Pap Smear and A Mom’s Health

Mommies are so protective of their families especially their children that the slightest change in their health or mood ring the worry bell. Don’t we panic at the sound of cough or the slightest bump on their heads regardless of their age? When they complain of feeling an ache here and a discomfort there, don’t we want to bring them to the doctors right away? Like any other basic needs of our children, providing the best remedy, medical or otherwise, is what we want for our children.

Now here is the question, do we also provide the best remedy for our own ailments? How many times have you visited the doctor when you feel under the weather? Have you had your Pap Smear test yet?

Night Terrors, How Do I Manage Them?

My 1-year old son, Enzo, has night terrors. I thought he was over it but last night, he had another fit. It was terribly worrisome for me and the hubby. Raia, my second child, got roused from her sleep because of the sudden screaming and continuous crying. We tried to pacify him by hushing but to no avail. Actually, we already know that no amount of hushing will help because it is night terror.I first learned about his sleep disorder when he was around five months old. That was when he already knew how to rollover and start crawling. He was actually sleep crawling. Eyes closed, hands flailing, sobbing and crawling. He was sleeping beside my husband’s aunt who was his nanny. The husband and I were sleeping beside the older two girls. We decided to let him sleep beside the nanny so as not to disturb the two girls who go to school early. When we first witnessed his “attacks”, we thought he was just having nightmares. We tried to avoid making him cry afterwards because we thought it could be one reason. However, there came a pattern, a time for these attacks. So later, I consulted with the pediatrician and learned that it was called Night Terrors, that it was normal for some children and that he will outgrow it.

Not satisfied, I consulted Google and read more about this sleep disorder. I felt frustrated to learn that no matter how much we try, a child in this situation will not be calmed down except when precautionary measures are made in the day or few minutes before it actually occurs. That’s what made it even more a terror for me.

Some of the efforts that we now make, including following those that are recommended on the pediatricians’ websites is to have him sleep with us. We also noticed that he sort of calms down when it is his dad who holds him. Like last night, when he suddenly sat upright and screamed, I held out to him but he did not notice (his mind is asleep even if his eyes were open). He continued to cry loudly. So my husband took him and held him, not too loosely nor too tightly. After 10-15 minutes, he calmed down and went back to sleep like nothing happened. At 5:00 am, he was busy climbing over all of us and waking us up.

I hope he gets over it as soon as possible. I am actually worried that it has happened to him at a very early age. Perhaps, I’ll have to re-consult the pedia or re-orient the aunt-nanny about avoiding overfatigue or stress for the baby. Hopefully, and in God’s blessing, these experiences will soon be over.

Down Came the Rain… and the Nasal Mucus Too

After much cloud-seeding and artificial rains, the natural ones arrived and soaked our province. Three typhoons came and went in a span of two weeks. The good news are, there is enough irrigation for the new rice paddies and the typhoons didn’t carry signal number 4.

Now, the bad news…

Eyesight and eyeglasses

“What’s wrong with your eyes? Have you been glued to the cable TV all summer?”, I asked Trinity after she came home from her vacation with my parents last May. She has been blinking non-stop and worse, her eyeballs roll. They move from side to side as she chatters about anything that her mind wanders off to. Mostly about Naruto and those Cartoon Network characters.

” I must have caught Tito Ew’s mannerisms. Nahawa ata ako.” She replied.

That was my brother she was talking about, and yes, my brother blinks a lot. Ordinarily, I would have laughed at her quip, she’s good at those things. But this time I was worried because her eye movements reminded me of Newton’s cradle.

I was afraid my daughter’s eyes are getting attracted to each other. So we banned her from playing with computer games and watching TV. Our antenna was broken so that’s one less aggravating past time for her. But playing with the computer, that was more difficult. She has learned how to operate it. She’s more computer literate than her yaya, so it was really no surprise when the yaya told me that she still plays with it when we’re gone.

And so, Tati Zos, decided once and for all to delete all games in the computer and that did it. The blinking stopped but the frequent Newton cradle-like movement remained. I told her to control it which she sometimes does.Two weeks ago, the blinking returned and worsened because it was coupled with a right-eye-non-stop-winking. I tried to seriously ask her what the problem was or if her eyes were hurting. But the winking was so funny the giggler in me can’t keep a straight-face.

“What’s wrong with your eyes? Stop winking, your classmates may think you’ve got a crush on them.” I said close to laughing hysterically. She hit me in the arm.

“But I don’t know why.” She whined.

I asked her to wink once. She tried but she can’t. I was surprised she can’t do it voluntarily. When she started talking to me so did the blinking and winking.

” There! You winked again. Do it again, let me take a look.” I said.

She tried, but she can’t. So I told myself, o-oh, we really have eye problems here. I sent an SMS to a nephew who works with an eye center in the city to ask him if we can bring Trinity for check-up. He replied, “OK tta. brng her on Thu.”

Th eye center is located in the provincial hospital along the highway in the city. It is a foundation that caters mostly to senior citizens suffering from glaucoma and cataracts. The center’s ophthalmologists still come from Manila so imagine the long hours that we endured before she was finally examined. We arrived before 9:00 in the morning and there were all the lolos and lolas waiting in line… or rather in herds. I noticed the pairs of slippers at the entrance and realized that everyone who went inside had to leave their footwear at the door. It was either because of the clinic’s sterilized floor or because (like what Britney once said) we’re country. Slippers are often left outside the door.

Trinity was asked to read the Snellen chart. Before that she was asked to wear eyeglasses that looks like the ones worn by Yzma and Cronk of the Disney Channel cartoon show The Emperor’s New Groove. Thinking about that provoked my sense of humor. Trinity read well up to the letters above the green line. Below that, she started squinting, obviously finding it difficult to recognize the letters. Then she read the F as P and O as G. My humor left me. I felt sorry for my girl. And because the room was full of people waiting for their turn, there were lots of “miron” commenting as if they have all the rights in the world to comment. I got so annoyed I wanted to scream at them. Who wouldn’t with comments like:

” Naku, hindi na mabasa. (Oh, she can’t read it anymore.)”
” Kawawang bata. Kabata pa e, sira na ang mata. (The poor girl has poor eyesight at so young an age.)”

Do they think my daughter can’t understand what they’re saying? They were so insensitive but they were far older than me so I decided to ignore them. Unlike them, at least my daughter didn’t need operations yet. But, she needs glasses, the ophthalmologist said. She has 20/30 vision (I also saw a 20/20 and 20/ something minus 1 in her record) and a 125 “grado ng mata”. The ophthalmologist said that it’s normal for some children to experience poor eyesight (mataas and grado) and wearing eyeglasses can correct it. Well, I didn’t really know because I still have clear eyesight. She also explained that the reason why Trinity blinks is because her eyes are looking for the light. Shutting her eyes or letting it move from side to side helps but has it has turned into a habit. Wearing glasses should correct this, I was told. And because she can’t avoid using the computer for her classes, it’s better if she gets the multi-coated ones. So, even if it meant me losing my chance to buy a copy of the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows, I readily gave my downpayment. By this week, my daughter’s having her first ever eyeglasses.

Oh well, the things a mom would give up for their children. Anyway, I’d rather give up the hard bound copy of HP 7 rather than seeing my daughter’s eyeballs turning to pinballs. I guess I’ll have to wait for the paperback version.