By Atty. Antonio P. Pekas
procedures.“
It was a personal crisis which made me learn a lot. First was, of course, getting a heart attack is not cheap. And it is troublesome. Those who don’t like trouble and having to spend considerably, need not apply.
I was discharged from the hospital after four days. It should have been three days but the doctor who was to authorize my getting out did not come. So we had to wait for the next day.
Since the health facility was a government one, I did not get another attack after we received the bill. It was the prices of the medicines that almost got us floored at the drugstore. We had to buy seven pills for every after breakfast, five for every after lunch and four for every after dinner. Up to now, almost six months after, I still have to gulp those everyday after the meals.
The prices of the pills make you appreciate former Senator Flavier’s witty advice, “bawal magkasakit.” Those are in addition to other costs for lab tests and other medical procedures.
Just by looking at the pills is scary. Will I not become Frankenstein or another monster due to their side effects? But you would do anything in exchange for dear life. After we got home, the side effects of taking those numerous pills came with a vengeance.
First was the high tummy acidity. I would wake up in the middle of the night with the urge to vomit. The feeling inside my chest and tummy was terrible. I would have liked to drink a lot of water to cool my innards but could not due to my limited liquid intake. One liter was the maximum due to my impaired kidneys. Taking more than that could have sent me back to square one—lungs filled with water—which made me unable to breath, thus, the heart attack.
Then the worst, constipation. I could not push the shit out me for three days, and I could not take more than a liter of water. Mindful that I was accumulating poison, I had to force the shit out by pushing so hard, Sometimes it took me thirty minutes of struggling to become partially successful but not before tearing my rectum. The result was of course blood in my shit. Of big help was the modified-knee-to chest yogic pose. While sitting on the toilet bowl, you bend so the thighs puts pressure on the tummy helping to push the shit out.
Still, I had to go to the doctor for some help. He prescribed a syrup but it had a lot of lactose and my intolerance to that was really bad. I became a farting machine—farting here, there, and everywhere. The medicine had to be stopped or else I would have been sent to jail for violating the anti-air-pollution law. And my tummy was continuously gurgling with all the discomfort that goes with it.
Going to the CR was a daily struggle. I would often come out really tired. I came to appreciate the sufferings undergone by would-be mothers who could not give birth normally. Sometimes they had to go on labor for almost 12 hours, weakening them to the extent that a caesarian operation was the only choice. Why did I have to go through such terrible constipation to appreciate the suffering of some birthing women?
So I was forced to find another solution to the constipation. More fiber, yogurt, and more water as by then my kidneys have become better so I could drink more. Turmeric tea also helped a lot in battling the high tummy acidity which made the usual antacid ineffective. I think the turmeric also contributed in making my kidneys better. (More next week).**
