Fallen

The year of  2012  had presented itself to my family like any other year with feasting and fireworks. Like any other, I wondered what that year would bring to us, hoping that whatever challenge God presented to us would not be so bad.

Unfortunately, my father succumbed to not just a mere second stroke but a cardiovascular attack that brought complications to his lungs and stomach. He was brought into the ICU twice because of pneumonia at its worst stage. He was monitored by six doctors which would've been  such a relief if only our hospital bill didn't reach three-hundred thousand pesos, even after the fact that the president of C.P.Reyes Hospital was our municipal mayor and Dad's personal friend. If it weren't for my mother's begging, the administration of that hospital would've gotten the deed to our house as payment for our bill and we would be left homeless with a sick family member in tow. To pay for a fraction of what we owe, we asked help from a government-run charity institution and Mom asked relatives and friends for financial help. To this day, we still owe one-hundred and twenty-five thousand pesos of hospital bills. Aside from that, there are still medications that Dad needed to maintain and the most expensive of that is the can of Glucerna he had to take four to six times every four hours. My family was almost left penniless.

 

 

   3/13/2012-third confinement at C.P.Reyes Hospital

 

 

We thought the money problems were the only things we had to worry about. Taking care of my father had become a challenge also and we had to learn care giving  like tube-feeding, monitoring his diet, giving him a sponge bath, making sure he's comfortable, etc. Dad's been bedridden ever since he was hospitalized last March. Three consecutive hospital confinements in a year not only would depress a patient. It would also be enough for him to be stubborn, unreasonable and even contemplate suicide. I know. I've seen it. I would look at my father on his bed and think how a force of nature had fallen this hard after ten years of his first stroke. My Dad had paid his dues and he knows it.

Come what may, we are a family against all odds. We do not abandon our loved ones just because it became difficult to be under just one roof. To the rest of my family, we've become stronger and closer. We are proof that a family should be the one thing you can count on the most when things are at its worst. I could only hope that we will be able to pay for the rest of his hospital bills before the administration decided to go after our home for the second time. God is always good and he had never abandoned us when we needed him the most. Pray for us.