If we hold on together

A week ago I wrote about the struggle of reproductive health (RH) advocates in getting the bill on reproductive health passed. The Catholic church in the Philippines vociferously opposes the passage of this bill, throwing everything but the kitchen sink in terms of strategies are almost military in nature: organized (and funded) efforts at all levels (from as high as the president to as low as the communities), with varied methods & means (bullying the RH advocates in congress, misinformation campaigns to the masses, and threatening the very souls of Catholics who are for the passage of the bill).

As my friend recently wrote in her email to me, the Catholic church have all the resources and power to wage its anti-RH campaign but those of us who are very much for reproductive health should not be daunted. It’s high time for us, who are either directly affected or gravely concerned, to speak up and let our voices rise above the religious and political rethoric that have dogged this campaign for a long time now.

What the church fails to see, in my opinion, is the disparity between what Catholics believe in and the economic and social realities that they have to face and live with everyday. To blame poverty on graft and corruption instead of over-population is not only simplistic, but also hypocritical. One cannot look at social and development issues as if they were boxed separately. They are inextricably linked to each other.

Fortunately, not all Catholics believe and feel the same way about RH and the RH bill. A group of concerned Catholics recently organized a movement to express support for the passage of the RH bill. In its press statement, they said that this movement came to be due to the circumstances that aimed to discredit the RH bill and its advocates & supporters. They contend that, “Reproductive health is not anti-God, not anti-Catholic, not anti-life, not anti-constitution and not anti-poor. It is in fact pro-quality of life, believes in the essential goodness and potentials of men and women, enhances family life and personal relations, respects existing and prevailing laws and prevents loss of lives and helps improve the total health and well being.”

Furthermore, they add that, “The guiding principles of reproductive health do not run counter with the practice of the Catholic faith.”

In the end of my last post on this topic I said that I can only wish the RH advocates well. Another friend commented that I wrote this as if I were not an RH advocate, as if I were an outsider in the arena. I noted that by living outside my home country in the last 4 years, I have seemed to distance myself from issues that are happening in the Philippines. Case in point, this struggle. I realized that I need to do more than wish the RH advocates in the Philippines well. RH (including HIV/AIDS & LGBT rights) remains to be my personal advocacy issues. I can still participate actively, in my own, small, personal way. Like writing about this issue in my blog. You, dear reader, can also participate.

For Filipinos (living in the Philippines or not), the Reproductive Health Advocacy Network (RHAN) recently created an on-line petition campaign that aims to gather 1 million signatures to show Philippine legislators that there is a wide support base for the bill’s passage in spite of what its oppositors say.

I would like to call on the readers of this blog to read and sign the petition through its link HERE. If you believe that people have the right to accurate information and equitable services to address their reproductive health needs, if you believe that a rights-based & comprehensive RH law will help people improve the quality of their lives, and if you believe that young people need to become responsible in dealing with their sexuality & relationships, PLEASE SIGN THIS PETITION.  

Tonight’s the night

After a 3-week delay (due to things I chronicled in my previous posts), I am finally returning to Cambodia. For the first time, I am taking a Cebu Pacific flight to Saigon that leaves at 11 this evening before traveling to Phnom Penh (by bus) either tomorrow or on Sunday. I have re-booked my flight 3 times (again, because of my post-surgery complications) and the delays caused a bit of frustration.

But now that I have less than 2 hours before we head for the airport (where my family is bringing me to the airport, for the first time since I began traveling), I am feeling a bit sad about leaving. This is probably because this is my longest vacation in 4 years and in this vacation I was at home most of the time.

For the first time since I left for Cambodia, I am thinking of the things that I’m going to miss.

First on my list, my Mother and Tita Emy, who’ve been extraordinarily attentive to me before, during, and after my hospital confinement. They have been pampering me (to the point when I felt it was too much) and taking care of me while I was sick. They stayed with me in the hospital, accompanied me to the seemingly endless consultations and visits to doctors and laboratories, and encouraged me when I was feeling frustrated at my protracted illness. When I was well, they took me for another type of treatment: retail therapy. Also my cousin Mark, who has been very accommodating with regards to running errands for me.

Second, the food. In Cambodia, aside from a twice-weekly trip to coffee shops with friends, I never have snacks. But here in Manila, we seem to have snacks 2-3 times a day. This is aside from the daily serving of taho that I get between 9-10 in the morning, whether I had breakfast or not.And the breakfast! In Phnom Penh, my usual breakfast is a cup of cereal; I rarely eat rice in the morning. But here, fried rice and dried fish is the rule, not the exception.

