Ling Zhi

It has been 18 months since I was brought to the ICU due to hypokalemia which was caused by the steroids in the multivitamins I used to take. Ling Zhi, available at ELOV Chinese Drug Store located at one of the kiosks of your favorite mall. They are also the ones selling the Pei Pa Koa candies which are known to those who sing because it supposedly clears your throat. Anyway, Pei Pa Koa is endorsed by Kyla.

Two days ago, I was reading the candymag forum my niece left open in the internet browser and the girls were talking about the Ling Zhi vitamins, and they were talking about the side effects of the drug. One said she had pimples all over her face and back, the other said only her face became fat, and another said it damaged her adrenaline something and that she desperately needs a good derma. The side effects those girls experience are nothing compared to what I had. I became a veggie for hours in the sense that I could only move my head and neck part. The effing steroids made my potassium count so low that my muscles stopped contracting. It could have been my heart that stopped pumping if I weren't brought to the hospital sooner.

I hope nothing like that happens to one of those girls, or to others who take steroids for their sense of vanity.

And the reason about why I'm (re)writing about my Ling Zhi experience is because of the coffee someone gave me. Ling Zhi coffee (above photo). And it was still inside the yellow plastic bag with an ELOV print when it was given to me, complete with a tag price that says 285php.

I said nothing to the person who gave it to me for the fear of offending someone with good intentions. And, anyway, it's not really the exact Ling Zhi that sent me to the hospital. It's coffee. Powdered. Instant. 3-in-1 even. And I tried it the other night. Bitter to the taste. The catch is, it gave me the exact feeling that I had when I was taking the vitamins - that constant feeling of having a lump (of air/food) in the middle of my esophagus. I don't know if I'm just being paranoid of the name Ling Zhi but really, it's the same, exact feeling the vitamins gave me, aside from the fact that my heart beats faster than normal. I'm quite sure of it, because I noticed that feeling long ago, while taking the vitamins, even before I came to know it had steroids.

Now I still have 19 coffee sachets left. Who wants some?