If Ever I Die Along the Way

Tonight I am leaving with my father to spend the season with our relatives in Isabela. It always takes us more or less twelve hours to travel from Bataan to Isabela, and thus my father prefers that we go on a night trip. However, travelling that long especially thru the rugged terrain of the Cordillera mountains of the province of Nueva Viscaya is certainly dangerous, actually any kind of journey via national hi-ways is dangerous. In fact, I have encountered an accident when I was little in the said route.

Last September, I acquired an Organ Donor Card from the National Kidney Transplant Institute (NKTI). The card is part of NKTI’s HOPE or Human Organ Preservation Effort program that aims to “advocate organ and tissue donation and to source out transplantable organs from deceased organ donors.” Organ donors are not just the victims of accidents, there are instances when a person’s body still lives though the brain has already given up and so he becomes the perfect candidate for organ donation. This card guarantees that if ever I die, my organs will not be wasted and rot with the rest of my body.

At first I found it a little bit repulsive. Just thinking of people hauling my lifeless body from a supposed vehicular accident, and immediately transferring me from the site to the nearest hospital, not to revive me, but to the take advantage of the still fresh and still “consumable” internal organs that haven’t been destroyed by the accident.

I gave it a thought and with the help of a little explanation that my death will not be put to waste and will mean a lifelong health for someone else strucked me. It is a little bit eerie but death is an inevitable phenomenon so why not endure with the optimism that at the end of the day someone else’s life is lengtened. So I agreed and took the card. I went home and jot down the needed data at the back; it says;

In the hope that I may help others, I wish to donate after my death; 

followed by a list of five organs and a word “others’ with the corresoponding boxes where I have to put a mark. I checked all the boxes. Then I proceed to the next statement with a box saying;

Any needed parts to be used for transplantation, research and education.

i didn’t find the last three words, “research and education”, inviting so I put a slash mark over them and wrote the word “only” after the word “transplantation” so it looks like this

Any needed parts to be used for transplantation, only

research and education.

Obtain your own HOPE card now at the National Kidney Institute, who knows, LIFE might be your next perfect Christmas gift to someone.

Republic Act 9288 - Newborn Screening Act

[SOURCE ]

Republic of the Philippines
Congress of the Philippines
Metro Manila
Twelfth Congress
Third Regular Session

Begun and held in Metro Manila, on Monday, the twenty-eight day of July, thousand and three.

REPUBLIC ACT NO. 9288

ASS the Story Goes

I just heard from my classmates about the seminar that I attended this morning in Olongapo city. I really do not know who among my classmates were coming, all i knew was that they were planning to meet at the bus terminal before 6 AM. Since my cellphone is broken and i handed it over to my sister to pay for the fixing (She’s by the way in Manila right now), I did not have any kind of communication to my classmates.

I was alone at the terminal at 5:30. At 6:30 they still were not around, I was already planning to go by myself until Junessa came. She told me that all of them were waiting in the Victory Liner bus terminal. I asked why she went straight to this terminal, she said she was expecting that they were not riding the Victory Liner. I told her God sent her to me.

how do i palpate thee? let me count the ways…

we just had our return demonstration about TESTICULAR SELF EXAMINATION and BREAST EXAMINATION… (purrrfect for the occassion (valentine’s), isn’t it? lol). boys and girls were paired to each other, after the boys do the testicular self examination, the girls will then take their turn to palpate the boys… then vice versa with the breast self examination, (joking) of course we didn’t do that… we used dummies… nevertheless, since i am now knowledgeable about the subject, i think i ought to teach them to you…

HOW TO DO THE TESTICULAR SELF EXAMINATION?

1. stand infront of the mirror… check for any swelling on the scrotal area…
2. examine each testicle… place the index and the middle fingers under the testicle with the thumb placed on top. roll the testicle gently.note the size, shape, and tenderness- DONT BE ALARMED IF ONE OF THE TESTICLES IS SLIGHTLY LARGER THAN THE OTHER- THIS IS NORMAL.
3. find the epididymis. dont mistake this as a suspicious lump. cancerous lumps are ussually found on the side of testicles but sometimes up on the front. lumps on the epididymis are not cancerous.
4. if you foind a lump, see a doctor. the abnormality could not be  cancer; it may just be an infection.

HOW ABOUT THE PENIS?
1. inspect the skin… if not yet circumcised, retract the foreskin. this is essential for the detection of chancres and carcinomas.
2. the glans- check for wounds or scars. pinch the tip if there are some discharges…
3. palpate the shaft of the penis between your thumb and first two fingers. note the tenderness
or indurations or swellings….

HOW TO DO THE BREAST SELF EXAMINATION?

1. do this one week after menstruation.
2.  in front of the mirror, with hands on the side, observe the skin color, size and symmetry of the breast.
3. raise arms then compare the changes… look for the shape, irregularities, wrinkles and inverted nipples…
4. perform the ways of palpstion
(a.) wedge-
palpate from top to the nipple then to the upper side part to the nipple, side to nipple, lower side to the nipple until you finish the process….
(b.) vertical-
palpate from the upper side nearest to your armpit then palpate downward, then upward then downward do this until you’re on your cleavage…
(c.) circular-
palpate the sides circularly(counter or clockwise)… then palpate a little bit nearer to the nipple… then a little bit nearer gain… until your done.
after doing all of these, press the nipple between the thumb and index finger for any discharges…
5. lie down and relax..
6. repeat the procedure… put  the trochanter at the back of the shoulder opposite the breast you are examing..
7. note for lumps..