Day 0: Your birthday 2010

September 30th, 2010

30 September 2010
6.09 am

Just wiped my plate clean from a couple of slices of toast and a mug of white tea. Not sure if tea is okay for today, but I needed a bit of warmth and soothing this morning. After this I am not allowed to eat anything anymore, and nothing to drink except water until 10 am. We have to be at the hospital before noon to get prepped for surgery.

So it’s your birthday today. I can feel you kicking and shifting in my belly just a few moments ago. Since I woke up at 3 am you have been moving. Kept me awake, but that’s all right. It’ll be just a few hours until you are outside and I can no longer keep the delight of your life physically to myself. I will miss your quickenings, and every move you make today makes me smile.

Your father is still sleeping, and I hope he stays in bed for as long as he can until we need to leave for the hospital. I’ll be needing him more to help with your first weeks with us, especially with a belly wound I’ll be sporting starting later. I am no stranger to surgical recovery, as I’ve been cut 6 years ago in a similar way. It’ll be a while until I’m able to carry anything heavier than you in the next few weeks.

I can’t wait to meet you. I can’t believe how soon it is you will be in our arms. Our countdown started just a few weeks after New Year’s, and now it all comes down to these last few hours. Your father and I have never been more excited. For many years it has been Ajay and Pen. Starting today, we become a family of three.

We love you, and see you soon.

Heston’s feasts

August 26th, 2010

Ajay and I have found a new series to sink our teeth into. Heston’s feasts is a documentary series featuring the eccentric stylings of culinary genius Heston Blumenthal.

The show has a theme that varies from episode to episode. His guests are prominent personalities and critics, who are delightful to watch as they are immersed into an often amazing adventure encapsuled in a three (or more) course feast.

Most recent episode we’ve watched is his Fantasy Feast. Here he builds a version of a Cinderella pumpkin, an apple from Snow white and a Hansel and Gretel edible house.

blumenthal

Heston’s feasts airs in SBS every Thursday evening, 8.30.

Dengue: the virus strikes again… and again

August 24th, 2010

denguedist
Distribution of dengue infestations (yellow) and dengue epidemics (red). (image source: [1])

News groups have reported a surge of dengue infections around the globe. One case was reported today in Australia (in the tropical Northern Territory), the first in over 70 years [2]. India has 434 new cases reported this week, with 1 death [3]. The Philippines was not spared, with reports of the number of deaths on the increase, from 387 people in 2009 and currently 315 people so far in 2010 since January [4].

Dengue has been recognized as a human disease for over 200 years. Life-threatening syndromes associated with dengue are dengue hemorrhagic fever (DHF) and dengue shock syndrome (DSS). In the past 20 years, these diseases “emerged” as the most important vector diseases of humans worldwide [5]. To say they have “emerged” means that although these diseases have been around for a long time, the dynamics of these diseases have changed significantly such that it has become more difficult for us to control and prevent their occurrence. For instance, though we know that the epidemics are influenced by seasonal changes (wet weather being more favourable to the mosquitoes serving as vectors for the disease), the gaps of time between epidemics have shrunk from 10-15 years into as little as 3-5 years [6]. As with most infectious diseases, when the dynamics of infection change, we in turn should respond to these changes in order to control them, and protect ourselves from the harm they cause.

There are 4 different serotypes (genetic classifications) of dengue. A person can then be infected with dengue up to 4 times, since there is no cross-immunity. This poses a challenge to developing a vaccine that can be equally effective against all 4 serotypes.

denguevirus Dengue virus. left: immature, right: mature (image source:[1])

What are the perceptions of the Filipino on dengue? If you ask some persons in a Manila street today what they know about dengue, you’d probably get some pretty straightforward responses, such as…

… it being a severe disease of children caused by mosquito bites,

… They might associate some faces of local government officials with ‘fogging’ activities [7] in their areas to fight dengue.

… They may have heard in the news that a number of people have died as a result of dengue.

If they didn’t know anyone close to them who was affected by dengue, chances are they really wouldn’t go much further than these responses. If you go further into the provinces you are more likely to meet someone who knows a person infected with dengue. Currently, dengue cases on the rise are noted in the Visayas and Mindanao. An assessment of the knowledge of students in Negros Oriental [8] showed that most respondents are unaware of the importance of indoor control measures (as opposed to ‘high-profile’ outdoor ‘fogging’, which generates a lot of publicity for politicians).

