My Hospital Stay: Help for a Friend
by Kat Igancio
Have you ever volunteered to help other people or for the betterment of the environment like building houses, dental mission, feeding program, planting trees, cleaning the rivers etc. Feels great, doesn’t it? It feels refreshing and happy to help out.
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In my stay here in the hospital, I thought I was cool. I was the only one who had Aplastic Anemia- but few days later, another patient arrived with the same illness. I thought it was awesome that I was not alone, but then again, I wished that it was just I, rather than having another person suffer from this.
I was excited to know her. Her parents talked to my mom the other day about how we were doing (the happenings: stages, treatments etc.). I learned that, we were at the same age (21 years old), same blood type (A positive) and same first name (Katrina), which made me more excited to know her.
The other night, a group of believers visited to pray for me. After the pray over, they went out the room to head home. The next day, my dad told us that the pastor couldn’t leave the hospital that night because he felt that there’s this other patient, same disease as mine, that needed his prayer more. From there, my mom and I thought of one person, Katrina.
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In my stay here in the hospital, I thought I was cool. I was the only one who had Aplastic Anemia- but few days later, another patient arrived with the same illness. I thought it was awesome that I was not alone, but then again, I wished that it was just I, rather than having another person suffer from this.
I was excited to know her. Her parents talked to my mom the other day about how we were doing (the happenings: stages, treatments etc.). I learned that, we were at the same age (21 years old), same blood type (A positive) and same first name (Katrina), which made me more excited to know her.
The other night, a group of believers visited to pray for me. After the pray over, they went out the room to head home. The next day, my dad told us that the pastor couldn’t leave the hospital that night because he felt that there’s this other patient, same disease as mine, that needed his prayer more. From there, my mom and I thought of one person, Katrina.
That very day that we knew that the pastor wanted to pray for Katrina, we asked the resident doctor where she was staying (room number in the hospital). My mom then called up her mom, Mrs. Cruz, about this, but was told that they were about to go home. I got Katrina’s number and e-mail address so we could exchange thoughts and experiences.
I added Katrina in Facebook then we started to talk about how things were holding up. Katrina just passed the nursing board exam last June 2009 when she was diagnosed of having Aplastic Anemia. She was full in spirit and determined to pursue life (we say yes to life! Yeah ba!). She was also a positive person, full of dreams, passion and determination. All she wanted was to help her family and fulfill her dreams and this disease was taking that away from her.
Now, they are preparing for the ATG treatment, the one I just had 4 weeks ago. Since our illness need lots of hospitalizations, transfusions and medications, it’s hard to say that money doesn’t matter. Katrina is fighting for almost a year now and the budget is not doing very well. They already asked for help from senators, congressmen etc. The Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) gives them P250,000.00 grant but this will expire on the last week of April 2010 (that is why they are rushing to raise fund). Sadly, this is not enough. This ATG treatment reaches up to 1M- covering everything from room per day fee, medicines, laboratory tests and doctors’ professional fee. The ATG medicine from the horse itself costs up to P400,000.00.
I feel terrible knowing this fact. Knowing Katrina in a short while, I feel her passion for life, to help and care for other people. She is supposed to be the nurse, not the patient. No one deserves this.
For anyone who wants to help Katrina in any form, maybe financially or by donating blood or supplies (like face masks, medical gloves, 5cc, 10cc and 10cc syringes, lots of 0.9% sodium chloride etc.), you may contact her at 09167033164 / 09158591030 / 09194092834 / 02-7400480. Help is very much needed. You may also contact me by replying to this note.
For more ideas on how to help raise fund, please let me know and let’s help Katrina fight this sickness. Thank you so much! God bless you!
