It's not too bad

The day is turning out to be not too bad.

Cooked tinola for lunch. I forgot to take out the innards and to chop the thighs into halves and it came out a little bland (which was good for me and my low-salt diet) and too greasy. But the kids loved it… they were profuse with thanks, so dahil sa kanila… panalo! Hay, sarap.

The three kids and I and the nanny all ate at the table (the other nanny went home this morning to the province); we took turns feeding the girls when they started to play with their food. The little one was quite a handful towards the end, especially when it was time for their cough medications but we survived. I took care of cleaning up the kitchen and washing the dishes while the she cleaned them up and brushed their teeth.

** As I type this, our nanny knocked on the door to tell me that the Kuya’s nose is bleeding profusely. Found him sitting up on the bed, holding a bloody old shirt up to his nose. It was coming out of his right nostril. We applied ice and put pressure on his nasal bridge until the bleeding stopped. He’s been having epistaxis 2 to 3x a year since he was about two and a half years old. It must have been triggered by the inflammation due to the flu. Whew.

Back to after lunch. It was quiet after the kids have been put to bed for their afternoon nap. I filled up my stock of cucumber spa scrub in the bathroom and prepared to take a shower. As I stood in the shower, lathering up, I realized how painfully loud the tinnitus is when everything around me is so quiet. It dawned on me: I will have to start getting used to it with no music nor TV in the background to try to mask it. I might have to take the exam with tinnitus and have to start getting used to the noise as I read and think and concentrate.