uncle Victor
This is a weekly or maybe daily account of Uncle Victor.
The other night one of the ex-drug pushers, John, from the church of Alex brought his father, Victor Cabihasan, over. Because of a simple sandal that gave him a small wound between his toes, he got this infection that already involves his whole foot. He has bad diabetes as well as TB. If I press on top of it the puss just drains from the second toe. Two months ago he put some gauze over it and I had to cut it away by blade. And all this happened in my sitting room. So guess how everything smelled afterwards. The uncle gave his heart to the Lord a couple of days ago and the anti said that was the first time she saw him cried before.
Now his foot is rotting away and his wife is busy dying in the hospital with cervical cancer. She started to bleed a day before I got to him. He can barely walk never mind go and visit her. Man I really have compassion for him. John,, the son and ex-drug pusher have to work to pay for the meds of the mother and can also not go and visit. Luckily his sister came down from Manila and she is looking after the mother now. Now we can say, it is good to accept the Lord, but that does not solve all our problems in a fix.
I contacted my good friend Dr Dienega and made an appointment. Please pray for this doctor and Dr Wong they are my backbone in Medical Mission. Well the result was a huge Osteomilitis/bone infection. Four toes are already affected and need repair. Well now for the good news. He also has diabetes. How lucky can we be? Man this makes everything a bit crazy. No wonder the poor wound do not want to heal. Well to make a long story short. I took him in to the hospital and he was operated on Wednesday. They are controlling his diabetes now and he is doing well. It is almost normal. Praise God.
When I was there tonight he started to cry and told me about all his problems he had and man was this a hard one. How and what do we say especially with my karaboa cebuano. Lusod man. !!! Well we prayed and I calmed him down and give him the love of our Father. That's all he needs right now. Hopefully he can go home in 2 days time. Please pray that he and his wife will get the healing they need so badly.
In the meantime he got released from hospital and is at home now. I accompanied him to visit his wife and that was a gathering that is hard to forget. His wife is in bed and has constant pain. When they saw each other they were crying like babies and was so glad to see each other. That made me even loves them more. Two people so dedicated to each other and both so ill. I try to bring him to hospital every afternoon to visit his wife. Makes a big difference in her appearance. She is not doing good and we do not know for sure what is going to happen. All we know is that they cannot afford the operation. His wound will take time cause of his diabetes but we are hopeful and trust in God for his full recovery.
16 Oct’01: Sad to say but uncle Victor needs a miracle. His diabetes count is high and infection sets in time and again on his leg. We are trying our best to help him 2x a day and dress the wound as good as possible. He has lots of problems with TB, diabetes and a wife busy dying in the hospital with cancer. He is of better cheer right now cause his wife is coming home today and he is really looking forward to that. We need to take care of her at home cause they do not have enough money for the hospital. Accepting Christ is not getting your life sorted out in a jiffy! But God is good and he helps them to cope through this all. Right now we are contemplating whether to proceed and amputate the leg. Well the doctor must say. For me, I only hope for a speedy recovery even if it means he needs to lose his leg
Please pray with us for this uncle. He is new in Christ and need prayer more than before. His family is in desperate needs and we cannot just say a quick prayer and walk away. This is a case that sticks to you and you need to invest time with them. It will take an effort with this one.. Remember that God is still our healer even if we do not see it. !!!!
23 Oct’01: His foot is not doing well at all. There is still a lot of puss and seems that the sugar count stay high. We adjust the medicine already 2 times to get above the diabetes but when we do the tests it stay high. This time we are adjusting all the meds and will give him new antibiotics to drink as well as we just finished a Culture and Sensitivity test to see what drugs he is resistant to or not. Thank God for those tests.
Please pray that the wound will start to heal soon. Pray for his wife with cervical cancer in the hospital. We believe it is time for her to come back home as they cannot afford to keep her there and it seems they cannot do anything for her there as well. Also pray for his Tb, which is very bad. So much trouble is not good for wound healing at all. Ask God for a uplifting spirit in their household.
Even uncle Victor is doing better. His foot has still lots of infection inside but his physical condition is better and his diabetes is under control. His wife is at home at last but she is not doing so good. Her kidneys stop functioning and we can just help her to relax and keep the pain in control. There is nothing we can do besides comforting her. there is no money available to do a very expensive Dialysis every second day, where they clean the blood. She do not want to go back to hospital and prefer to stay at home where everyone are looking after her.
They made the little room very nice and clean and even put in a small fan for her. Kneeling besides a mother who is busy dying isn't an easy thing for a Health Worker. Seeing somebody in such agony do not makes a heart good, but God also had to go through such sorrow, ,and He understands how to help us in this. We trust in God's will and He is the one in control of this situation. We are giving her strong medication so there is no pain.
Last night was wonderful seeing her sleeping in such peace. There were a relaxed atmosphere in the house and no body were tensed up because of her pain. I was satisfied with that. God is good in helping them coping with her in the house. Please pray for uncle Victor to accept his wife's condition.
