Batnap

Dear insansapinas,

The whole week, I can afford to have only a batnap--that is my feet are hanging on "ceiling" so I can easily be awaken by the shrill of the telephone ringing. For three days, I've waited for the call. The phone was silent except for phone spammers so instead of waiting, I called  my breast surgeon clinic to inquire. It was an answering service  and I  left a message. The return call came after 24 hours, four follow-ups and four voice mails. It was at the point that I may have been exhausted keeping myself awake so that I would not miss a human being talking instead of a machine that I "blinked" for hours. I missed the call. So I made a series of call again. At last the nurse talked to me saying that  the medical clearance from my primary care physician has not been forwarded yet.. Their clinic is only a few meters away from my primary doctor while the fax machine will carry the data in less than five minutes. And yet I have to wait a long time to find out if it was forwarded. Arghhhhhhhhh.


Hindi ka mamatay sa sakit kung hindi sa konsumisyon,


I've been asking myself, why I have two C's. Hindi naman ako masamang tao na makakarma. Hanggang nabasa ko ang isang OFW na ang isa niyang anak ay namatay sa breast cancer ang isa ay sa colon cancer; ang ikatlo ay sa liver cancer at siya naman ngayon ay may lung cancer and yet she is still helping OFWs who are also sick and do not have relatives to take care of them. Shame on me.


The CEO of HP Paricia Dunn had breast cancer, melanoma, ovarian cancer that spread to her liver  before she died.



But this is what interests me:

Years ago, Charlie, a highly respected orthopedist and a mentor of mine, found a lump in his stomach. He had a surgeon explore the area, and the diagnosis was pancreatic cancer. This surgeon was one of the best in the country. He had even invented a new procedure for this exact cancer that could triple a patient’s five-year-survival odds—from 5 percent to 15 percent—albeit with a poor quality of life. Charlie was uninterested. He went home the next day, closed his practice, and never set foot in a hospital again. He focused on spending time with family and feeling as good as possible. Several months later, he died at home. He got no chemotherapy, radiation, or surgical treatment. Medicare didn’t spend much on him.

Pinaysaamerika