Monday, April 14, 2008

BATTLING THE DREADED DISEASE

The art of copying, that unwholesome technique used by students who don’t study their lessons but at given times would utilize it to pass their test questions, is actually boon to diabetic sufferers. Well, at least indirectly, for comparing notes are actually done by worried wives when they discuss the ailments of their patient-hubbies.

Take the case of the lion tamer for instance.

Out here in sleepy Guindulman town are three such patients. Oh, well!! This statement does not mean that there are only three diabetic victims in the locality; it is only that comparing notes could only be done to the three. So let us compare!

In addition to the three patients being of almost the same ages and having the same ailments, their physical conditions are not alike. Rar is a big hulk of a man that could easily remind you of either Arnold Schwarzeneger or that guy who portrayed the role of the “Incredible Hulk” in the movies. Nandy, on the other hand, is a five foot two, midget sized gentleman who could remind you of Napoleon Bonaparte, while the third is the aging cat that no longer needed additional description else he might growl at you for being so ignorant at how the now limping cat looks like.

In addition, both Rar and Nandy had already undergone heart bypass and whose professional lives were spent mostly in the land of the brave and the home of the free. In short, meaning the US of A, where else?!; both are retirees now living comfortably in their hometown enjoying, or rather spending their hard-earned pensions accompanied by their respective spouses who looked at their respective husbands no different from caregivers although this time, doing the chores for free, while their children, by now all adults and having their own families are now snugly rooted in the States no longer having plans of ever going back home to the land of birth of their ancestors partly because they cannot pronounce nor understand the dialects of their parents.

In contrast, the aging cat, as readers may have noted, has not migrated although he briefly sojourned in a neighboring Asian country sometime back, has retired on a meager SSS pension that is not even enough to buy him all his medicines, and that none of his three children have migrated for abroad. In addition, instead of a heart bypass, he lost his right leg instead.

But all three now walk with difficulty. Nandy and the aging cat both use a walker to enable them to walk while Rar can still do so without the help of this contraption but runs the risk of stumbling down that can get you nervous if you watch him move around.

All three take insulin injection daily although of different doses. All three also gulps different types of oral medicines for their respective heart ailments and in addition, Nandy and the aging cat also absorb injection of Epocain to add red corposules so that the war between the reds and the whites may balance meanwhile their respective bodies are still battling their respective skirmishes alive.

All three face their daily wars in much the same way although in points of fact are really different. When Baby, the wife of Rar went to the States last month to visit her two sons, Rar opted to stay behind saying he no longer saw the thrill of going back to the States. Nandy earlier decided to return to the States for check-up and also see his own adult children but at the last hour, decided to cancel the trip mumbling it is no longer worth it, while the aging cat, is still determined to board the Philippine Airlines on April 16 no matter what.

How will the three face their respective battles and who will jump first to the Great Beyond??

Oh, well. The aging cat philosophizes. He who blinks first, the Grim Ripper bags his prize.

Note (Chances are, this will be the last email of the aging puma before he takes the plane ride and therefore, there will be no need for rejoinders. To those who may feel the itch may well expect that it may be read only when he the cat is able to open the mails when he is already in the big city.)

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