Tidbits

• My niece, Robynne, was with me last night in NKTI for my dialysis. With her own eyes, she saw what some of the patients were putting in their mouths while hooked up on their respective machines: McDonald’s, Jollibee and Lapid’s Chicharon.

• Our parish priest, Fr. Luke Dobles of San Lorenzo Ruiz Parish, usually call for certain groups of parishioners each Sunday to receive a special blessing. Groups usually called to the front are: birthday celebrants for the current month, or couples whose wedding anniversaries also fall on the current month. Earlier in mass today, he summoned the sick, the elderly and the disabled to come to the front to receive a special blessing. At first I hesitated, then went forward to receive the blessing. I realized that in a few years I will fall under all those categories already.

• By the way, I haven’t mentioned that we received a tip from a transplant recipient when I was still in hospital last February. He said, as a CKD patient, I am eligible to apply for a Person With Disability(PWD) Card at the Quezon City Hall. My wife, Ninette, did not lose time and gathered all requirements and applied on my behalf. I’m a card-carrying PWD. I get a 20% discount just like senior citizens. 

• I dug more into the PWD Law. I can get discounts for medicine, medical services, restaurants, local air fare, hotels, recreation centers, theatre and concert tickets among others. I can use parking slots allocated for PWD and cue up in designated lanes in banks and similar establishments. But losing both kidneys does not qualify one for disability benefit with the SSS.

• We got invited to a graduation dinner blow out last week. Ninette’s nephew, we call him Popo, got his medical degree from UST. The party was in Dad’s/Saisaki/Kamayan in Padre Faura. Such a busy buffet place that Friday night, everybody making several trips to the self-service. People kept inviting me to join them. I just kept saying no thanks. I bring my own food to places like this.

• Ever since the IJ catheter was taken off my neck. I do not get quizzical stares from strangers anymore. It is such a relief not having that for everyone to see. What I have now is called a Permcath. Surgically set in place on my right chest area, what people see(albeit not too obvious) is some protrusion the dressing makes under my shirt.

• The thing is, during last night’s dialysis session, the machine’s alarm kept going off due to low arterial pressure. Meaning the machine cannot perform with the designated flowrate since blood passing through the catheter was insufficient. So they called vascular. The Permcath was checked and rechecked and the vascular surgeon said it was working perfectly. And as an aside, whispered to me that the nurse probably just did not know what she was doing. How reassuring.