The BRAT Diet

Let me be clear on this. I am not assigning blame. I am not assigning accountability. I am narrating what happened to me.

It happened last Saturday, December 19. I had lunch after my 9:00-10:30 class was done. Bought fish fillet and pechay at our school canteen.

It started around past 1:00PM with the frequent trips to the loo. I went five times within one hour. I was dehydrated for the first time in my life. I felt weak. This feeling of weakness is a first and unnerving. You see, I jog every other day for almost seven years now. I can continuously jog for 45 minutes without stopping and I will be fine. Of course, I have to drink water after that but the feeling of weakness that Saturday afternoon was new.

Went down to the school clinic and stayed there. I missed the end of my MGT164 class and my Graduate class and for that I am sorry for my class.

I was given the usual prescription. The kind doctor gave me hydrite and allowed me to sleep until past 4PM. During that downtime, I went to the loo for three more times. I was really weak. So weak that my sense of bearing relaxed.

When I ask the doctor if this was life threatening, he simply said, "No. It will go away. It is self-limiting."

Thirty minutes after that conversation, I decided to go the hospital. And this is where I found out the extent of definition of the Hippocratic oath embraced by our school. I can not and will not blame them. Though they are medical staff, they are also employees. I understand. Policy is policy. And nobody died after all = ) And they can argue, the policy worked.

But a sick man, in pain, weak and really dehydrated, would surely appreciate an extra mile. But beggars can not be choosers = )

My fault is that, I am used to giving an extra mile when it comes to the students and I assumed that in my  weakened state, in this situation, I will be on the receiving end but I was wrong. It is an EXTRA mile after all. And it is still six days before Christmas = )

Or maybe I simply did not show enough pain = )

But please do not get me wrong. I am deeply thankful for the medical assistance of our school. Things could have been worse without their help and first aid. So let me be clear about this,from the heart of my heart, "Thank you, Mapua Clinic!"

They hailed me a cab and in ten minutes I was at the emergency room of Manila Doctors. I gave them the note that the school doctor gave. The attending physician was surprised to how neat was the penmanship of the doctor and I had enough humor in me to respond with a smile.

Curiously, they made me sign a waiver and I was put on dextrose. I was really dehydrated.

I thought I was on my road to recovery. But I was mistaken. I went to the Emergency Room's loo three more times and when the fecal analysis came back, the doctors made me stay at the hospital. Apparently, pus were everywhere. Pus is one of the manifestation when our body is fighting an infection. It appears that I was in the middle of a microbial fight inside my digestive system. I was in pain. I was weak. I was perspiring. I was cold. And Beb, fearfully, saw my colors leave. I was groaning. Shouting for nurses, for doctors.

I felt like vomiting when they injected me with pain killers. I did not like the effect it had on me. Plus, it did not make the pain in my stomach go away. (And on hindsight, I guess, the waiver I nonchalantly signed will come in handy for the hospital if things did not turn out well.) And then, they finally injected me with anti-biotics. And in a few minutes, like magic, the pain was gone. And I was wheeled into my room at the third floor.

The discharges continued well into the night and until the next morning. I was given an "Ok to go home" after staying another night.

And on Monday, close to 9AM, the dextrose was removed and by 11 AM, I was back in school hearing Feasibility presentations. As if nothing happened. Though I was PhP 12,500 poorer = )

I am sure the various financial safety nets are in place. The money I spent will be recovered with the help of the Retirement Fund, FAMIT, PhilHealth and Grepalife Insurance.

But will my trust be recovered? Well, I do not know. But the more important question is - will, whoever is responsible for my hospital visit, even do a tiny thing to recover the trust? Or do they see all of us, including themselves, as a statistic. Void of dreams, of hopes and of a future. Unworthy of time and effort?

I understand the financial side of argument. It is true. It is really far more financially viable to maintain status quo and let the insurance dynamic handle it. Though this is the best thinking, staying with the best thinking that has showed its limitations and not making the "best thinking" better is something we should let go and leave behind in 2009. We are all better than that.

Replacing a social contract with a financial payment, a fine, is very limited.

Lord, I know you are in control. I know you have a plan for all of us. And  "They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you (us) a future and a hope..."

Thy will be done, Lord.

"... why think like mere men?"

By the way, BRAT stands for Banana, Rice, Apple and Tea. The diet for recovering patients like me who had a bout with a stomach infection = )