Tuesday, March 2, 2010

forty-five turning one

Yes... yes ...I'm one... I'm one-year old today........ my bonus life.

It is just now that I am thinking, 44 is not a good number. I am not particularly superstitious, and I never thought of it that way until now. In Japanese, one of the two names of the number four is "shi" which sounds like "death".(The other is "yon" which sounds like... like...yes...."four"). As a result of this connotation, most often, in buildings in Japan, the 4th floor is non-existent or room number 4 is nowhere to be found. This is just like not counting floor number 13 in the Philippines. We do have our room number 13, though.

Forty-four, double death. Close call.

The tumor was taking over, the doctor, Dr. Gap Legaspi (the pioneer of keyhole surgery in Asia, we read over the internet) said. So he immediately admitted me(emergency admittance, he noted on his "order slip")to PGH (Philippine General Hospital) to prepare me for the operation. And, also, I was in danger of being comatose (the tumor was already pressing on my brain stem and I also had hydrocephalus) anytime. Better to be in the hospital for close monitoring.Which was just as well because I felt I did not have the energy to travel home and then back to Manila again.

The surgery was estimated to take four hours. Yet it lasted seven hours. They started to operate on me at 7 a.m. and they finished at 2 p.m. My facial nerve enveloped the tumor. It took them sometime to separate it (the doctor said that it was really stretched but they were able to save it) from the tumor. I think those were one of the longest hours for Yodi. But me, I did not feel anything. When I momentarily woke up because an attendant was transferring me to the recovery room, I thought I did not yet have the surgery.

My birthday is February 12. Yet when this date came, I was not so excited about it (is it because I do not feel like 45?). Or maybe I was, because of all the greetings but I just feel MORE excited about March 11. I also felt that it is more significant to celebrate this day.

Yes...yes... I'm one... I'm one year old today!

4 comments:

  1. Happy New Life! Thanks, Dave, for the Rebirth party band.

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  2. Happy Birthday , Sili!!! We were with you in prayer one year ago in that operating table. God is Good. love - grobid

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  3. Happy Bonus Life Day, Ninang bits! :)

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