Third, my pets. Something about my stay in Cambodia prevents me from getting a pet. But here in Manila, I have 3 dogs and 1 cat. When I arrived last month, Tamita–my eldest dog just  gave birth to 3 puppies. 2 females survived. I named the first one Mido. I didn’t name the other because Mother planned to give it to an uncle. And 3 days ago, Nobuko–Tami’s child, herself gave birth to 4 puppies, 1 of which did not survive. I was very happy to witness this birth. I’m still thinking of what names to give these 3.

Fourth, the movies. Because there are no cinemas in Cambodia that show English films, I always try to go to the movies whenever I go to other places. Here in Manila, I was able to see 4 films: the Dark Knight (loved it! loved Heath Ledger!), The Mummy 3 (sucked big time), X-Files 2 (did not suck too much), and Wall-E (great film! made me cry).

I’m sure I have more things to miss, but these are on my mind right now.

(and here they are, written in Phnom Penh on 28 August)

Fifth, my friends. Of all my holidays in Manila, this has been the longest. However, when it came to seeing my friends, this is the holiday when I was able to see the fewest. My college friends (pictured below) visited me on the last day of my first confinement. We made plans to see each other again but this plan did not materialize. Vangie managed to drop by the house on my birthday, along with Glenn, whom I’ve not seen in two years. However, I am most glad about being able to see Liez (pictured below), who was my classmate in elementary. We last saw each other in 1984, can you believe it? We made plans to have a small reunion after meeting for coffee after my surgery but I got sick again so I wasn’t able to make it.

Sixth, DSL. Okay, people might think I’m being shallow but I really enjoyed using the internet connection we have at home. The speed is way faster than my connection here in Phnom Penh, and the use is unlimited, unlike my internet service here. I can only pray that the time when that kind of service will become commonplace, i.e. cheap, here. If it happened in Vietnam, why not Cambodia?

There’s still more to come, I think…

Unforgiven

While I was recuperating, I spent most of my time at home looking up and catching up with my friends and colleagues. Among my college friends, topics of our conversations focus on how our lives are going. They share tales about their families and jobs, which I listen to with genuine interest. Among my friends in the NGO sector, our conversations focus on our lives that seem to be inextricably intertwined with our respective advocacies.

Friends doing HIV/AIDS work bemoan the lack of funding for prevention projects, the demise of some NGOs, and one organization’s bullying of other smaller NGOs over funds and micro-management in project implementation.

But what has really caught my attention is the recent spate of challenges that reproductive health (RH) advocates are facing these days. The Reproductive Health Care Act has been languishing in the Philippine Congress for many years now, largely due to the opposition of the Catholic church.

Perhaps sensing that advocacy efforts towards getting the bill passed are slowly gaining success, the Catholic church in the Philippines is now vigorously fighting the passage of this bill. This is nothing new; after all, the church in the Philippines has always ignored the constitutional separation of church and state by meddling in governance and political affairs, with varying results (and depending on who you ask).

However, the thing that bothers me is the ferocity with which the church’s protests against this bill is being undertaken. Of course, one can say that this is, again, nothing new. Our national hero, Dr. Jose P. Rizal, had even documented this type of blullying in his novels–wherein priests threatened people who didn’t agree with them with excommunication, or when public officials bow to the priests’ whims in exchange for ‘blessing’ their political candidacies.

Now, more than a hundred years later, RH advocates in congress who are Catholics are being threatened with excommunication in varying degrees, ranging from denying them the sacraments of the Holy Eucharist and Matrimony to threatening their political careers and to outright name-calling as ‘the enemies of good’. The president herself panders to the church (and to other sources of power, in fact) for her own political gain in spite of the fact that she had publicly admitted using contraceptive pills when she was younger. Some things never change.

Unfortunately, this doesn’t end here. What bothers me more is the depth of the misinformation that the church is doing to ensure that this groundbreaking law will become unpopular with the masses, who do not have access to accurate information on not just the bill but on reproductive health itself. A friend managed to attend a number of church-based and church-organized activities and she was appalled at the degree of misinformation that is being spread about the law. As you can see on the photo below, the bill itself is being distorted to fit the church’s misinformed concept of reproductive health.

Old and obsolete studies are being quoted as fact, while data from evidenced-based researches are being distorted to fit the argument that passing this law will supposedly lead to the destruction of the Filipino family. Contraceptive methods are being discredited using inaccurate and non-scientific facts and the bill’s provisions are being misinterpreted deliberately. Imagine that.

As I am writing this, a group of concerned Catholics organized themselves to speak out for reproductive health. Some NGO worker-friends expressed that social movements like this should be allowed to happen spontaneously, and not in this seemingly choreographed manner–with media persons in the background taking soundbites and photos. In my opinion, desperate times like this calls for urgent measures, spontaneous or not.

