capsules that I am going to use on my incision hoping I don't get such a huge scar.  

Arm is still very swollen

I go back in two weeks for xrays to see how the bone is mending.  Each day I do better and better. But still get pretty tired at the end of the day. My arm hurts after the visit to PT especially in the night but I can see that it is helping so I don't have frozen joints.

We had a good special broadcast by Elder Oaks on Sunday evening. He was the Area Authority here 10 years ago. He definitely understands the challenges of the Filipino people. He counseled the people not to divide their family up by working over seas. He also talked about the young people working while going to school. The young people think that if they are going to school they shouldn't get a job. He also counseled them to work hard and not rely on others for their support. He encouraged the members to become self reliant.

 It was All Saints Day and All Souls Day this weekend. So the traffic was horrendous. People everywhere and vehicles going every which way on the roads. The Filipino people celebrate by going to the cemeteries and cleaning the tombs, visiting and eating with family. Many stay overnight at the cemetery. Our neighbors had family over for the weekend and they stay up late visiting, drinking and eating outdoors. The men sleep outside on the benches and snore up a storm. It gets pretty noisy with their snoring but is sort of funny to hear them.

Broom Shop. 

 The brooms in the bin on the right in the top picture and on the left in the bottom picture look a lot like 

the witches brooms I saw in the Halloween pictures. Here they are actually used and not a costume.

They use the stiff brooms to sweep outside with. The more fan shaped broom are for indoor sweeping.  

I like that they are colorful. We sometimes buy our broom from children who are out peddling them on the 

streets and at the gas stations. They don't last long so we have to replace them now and again.

Another broom shop. They are all along this road. When you look down the
side streets you can see the broom straw laid out in the road drying.

The great Fall

This week has been an adventure. We had the car packed and were ready to go to the senior"s conference. When I remembered I had forgotten a couple of items. Reed waited in the car while I ran in to get them. It had rained and there was some water in footprints as we had gone in and out putting things in the car. In my hurry I stepped in some of the water and slipped causing me to fall onto my side. Grateful I did not hit my head on the table that was just inches away. I hurt like crazy, but I thought if i just laid still the pain would lessen and I would be able to get up, but it didn't lessen and I could not move my arm out from underneath me. Reed finally came in to see what was taking me so long. We called Sister Tanner to come and help me get up. As we assessed our options I knew I had hurt myself more than just a bruise. We stabilized my arm and then with help I was able to get up and get in the car. We have a new hospital about 20 minutes from us. I always said that if we need to go to a hospital I would want to go home but there weren't many options at this point. After being x-rayed they called in an orthopedic doctor. He told us it would require surgery to fix my arm which was fractured in 3 places just below the head. We called our doctors in Manila to get their opinion and it was the same as Dr. Cortes. After more blood work and x-rays I was scheduled for OR the next day. After 4 hours of surgery I was put back together. They had trouble with the x-ray machine so it took longer than the planned 1 hour. They put in a plate and 8 screws to hold it together. They had to put in longer screws than normal to attach it to good bone, Apparently I have a lot of osteoporosis in my bones. So much for taking calcium. Dr. Cortes said I have plenty of calcium in my body just none of it is getting to the bone.So now I am on Bonviva. He is hopeful the plate will hold and I will not need a shoulder replacement I get the staples out in two weeks. Start PT this week and in 6 weeks can quit wearing the slings.

This is by far the nicest hospital around. It is clean, may I just say that again, It is clean. Most of the hospitals are pretty scary. You have to bring your own water with you, as well as toilet paper, thermometer, towels (however they did provide sheets and a pillow and most important of all you need to bring a "watcher", that is some one to be with you and help you. The watcher has to go to a pharmacy and buy you meds and IV fluids and dressing kits for the nurses to give you. When the money given for the deposit runs out he goes and puts more money down so they can give you more treatments. So you have to bring along a lot of cash when you go to the hospital. The nurses dispense drugs, do vitals, and chart your pain level. If you do need them there is a red button attached to the wall that is behind the bed. that no one can reach.

My room and my watcher, Major problem. NO windows

See the red button on the wall behind the bed. That is the nurses call button

My watcher at work. This cot is provided for the watcher.You are only allowed one watcher.

After surgery. Not feeling very great

Technology is behind here.

Before they would give me any meds they placed some under the skin with a needle to make sure I wasn't allergic to it. It was pretty painful. Before surgery they had to determine my clotting time. So they cut my arm and dabbed at the blood watching their time watch until I quit bleeding. They used a huge gauge needle to try and start an IV in my hand and just kept blowing it even though there were three of them trying, finally they went to a smaller needle and got it in my wrist. The next blood draw had to be in my foot. they had pretty well damaged everything else. 

I am covered in bruises, even my foot

These staples look really mean and angry. I am sure when they
 are gone I will feel 20 times better

Wearing Reed's shirt, clothing to fit over my arm was limited

Guess, are the following foods breakfast, lunch or dinner?????

It was all pretty tasty. But you have to bring your utensils with you to eat.

 My new hardware

Recovering at the mission home. 

The smile means the drugs are working

 

My watcher in our recovery room.

