K-bags, Anyone?

This story is true. Names have been changed to protect the privacy of those concerned.

hello manny and the rest,

        if you're still up to part II of my therapy, here goes:

        the verdict

        next morning, the ultra sound verdict was gall bladder calculi and
thickening with echogenicities measuring 7.6 - 8.7 mm (this reads
GALLSTONES!!!). the liver is not enlarged, no nodular masses are noted, the
pancreas is normal in size, the kidneys are normal too with no evidence of
pararenal masses, and the spleen is a ok.the sonologist says no emergency i
could have the removal of my gall bladder scheduled.  this, before the
results of the cbc would show the gall of my stones.

        i phone in the ultrasound report to my doctor-brod who insists on
seeing me and would wait for me in his house before he makes his rounds.
good his house was along the way to our san juan residence which was an
hour's traffic from mcm. by this time i could hardly stand straight,
crouched in pain by my fraternity-initiated insides. with just one look at
me, doctor-brod says i had to be immediately confined and he had already
alerted a gastro-enterologist to receive me at the mcm. he had tried getting
in touch with another doctor-brod, oca cabahug, at the UERM but he had not
returned his call. no way am i going to be confined in a hospital an hour's
traffic away. but i promise my doctor-brod i would have myself confined that
same afternoon after i consult on which hospital to go to with our own dr.
joe reyes, husband of the former reta tan and so on.

        UERM or another hospital five minutes away

        this is my first time and i wanted only the best my wife, ehem,
could afford. our own dr. joe reyes and so on says he could get me
accommodated at that hospital five minutes away where the marcoses, the
aquinos, the ramoses and other presidential and would be presidential
families have themselves confined, but he could not assure me, a mere usec,
that he could handpick his team of specialists and have the residents and
nurses at my beck and call as he could if am confined at the UERM, where he
is head of surgery. fine, he leaves me with no choice. at about this time
sec. ping de jesus, my former boss and now pldt top honcho, gives me a call
not to worry he had the same gall bladder problem which brought him to the
hospital on a sunday, operated on a monday and discharged on a tuesday, all
this made possible by the modern method of laparoscopy. except that my
stones, as will be discovered later on, had the gall to escape my bladder
and cause what our own dr. joe reyes and so on calls a systemic infection of
my fraternity-initiated insides.

        an all-star team

        true to form, our own dr. joe reyes welcomes me at the UERM
admissions office with his family -- wife reta, the cousin of clem and eric
ines, their youngest son herbie who's the same age as joao who made a hole
in one some two years ago and ate ray's heart out, and eldest son brian, now
a UERM resident which should signal retirement for our own dr. joe in a few
years time. meantime, my doctor-brod who took the time to get my cbc results
phones in what he has suspected all along, an infection rate more than
double the normal, all because my stones had the gall. dr. joe recites to me
the procedures, with laparoscopy ruled out in favor of the traditional open
cut surgery.but first i have to be put on antibiotics to stave off the
infection spreading through my system. monday would most likely be the
surgery day if we could get a schedule at the or. our own dr, joe proceeds
to tick off the members of his team -- dr. gabriel martinez, his assistant
at surgery who would do the cutting up, dr. fidel payawal, head of
anesthesiology, dr.norberto uy, head of cardiology, and dr. araceli panelo,
head of endocrinology. to be called later are dr.oca cabahug, my hard to get
brod and a gastroenterologist, and dr. eric nagtalon, UP Prep '69 and an
anesthesiologist. boy, was i set up. but only too well as i would find out
later on.

        tests

        i've never been subjected to oh so many tests because i've not had a
real check-up since our old UP clinic days when they used to probe our
behinds and ring our balls, excuse me, bells. after ecg, ultrasound and cbc,
there are x'rays upfront, behind, sideways, upright, downleft and many other
positions. there would be the every six-hour blood sugar monitor, another
ecg and more blood tests.i am put on iv through which are regularly injected
doses of anti-biotics and vitamins. there will be hourly temperature and bp
readings mostly by an intern who i slightly discern to be referring to me in
every uttered sentence as a 'day' as in inday.  now you tell me who will not
have a sleepless first night at the UERM, even if our own dr. joe is it's
head of surgery.

