2023 SENIOR RESOLUTIONS

 

“Those things that hurt, instruct.” (Benjamin Franklin)

I was driving my car home before the crack of dawn after I had dropped off at the airport my son James heading back to Manila after spending his Christmas break with our family. My headlights illuminated the rear of the car ahead of me tailgating a convoy of slow-moving vehicles led by a ten-wheeler truck.

Suddenly, I spotted two fast public utility vehicle vans pulling ahead of the convoy which set me off to tag along behind the pair. Halfway through my high-speed drive home, all at once, I felt the urge to take a leak in the middle of nowhere. I slowed down, stopped my car with its headlights on at the side of the road, got out of the car, and boldly took a leak under the cover of darkness.

For the first time in my life, I could not urinate.

I moved on shrugging off my leaking trouble due to my fast driving stress aggravated by the cold interior of my air-conditioned car. But, not far from where I had stopped, another urinating urge quickly turned up. Since it was broad daylight by then, I stopped by the next gas station. But, just the same, I couldn’t relieve myself of the water massing in my bladder. Time and again, I stopped by several gas stations along the highway to take a leak, but, all the way, I was unable to urinate in any of them.

When I got home, I was feeling the pain in my bladder intensifying and figuring out something nasty was taking place in my groin. I drove to the nearest hospital with my wife and made our way to the emergency room.

“Your husband acted just in time,” the resident doctor said. “It’s a serious medical condition.”

 After the patient admission paperwork routine, a nurse led me to lie down on one ER hospital bed enclosed by all-around curtains for privacy.

“Nurse, I can’t urinate. Please get rid of this thing immediately,” I told the nurse.

“Sir, this may be painful,” she said. “You may inhale and exhale deeply to reduce the pain.”

Catching sight of the medical tubes being fit out by the nurse, I got scared stiff for the first time in getting the picture that a urinary catheterization would be applied in my manhood. Since not a single instance had I been admitted to the hospital throughout my sixty-eight years of existence, I was not psyched up and ready in facing the painful reality of my situation. Just as I would be pricked with a dextrose needle into my vein for the first time in my life, so too would I be hit upon by the naked truth for the first time that I'm truly old.

“Nurse, please be gentle,” I uttered just as though it could lessen the pain.

 I stared at the ceiling and took the suggested deep inhale-exhale breathing while she was inserting the tube in my manhood which lasted for less than a minute. Funnily enough, had it not been for the urinary catheterization, the scene would have looked erotic rather than traumatic. The twinge of insertion felt “outlandish” -- for lack of a better word.

I stayed in the hospital overnight and was released the next day. With a catheter and a urine bag attached to my body, I drove our car back home with my wife.

Let me rewind this story a bit.

A few years ago, I went through “dribbling” bouts in my urinating trouble. Some mornings, right after I woke up, by then, I went through such bouts that only fell in drops. I took it for granted because after I had moved around the house doing some menial jobs, my morning “warm-up” seemed to have cleared the passage for my urination. I figured out such positive incidents as a clue in managing my urinating trouble in the long haul. Also, I tried recently online food supplements that promoted health and potency for men with prostate problems, but couldn't carried on in reaping their supposed benefits because they're costly.

My family members took notice of my urinating frequency and, there and then, pressed for me to undergo a medical checkup. My last checkup was way back over two decades ago – during my final year in my corporate job.

Sad to say, neither did I pay attention to my symptoms nor heed my loving family’s advice for me to undergo such a checkup.

Fast forward to the present.

This morning my doctor took out my catheter after a week of being attached to my body. The forthcoming fearsome question: Could I urinate now? A “No” answer means another catheterization procedure would be applied to me right away after which my doctor would put in the picture for me of my next stage of treatment which could be direful. Praise the Lord! The answer has been “Yes”. The very moment I've been able to urinate for the first time today without the catheter, I felt “heavenly.” Figuratively speaking, it’s manna from heaven to my answered prayer for another chance. Literally, I felt I was on cloud nine – a state of thankful divine bliss.

I get the drift, being among the seniors in the “pre-departure area,” that this episode is just the beginning of my “launch countdown.” Like an actual launch of a space shuttle, the purpose of a countdown is to make the needed last-minute adjustments before the liftoff. One crucial life adjustment is embedded in this soul-stirring question: Why me? A question, prompted by murmurings in hushed prayers or shouts in the open, engendered by the restless hearts of countless sufferers – ranging from acute arthritis to melanoma, to Zieve’s syndrome disease.

In some humanly unguarded moments, I have been asking myself the same question. Why me? For the answer, I have been hanging on to the words of Jesus: “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” (2 Cor 12:9)

Nothing could have more vividly and profoundly illustrated the essence of those words than the photo posted by my friend Anecito Diamante (Tok) on FB: an old black & white photo of him with three deceased friends that stirred up the following comments:

Tok: Pwera buyag, sa among upat ako na lang ang nabilin. (Knock on wood, among the four of us, I’m the only one left.)

Merlita Opena: Naa pay mission, Tok. (You still have a mission, Tok.)

Living by God’s mission in the remaining years of our lives, we need His power which, paradoxically, is anchored in our weakness.

When all’s said and done, here are the three resolutions I hope seniors will do in 2023:

1.    Have your annual medical checkup

2.    Do not ignore your symptoms

3.    Keep in mind the worst scenario, if you disregard 1 & 2.

So common are the three resolutions above that you can read them anywhere. I hope my personal experience will turn the above trio into crucial ones.

As I was reading the final copy of this article, one profound thought has kept crossing my mind: How I wish I could have read an article like this one written by someone so that I could have been forewarned of the urinary catheterization looming down the road.

A Blessed and Healthful New Year to Everyone!

Head still photo courtesy of istock by Getty Images & Noelle Otto