The experience that I could hardly forget which I thought…

Life indeed is a mixture of several feelings, we laugh, we cry, we sigh, we felt angry likewise we felt happiness.. we felt frustration and success. There were events in our lives that happened beyond our expectation and comprehension. Last February 07 of 2008, I’ve undergone surgical removal of my gall bladder which was the only remedy to remove the stones-like formations in my gall bladder.

At first time, I was thinking that it was just an ordinary ulcer & or hyper acidity but still the pain is intermittent and recurrent especially if I ate oily foods, the way I observed it… despite medications from the internal medicine experts but still to no avail. Till one time I ate budget meal as afternoon snacks with a pc. of fried chicken.

At night, I was so uneasy that I felt gas pains, upset stomach or some sort of “dyspepsia” that I felt my stomach was flaming with fire as I am sweating yet feeling cold till I vomited. But I thank God that I did not lost my will to survive and with the initiative and help from my wife, we proceeded to hospital in the downtown area in Davao City amid the cold dawn for it was already past 12 midnight leaving my children who were fall asleep and caught unaware of the situation with only our house helpers as look-out.

At the hospital in the emergency room, t’was already early morning but I was still awake and was grimacing and squirting with pains in my upper stomach despite some pain relievers prescribed that I took in as my blood pressure also was somewhat high due to severe pains that I felt which aggravated my worries that may have also hypertension.. I suggested to the attending physician to have an ultra sound “once and for all” in my upper abdomen and in the chest area in which they consented and gave in to my request… t’was almost noon the following day that ultra sound was materialized… and they found out that I have stones in my gall bladder. I felt that heaven and earth fall down on me as there was no other way to remove that stones but thru surgical operation.

I thanked my wife who’s always there beside me during my dire needs and gave encouragement sacrificing her job being a public school teacher to my rescue and contingencies leaving her pupils under the supervision of her co-teachers. Laser operation was somewhat not recommended because as the surgeon said that the particles might again accumulate as there was no passage or way out.

I was thinking for a day before I gave finally my consent to undergo open surgical removal called cholecystectomy due to cholecystitis with cholelithiasis or an inflammation of lining of the gall bladder. Though I felt relieved because of pain reliever as the pain was indeed pinpointed already but the Doctor said that it was only temporary, worst that it may again attack/ recur should I fail to undergo operation the soonest because my gall bladder was already enflamed and gangrenous worst that it may rupture the moment I do not know and my other internal organs might be affected or get poisoned and complications may come out.

I immediately signed the “consent paper” without hesitation after a deep reflection… and ask for Heavenly guidance and assistance rather than putting myself in a perilous yet uncertain situation… and that was….I lost my Gall Bladder in somewhat just a wink of an eye. (I thank God for having a company where employees were provided with a health care)

For the first time in my whole life that I experienced “dextrose” and undergone operation with general anesthesia injected in my spinal cord leaving me half-dead and unconscious for how many hours inside the operating room… When I regained consciousness, the first thing that I saw was a bright light for I don’t know where I was.. I thought that was in some other dimension. . I thank God, the light came from a fluorescent lamp flashing directly to my eyes for I was lying in the recovery room already.

Thank God that I survived… despite of the absence of my gall bladder as the Internal Medicine Doctor said, that we have still bile ducts sufficient enough to produce bile, like her… she lost her gall bladder of the same situation…. As the Doctor said teasingly to me, “sammy, you can now eat fatty foods much what you want… you have no storage at all… it will pass thru directly to your digestive system…”.. truly, I made some restrictions now especially on eating fats and oily foods, I may not control it and it may lead to “loss bowel movement”… “hindi lahat pumasok sa bibig mo ay healthy foods and good for your body”… by the way, the cause of the formation of the stones according to the Doctor was… eating too much of fatty foods is a major contributor..

I remember our source of income in Diatagon during the prestige of LBLCI my parents was a “Meat Vendor” and I am also fond of eating “balbacua”, Fried Chicken with matching cold softdrinks or beer… these are the culprits…”cold” can aggravate the solidification of fats inside our body…”… so be careful.. if you feel upset stomach.. don’t just make a “guess” or self-medication… it might be a problem of gall stone… that was my experience that I could hardly forget that I thought I can see no more the beauty of God’s creation and my family who loved me..