Two weeks ago, I joined a bazaar in Eastwood. It was an 8PM to 3AM bazaar because it is in a call center. The next day, I caught a cold, maybe because of tiredness or something. My colds lasted for two days or so.

A week later, I started making grallows to give away for Christmas. These are graham crusted marshmallows that I make into balls. Jeff gave them to his coworkers in Alveo, and my mother-in-law gave them to their village friends. The next day, I baked calamansi cupcakes which we gave to our ninongs and ninangs. I knew I was falling sick, but I never thought it was going to be that bad.

August of last year, I was also brought to the ER. The right side of my cheek was painful and I assumed it was just toothache. Jeff and I went to Chili's in Greenbelt and we both ordered a liter mug of beer. The moment I took a sip of the beer, my entire right cheek felt like it was exploding in pain. Jeff brought me to the MakatiMed ER. The initial findings was sinusitis. So it was not my tooth, it was my sinus. I was given oral pain relievers and antibiotics in the ER.


I had the same symptoms last week so I thought it was just my sinus acting up again. When I woke up Monday morning, my face was already swollen. Jeff panicked and took me to Asian Hospital ER. We arrived at 6AM. I was the only one in the ER and I was a bit of disappointed with Asian's ER service. I went to the ER because I know I have a swelling in my face and that it is very near my brain. If I have an infection, it may go easily to my brain. I am that paranoid. So when the receiving nurse made me sign the papers while telling me, "Mam we don't have an ENT in the ER, do you still want to get checked?" When I nodded and handed him my health card, he immediately followed up saying, "Mam, you may shoulder the fee if our doctors think that your case is not valid." I was pissed, I nodded and said, "JUST GET ME CHECKED."

Many patients came in after me and they were attended to shortly. I on the other hand was called by the doctor after thirty minutes. She was also cold and I felt like she isn't taking my case seriously too. I told her it happened to me before and the diagnosis was sinusitis. She pressed my face here and there, and ordered an x-ray. It took them another thirty minutes to take me to the x-ray room. After fifteen minutes, the doctor came to me and said my x-rays were clear and gave me medicine. She also told me to see an ENT. We were out of Asian Hospital at 8:30AM after getting the printouts of my x-ray. I later found out that I was put under Third Priority, meaning it was not an urgent matter. WTF?!?

I took my antibiotic and pain relievers when we got home. Jeff left for their event in PICC. I slept the entire morning. I woke up at 5PM realizing that my face swelled more, took medicine, and slept again. I woke up at 8PM, my face was hurting. When I looked in the mirror, I was horrified with my face. It looks like my right face was stuffed with siopaos. I took a hot bath and put hot pack on my face. It didn't subside. Jeff came at 11:30PM and he decided we go back to ER. He planned to go to Asian again, but I said no. MakatiMed was my best bet.

I decided to take photos of myself the entire day to see how bad it was getting.

Here are my photos with time stamps.

We arrived in MakatiMed at around 12MN of December 17. I went to the ER nurses while Jeff parked the car. I was wearing a mask because my face looks horrible. They asked me what happened, pressed my face, and immediately assisted me to the doctors. I was attended by not one but two doctors. They immediately said that the soft tissues of my face was swollen and it may be bad because it is on the T-Zone, the sensitive part of the face because it is near the brain. See, I was right Asian Hospital. I was right! They said I should be admitted because they need to know what is causing the swelling. ADMITTED. Whaaat?!? All I thought of was syringes and IVs. And I was right. About ten minutes later, I was called to a cubicle and a nurse inserted IV on my left hand. It was my first. And it was very painful.

I posted this on my Instagram account with the caption, "Well, this is a first."

The nurse came back and injected some liquid pain reliever on my left hand. It was very painful, like seriously! My muscles ached for a good 20 seconds before it went away. How the hell do they call it pain reliever if it causes that much pain?!? True enough, the throbbing on my face went away after a few minutes. Nurse then came back with two syringes of I don't know what. He said the doctor ordered for me to be given two shots of anti-tetanus. ANTI-TETANUS?!? Really? I remembered my mom got one anti-tetanus shot back in 2008 and she said it hurts a lot. Nurse told me to take a deep breath and poked me with the first syringe in my left arm. I felt a little pain but not much. A bit confused, I moved a little so he could poke my right arm with the last syringe of anti-tetanus. It didn't hurt that much. Then I remembered, yeah, the pain reliever.

He came back with more pain tools, aka skin test for my antibiotic.


My mom and sister came that afternoon. My sister just came home from work and they commuted to Makati from Antipolo. My mom, who was up at 3AM to open our store in the market, was so tired she actually slept in the ER with me. Haha! I was able to Skype with my chubby little nephew who has an equally swollen cheeks like mine. Haha!



It was such a busy night in the emergency room. Can you guess how long did we wait to get a room upstairs? SIXTEEN HOURS. Yep, 16 long hours. I was able to take my swollen selfies to see if my face is getting better for 16 hours. Jeff told me that the swelling comes and goes. He particularly said that it gets bigger after I eat. So maybe my face is stuffed with food, yes?


It was already afternoon of December 17 when we finally got a room on the 7th floor. It was a happy moment for me and Jeff. Finally, a decent bed for me and him. And our own toilet. I was assigned in Room 769. It was a small private room worth P3,500 a day.

My bed on the left and Jeff's bed on the right.

There's HD TV and my husband was particularly very happy with the 24hr NBA Premium HD. :D

The nurses on the 7th floor are very nice. Ross, who was my nurse for 16 hours was very cheerful and he attended to all my needs. He even helped drag my IV pole to the toilet when Jeff was out to buy something. We stayed in the room for two and a half days.

My swelling got better fast. The last photo was taken on December 19, two hours before I was discharged.

Cellulitis is caused by a type of bacteria entering the skin, usually by way of a cut, abrasion, or break in the skin. This break does not need to be visible. Group A Streptococcus and Staphylococcus are the most common of these bacteria, which are part of the normal flora of the skin, but normally cause no actual infection while on the skin's outer surface.

It looks like my immune system went down due to the change of weather, stress, and all the baking and making of grallows. My mom told me that maybe, I am not used to the December weather in Manila. The Antipolo mountain will always be the best for my lungs. Haha!

My first confinement, although not good that I got sick, was a pretty good experience. The care I got from MakatiMed was over the top, compared to the treatment Asian Hospital ER gave me. The food is good too! At the end of my three day hospital staycation, we were billed Php30,000 but it was shouldered by my health card, Asian Life. I am just an extension of Jeff's health benefit from Alveo and it is something I am really thankful for. I get full benefits just because my husband works for one of the best companies in the Philippines, Ayala Group of Companies.

Thank you, everyone for the well wishes. Thank you Faye (and Ate Anna) for being my only friend who dropped by and brought me chili con carne (yummy!). Thanks to my mother-in-law for bringing pan de sal everyday and for dropping by every night to check on us. To my Mama and my sister who didn't know how to commute to MakatiMed but did. To Jeff, my ever loyal partner in sickness and in health. Thank you for dragging my IV pole to the toilet 20 times a day because I pee a lot. Thank you for walking to Philhealth to make sure that we're getting something from them. Thank you for buying me food because even though the food in MakatiMed is good, I still want to eat more. Thank you for waking up at night because I need the nurse.

Although I am happy with the MakatiMed service, I will make sure this won't happen again anytime soon. ;)