        enter the nanay

        sunday, i espy my nanay (UP High '38) and tatay, from the chapel,
going into the elevator up to my room. poor clem, migraine- stricken again,
will have to deal with them at least for the duration of the mass and until
after i talk to father benedict about my daily spiritual ministration during
my stay in the hospital. later in the room, nanay proceeds to stake her
claim. who is taking care of her son, with clem migraine- stricken again?
will i need one of the pasay boys to look after me? better still she will
take care of me. oh no, not  with my 84-year old tatay from whom i inherited
all my anxieties about doctors, hospitals and many other things. not to
worry, she will start tomorrow. clem puts her foot down. she will hire two
private nurses to look after me on 12-hour shifts and nanay and tatay can
visit anytime. atta girl and a yes, yes yo.

        my best friend

        first to visit outside of family are doy and lilin vea. doy is smart
ceo and UP High '66. we go way back in '67 when i joined the alpha sigma
fraternity with jess lucas (jerry barican quit after the first session after
he decided it was easier to establish his own political party) and doy
followed a few months later. our highs then were chicken mami at good earth
in avenida rizal, a movie at new frontier, getting caught by the poliiice
peeing against the wall at abad santos. doy was also ling's (UP Prep '65)
first bf and used to visit at the fonacier compound in pasay. after college,
doy goes private, i go public. he arranges financing for my first car, i
give him tips on how to deal with government. we attend frat gatherings as
elder brods. every once in a while we play golf. the day i was stricken by
the K-bag, we were to play golf at the mgc. for you non-golfers (pity you),
mgc is just like the most exclusive and most expensive golf club in the
country. located in the middle of forbes park, it has for its members the
likes of the ayalas, the buenaventuras, the cojuangcos, many other foreign
sounding names and of course doy vea, smart ceo and UP High '66. when i
didnt make it to mgc , doy would call the house and learn about my
condition. he would call the house or my cell phone every day since to check
on me. in fact, he has been more concerned about my health than me. there
was this one time and i was under the weather self-medicoling myself at
home, he learns about it, invites me for breakfast and proceeds to drag me
to our doctor-brod for a quick check-up. that is how concerned doy is about
my health.

         now he is here with his wife, lilin, my first visitors outside of
family. but don't just yet cry your heart out. doy pumps me with questions
-- what i felt and am feeling still, what tests were taken and their
results, what steps have been taken to stave off infection, what kind of
surgery and oh so many other questions. then lilin butts in and says doy has
been having gas pains (K-bag to me , butch) every once in a while. and doy's
face drops. just then i think, this guy, with whom i go way back since '67
with jess lucas and some others, has been looking after my health, seeing to
it i consult our doctor-brod and even take a few tests so that he can
compare my symptoms with his, diagnose his ailments and even procure
medicine without having to see a doctor ! neat, only a UP High grad can do
this to a Prepian. he...he. of course, this is a joke. i'm sure some of you
laboring through my ramblings are now comparing symptoms!
         and doy definitely rates as my best friend (outside of you guys
from UP Prep like ray, who is my best golf buddy even if he skins me more
than i do him; jerry, who is my best power and travelling friend with his
royal peninsula and rolls royce service; jess, who is my best architect and
other activities we don't want clem and chris to know friend; liz, who is my
oldest best friend since we went to elementary school together all the way
to college freshman english; junie, my best first date friend even if she
was six inches taller and 10 pounds heavier than me then but is va, va voom
now; freddie and vic, my best business friends who actually started me in
public service after a failed business venture; and all of you Prepians out
there praying for me and one another and now laboring through my ramblings).
yes, doy, smart ceo and UP High '66, definitely rates as my best friend,
even if he considers me his best guinea pig friend.

next, the main event on The Gall of My Stones, part III.

UP Prep 1966

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Butch, now you know!