The PI Trip

It’s been a while since I’ve blogged, so I thought I’d throw a few words out here in the ether and update all on this thing I call My Life.

I returned from the Philippines on early Tuesday morning, after spending 10 days there with The Wife (a.k.a. The Gorgeous One) and those wacky folks known as The In-Laws. The purpose of the trip was because The Gorgeous One had medical appointments in Manila at St. Luke’s Hospital, in order to try to get a problem she has corrected for once and for all. Instead of boring everyone (including myself) with all the day-to-day minutia of the trip, let me just throw out the highlights and lowlights.

-Because the medical treatment facilities here on Guam aren’t what you call state of the art, we were referred to St. Luke’s by The Wife’s doctor and the insurance company. Let me just state for the record that St. Luke’s is a kick-ass hospital, one of the best I’ve ever been in. They treated and continue to treat The Gorgeous One really well. Because my wife’s family lives fairly close to Manila, we were commuting back and forth every other day from her families’ compound by bus instead of staying in Manila. While my in-laws live out in the country, the hospital was only about 90 minutes away.

-Last week, the wife had a test where they put an IV into her and inject die, then scan her. It’s called a full contrast CT scan. One of the side effects we were told about was that she may develop a rash. Two days after the test, The Gorgeous One woke up with a head to toe rash. After contacting the hospital and being told that the rash would have happened almost immediately and not a couple of days later, we went to see a local dermatologist. I say “we” because for a couple of weeks before going there, I had been suffering from some skin problems of my own. Turns out that The Gorgeous One had somehow contracted German measles, and I have the human equivalent of scabies. We’re both getting better, except that I now have to bathe with a soap made from coal tar, and had to shave my head.

-The Wife is still in the Philippines, and will be for at least another four to six weeks. She will be having surgery sometime in the next 10 days or so to finally correct the problem that she has. I only wish that I could have stayed through the surgery, but I don’t have enough vacation time stashed away. She will be well taken care of by her many sisters, and once the surgery is completed she’s only expected to remain in the hospital for a couple of days.

-When we weren’t dealing with The Medical Profession, we spent a lot of time hanging out with my in-laws. Like a lot of Filipino families, my wife has a lot of relatives. Most of them are cool, some are slightly irritating, and they have their fair share of complete assholes as well. The second Saturday we were there, one of her brothers decided that it would be a fine idea to get drunk and start trouble for no particular reason. This did not sit well with my bride, and it took massive amounts of self control on my part not to punch him back to the Middle Ages.

-We also had issues with one of her sisters and the idiot that she’s married to. The Gorgeous One has been supporting these two and their kids for countless years, because Idiot Boy has a hard time staying employed, and one of their daughters has some major health issues. It’s at the point now where Her Wifeliness has told them that, while she will continue to pay for the daughter’s medication (approximately US $10 per month), they should expect to not receive more than that until they remove their heads from their asses. It should be said that while my wife has the patience of a saint, she also has her limit as well.

-The trip was also good for us as a couple. We got to spend a lot of time just sitting around talking and enjoying each other’s company in a relaxed mode and not dealing with the mundane day to day bullshit that we all have to deal with. We hung out with her family, many of whom I like a lot, ate massive amounts of great food, drank a few cold adult beverages, and generally had a good time. My bronchitis went completely away, and while I ate a lot I actually lost 10 pounds, thus curing the horrible snoring that the Gorgeous One had to put up with.

All in all, a good trip. I’m back here on Guam by me own self, and once the wife’s surgery is completed, she will rejoin me here. I miss her terribly, but this is one of those things that we will come out far ahead on in the long run.

More stories later, including ones about the cabbie that almost lost his life, The Talkative Grandma, and bad parenting at its finest.