Sad news is that when I started to write this letter the wife of uncle Victor was ok but she left for her new home today- Nov.8 at 17h15. Uncle Victor came to our home and telling us that she is struggling to breath and we knew that it would not be long and then she will be home with her Lord. It was hard to sit it out with them and try to comfort them all the time. Before the time they cleaned the house so nice and even police the floors for every body that will visit. The sister of the anti was making us some coffee and then I had to tell them it is time that she will leave for good. it was a hard struggle but she died quietly and without any resistance. She was now release from the pain here on earth and were in a place where there is no known pain. thank God for a saved life. Everyone seems to have peace and they are planning for tomorrow. I was glad we could help. Toinette and Sheila were there as well and all of us could give a little hand of comfort.
After a whole week of mourning at her coffin and drinking and gambling, uncle Victor finally laid down his wife on Nov.10. They had to go to the church nearby and were late. The priest made a point and also came late to punish them. His first sermon was to scold the people cause they are late. And I thought we are at a burial, today. Well, I do not know if that will let them come on time, next time!! Uncle Victor is doing good and the wound is healing slowly but surely. It is good seeing him moving on and except the fact that his wife is no longer there. He is so pleasant to talk to and always very happy.
Sept.03: Uncle Victor had his operation done and now we are looking foreword till when he will be released from hospital. That can still take a couple of days. At least he is without pain at this stage. I thank God we could help him although it was not an easy one. Mentally I am not in good terms with him as he was neglecting himself while he knew better. But God want us to press on and even when people fall, help them up again. I just wonder how many times do you need to knock your head before you listen??? We all have been through that path already. Pray that he will be fully healed and get to work again. Because of his diabetes it did not go well and he got even more infection in the foot. And on top of that he started to get in comas all the time where he is not sure what happened. We are not there all the time to look after him.
I am working on my PhD degree more dedicated as ever- Praising Him Daily degree
Imagine this:
You are lying in your room,busy dying and your children are playing cards next door. Not even a brick house but only wood. They can see him but they do not bother. When I went there yesterday morning , I was shocked that he was not eating for 2 meals. the fish I brought him for dinner had to be thrown away. Nobody made some food. His blood sugar was on 41, ,which is Hypoglycemic and he needed something to eat. I gave him his food and ask that someone need to cook it. Should have known better.
When I came back at 12 noon, he was almost in a coma. He was literally busy dying, while his children was playing cards. What to do,accept prayer. "God , please do not let this man die in my hands". I am not sure I could handle it again, after uncle Durasi. My prayers was against death who only wants to destroy, I know my God is bigger than that and He gives life,everlasting!!! First time I experience something like this. Somewhere I read that you need to give someone like this, ,something sweet to eat. Well , he is not capable of eating,the next best thing is Pop Cola, an generic type of Coke. I forced 2 glasses down his trought. Now I can feel his pulse again. He is still so cold. I rushed to the clinic to get the glucose meter to see what his sugar levels are.
When I came back , ,his neighbours were there. Thank God for that. They scolded the one boy there and the poor soul had to take all the weight of his dad's problems on his small shoulders, he is only 10 years and his older brothers are nowhere to find. They dressed him with semi-clean clothes, because no one is doing his laundry as well. See , we live like pigs. Luckily I scolded one of the boys earlier and forced him to make some food, that I had to buy. Now was the time to feed him. He was so willing to eat, cause he did not had a meal since yesterday. . He slowly recovered and I was praising God for His intervention.
When I came back the afternoon, he was ok and sitting up straight. Did not know what happened even in the morning. this was a lesson for both of us, Death can come quickly and we need to fight it all the time. Well, the enemy is out to destroy but we kicked him in the butt this time, Praise God!!!! We decided to take him to hospital, cause he said he do not want to die. Now the problem is to get someone to look after him while he is in hospital. Talk to my good friend Laura and she is willing to talk to his son . So everything is set for this morning to go to hospital. They need to control his diabetes and amputate his leg in order to help him .
Bringing him to hospital seems to be such formality but we know better. This is no place to get better but rather to come and die. While running around trying to find all the hundred medications they prescribe for him, they try to give him Insulin. His veins was so bad by this time as he is suffering from sever Hyperglycemia, High Blood sugar. His veins are non-excising. Watching 2 young doctors cutting him open, on the arm , to get to a vein, I cannot but ask why they do it this way. Well they said they cannot find the veins and without even trying to do better just left by saying that he will anyhow die. No mercy in this hell-hole!!
By now I can see the gangrene creeping up his leg. HE was in such a bad shape that the doctor was worried for him. I was pleading with the doctor to just go ahead and cut his leg, but they were worried about his diabetes. For heaven sake, please just help the man. No, no, here we do it this way and you need to wait. Well wait is not the problem but if you are on the brink of death, why wait. Well turns out to be fatal. They had to tie him down on the bed as he became violent, because of the Hyperglycemia. It count was now over 400 mg/dl. Strong where normal is 80-150mg/dl.
He did not last long till he was in a coma. I went home later but know that he will not make it through the night. His son, John pitched up later and sat with him. Asked him the following morning and he said his dad was just sleeping. So quietly he slipped away.
For months it wrecked my brain why I did not take him to the private hospital instead. My budget was so bad that we could not afford to pay for another operation. We had to do it in the Government hospital and took the risk. I should have known better. We struggled so much with him , we tried in vein but in the end the sickness got the win. We can just pray that God is merciful.
Years later I still see his sons in the market and we are still friends. It always reminds me to be kind to whoever comes my way.
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