TNLDRDOLSL #6 …and beyond
Ang Milenyo At Ang Sigalot
Sabato: My dad was rushed to the UERMMMC on September 23, 2006, Saturday night, due to vague, generalized abdominal pains, fever and vomiting. At ang magaling na Lau ay kasalukuyang gumigimik nung mga panahon na yun sa Makati kasama ng aking good friend na si Sarah Bagsic, among others (where I ate for the 1st time at a truly truly authentic Korean restaurant, not Kimchi or any of the pa-Korryan lang na lugar, a resto with a name I can’t even say kasi it’s in Korryan nga haler? And also did videoke at a truly truly authentic Korean videoke place…. Dig this, majority of the songs were in Korean, pero at least I know some of “I Believe”). This would have turned out to be a blessing in disguise, since my dad brought home several ampules of intravenous painkillers and anti-emetics (wishing to temporize the condition yet again), for me to administer sana. But I wasn’t home, thank God I wasn’t home, otherwise he wouldn’t have decided to bring himself then to the hospital and it could have been too late!
Turns out, my dad was obstipated for many days na, since oath taking, and nagjau-jaundice (slight lang) na pala sha, which I didn’t really notice, slackerrrr, coz kinda sallow naman talaga ang natural complexion ng tatay ko eh. Hehehe. Anyway, so he was in Saturday night, which I didn’t really notice until very early Sunday morning, when I came home from my gimik.
Basta as soon as he got confined, he underwent many, many lab tests and imaging na ayoko na’ng isa-isahin (cut the medical gobbledygook crap for the interest of my non-med fans, hehehe!). He also underwent colonoscopy (for GI clearance), ERCP with papillotomy and basket extraction of the CBD stone visualized on ultrasound (er, er, gobbledygook, lau). Ang diagnosis ay cholecystitis with cholelithiasis and subsequent ascending cholangitis, and the compounding chuva factors such as hypertension at diabetes siempre. (acute chole on chronic, apparently my dad had been nursing his gallbladder stone for about 6 years na! Aren’t doctors the most matigas-ulo, worst patients ever possible?!). Many services under Medicine were enlisted (GI, Cardio, Endo, Infectious), as well as Surgery and Anesthesia (oh and Patho rin pala for the histopathology of the biopsies done). Everything was, and is, being done to keep his BP, blood sugar (which are way off the charts!), and the infection etc etc under control.
It was then decided that the logical next step, of course, was surgery. To remove the chronically ailing gallbladder. We were presented with two options, the open and the laparoscopic approach, and obviously we chose the lap. Low risk naman daw si papa ko as a pre-op candidate according to the medical risk assessment, despite being a Stage 2 hypertensive, Type 2 diabetic for approximately 9 years, poorly controlled and non-compliant to his own meds, and a chain smoker since well, forever, kasi matigas talaga ulo…
The day before my dad’s laparoscopic cholecystectomy, I was a nervous wreck. I slept at 4 in the morning, writing most of the stuff already written here (modified and edited slightly only since it would be posted late). Nakakastress talaga yung feeling, na parang gusto ko tuloy nuon magyosi, which I’ve never even attempted in my whole life (Anyway I tried to sublimate the urge with another bisyo, my bisyo, which is this one. Writing and rambling, er, blogging. Buti na lang it worked, else sayang naman ang aking virgin respiratory tract. Asthmatic pa! So yun lang). I was just really worried. Alam ko namang simpleng simple lang ang laparoscopic cholecystectomy, and Dr. Miguel Mendoza is one of the best in the field.
[Anyway, just to explain things, lap chole has better chances of earlier recovery than open chole kasi small incisions lang, instead of your typical big, talagang-inoperahan-ako-evah-surgical-incision, and makes use of metal trocars inserted into the peritoneum for instruments and a camera (bali papanuorin na lang nung surgeon ang ginagawa niya through a TV monitor). I've assisted in about siguro 3 of these through my 2 years of internship, under Sir and Dra Sagayaga also. May possibility pa ren, as always, for complications, and for the procedure to be converted into an open one midway through the operation.].
So, ayun. I was given the opportunity to observe the operation along with my brother Gian. Prior to that though, I had to experience a gnawing, nakakangilo na feeling of anticipation. I mean, okay, having had my share of seemingly sadistic berdugo tendencies, hahaha, in the quest for medical excellence during my years of training, okay lang dapat sa aken ito, but it’s absolutely nerve-wracking if it’s someone you love, like really really love, being cut up on the table. Thinking about it just killed me. So I actually had to pray myself into a trance, I guess. I never doubted, and I knew my Dad was in good hands, the best, and that the Lord is the Divine Healer, but his daughter is a breakable creature with a subhuman propensity for freaking out. Kaya tuloy there I was shrouding my fears with humor again (a MATURE self-defense, I assure you. Check nyo pa ang psychology books), many many text messages to summon a cavalcade of prayers (it wouldn’t hurt to have an army of prayer warriors anyway, we’ve proven that time and again). But the truth of the matter was, it’s not about me, no. It’s about my dad, and consequently, my whole family’s fate, which was now all in God’s hands and His healing instruments.
