UP
Prep 1966This story is true. Names have been changed to protect the privacy of those concerned.
Date: Thu, 11 Feb 1999 12:58:01 +0000
From: Mabini Pablo <eqpablo@info.com.ph>
Subject: The Gall of My Stones, part V
hello again people,
this is your fellow forty-niner
(fellow pati ng nagpapabata) with
more of his ramblings. will have my final check-up tomorrow before
i am once
again released to that stressful world. until then, i have more time
to
ramble you some more.
brods' feats, ang mga bagong
doon
i am awakened by a phone
call at 7 am by someone in earnest. brod
ernest escobar introduces himself as alpha sigma '90 and lets out a
wheeew
when i tell him i'm batch '67, like we are star generations apart.
anyway,
he reads from the internet that i'm confined at rm. 414 of the UERM
(if it's
that detailed it must be the handiwork of brod jackie cruz who cannot
seem
to get over his idea of the ntc commisionership as being THE universal
messenger). some ten minutes into macho fraternity talk, ernest, without
earnest, tells me he's calling from florida of the us of a! of course,
i am
touched, but before that i hope that jackie, the universal messenger,
did
not give the detail of the hospital phone number to allow earnest ernest
to
call collect. having gotten over that apprehension, i tell ernest how
much i
appreciate his call and will definitely get in touch with him by e-mail.
at about the same time my
clem, ehem, who has gone to the chapel,
meets up with my hard-to-get brod, dr. oca cabahug who introduces her
to
another brod, concon i-forget-his family-name-now, an intern. a few
minutes
after, brod concon steps into my room, introduces himself, aw-goshes
about
my all-star team of specialists, and like a true alpha sigman asks
me what
time i expect my nieces to visit. iba na talaga ang pandak. anyway
again, i
tell him about the long-distance call from earnest brod ernest, who
i guess
must be about his age and therefore must have been with him at UP and
the
frat. bingo! in fact, earnest ernest was here
for the christmas holidays and just left three weeks ago. and another
fact,
earnest ernest's girlfriend is also an intern in this hospital, now
assigned
at the pharmacy. i tell concon to get her up to me asap, i have to
tell her
about earnest ernest.
at 10 am i get a call by
smart phone from the universal messenger,
ex-commisioner jackie cruz. he's with three other brods who share the
phone
with him and hassle me to get my butt up, get on with the operation
and
enjoy golf once again. but where else can four brods be at midday sharing
a
smart cell phone except in a golf course. mga unggoy, mga bagong doon,
nang-inggit pa kayo. jackie, the universal messenger, also relays the
message of congressman-brod mike defensor, whose election wins are
definitely flukes, for me not to worry because i am a masamang damo,
isa pa
ring bagong doon.
hoping to get a free lunch
(ang lupit, pati hospital meal
papatulan), brod alan mauricio, who was earlier commissioned by their
supremo doy vea to contact hard-to-get brod oca cabahug, visits at
noontime.
brod alan used to market smart cell phones and do many other things
requiring sweet talk for doy vea, smart ceo and UP High '66 who considers
me
his best guinea pig friend. so before he starts to do what he does
best, i
rattle him with a, "tell mr. vea to stop sending messengers and bring
in the
bag man instead". of course, this is, again, a joke. but, if.... anyway,
brod alan stays on for an hour, hoping to get the free lunch not knowing
my
nanay, who has taken over, had already appropriated this for my nurse
and
the driver. brods alan and jackie will continue to deliver the message
of my
confinement so that i would get calls from brod julie caballero in
nagoya,
japan, from boyong somewhere in the us of a; and visits from more brods
like
rey roy, who sees me cringing as i am being wheeled from my operation,
says
a quick 'hi brod' and skedaddles out of the hospital.
during my recuperation, the bagong doons would turn our den into a
videoke
bar (minus the gro's) every friday, but of course, only after watching
brod
pete and his dating doon. alien... alien.
