I visited a friend of mine this afternoon at one of the top 3 hospitals here in Cebu. He had a brain surgery 9 days ago where a brain tumor with the diameter of a one peso coin was removed from his head. My friend and I are of the same age. He is also a father of two like me. We used to work in the same export company 3 years ago. We both went to the same University and both studied the same courses, Accountancy and Law. We share a lot things in common in many ways and I see my self in him in many ways too. We are both ambitious and workaholic. We are both survivors and fighters. We were drinking partners too. In short, we're close buddies.
About 4 weeks ago, he had this siezure. Half of his entire body violently shook beyond his control for about 30 seconds. He thought he had a heart attack. But after a series of laboratory tests, a tumor was found growing somewhere beneath the top of his skull. The tumor was located where the left body brain motor functions was located, that caused the wild shaking siezure. It was a sad and scary news. The initial estimate for brain surgery operation was pegged at about P200k.
After a short period of deleberation with his wife, family and friends, he decided to have it removed despite all the financial challenges and the inherent risks of going through a brain surgery. The risk of him having another siezure while driving was too great to ignore. It was a tough but right decision, I concurred.
On September 11, he had his brain opened and had the tumor removed by an expert brain surgeon after nearly 6 hours of operation. The surgery was successful but not without some glitches. The tumor was attached into a major brain blood vessels and it was risky to cut clean the whole tumor without puncturing the blood vessel. So the doctor decided to play it safe and burned the parts of the tumor clinging around the blood vessel instead. Perhaps that was the reason the operation took longer than the expected 4 hours surgery.
I can only imagine the agony my friend's wife and his family went through as the surgery happened. No brain surgery is 100 percent safe. One false move by the doctor and the patient may suffer irreversibly, forever.
After 6 hours in the operating room, my friend was brought out by the doctors and orderly. He looked very pale and unconscious with a huge bandage occupying nearly half of his shaved head. It was a chilling sight to witness. He looked vulnerable and pitiful to say the least. The doctor said he was conscious and was able to speak already. The doctor told him something and my friend responded in a faint and tired voice signalling that we was aware and conscious. He was brought to the ICU for mandatory observation for 24 hours.
Two days later, he was conscious and able to speak as if nothing happened. It was a joy seeing him and talking to him 100 percent conscious and very smart as before. He recalled and remember everything vividly. We talked and laughed for an hour. But there was something worrisome. His whole left body cannot move. The doctor said it was expected. It may take him months to recover fully. Ouch!
Nine days later, this very after noon, my friend was able to move his left arm and legs slightly. It was great news to hear. It means he can recover faster than expected. He will go through physical theraphy sessions in the coming weeks to fully recover.
On the financial side, I can only symphatize with him. The hospital bill and doctors fee alone cost him around P380k! I felt sorry for him seeing him shouldering the amount alone. He had no company insurance to claim. He is just an ordinary working guy like me trying to raise a family. No doubt it will leave him in huge debt for a long time. While I was looking at his HUGE hospital bill, I told him he was lucky that he will get a receipt for the P380k he spent for the surgery. "When my house was burned last March 2013, all of my P700k investment was gone in 30 miutes without any reciept!" I jokingly said to console him. We laughed hard. It was my way of telling him I can't help him financially. He knows very well I am in deep financial trouble too. It was like saying, welcome to the club my friend! But deep inside, we both know we can handle and overcome our troubles. We are survivors.
Later on, we had this serious conversation on how life test us. He said its his third life. He also said he now sees clearly on what is really important in life, physically and spritually. We both agreed that our lives are merely borrowed and maybe taken from us anytime. Sharing our time with our loves ones and enjoying them is one of the most important activity in life. Having a vacation with love ones every once in while is never wasted. Or life will give us a forced vacation in other forms to remind us what is important.
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