Fogging doesn’t work. Outdoor spraying to kill adult mosquitoes is less effective because not all the mosquitoes are outdoors. What remains most effective in control of dengue is to kill larvae: destroy the breeding sites of mosquitoes by draining water-filled containers and removing rubbish appropriately. Unfortunately, there is no consistent program in the Philippines to maintain a standard of sustaining the eradication of mosquitoes. Why? With such labor-intensive work comes the need for MONEY.

No money, no information campaign, no training, no end to the mosquitoes.

Without sustaining such projects mosquitoes reestablish themselves in a matter of a few years. If only there was constant funding so that such projects are not abandoned in developing countries such as ours, then these simple but highly effective control measures can continue. A program in Vietnam [9] was effective in controlling dengue. It involved support from the central government and action from the local community. Larval breeding sites were destroyed. The peculiar but effective use of Mesocyclops (a kind of crustacean which feeds on larvae of Aedes aegypti) to control the mosquitoes larval development in water-filled containers was successful to eliminate dengue. There has been recommendations that these techniques are transferrable to other South East Asian nations [10].

It is unfortunate that most efforts to fight dengue, even though highly effective, in tropical developing countries have either waned or been abandoned. Only in times as today where news banners headlines on deaths from dengue do we cast a spotlight on the problem. Sadly, such an attitude of nonchalance and apathy whenever there is no sensationalism contributes to the success of this disease. Mosquitoes become more cunning in hide-and-seek, the virus acquire more vigour against our therapies and efforts to find a vaccine. The wet weather comes and goes as do outbreaks, but our attitudes seem to remain the same. While disease dynamics become more efficient by virtue of evolution, our own complacence makes our battles against them a losing one.

The least we can do as citizens is to abide by ‘cleanliness’ standards to not contribute to the problem. An extra step would be to lobby for an effective AND consistent program to control the mosquito population. A concerted plan must be on the ready to prevent another inevitable outbreak.

[1] Mackenzie JS, Gubler DJ and Petersen LR. Nature Medicine 10, S98 – S109 (2004)

[2] http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/08/24/2991507.htm?section=justin

[3] http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/delhi/34-new-cases-of-dengue-tally-434-now/articleshow/6423546.cms

[4] http://gulfnews.com/news/world/philippines/dengue-deaths-rise-in-philippines-as-authorities-deny-outbreak-1.671753

[5] Gubler DJ. Clinical Microbiology Reviews, July 1998, p. 480-496, Vol. 11, No. 3

[6] Gubler DH and Clark GG. Am. I. Tmp. Med. HYg.. 50(6) Suppl. 1994, pp. 50-60

[7] http://www.pcij.org/blog/?p=1201

[8] http://www.searo.who.int/en/Section10/Section332/Section1985_9819.htm

[9] Kay B and Vu SN. Lancet. 2005 Feb 12-18;365(9459):613-7.

[10] http://www.ecotippingpoints.org/our-stories/indepth/vietnam-dengue-mosquito-copepod-biological-control.html

33 weeks: the beach, bub’s hyperactivity

August 22nd, 2010

Pity I didn’t keep track of our pregnancy week-to-week here in janep. We’ve got the odd updates in twitter and facebook, but nothing in length nor breadth. We pretty much kept ost of the pregnancy ‘milestones’ to ourselves up until now. I suppose better late than never, so I’m starting now.

We’re in our last few weekends before bub comes out. Ajay and I have been pretty low key, spending most of our free time quietly at home, strolling to the shops for our needs, walking at the beach. And we did the beach thing for the first time this afternoon by the way:

brightonlesands

Twas good to feel the sand against the soles of our feet again.

Today bubs has been uberly hyperactive in my belly. I’ve had several times of tummy going hard as a rock: these Braxton Hicks contractions are getting pretty uncomfortable. Not really painful, but there is now and again a pinchy feeling in different areas of my tummy. It doesn’t come often nor regularly though.

Currently bubs has the hiccups. Has been a daily activity of bubs, several times a day.

Recipe: Brownies

August 12th, 2010

brownies

This makes 9-12 brownies. Depends on the pan you use. I sprinkle the end result with confectionery sugar and dark choco bits for extra sweetness.

