Jabbar, Dr. E.M. and Me

Last night was a very difficult evening for a PKD patient like me..... but first...!

Who is a well-known physician in Cebu City that reminds you most of the man in the photo? Of course, everybody knows the man in the photo. He is Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, a legend in basketball circles, one of the NBA's greatest players of Lakers fame.

Clue for the doctor?

He has almost the same features as  Jabbar. He wears glasses. He is associated to at least one movie (Jabbar starred opposite Bruce Lee in the Game of Death, the mystery doctor revealed he had a bit role in a Tagalog movie). and he is tall, as in basketball player tall. And both share the same birthday!

The good doctor is non other than.....(drum roll!)....Dr. Edwin Menguito!


Back to the first paragraph..I mentioned it was a very difficult night for me. Why?

It was Dr. Menguito's birthday and I attended his party and holy guacamole! The food was yummy! There's LECHON.

You know, yummy and lechon are synonymous in my case. and that's the problem..... Lechon is NOT PKD-friendly. Too bad. I don't wanna raise my creatinine further, thank you...

Anyway, there's fish, shrimp, crispy kangkong and fruits, and (c'mon...u can do it) I ate just a little piece of lechon skin.(Ayawg saba..)...Ya, I know...I know.

But I enjoyed the party. The mood was of the 60's and 70's with Ultimate Bee Gees  music and Beatles music being played. Reminds me of my folks and my auntie "Tita Ching" who was a "DJ" in the AM radio DYCB. The music throughout the evening were the same songs you hear as background music of afternoon radio dramas still prevalent in today's AM airwaves.

And I even took home a CD of the celebrant's favorite music. Plus 5 DVDs I won by answering one of the doctor's trivia questions.

When it was time for Dr. Menguito to talk, I learned never before known details of his life. He had a brother who is a priest. And he wanted to be a priest.

Turns out we actually have something in common....

He mentioned he has 3 incurable diseases and we share two.....Hypertension (the one that gave the 1st clue I had PKD) and .....(guess).......(sirit?)............Baldness.

By the way, Jabbar also has the last condition.

Happy Birthday Kareem!

Happy Birthday Mom!

It was 29 years ago when my mother had her last birthday. I was 8 years old then and in grade 2. What I can recall is she was already thin and pale at that time. She was still able to attend my sister's graduation day.

She had PKD but I have no knowledge whether she or my father knew that she had PKD. I do not know if doctors at that time knew about PKD. I wonder what year PKD was discovered?

From stories of my relatives though, i think they know she had end-stage renal disease. It was said that dialysis was recommended to her at that time. But dialysis was in its early stage in the Philippines and it was very expensive at that time. It was said that she declined to save our family from economic crisis.

September of that year, she died at a young age of 39. But boy, she accomplished a lot already.

She laid the foundation for us siblings and raised as well. I can remember her putting me on her lap and personally supervising me in my homework. And here I am having her teacher's instincts.

With current advances in medicine and research efforts on PKD, hope has certainly shined among us PKD patients. Dialysis's costs have decreased. And among our relatives on my mother's side, awareness has increased unlike during my mother's time.

I'm sure my mother is watching over me in the heavens..smiling. Happy Birthday mom! You will always be in my heart. I will continue to be brave. I will continue to be hopeful. I will continue to live my life to the fullest.