Dear Diary: I Am Always Hungry for Food and I Welcome it Like a Long Lost Friend that I named "Miracle"

Before I was a dialysis patient I was so anemic and it made me lose my appetite as a complication, then during my dialysis years I only get to have a good appetite after blood transfusions and it only lasts for maybe less than a week because I have no access for an expensive medicine that makes my body create blood on its own. I could only inject three EPOs a month instead of eight so it made me anemic.

I only get to acquire such required medicine for my blood regeneration because I ask for a medical request in Manila. I would first go to our village office to get a clearance then I would request to get a medical abstract from the dialysis secretary from our dialysis center which by the way is not free so sometimes I make it myself and go to my nephrologist to sign it for me.

I also have to furnish some laboratory exam result so I would go to the next province where they give it if you believe it, for free! But only for dialysis patients. It is quite a journey where I have to take a bus ride and waiting for a particular bus to go there is also quite a wait too as I have to stand for an hour or two for the Baliwag Bus to come along and get ticketed by an impolite conductor.

Having the complete papers I would then wake up at 2:00 o'clock in the morning and catch the bus or an "FX" type of Toyota Tamaraw Taxi and hopefully get into my destination by 4:430 AM and get into the queue outside where we would be herded like cows inside following the queue where we submit our papers. I will then eat my breakfast of biscuit and instant 3-in-one coffee from my stainless steel flask in my seat which is in the line.

After a series of calls and finally the interview in the streamlined system of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office, I would get the number and the telephone number which I will call after two weeks if I can recall it right to inquire if I can finally get my guarantee letter for the Pharmacy where I will submit it to get my expensive medicine.

That place is from the city and I am originating from the province. Sometimes I will go there because I cannot contact the number that they had given me and finding that my guarantee letter is not yet done. It seldom happened tho.

I remember also that time when I am so white with anemia that I cannot walk anymore. I was with my father that time and he told me, "Maybe this is the way for the bus stop?" So we climbed up and over the pedestrian overpass to only finding ourselves at the wrong side of the road so I have to pull myself up in full exertion with an aching heart literally, rest four times on that overpass only because I have to climb that gourd-forsaken pedestrian overpass.

It is hard to be anemic and I even have the experience of having my heart feel pain even because of a normal exertion like walking. So after injecting the medicine it will make my body make at least some blood to energize it a bit but not enough to give me a normal appetite.

I endured so many years of having a poor appetite. But amazingly only now maybe from the past three years a form of miracle happened and my body just makes blood on its own!, without me doing anything, I even don't take iron supplements for that matter!

I was thinking "wow I do not have to call the blood bank in the wee hours of the morning and ask for my blood type if its available" which is sometimes not I also have to consider my speech disability and also how hard again to contact that blood bank. And also, I do not have to request for a medical assistance which is so painfully long to get and use for my medical needs.

That is my story of how hard then how to normalize my blood's red cell levels and now I am having this great appetite which I never felt before. It is just a normal craving for food where I can feel hunger and then eat at my heart's contentment. I find it as another bonus as many patients like me doesn't get a privilege like this and I consider it as a long lost friend, my "Miracle."

I only get to use a medicine for red blood cell regeneration about a few weeks ago from the local branch of PCSO because it is free and the center just does the requirement submission for us, we just have to go there to get the guarantee letter an (IOU letter) for the hospital to let them give us the medicine which PCSO will pay after.

But I would maybe opt-out for another one because it just a hassle, I don't need it anyway. You can verify if I did use some before that or even had a blood transfusion from my dialysis center, the telephone numbers are posted on my earlier articles. Meanwhile, me and my "Miracle" friend good appetite will have to dance pandango for a while. Say "Hello!"