INTRODUCTION:

Hello friends and family,

As I write this on the plane, Saturday, March 21st,  I am returning to Connecticut because the State Department announced a Level 4 Warning: US Citizens should return back or risk non-entry indefinitely.  Indefinitely?  That’s a pretty strong word. So here I am going home. I’m torn between staying and accomplishing what I had set out to do or not being able to return home, indefinitely? So why was I in Manila?

A couple of weeks ago, early Sunday morning, March 8, my mom was rushed to the hospital, she lives in Manila. Thank goodness for the closed circuit camera that she asked to be installed in her room during my recent visit in January. She was unconscious and we could not reach her.  She lives alone. The landline was off the hook and she was not answering her cellphone (I could see it all on my CCTV App).  A week before this happened, she was feverish on and off.  Then suddenly she felt back pain.  She didn’t experience any trauma, didn’t know where it was coming from.  We encouraged her to seek help, but she kept hoping it would just get better with a pain killer, or two.  She started to slur her words when we spoke to her last and we became alarmed. She drifts in and out of naps, so we felt that she was just going to get some rest.  After some hours of monitoring her, we tried to call her and had no success. Now what?  My sister Imelda and I were on the phone trying to plan our next course of action. Imelda lives in San Francisco. 

My mom has a brother that lives close by and his daughter, my cousin Twiggy, is a physician.  We made our call and they came to the rescue. They met the ambulance at Ma’s place but there was no way to break in, the door is dead bolted.  It was 2am.  It took them 15 minutes to reach her. They went through the fire escape (she lives in a townhouse).  At the hospital, she received a couple of rounds of dialysis.  She came to and was obviously disoriented, angry and LUCID.  “I never gave permission to come here and I want to speak with my daughters. I was kidnapped and I am going to report you!” 

And ... SHE’S BACK!”  That’s my mom. :-)

WHAT’S NEXT?

Angry, she pulled out her feeding tube, OUCH. You heard me right. It’s good she didn’t pull out her dialysis tube.  No, I’m not kidding, she pulled it out. My cousin ordered to restrain her. We hired Private Duty Nurses (PDN)  to watch over my mom.  After the first night, the outgoing PDN reported, “... she’s very strong, male nurses had to restrain her.  She sits up in bed and her speech is not slurry at all. She was not stuporous. They are all afraid of her”.  All 85 pounds of an 81 year-old lady? Yup.  They restrained her and she got worse, OK, bad idea. If it weren’t that she needs the aid of her crutches to walk AND was connected to a dialysis machine, she would have walked out. Been there, done that, this is NOT her first rodeo! LOL. She finally settled down, medication does wonders.

By the way, my cousin Twiggy was with the paramedics when the ambulance picked her up, and was by her side in the emergency room. My uncle and aunt were also there with the ambulance, at the house and hospital, helping by communicating with my sister and I here. The internet is a wonderful and life-saving tool. Twiggy was the point person, giving the OK for anything that needed to be decided and then she would communicate it all to us.  You can’t ask any more than that - a family member right by your mom’s side in the emergency room. 

Twiggy is her nickname, her real name is Sheelagh. She is an Obstetrician. She started her day delivering a baby and saving a life or two.  More than 24 hours later, still on her feet and making life saving decisions.  She is the only one in my generation that followed in my grandfather’s steps, he was a doctor, a well respected “Marcus MD”.  Will be forever indebted to her and she says, “We’re family”. I bet she would do that if we weren’t family.

We almost lost her. That’s Twiggy at the top left of the screen, darker hair. (Not sure if or where the photo will be posted, I am new to this App)

WHO’S OFF TO MANILA?

Last emergency, March 2019, my mom fell and fractured her hip.  (Something about her little doggie and the leash, you know the story.)  Well luckily, the accident happened outside and neighbors took her to the hospital.  My sister Imelda, hopped on a plane two days later to be there for Ma’s surgery.  I followed and stayed for a month, some of you may remember that.  This time it was I who hopped on a plane. I was planning to be there for a couple of weeks and I made my flight reservations. The next day, the Philippine Government announced that it will close all traffic “by air, land and sea from March 15 to April 14”. I was arriving the morning of March 14, 18 hours before the close of the border. PHEW! Next, change my reservations and make arrangements for work, to have my fitness classes covered for a month - done. (I work with some awesome and supportive instructors and managers.)

So pack, quickly. She was admitted early Sunday morning and it was already Tuesday. Got a flight through Tokyo, the least expensive way, two layovers, who cares right? Then the question, Manila was announcing quarantining people arriving from several destinations. I could be up in the air, land in Tokyo and then either get turned around or be quarantined for two weeks in Manila. Time to rebook. Booked on Philippine Airlines, only flight available from the east coast, JFK, directly to Manila. You know what that means? The most strict cancellation policy and the most costly. Whatever, do what you gotta do, so I did.

I landed in Manila. The “land, air and sea” restriction was off. What? OK, whatever.

How was my mom doing? Oh HER, isn’t this about me? LOL. She needed dialysis. The emergency room doctor said to my cousin, “I have admitted this patient twice in the past 15 months.  We need a directive from her family before we proceed with ANYTHING (my mom was unconscious).  I know that she would not want us to puncture her neck.”  In comes ...  the Living Will, that Ma and I set up last March.

After the scare of her hip surgery, we talked about her wishes.  We drew it up and got it notarized. Believe it or not, a conversation that I thought would be so difficult, was not at all - for her. I had to take a couple deep breaths, but she was so factual. She knew exactly what she wanted. So here we were, executing it.  Now we were all protected from Ma, when she woke up! I’m only half-kidding.

It’s early Thursday morning, 2:30 am flight, I will be arriving early Saturday morning Manila time. (17 hour flight, they are 12 hours ahead).

By the second night Ma was there, she had brought the night PDN to tears and consequently the nurse quit. Oh wait, was that before Ma questioned her on her credentials?

Hold on Ma, just be good OK? ... I’m coming! YAY?

Her doctor says, we are trying to take her fever down and she has pneumonia.  We have given her antibiotics, second type hasn’t worked, so we are going to change it again. We need to watch the pneumonia because it’s getting worse.

Enter: COVID-19.

>>>>>>>>>

I need to take a pause and try to get some sleep. We still don’t know, waiting for results. We suspect it will be negative. Fingers crossed.

More to come.