FIGHTING DIABETES IS NOT FUN

2008-08-22 11:34:06 - One person's life with diabetes in the Philippines

By Satur P. Apoyon

DAVAO CITY

With diabetes mellitus or diabetes 2 which is common in adults is a gnawing, annoying and horrible voyage in the sea of human existence.

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I am saying this out of my own experience as diabetes mellitus sufferer in the past 48 years. Unknowingly, perhaps the affliction must have commenced from birth.

Yes, I must have been a certified diabetic under Category 2 of the malady of many peoples in the globe after discovering of an apparently rat bite in one of my toes in the right foot in the late l960s, a few months after my arrival in Davao City from my home province Bohol. I had it examined in the old Davao Provincial Hospital, now site of the regional mental hospital along J. P. Laurel avenue, this city.

After that first visit of a hospital, I forgot all about that rodent attack (due perhaps to the attraction of the 'sweetness and odor' of a toe of a person with high fasting blood sugar).

If somebody ever mentioned about a disease called diabetes mellitus in those days that I wouldn't be interested anyway to absorb its meaning and implications to one's health.

A seeming raging bull at 24, I never doubt of the soundness and durability of my mental and physical condition then. Thus, I continued a carefree lifestyle topped by overeating, drinking and spiced by smoking smuggled Union blue seals traded through the backdoor of Mindanao. Gone with the old days of lesser brands like Sports!

In mid-l969, Pablo Zerrudo, who operated a drugstore and a neophyte joiner of the Davao Press where I belong until now, had noticed something in me in relation to diabetes. He cited the disease with emphasis on symptoms and implications to one's health if unattended early.

Quite convinced, I agreed to go back to a hospital for the disease. He accompanied me with concerned to the Davao Medical Center.

The initial finding was positive to diabetes 2. But still the meaning of an impending disaster of the killer disease did not sink to my mind convincingly. Why should I worry about diabetes-what's this animal all about-when I am strong as a molave tree and outwardly in the pink of health over beer or Johnny Black and cold cuts, sashimi cum deep-fried pork bulaklak and stewed yellow fin tuna entrails? In those times, such bravado of mine was both naïvely and stupidly correct.

In l983, after a tiresome conference in the PNA central office in Intramuros, Manila, I was one of a group of provincial PNAers who went beerhouse-hopping and ended up in an Escolta barbershop cum massage joint courtesy of PNA Central Deskman Emmanuel Pinol, who turned politician in the l990s and now incumbent vice governor of North Cotabato. But upon returning to my base in Davao City I noticed some blisters in my left wrist. The panic in me mistook the watery rushes as among sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). But we only had some massage-and nothing more!

Nurturing negative thoughts, I took some antibiotic pills like Pentids and the like. Out of shame that I was already an STD virus carrier I burrowed into silence and adopted self-medication.

When another friend, who had also a better understanding of the effects of diabetes in adults, recited to me the don'ts in fighting the disease, among them smoking, I got impressed but scared. So I abhorred cigarettes of all brands, however agonizing it was. It took me some seven recurrences before completely abandoning the nicotine-laden stuff.

In the meanwhile, herbalists recommended juice of ampalaya and banaba leaves. Later, the Noni juice from Tahiti or the local version of apatot from Paoay, Leyte and other parts of Mindanao. There were even bottled chopped Amazonian herbal roots. I tried most of them, risking my liver and other abdominal sensitive parts.

In l985, I was one among four Davao journalists who had executive check up in Amang Rodriguez Hospital in Marikina courtesy of the director who came from South Cotabato. Early finding of diabetes in me was loudly reconfirmed in the thorough medical examination administered by the staff of Dr. Reynaldo Jacinto.

Dr. Jacinto prescribed Euglucon, a maintenance tablet against the rise of blood sugar resulting from too much carbohydrates and intake of beverages and wines. At first, the doctor's advice for strict discipline in controlling my diabetes was religiously followed. Then it became erratic. And worse, the maintenance against my disease was forgotten and I went back to the old habit, the bad lifestyle.

In l997, I had laser operation in my two eyes. I was a diabetic eye patient, too, especially in the right retina. Bursting of retina veins is among complications of uncontrolled, neglected worsening onslaught of diabetes.