Turkey Garra Ruea Fish Spa

Diane who also works in the office with us wanted to do this fish spa. And thought that since my birthday was coming up we should go there to celebrate my birthday. Not my first choice for celebrating my day but then she really wanted to go. Sister Tanner joined us and we made a day of it. Doing the spa thing and then going for lunch and to the mall. The office seemed to do just fine without us and it was nice to do something special. For P50 (just over $1.00) for 15 minutes it was worth trying. But I am thinking it will just be a one time experience.

The therapeutic facts. I guess you can say anything you want if its your sign. 

However, I am not a believer. But it looks good on a sign. 

I was the first one to put my feet in and they literally swarmed to my feet and legs. But as soon as the others put their feet in they spread out and it wasn't quite so creepily overwhelming having so many fish all over you. They aren't supposed to have teeth but there was one big dude that keep nibbling behind my knee and it had a pinch to it and wasn't comfortable. I kept trying to make him move on but he kept coming back. They basically stayed around my ankles, which means they were treating my back, which is a problem so maybe there is something to it.

Beautiful orchids. They put them in the trees and you have these pretty flowers 

coming out of the trees. Apparently orchids do not need soil to grow.

We followed this pig cart all the way to the office the other day. 

It looks like they still have some growing to do before they go to the market. 

They were a noisy bunch and didn't seem to enjoy the ride.

Dad and I found a Japanese restaurant next to the grocery market that we enjoy. Often when we do our weekly shopping we will find a place to stop and have some lunch. They have the best soup pots here. Every thing we have ordered here has been very tasty. One of the best parts is that it is rather quiet and not noisy. The mall blares music constantly and its nice to get away from it.

Selling flowers from buckets behind your motor.  

Lots of fiestas this week. We were invited to one by some friends. 

Their mother was catering food to it and it would have been wonderful to go, 

They have great parties here with lots of food and music but we will be going over

 to Bohol Island for a Senior's Conference next weekend and won't be able to attend.

The stores are ready for Christmas with their displays. Most of the decorations remind me 

of the dollar store decorations, lots of cheap looking plastic. Our neighbors have their 

Christmas lights and trees up. Christmas music is playing everywhere we go. 

But it just doesn't feel like Christmas yet.

Jumulon Butterfly museum

Like I told you if its a "ber"  month its Christmas. So Last week at church (still the month of September) they sang a Christmas song in church for the opening hymn.The area where they sale stars on the way up to Bogo now also have Christmas trees for sale.

It is still warm if the sun shines all day. On the way to work I can determine how hot it is outside by how the people are dressed. If they are shirtless, have an umbrella up, have half their t shirt tucked up or are wearing a towel it is going to be a hot day. We still have hot days but also stormy days where it is cooler though still hot.

This cemetery  looks out over the ocean is and is very picturesque. Not all cemeteries are. The one in Bogo is unique in that you can see peoples bones in buckets on the ground. They rent the burial lot for a couple of years and then the bones are removed and placed in a bucket so the next person can be buried. I will have to get a picture of it for you, being as how Halloween is coming up.

Fiesta's are ongoing. But you are probably tired of seeing my Fiesta posters.

This is a pretty Catholic rock church that we see every Sunday on our Drive up the mountain. No one is ever there when we drive by. Maybe it is used only for special occasions.

Shade for the cocks. There is a place up the road that just sticks palms in the ground to protect his cocks from the heat. One of our neighbors has a cock in his yard with a shade cover.

We went to another butterfly museum. Jumulon Butterfly Museum. The man who showed 

us around was very interesting and sure new a lot about butterflies. He had taught English 

literature and drama in a college before he retired. He was a family friend of the Jumulon's and 

had been studying butterflies since he was 12 years old. Even the men in the group were interested.

 It is an open sanctuary and so the butterflies can come and go. The only thing that draws them back is the nectar from the plants that have been planted. They have over 50 varieties of butterflies collected from all over the world. The owner who has since died was very famous throughout the world for his collections and research. He has butterflies named after him. He was also an artist and used oils and the damaged wings of butterflies as his medium.

Beautiful flowers in the garden

Orchids were in bloom. They also have a plant that only comes out every five years
 and are hoping this is the year it will bloom but they don't remember
 where in the garden it was planted

Showing us the parts of a butterfly

Similar to the Monarch that is in the states

Butterflies that Mr.Jumulon  discovered and are named after him

These butterflies are interesting because when they close up
they look like the leaves on a tree.

This picture shows that butterflies have patterns and someone was able to find the
alphabet and numbers in the pattern's of the different wings of butterflies

There were several displays of butterflies used for stamps

                                                 

The art work on the bottom is one of my favorites. It shows the oldest street in the Philippines. Colon St, The street is right near the museum. There really isn't anything to see there except a marker. The horse and buggy used to be the form of public transport. You can still see the horse and buggy occasionally. I saw two that day but wasn't in a position to get a picture.

Colon street bottom center. It is made of butterfly wings.
 There is also one made from oils and it was interesting to compare the differences.

This is my favorite. It represents chief Lapu-Lapu who killed Magellan.
 It is made of butterfly wings. If you look at the picture at an angle you can see
the iridescent colors of  the wings.

Philippine dart guns and spears.
Part of the collection of Mr. Jumulon

We had a good day with friends. 

After our museum visit we went out to eat at a Spanish 

restaurant that had a Filipino flare to the food.