She Remembers And I Remember

Once I set foot at the UST Hospital, I thought of those days when I used to bring Dad to his nephrologist every other month for check-up. It was during those times when he had ESRD (end stage renal disease) until we all decided that he undergo dialysis but he only lasted six months after such procedure.  I also remember Nissa’s first surgical operation (last Tuesday was actually her third including a CS section when she gave birth to Nate) when she was in Grade V because of an ovarian cyst. One of her ovaries was removed.

Yesterday, I decided to visit my doctor who operated on me nineteen years ago and she was the same doctor who previously operated on Nissa when she was first confined there. She has been my OB GYN for the past thirty years.

With Dr. Ditas Decena, my OB GYN.

Imagine the thrill of seeing each other again after I visited her clinic ten years ago to ask for recommendation for a surgical oncologist when I found out I had stage 3 colon cancer. She gave me those friendly advices and told me that papillary thyroid carcinoma is easy to treat.  I described to her what I saw of Nissa’s removed thyroid and she readily said, “papillary”.  She remembers  those days when I used to visit her clinic for consultation.  She even recommended an OB Gyn she knows closer to our place. UST is a bit far from where we live.

I had the chance to visit UST again after more than eight years.  I’ve missed this place. I had a nice morning walk going to the  UST chapel today, heard mass yesterday at the UST Hospital chapel. Walked around the campus the other day.

This is the main building of UST. UST students are called the Growling Tigers.

The University of Santo Tomas (UST) is the oldest existing university in Asia. In terms of student population, it is the largest Catholic university in the world in a single campus. It covers a total of 21.5 hectares and was founded in 1611.

This is our College. Stayed here for five years and took up BSC Economics.

I was pretty amazed when I saw a student from high school. Imagine after all these years, they still wear the same color and design of uniform which we had fifty years ago. Nostalgia to the max.

 

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Going Home…..At Last

Four days of hospital stay. I stayed there for three days though because the first day was Nissa’s admission.

Nissa’s surgery went well last Tuesday morning. The doctor  removed her thyroid completely because they talked earlier on that it would be upon the discretion of the surgical oncologist if he sees fit to remove both right and left thyroid. The final biopsy is not yet in.

I had this sudden fright when one of the nurses told me that I was needed at the operating room an hour after Nissa was taken in. Her doctor showed me the specimen that they removed from her. He showed me the mass at the left thyroid and some small nodules too. I didn’t bother to take a photo of it because I didn’t want to remember  but I took shots of some facilities of the place.

This is where Nissa was operated on.

I took  shot of the prayer pamphlet and rosaries on her table at the hospital plus the big image of Our Lady Of Guadalupe gifted by Obet’s boss before Nissa’s operation and some shots of  her room.

 

Placed atop Nissa’s bed during her operation, a big photo of Our Lady of Guadalupe which was made of cloth.

Nissa’s room had an extra bed for a watcher and a divan at the other end convenient enough for visitors. First time in a long time I’ve watched early morning news on television.

She’ll be back for check-up a week from now. The final biopsy will be released soon.

Here’s a picture of the both of us taken last night.
 

 

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