Like Million Hers Untold Story

Peacefully sleeping for eternity, set with purity and elegance, one of my mom's dearest friends finally rested her physicality for her next journey. We've known her as a replica of what anyone may call a real mother. For four years of sharing some of her free times with us, never did we heard from her complaints about an ailing body. She was as compassionate as my mother and a giver too. Blessed with two lovely ladies and a loving provider who is for responsibility sake was forced to work abroad, she was lonesome yet gleeful and religiously active. It was May when we last saw her. When the news about her illness came, my parents went to the hospital for a surprise visit. And too surprising, in contrary to the anticipation, the meeting was full of sweet sharing and honest laughter.

One night after not so long days since the last visit, we did our last moment with her. Staring at her inside the coffin made me feel weak and worried. I let a tear and decided to keep a more obvious expression.

But what about every tear drop from a dear girl of my age left by her mother?

Good thing she was there to word my mom's friend untold story for me to jot down with compassion and courage...

June 2007

Sometime during this month, mom woke up in the middle of night finding herself praying for healing, while she was laying her hands on her left breast. She then felt a lump in that area so she immediately consulted the doctor for proper diagnosis.

After a series of tests, it was confirmed that she has a growth in her left breast, and the doctors suggested having it removed for a biopsy.

Mama opted to go on with the surgery when papa was already here with us.

January to February 2008

A lumpectomy was performed on her left breast and a biopsy was conducted to determine whether the lump was benign (non-cancerous) or malignant (cancerous). To our dismay, she was diagnosed with stage 2 cancer early February 2008.

The doctors advised mama to go through mastectomy (removal of the affected breast) and chemotherapy. However, she opted to cope with this condition by taking herbal medicines and drastic change in lifestyle - eating organic fruits and vegetables.

May 2009

After feeling exhausted every so often, mama decided to go to a medical laboratory for some tests. FBS was one of the tests conducted and it showed that her blood sugar level was way too high from the normal range. She then decided to see an endocrinologist.

Her doctor then gave her medicines that would help normalize her blood sugar level. She took these medicines but seem to give her minimal relief. She still continued to feel dizzy and weak at times.

With the continued unexplained dizziness and weakness, she decided to have herself admitted in the hospital for proper check-up. All necessary tests required by the hospital to determine the patient's condition was administered to mama and her x-ray results showed signs of a possible metastasis.

The doctor asked for another x-ray test to be conducted in order to further support what has been detected. When the x-ray result came out, we were immediately referred to an oncologist and were informed that mama's breast cancer malignancy has advanced to stage IV.

She had difficulty deciding whether to go through chemotherapy or not. During this time, she already told us that she was more ready to meet the Lord than go through the ordeals of getting treatment. But since we were pressed for time, we encouraged her to get treatment. She agreed.

Her first chemotherapy was administered immediately. We got treatment religiously every 21 days with the hope to finish all proposed 8 sessions with a mastectomy after the first four treatments. We were also looking into linear radiation for the lesions that was found in her brain right after chemotherapy.

June 2009

Weeks after our second chemotherapy session, dehydration set in since mama did not meet the required daily minimum fluid intake. We were back in the hospital and got treatment.

August 2009

Because chemotherapy weakens a person's immune system, mama easily caught pneumonia and before we knew it, we were back in the hospital again dealing with another ailment. This occurred about two weeks after she went through her fourth chemotherapy session.

September 2009

This was he month that mama was supposed to undergo mastectomy. We had our sights set on the second week of September for the procedure just in time for her to regain strength. But a new challenge was set before us when she lost her appetite making eating an ordeal rather than an enjoyable activity. We made every effort to whet her appetite but to no avail until she decided to send herself back to the hospital last September 08.

Mama stayed in the hospital for about two weeks before she finally surrendered her everything to the Lord. Despite the complications that arose in the last few days, she remained vibrant and strong encouraging every person that came to visit her. She prayed for them and accommodated them with such warmth that made them ask whether she was really sick or not.

On September 18, the doctors were up and about stabilizing mama's condition and they also informed us that we need to brace ourselves in the days to come because her status is not that dependable. But we never expected it this soon.

At 7am of September 21, the doctors ordered to administer oxygen to mama after seeing that she had difficulty breathing. During these times, we had the chance to speak with her and assure her of our love and care. As the clock ticked away, the nurses and resident doctors closely monitored her vital signs as her respiratory rate dropped to an alarming range. Despite the uncertainty, we sang songs of worship and read her passages from the bible together with her minister friend who came in to visit.

In her last few minutes, her neurologist offered us to take the fluid out of her brain which causes the swelling. But, we decided not to, knowing that long before she started her treatment she had stressed time and again that she did not want her brain touched, be it in the form of linear radiation or etc.

Her respiratory rate just continued to slow down, making irregular gaps from about 5-7 seconds per cycle until the gaps finally increased and she breathed her final breath leaving her diseased body with peace and sweet surrender.

At 11:38 am she was pronounced clinically dead but we rejoice in the Lord for one of the most beautiful departures we have witnessed in our lifetime.

Psalm 139:16b

"All the days ordained for me were written in Your book before one of them came to be."

-dp