TNLDRDOLSL #7 09.23.06 and beyond –
Ang Milenyo at ang Sigalot II, Ang operasyon (09.27.06)
So… what would normally be a 1-2 (3 is matagal na) hour operation took so so so very long.
We entered the OR at 12:30, for a 1 PM schedule, but due to technical difficulties, we started at about 2:15 (cutting) already. And the process took too painfully long. Nainip talaga ako. My brother Gian (a third year medical student) fell asleep. I wasn’t worried at that time naman, chatting happily with my old JIs who were anesthesia SIs now (Miriam, Sheila and Mutya), and seeing that the anes monitor was showing really good, stable vitals and whatnot. However, as the hours wore on, mejo kinabahan na din ako. (Would this convert to open, eventually? Would it? I wondered)…
It took us a record 4 and something hours (a record for Sir’s standards) to finish. Paano kasi, the gallbladder was chronically inflamed, infected, and it was difficult to visualize the common bile duct and cystic duct (the GB was apposed to and lying on the CBD, so, very careful, slow, and precise dissection had to be done. Imagine doing that laparoscopically, mas mabusisi, right?). But, as Sir explained later, he was making progress, millimeter by millimeter, so it may seem, and there was no guarantee that converting to open chole will make the process faster or any less difficult. So he decided to rough it and slug it out with the lap procedure. Anyway, soon, it was “baby out” (hehe, GB out) time na rin, and there it was, my dad’s huge, makapal gallbladder, stones and sludge and all, cold and severed and lifeless on a metal kidney basin. It was through. Thank you God. Things were then looking up.
After that was the slightly less nerve wracking post-op period, but as my Dad was extubated (and emergence from general anesthesia) I felt the most terrible heartwrenching pity for him. He seemed so weak and helpless, gasping and moaning, as if he was in terrible, terrible pain or discomfort. I would not be lying when I tell you this really killed me (naku pano na ako mag-a-anes nyan?). I wanted to cry. Thank God I had Gian (who cut his afternoon SURGERY classes, hehehe, to witness this) right next to me, to rein me in (“kawawa naman si papa ano” “oo nga, kawawa naman ang tatay natin” went our commiseration dialogue… I’m sure he was feeling the same way and we were just drawing strength from each other). My dad later said that he felt no pain, nor discomfort, parang wala lang nangyari. But then again he IS very matiisin, obviously (nurse a stone for half a decade ba naman?, and secondly, having been on general anesthesia does have its potent analgesic and amnesic perks.
Anyway, we were then headed for the Recovery Room. I instructed my bro to unscrub na lang and go to our room, to tell my whole big angkan everything he saw, and reassure everybody that things were going to be all right from then on. I stayed with my dad at the RR, and I woke him up almost instantly. Bruha eh no? Hehe. "Papa Papa wake up!" (shake shake shake)… "Pa we’ll get Tita Janet to do the histopath ha?" (his moan for a response I took as a yes). Hehe. Of course he felt tired and drained (and thoroughly discombobulated and disoriented – "yes Pa, gabi na… no we did not convert to open… yes Gian and I were there the whole time…") so I had him sleep a bit. My mom joined us shortly at the RR, gowned and all that.
We were set for transfer out to room at about 745pm.
Post-op naman, for the first time in almost half a year, I willingly slept in the hospital again to do bedside duty with my mom for my dad. I’m not sure if I was a lot of help, but I knew my mom needed me, and of course my dad also.I love my parents so so so much, like I’d kill for them and stuff (heck, I love my entire big angkan way too much!), and it’s terribly heartbreaking to see people you love so weak and helpless, especially when they have been there for you all your life, playing the roles of the strong ones, and you were the weak one in reverse. I hate the feeling talaga, thank God tapos na.
So post-op Day 1, we were then at 422, it was the same day Milenyo struck and punished the nation. The power went out (the generator only being able to provide for the lights above us and 1 electric fan), and the awful howling wind kept assaulting the windows (we were on the southwestern-most part of 4 South kasi), really annoying, and I admit, pretty scary. We had to sporadically open the windows because naiinitan yung dad ko, he still had fever — cholangitis kami, right? Which was being kept at bay and restrained by the kyawsandkyawsand-costing antibiotic Piperacillin-Tazobactam (Tazocin) since the day my dad first went in. So anyway, my mom and I fearfully opened and closed the windows, with my mom noting the destruction of the trees and billboards and flying yeros (not sure if the last is true). Horrifying thought. And I was gleefully loving the rain (coz I love the rain!), hehehe, naiinitan nga lang.
Anyway, at around 2 PM, my dad was sleeping comfortably, my mom resting, I snuck out to the nurses station, to read my chart, hoping to catch some friends para makipagchikahan (and I did, with birthday girl Chicanee). I have not been out for very long when a nurse came rushing and saying, “gumuho yung kisame sa 422”. Siempre nagitla ako (naks, nagitla)… "wait lang, kami yung 422"! So I went back to our room, which was hardly more than 20 steps away, and saw my dad, in hospital gown, JP drain, IV lines and all, walking away, quick, from the scene of the disaster. How’s that for early ambulation? 
It turned out, naalimpungatan sha ng konti when he noticed the square mouldings of the ceiling shaking, moving rhythmically to the accompaniment of the angry winds (“pumapalakpak ang kisame” according to one of our NODs). Buti nalang the GA did nothing to impair my dad’s presence of mind. He got up, collected my mom, and went out just seconds before the ceiling caved in! No joke! I am not making this up. Comedy no?
The ceiling caved in, and my poor parents scrambled out to safety (haler naman, we even had one of the more pricy rooms in the hospital and look what happens?!?! Nakakaturn off isipin, buti na lang UERM’s responsible “for all that we are and all we have…” kaya we don’t think less of it. Milenyo’s fault naman kasi eh). Anyway, we asked the help of the personnel to move out our things, and we were evacuated to 423-A, which was right smack in the middle of 4 South, in front of the Nurses Station. Every single room at the southwestern most part was evcauated. We spent one very hot, kuryente-less night there (wala kasing windows yung room, and it’s smaller and cramped); the following day we were transferred to 420, which was as big and as good as the first room. Later on, we transferred ulit to 429, which was on the other side of the world, at 4 North (as this station was the 1st one to have electricity, and airconditioning restored!), and this was where we stayed until we got discharged.
Oh well yun lang. End of Chapter One….
