The idea for the title came from a song I’ve been listening to lately – “Hip Hop Saved My Life” by Lupe Fiasco. Not sure if I could say Makati Med saved my life, but they sure did save me from a looooot of pain
It all started yesterday (Thursday). For dinner I ordered the low calorie meal from Kenny Rogers lol (grilled fish, 2 x garlic rice, steamed vegetables). I ate that with kim chi and corned beef. I don’t know why I added corned beef into the mix, I just wanted to get rid of this one can of purefoods corned beef that had been sitting around on the table. I ate way too much for dinner and it also didn’t help that I was eating like a pig. Whenever I’m really hungry, I can’t help but eat really fast – it’s a habit. And that unfortunately led to a case of indigestion shortly after. >.<
Since the stomach pains and acid reflux were starting to get really bad, I resorted to taking a pill of Activated Charcoal by Nature’s Way. I bought it from Healthy Options (MOA) last year and I think I’ve only ever used it once. There was one time last year where I ate bibingka (it tasted a little “off” but I ate it anyway LOL), and then I woke up in the middle of the night feeling like something just exploded in my tummy, and I also felt like I was on the verge of shitting myself and spewing. I just knew it was because of the bibingka, and before it got any worse I decided to give the activated charcoal a try. Seemed like an iffy choice at the time, but that’s life, you gotta take risks sometimes. After a bit of rumbling in my tummy, all the pain, the buildup of gas, everything, it just all disappeared – my stomach was just completely silent. It made me think LOL WTF just happened in there!!
Activated charcoal is the stuff they often use in hospitals for patients who have come in with cases of drug overdose, food poisoning, chemical poisoning, snake bites, spider bites, etc. I think they first use an emetic to get the patient to vomit out some of the poison and then follow it up with activated charcoal to get rid of the rest of the nasty shit in there. The way it works is it absorbs poisons or drugs in the body and carries it down the digestive tract and out the body. Since activated charcoal is not absorbed or metabolized in the gut, it goes in and comes right out like clockwork, along with whatever it absorbs on the way; poisons, drugs, etc. I still remember the basics because I did a lot of research on activated charcoal last year, before I bought it at Healthy Options.
Activated charcoal saved me once, I thought it would work wonders for me again this time. Another reason why I felt the need to try something a little stronger than the average buscopan was because I thought I also ate something that was “off” at Yakimix two days before – I ate a looot of sushi that day, and one of the sushi’s I tasted a little… different…. LOL… so I thought I’d go with the activated charcoal just to be sure.
They say second time’s a charm, but not this time!! …
Second time landed me in hospital @ 3 am in the morning! hahahhaha FML.