the kind of work i do
before the morning is over,
oca cabahug, my gastroenterologist-brod
who performed the throat-violating endoscopy on me yesterday, drops
by and
and fills me in on what they videoed in my fraternity-initiated insides
while i was on anesthesia. the stones, which had the gall to escape
my
bladder, after infecting the bladder and my bile ducts, were expelled
from
my system. they had to clear my ducts, anyway, which would otherwise
have
added another two hours to the main operation. during the procedure
it was
noted i had 12 stress ulcers in my duodenum. i am asked what kind of
work i
do that would cause me to have 12 stress ulcers. ordinarily, a patient
complaining of ulcers is be found to have two or maybe three ulcers.
for
brod oca and my now A-teammate, dr.
martinez, who counted and recounted my ulcers viewed from the monitor,
this
is the first time they would encounter a patient with tuuuuwelve stress
ulcers! brod oca says not to worry because ulcers are now cured through
medication and this is why they put me into this wonder drug they call
losec
(para sa usec) for maybe a month. they will also have to monitor my
ulcers
which can easily bleed during my operation. i am assured, though, that
in a
month's time or two, the ulcers will go but am admonished to minimize
stressful activities to prevent their recurrence. time to think retirement,
after 26 years of the kind of work i do.
i am at a loss for words
to thank brod oca. again, he says not to
worry because he will send me the bill! (bs, wait 'til i get your address
and you'll see what dpwh can do to your road). as brod oca leaves,
hand on
the door knob, i go, "'tol h'wag mo akong pababayan". and heroically
brod
oca declares, "they will have to go through me first, BROD". he must
be
expensive, clem, ehem!
tres marias
nanay must have had to something
to do with the coming, one after
the other, of lola waya and lola emma. the three of them are the tres
marias
de fonacier, never mind their ages. hankies on hand and faces painted
with
concern, they come prepared to worry and be anxious with me -- nanay
must
have also prepared them for me. women, are they surprised when they
see me
in the new calmness of my spirit. we banter. then, i start to tell
them
about the concern of doy vea, smart ceo and UP High '66. lola emma
interrupts to ask me if this doy vea is the son of her co-teacher agnes
vea.
i guess so if she is the wife of forester vea from bataan, and i proceed
with my story. then lola emma interrupts again to ask if he is the
same vea
with the mwss. no, that is his younger brother. and lola emma proudly
avers
that these vea boys are really gooood boys, raised well by her co-teacher
agnes. i implore her to let me finish the story. yes, yes, but she
knows
that the veas are really, really gooood boys. until i get to the part
about
doy's making me his best guinea pig -- how he kidnaps me for a check-up
with
our doctor-brod, how he compares our symptoms, and uses my diagnosis
and
prescriptions. this baaad doy vea cannot be agnes vea's boy!
no he
definitely cannot be, says lola emma.
lola emma and lola waya will
continue to monitor me way past my
operation, make me laugh, listen to my corny jokes and cook for me
'pesang
bakuko' and 'inihaw na pusit'. lola waya will even pray for me a couple
of
wednesdays at baclaran, asking for enlightenment why i chose to be
confined
at UERM. but there is nothing i can do now to convince them that the
doy vea
story is a joke and that they should renew their subscriptions with
smart.
the betrothal of rizza de
guzman
late pm, brod concon drags
a lady intern into my room and introduces
her as rizza de guzman, earnest brod ernest's friend, and boy, is she
a high
number. and she coyly reaches out her hand to me with a good afternoon
sir.