But, again and again I violated all don'ts a diabetes patient should follow if only to restore my blurred vision to normal. While I had let go smoking for two decades before, I returned to gulfing beer like chicken soup.

And then the catastrophe must have come to me-

On June 27, 2004, my blood pressure triggered by too much blood sugar and tensions amid sedentary life of a retiree drove me to a nearby hospital in our subdivision home in Bangkal. My doctor said I had severe diabetes that was bringing some complications in the blood pressure, liver and other parts of the body. This time my maintenance tablets grew in numbers until I worried very much not to afford them all.

Out of exasperation perhaps in the endless battle against my diabetes, I committed blunders again on the prescribed discipline of a diabetic patient.

Then my journey to the comfort room had become alarmingly frequent. My sleep had been elusive up to the wee hours of the morning. Itchiness in many soft and hidden portions of my body was occasionally bothersome. But the appetite to feast on Monay and other loaves of bread was increasing wildly.

When some of my acquaintances and friends here and abroad learned about my predicament, they somewhat came to my rescue. Prof. Merlie Alunan of UP-Tacloban encouraged me to go to a Chinese acupuncturist in Cebu; Cleo Satina, an insurance executive of Davao City also invited me to try Chinese preserved anti-diabetes herbs; Bryck C. Apellanes of Fairfield, California, USA sent me diabetes reading materials topped by a Mayo Clinic book on how to manage diabetes; and Jinky Yap-Morales of the Davao Writers Guild, introduced modern-day brown rice.

Even some quacks in the neighborhood prescribed to me the bile of milk fish, monkey brain and processed fats of sea mammals for the annihilation of my diabetes-related disorders.

One could just imagine the enormity of coming up with a decision what to do with prescriptions lay down by 'experts' of 'Diabetes, Inc.' for your troubled internal system. I closed my two ears for this last horde of advisers.

But while going to another wellness center for some laboratory checkups as a result of the mixed intake of food and beverages in the past 2004 Christmas and 2005 New Year celebrations, I had the mistake of taking too seriously of fasting the night before. Thus, on the afternoon of January l4, 2005, I was brought down to my knees with blurring vision while awaiting results of the laboratory examinations I had in the past six hours. I had to limp to a nearby canteen of the medical clinic and I bought a slice of chocolate cake. I needed a bite of food to recover strength in my weakening body and blurring vision. Later, I was told I had an attack of hypoglycemia or the sudden drop of necessary sugar in the blood.

During the May 2007 elections, like the one in May 2004, I was again affected by the drama in the canvassing of votes in the national counting center in Manila via television broadcast. The tensions could have triggered constipation. Indigestion and failure to discharge regularly, I was told again, is another side effect of a diabetic person.

On June 3, 2007¸ thinking that physical exertion is a motivation to end constipation, I pruned too hard of some palm trees in lieu of irregular brisk walking and related forms of exercise.

But, look, what happened to me that day?

For such over stretching of the muscles of then a 7l-year old man, I got a risky count of l60/100 in my blood pressure!

Again, I was admitted for the second time around at the Davao Sanitarium Hospital near our home in Bangkal due to diabetes, hypertension and other complications. The confinement was longer by two days in my weeklong confinement in mid-2004 in the same hospital.

If it can be an option, I vowed not to go back to that place or any hospital.

Such last hospitalization was the worst battle against effects of complicated diabetes in a cramped medical room occupied by patients of various ailments.

Thus, since that time up to presstime, August 20, 2008, I have been trying hard not to be sick that will trigger complications with my diabetes for another confinement in the hospital.

Indeed, there are a lot of commandments to follow to control diabetes and its complications, among them balanced diet sans much sugar, salt and fat, healthy lifestyle, regular exercise and avoidance of stress, anger and anxiety.

But the best antidote to diabetes and its complications is the overall frame of mind of the afflicted individual. His decision to enjoy a longer life must be coupled with a resolve to conquer self and the excessiveness in pride and stubbornness before all calls for sobriety and discipline.

Hoping to adhere to the wisdom of this late awareness for the sake of dear life!