6 tbsp unsweetened cocoa
1/4 c (about 55g) melted butter
1 c sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp salt
1/3 c flour
2 eggs
1 c walnuts (optional)

Stir in cocoa to melted butter. Mix in sugar, eggs, vanilla, flour, salt and nuts. Preheat oven to 160C. Wax baking pan, sprinkle with cocoa or flour. Pour batter into pan and bake for 35-40 minutes. Let cool for a few minutes (or not, depends how you like it!)

Enjoy!

WordPress 3.0

June 21st, 2010

I had an idle time and thought of upgrading this long forgotten site to WP3.0.

Might as well put the site into good news now that we are entering into a new phase of life. We’ll try to revive this blog somehow. I don’t know how frequent or what the content will be.

Ang aking haligi.

February 23rd, 2010

Ako’y masaya dahil ika’y paparito muli dahil sa walang sawa mong pag-una ng iyong sarili para sa aking kapanan. Dahil sa aking galak, gusto kong ipabatid dito sa blog ang aking pasasalamat sa iyo, aking asawa.

Bakit kailangan pang bilangin ang taon ng kasal? Simula’t sapul pa lamang, pinagtagpo tayo’t pinagtibay ng mahigit dekada na. Itong maikling video na ginawa ko noong 2008 noong una mo akong dinalaw sa dayuhang bansa, nais kong ipakita sa madla noong dinamdam ko ang iyong pag-alis para bumalik sa trabaho. Ginawa ko ito para maibsan ang pait ng pagkakalayo.

Kung magbibilang na rin lang, ilatag na ang lahat. Labinlimang taon na ang lumipas nang una tayong nagkakilala. Labintatlong magnobyo. Nagpakasal kamakailan lamang, bilang pagpugay sa samahang walang hangganan.

Salamat sa bawat sandali, mahal ko. At salamat sa maraming darating pa.

Ang iyong nagmamahal na asawa.

Food: what’s good, what’s not

February 18th, 2010

Since I found out I was expecting, I suddenly feel like I know nothing about nutrition and good health. ALmost everyone who knows about my pregnancy I have already asked what I should and should not eat.

I’ll probably update this post from time to time to collec t what I’ve found online.

Baby Center
Advice from the Food Authority
Advice from Victorian Health

Sunday miracle

February 15th, 2010

First day in 2 weeks that I kept food down. I think it’s lemon that helped me. I never thought I’d enjoy food again. Well, at least food that is still bland or simple tasting. But water is still an issue, and I can’t drink anything except lemon water.

Online buzzing

February 13th, 2010

As if we’re not busy enough bees already, then another online toy comes along. Google Buzz is not a lot different from current social networks as Facebook and Twitter, except that it can reside along with other Google tools at your usual disposal.

It’s an interesting implementation. Most of your contacts in Gmail automatically get added to your buzz list, but they don’t get to participate unless they activate Buzz in their own Google account. At the moment, I’ve found it fun to see some quirkiness from my usually quiet contacts in Gmail. Though it might easily become a passing novel feature that people will forget like Google Wave, at the moment it looks manageable enough to be easy to understand and use for people. Like anything, the experience can be different for different people. It would largely depend on which contacts you have and how you use the tools that determines how it works for you.

A lot is wrong with it right now, with posts randomly appearing from nowhere. But I think it’s more the linking of external websites that is causing this issue, and it really isn’t surprising at all. You can enable Flickr, Twitter and other websites to update in Buzz (but I don’t think you can do the opposite, yet). A detail that may bother some is that anyone with a public buzz can be viewed by other people, and in turn, strangers can see your contact list. I’m not sure if they can actually “SEE” the entirety of your buzz contact list. But for sure if you have a google profile made public, you will appear to others even if you don’t know them. It’s important that Google makes this clear and fixes these privacy issues.

I am not sure why Google has this fancy for releasing half-baked tools. Buzz is no different, I guess. There needs to be some better way to control Buzz the way you want it to work, but I’m not sure exactly how. Kevin Rose has blogged about Buzz twice in a row now: First, he explains why Google needs Buzz, and then he outlines a few requests on what features should be added/tweaked. Perhaps he’ll be a more eloquent ‘explainer’ of what the potential is on this new Google tool, i.e. what fuss Google Buzz deserves.

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