For everything from family to computers…
Like I was saying earlier, things like this just makes me mad! Johnson & Johnson taking the easy way out! They say they did everything right when in fact, they took their sweet time (6 years!) in releasing what they found out about their own product to the public!
Johnson & Johnson will be on my first anti-pharmaceutical list! If I can boycott their products by buying a different brand I will! You can go suck an egg and stay in the corner, Johnson & Johnson!
I don’t know what started it… but we were coming back from our Connection Group meeting from church when we started talking about how expensive insurance is even for us Americans and how you can’t get good medical care these days.
That started a rather passionate and heated talks between Soojin and myself about that. And then it reminded me of how pharmaceutical companies are greedy b*****ds for taking only money. You see, while in Ethiopia, and through the book, There is No Me Without You, I discovered and came to realization how greedy and injust these pharmaceutical companies are! Medication to treat AIDS/HIV has been around since late ’90s yet the company that developed it did not want to let go of its patent(s) and so generic medications couldn’t be made by a 3rd company. This meant that the price of medication was even too expensive for middle income families of America, let alone the poor $1-per-day income families of Africa! I was so furious and mad that it brought back that sheer anger and madness at such injustice!
We met an infant at Haregewoin’s orhpanage who looked so much better thanks to the generic medication that is now finally available. You see, the patent expired few years ago (finaly-freakin’-ly) and now it costs orders of magnitude less!!
Erg… if you know who these pharmaceutical compan(ies) are, let me know… I want to do something… at the least, to make people aware of these selfish injustice around the world. To put more value on money over people is not just injust, but inhumane. I am still mad thinking about it….
So JJ started complaining about his eye hurting last Thursday. Soojin thought at first that it was his eyebrow(s) getting in his eye. So we told him to wash his eyes. Well, it continued. For another day. And then we were beginning to worry that he may have some infections… like pink eye or something.
By Friday, he kept crying and didn’t sleep through the night at all. Now, I was WISHING it was pink eye! Before you scream and yell at me thinking “How can you call yourself a father and wish that your son had a pink eye?!!!”, hear me out. At least if it’s a pink eye, it’s a short-term problem. What we were afraid of for his sake was that it was allergies! 😮
But sure enough, when Soojin took him in to doctor’s this morning, his doctor worried that is just it. At such young age, developing allergies could prove more… lethal, as many kids also develop asthma and other worse things. Pray for him. Thanks. 🙂
Though it’s spring, I also still hate this time of th year… I have allergies. I am allergic to most tree pollens and cats and dust. I’ve been allergic to pollen & spring since I was 15 years old. However, since moving to Texas, I get to have it twice a year! Blessed am I!! 😛
Well, another note is that humans are selfish by nature. We fail to understand (nor do we want to understand) others’ pains unless we ourselves have gone through it. If I speak about the toughness of allergies with those who don’t have any, I might as well ask a Swahili-speaking person for it! Unfortunately, same case was for Soojin. I’ve tried to explain to her how it debilitates me at its peak, as my head spins round and round, sneezing my head off, trying to scratch my eyes and nose, wishing I could cut them off.
She developed a full-on allergy symptoms starting last year. This year was worse. She also experienced it a week ahead of me. Poor Soojin. This past weekend was my turn. Currently, my throat area is very irritated at the moment, to say the least. Cheat area feels inflamed, my eyes are so itchy that I want to just gouge them out! My nose hurts even from the slightest touch now as it’s beyond being irritated! Now, unfortunately, Soojin knows what I am going through, and sympathizes with me.
I don’t wish that kind of suffering on anyone, but I suppose that’s the sign of being human. We simply do not wish to even try to understand others’ suffering unless we have gone through it. So sad, really…
Christine has entered our lives in a flash and have really changed our lives! She has a very rare disease called Devic’s disease, one that affects one’s nervous system… well, as loyal readers would know, it has led her to temporary but lengthy blindness. She can see a bit and one would think that such rare and difficult disease would bring you down, but not our Christine!
She has been more than a trooper over the little over past year we have known her. She is very frank and honest and does not hold herself back. Well, one of her doctors recommended her for an experimental treatment using Rituxan, a medication used to treat cancer. The drug does similar things that needs to be done to treat someone like her.
Well, that was end of last year. She has been bravely, and patiently, trying to get an appointment to be treated. Yet, because her condition is so rare and the medication is for cancer patients, unlike herself, things have been… complicated. But she has shared that she finally got through the red tape and got the appointment scheduled for 26th of the month!! I am so happy for her… and how she has held herself through these past years. If I had to pick my own “Person of the Year”, she would definitely get it. Right Christine?! 😀 Hope this wasn’t out of line… Soojin and I couldn’t be happier or more thankful to God for introducing someone so amazing to our lives. I don’t think she sees how much an encouragement and challenge she has brought to us.
Past Saturday was John Suh‘s b-day party hosted by his significant other, none other than Christine. So when I went over there, after some food, they brought out Wii. I have only dabbed into it only a couple of times. This time around, I got to try it more extensively.
First game was playing boxing with John. You had to hold both controllers and jab at the screen as there is a sensor bar that senses your motion. Quite a nifty idea actually. After losing badly to him, I tried tennis. I tend to get into the games and so I naturally played with hand motions to match the actual tennis. Funny enough, after a bit of playing, I started sweating! :O Christine kept saying how I will be sore the next day but just kept on playing bowling and what not.
Sure enough, starting Sunday morning, my shoulder began to be rather sore! I couldn’t believe that Wii made my arm sore! It still is today!! Man, I’m out of shape…
Yesterday was Ash Wednesday… the day to mark the beginning of Lent, a 40-day period to prepare for the agony and pain that Jesus went through and 40 days reflect the length of time he spent in the desert. Prior to this day, my stress level has been … surmounting lately. I thought I’d share this with the few that read this and ask for your prayers.
1. My mother-in-law’s health has been worsening with her liver no longer allowing her to take any medications, having gone through two surgeries for her eyes, and knees, and because of the liver, they can’t perform surgery on her neck, which has been giving her lots of pain. Her siblings all but two have died of liver cancer, and she shows symptoms of the same disease. I’m afraid that she may not have much time left… 🙁
2. Because of my mother-in-law’s health condition, Soojin has been stressed out about it, and cries a lot of times regarding this… even more so thinking that she can’t help take care of her mom.
3. So naturally, before her health diminishes even further, we planned to visit her this year in Korea, but as most know, plane tickets are not cheap. I’m looking at easily $4000 to $5000 for 4. That’s not a small amount and it’s stressing me out.
4. Unfortunate misunderstandings and timings have brought some bad situation to some of my relationships.
5. My parents haven’t been doing too well either.
6. I’ve had a severe headache for over a week where everything above my sinus have been giving me so much pain that I couldn’t concentrate. Thought it was allergies at first but upon visiting my doctor, she told me that it’s more likely due to sinus infection. I’m on 3 meds now and the throbbing pain in my cranium seems to have gone… for now.
7. Job has been… frustrating to say the least. Not being appreciated at work by the higher ups, and too much internal politics are killing me.
8. Relatively big task came into my hands at work and that’s been giving me stress.
9. My body pretty much gave out on both Tuesday and Wednesday due to stress, and felt too weak to do much.
10. Both of our cars seem to need the transmissions rebuilt… either that or get a different car(s). 🙁
10. Finance (and managing it) has never been my forté and making ends meet is becoming more and more difficult.
Things, honestly, look very bleak right now… but as Ash Wednesday reminds me, I need to keep in my mind how much more of pain and suffering Jesus had to endure for our sakes. May God give me strength to carry on, wisdom to manage, and the discernment to choose wisely.