I can only wish the RH advocates well. I hope the politicians who are supporting the passage of this bill remain steadfast and strong, threats to their souls and political careers notwithstanding.

Complicated

I realize it has been 4 weeks since I last wrote anything in any of my blogs. But I have the perfect excuse for this lengthy absence.

And it’s not that, umn, complicated.

In a nutshell, when I said that the bitch was back, I spoke too soon.

July 23: in my supposedly last appointment with the doctor before my supposed departure (August 1), the fluids that have been draining from my surgical site remained bloody. It needed to be clear before the drain can be removed. I was put on Heparin (a blood anti-coagulant) and was advised to postpone my departure. Hence, first re-book to August 8.

July 30: next appointment with the doctor, the fluid have become less bloody, but bloody nonetheless. The doctor decided to remove the drain and I was put on antibiotics (co-amoxiclav). I was able to go out and see my friends thereafter because of the convenience of not having something dangling out of my belly.

August 1: started having fever though I didn’t complain. I figured it could be because I got rained on earlier. I started feeling unwell that I wasn’t able to see my friends this evening.

August 2: after going to the mall with my family, started having chills and fever. My mother called our doctor and he advised her to give me paracetamol and to monitor my temperature. I was put on another course of antibiotics (levofloxacin) and I was advised to postpone my return to Cambodia again. So, second re-book to August 15.

The next days followed this morbid pattern: I’d wake up fine, with normal temperature but as the day wore on, my body temperature reached low-grade fever status, peaking at 38.6C thereabouts. This low-grade is imperceptible unless I measure my temperature with a thermometer. Otherwise I felt normal. Before the week ended I was put on a third antibiotic (cefuroxime).

August 10: my 35th birthday. I wasn’t in a celebratory mood at all, on account of the frustrating fever that wracked me the past week. But my mother wouldn’t let this day pass without preparing some ‘birthday food’ of noodles and some festive dishes. A couple of friends dropped by to say hi. Relatives and friends greeted me through email, sms and phonecalls. I was also fever-free the whole morning but it came back around 3PM, further dampening my spirits.

August 11: Mother and I went to Delos Santos Medical Center so I can get an abdominal CT scan. The results showed that there was a sizable abscess at the site of the surgery. This explained the persistent low-grade fever that has been plaguing me the past days. However, the prospect of returning to the hospital loomed over me like a stormcloud.

August 12: another consultation with our doctor. I was hoping there would be an out-patient treatment he could do to get rid of the abscess but there was none. My options were: (1) another laparoscopy, or (2) an ultrasound-guided aspiration. Both required hospital confinement. I chose the second option. My doctor did an ultrasound to see if the abscess was indeed accessible by the procedure. When he gave the go signal, I went back home to attend to some work, notified my health insurance provider, and rebooked my flight yet again (to August 22). The same afternoon, we were admitted into the Philippine General Hospital.

August 13: in preparation for the ultrasound-guided aspiration, I was put on an IV antibiotic (imipenem) every 6 hours. Joyce, Nilda, Riki, and Helen dropped by late in the afternoon. Otherwise, I spent the day in bed, watching cable TV with Mother, with an IV line, enduring boredom, frustration, and apprehension.

August 14: an inept medical resident fetched me from my room before 8AM, ignoring that I needed pre-operative medicines and other procedures (putting on a hospital gown, laying me on a gurney, etc.). Very irritating. Took them about 30 minutes to sort things out and then I was finally in the operating room. I was already light-headed from the sedative. My doctor was performing an ultrasound when I vaguely heard him call out to my mother. He told her that the abscess was almost non-existent already. My stubborn body finally responded to the antibiotic and the procedure was no longer necessary.

So I was wheeled back to my room, mildly sedated. My doctor decided to just continue the IV antibiotics for 3 more days. I was told I could go home the next day, if I wanted. Since there were many nurses at home, Mother decided we could go home on Friday and just continue administering the IV medicine at home on Saturday.

I went home with a hep-lock on my left hand and last night, after the last dose, it was finally removed, freeing up my hand. Yesterday I also had a complete blood count, where it showed my white blood cells returning back to normal levels. My doctor advised another course of antibiotics (cefuroxime) for 5 more days. However, I have yet to recover from the anemia that started right after my surgery last month. Iron supplements have been ordered.

So here I am, back at my parents’ house, feeling really well for the first time in quite a long while. I feel I’ve been overstaying here in Manila. I can’t wait to get back to Phnom Penh and to wherever I might be going next. In a way, I’m glad that this complication was detected while I was still here in Manila. It would’ve been more troublesome if I got sick again in Cambodia. Credit goes to my mother and aunt, who both have been very vigilant about my health and well-being.