i go straight to the point by asking if earnest brod ernest had already
asked for her hand in marriage. taken aback, she withdraws and with
her hand
covering her mouth, she snickers. i go straight to the point again
and
advise her that if earnest ernest proposes she should not only say
yes, but
she should grab him -- his hand, his body, his head, his limbs, his
whole
being. because the guy is a romantic! imagine calling me, a brod in
need,
all the way from far florida of the us of a. rizza softens, and admits
that,
in fact, earnest ernest had proposed marriage three weeks ago when
he
visited manila and that they are now planning their wedding. i volunteer
to
talk to her parents and vouch for earnest ernest, on the strength of
his
long-distance call. then she shows me her pictures with earnest ernest
who
truly looks earnest just like brod concon, magkasing-taas pa yata,
you know,
the nerdy look -- mga tunay na alpha sigma. from that day, rizza would
come
to visit me in my room, say hello and get herself reassured she
didn't make
a mistake saying yes to earnest ernest. God bless the both of you.
the presidential spokesman
speaks
early evening, jerry barican
calls, of course, from malacanang where
he holds court for as long as his boss is there -- sipsip. he goes,
"hey,
'kyo, what's this ruckus you're creating putting in the internet that
you're
confined at the UERM for what -- a SIMPLE gall bladder operation!"
26 years
of the kind of work i do has taught me how to deal with BIIIG people
--
never explain, never justify, just stroke their BIIIG egos. so i answer,
"jerry, if it's the presidential spokesman speaking, then who will
not hear
about me." then jerry adds,
"don't worry i'll tell the president and if you need anything, just
call."
aw, come on jerry you can do better than just make me call; why not
just
convert the equivalent of a weekend's stay at the hongkong peninsula
with
rolls royce limousine service into pesos, that should take care of
my
hospital bill. don't get me wrong, jerry really has a big heart, actually
he
gave me a taste of the hongkong peninsula weekend with rolls royce
limousine
service last october (with ray), but that is another story, and he
would
call me back the next day, after my operation, to check on how i am
and, of
course, to brag that he has already told the president. now, i've really
gone national, like child rapist, leo echegaray, thanks to our presidential
spokesman.
ray shares a rainbow
later, manang carmen -- my
eldest (?) cousin, favorite of our big
lolo, and wife of dr. sibayan the only doctor, before our very own
dr. joe
reyes and his A-team, who has operated on me (incision of a boil and
two
moles) -- pays me a visit with her mabel, who just a little earlier
received
news that she placed 7th in the dentistry board exam. manang carmen
is a
cool cucumber. she has to be, with a neurosurgeon for a husband, an
eye-doctor son, a budding journalist daughter, a board-topnotcher younger
daughter, and a precocious high-schooler. she maintains her cool because
of
a strong and sure relationship with the Lord, which every opportunity,
she
tries to inculcate in us. in my hospital room, manang carmen sees my
bible
and decides to share with me a passage about God's covenant with His
people.
genesis 9, 14-15 reads: "When I bring clouds over the earth, and the
bow
appears in the clouds, I will recall the covenant I have made between
me and
you and all living beings, so that the waters shall never again become
a
flood to destroy all mortal beings." clem immediately recalls God's
message
to me last Sunday about the pairs of animals led to salvation into
noah's
ark. had i read on through their forty days and forty nights, i would
have
been led to the exact same passage manang carmen has thoughtfully shared
with me now. with my family and her mabel, manang carmen prays over
me, and
i cry on realizing that what i have been feeling since sunday night
is the
calmness of spirit manang carmen prays for me. l lay claim to God's
covenant.
later still, ray also visits.
i have never seen him so excited as
now. how can he be happy i'm in the hospital? and he even gives me
a golf
book and a couple of magazines. ray, who has been eating his heart
out since
his ihado joao made that hole-in-one two years ago, relates how he
just made
his first ever hole-in-one yesterday at the wack wack golf club. he
says he
saw a rainbow before he stepped into the tee mound at hole number 8.
and it
is this rainbow that he comes to excitedly share with me now. ray shares,
"i
think it is God's way to remind us that He is in control even for the
mundane things, how much more can we count on Him for the critical
things in
life." what better preparation do i get for tomorrow's operation!
next, the main operation
on The Gall of my Stones Part VI
UP
Prep 1966Butch, now you know!