3 injections @ Makati Med emergency =D
My stomach was starting to really scare me. I didn’t know what was going on in there. There were all these kinds of pops and noises I had never even heard before, and they were really loud too. I done fucked up yet again. It was 12 am and time for me to sleep. I noticed the pain reached an 8/10 when I was lying down, especially when I lied down sideways. I just couldn’t for the life of me understand why it would hurt more when I was lying down sideways >< Trivial shit that just seemed to make the situation seem all the more frustrating. I was also starting to feel weak, fatigued, and dehydrated because I had already shit myself twice beforehand. It was kind of scary because it was all liquid and it hurt like a bitch. But thank God I didn’t shit out blood or black poop, which would have clearly indicated internal bleeding. I was also starting to feel really nauseous, to the point that eating mere crackers or drinking a bit of water would make me want to gag.
Anyways, after 3 hours of tossing and turning because of the excruciating pain that only seemed to get worse, I got out of bed and said “Fuck this. I’m going to Makati Med”. But then I was like wahhhh… are there even any taxi’s going by at this time? How the hell am I gonna get there? So I lied down for a bit and tried to sleep it off yet again…
Got up 2 minutes later, got dressed, got my bag and my domo wallet, my keys, and then bolted out the door and went down via the elevator. I asked the guard if there were still taxi’s and he said yes and called a taxi. LOL then I ran back into the elevator to go back up to get a jacket. Other than deciding to go to the hospital, that was one of the first WISE decisions I had made all day because Makati Med was freaking cold!
Taxi was quick to arrive and we got to Makati Med in no time. Straight to the emergency department. There was a lady and a guy at the counter, and I told the lady all my symptoms, they took blood pressure, and shoved something in my ear, etc. and then the guy asked me if I had taken any medication before coming to the hospital. So I reached into my bag and grabbed the bottle of activated charcoal, and the guy just… laughed? I didn’t see what was funny, but then again, a lot of guys who work in hospitals are usually douchebags anyway – that’s why I prefer female doctors, I feel more at ease with them. They are usually more professional and courteous in regards to how they treat and handle their patients.
After that, I had to go this other counter to give my details and then I saw a doctor. I explained my symptoms blah blah blah and then he told me to sit down. After about 30 minutes of sitting down and shitting myself a few times in their toilet, I was like nigga, I thought this was an emergency department. Why am I sitting down here, suffering without any treatment? But I guess I probably had no right to complain because I wasn’t dying or bleeding to death..
Then I called my mum (overseas) just to let her know that I was in hospital LOL, and at the same time I was hoping she wouldn’t freak out. I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but I just had to let her know. At the time, I also felt I could really use some moral support.. I was just sitting there on my own, exhausted, dehydrated, sleepy as fuck, constantly gagging (nothing would come out because I literally shat everything out already), and just feeling plain terrible. If only my mum was there beside me
at the time, that was something I could only imagine, I had no choice but to man up and just deal with it. My mum’s sister is all the way in Bulacan, while my other tita lives in Muntinlupa, and I’m right smack-bang in the middle hahaha. I didn’t want to inconvenience either of them.
I was getting tired of gagging. I would just stand there gagging, and people would just look at me – I probably looked like I was having a seizure or something LOL. I really didn’t care, people staring at me was the least of my worries. I went up to the counter and said “nasusuka talaga ako, meron po kayong injection”. The guy was taking his time preparing all the injections. If I can remember correctly, he gave me three injections. It was my first time getting an injection via my hand hahaha. I’m not really scared of injections, what scares me is the possibility of having an allergic reaction to something IN the injection. Scariest allergic reaction I can think of is probably a seizure – never had a seizure in my life, but it looks scary in the movies hahaha.
The three injections I got were:
1) Plasil (an anti-emetic to stop the vomiting)
2) h2 blocker (blocks histamine2, a chemical in the body that signals the stomach to produce acid)
3) Isotonic sodium hydrochloride (for dehydration / to replace lost fluids)
It was a strange, strange feeling. Everytime he would administer an injection in my hand, I could feel the cold fluid as it entered through my skin, and I could also feel the coldness of the fluid in my skin, but the feeling gradually wore off. I’m guessing by the time it wore off, the vein was already at work, pumping it around my body, distributing it systematically.
Did the injections actually help?
For the nausea, it DID sort of help. I still felt nauseous, but not as much as I did beforehand. I wasn’t gagging anymore, thank God! I could finally sit down in peace lol. =) My stomach also felt a lot more come maybe after 2 hours. The improvement was very gradual – it was improving slowly, but surely.
Urine and stool test – Nigga what??
Then the doctor gave me two containers, because he needed a urine and stool sample from me just to make sure everything was ok. Urine was easy. I just drank a lot of water (thanks to Plasil, I was now able to eat and drink without gagging it back up) and then went to the toilet and tried to piss in the container. Got a bit of piss on my hands too hahahah because I can’t aim for shit hahahah. So I handed my piss in.
Next, stool. Holy shit, how am I gonna shit, when I already shat the shit out of my shitty shat shitty bum bum. My ass hole was already so very sore. But I just went in there and forced something out, and lo and behold, a few pieces came out. Then I had to pick em up from the toilet bowl. The damn container didn’t come with a pick!! Improvise Neil, improvise! I used sky flakes to pick up the shit from the toilet. Worked out pretty well. It was a waste of food, but meh, I didn’t have anything else to use..
So I covered the container with a tissue when I handed it in LOL. Pretty embarassing ‘cos they were all gathered up at the counter, just having a random conversation LOL, and I just barged in with some fresh shit, straight from the bowl!! A real conversation killer.
2 hours waiting for the test results…
The test results took forever to come out. I was just sitting there looking all droopy-eyed because I just wanted to go home and sleep. Yeah, then I just slept on the chairs lol.
And WHILE I was sleeping, it just dawned on me that I was putting pressure on my hand lol, meaning blood would probably pour out into the little tube hahaha, but lucky there was a cap =P

LOL!
For some reason, it made me laugh. Baliw talaga kasi ako eh. Then I went back to sleep…
Shortly after, some guy walked past and woke me up and said I could sleep on the bed LOL. WOW THANKS! I didn’t know if I was allowed, or if I had to pay extra, or maybe he just felt sorry for me. So straight to sleep I went LOL. The guy even went out of his way and put the blanket over me. That was a pretty homo moment, but it was nice of him I guess hahaha. ><
Since I had already been waiting for about 2+ hours, the doctor woke me up an hour or so later (around 7 am I think) and told me he had the results. He told me nothing was wrong, the results were ok naman. And then he told me to follow up with a gastroenterologist to be sure. After reading the results, I noticed it was the stool test that took forever. What were those crazy people doing with my poop? Maybe it stunk so bad, they had to go and find a darth vader mask before examining it.

Makati Med saved my life hehheh.. but also cost me a hefty sum :[
The bill
After that, I asked for a medical certificate and then I was directed to billing. I was a little anxious about how much the bill would come out to be. >< Bill totaled P3,285
Emergency fee was P630, heplock P315 (thingy stuck in my hand, so they could administer more injections if needed), H2 blocker P556, Plasil P63, Urinalysis P577, Stool test P364, and other random fees for all the stuff they used from alcohol swabs to syringes, and even the cotton? LOL damn.
Well, one thing I always like to say, especially in times like this – it could be worse. And it’s my life and my health after all, I should be willing to pay whatever. But I still can’t help but think how much food and daily necessities I could have bought with that money, if I hadn’t been so stupid to land myself in hospital hahaha. Well, you live and learn.
And the feeling I felt as I walked out of Makati Med’s emergency department, facing the bright morning sun, feeling brand new and ready to rock – Priceless.
Took a taxi back to taft and went straight to sleep. Woke up at around 1:50 pm and pretty much missed my POLISCI class. We had an exam, but the moment I landed myself in hospital, that was no longer my priority. And I have a medical certificate anyway, so that should be enough for her to give me a make-up exam. =)
Thoughts..
So yeah… huwow! What a day it was hahaha. Probably one of the worst days of my life here as a student. It was a learning experience though.
My tita commended me for being able to go to the hospital on my own, and I guess after all the crap I had just been through, that made my day.
I feel this, and a whole bunch of other experiences of mine here in the Philippines, have all, in their own way contributed to making me that much more stronger, not only as a person, but as an individual.
Over and OUT.
~ n.