A talk about issues on kidney disease

Last Friday, I read an article in The Philippine Star entitled “Experts alarmed over rising kidney disease cases” and this article caught my attention as it comes just after I also announced that I too have problems with my kidneys and hopefully I could get matching donors very soon. Since it is not a lengthy article, allow me to reprint that piece written by Robertzon Ramirez.

“Kidney experts were alarmed over the tremendous increase in the number of patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD) in the country. Remedios Uriarte, Kidney Foundation of the Philippines Inc. executive director, said dialysis centers nationwide have recorded a 15-percent increase of kidney patients since 2010. “It is alarming because in 2009 the number of ESRD patients increased by 10 percent, but it rose 15 percent starting 2010 until now, it is continuously increasing in proportion to the population,” she said.

What is more alarming is the big gap between the big number of ESRD patients and the small number of kidney donors, Uriarte said. In 2015, almost 14,000 patients with kidney disease started dialysis, while only 475 people, or 3.4 percent, received a kidney transplant, which means that only a few people are willing to donate one of their kidneys. To address the problem, the KFPI, Maria Corazon Torres y Javier Foundation Inc. and the Kidney Transplant Association of the Philippines launched the Renal Gift Allowing Life for Others (REGALO) organ donation advocacy.

The groups have partnered with Novartis Healthcare Philippines.  

Uriarte said REGALO aims to increase the number of ESRD patients getting kidney transplants through a successful organ donation campaign. Kidney transplantation is still the best solution to resolve kidney failure as compared to dialysis so people will live a normal life, she added. REGALO organizing committee head Romina Danguilan said that there is no harm living with only one kidney. “All of us are born with a pair of kidneys and we can easily donate one of these kidneys yet live a normal life,” she said. Former president Fidel Ramos, 88, who is living with a single kidney, spoke during the REGALO launch at the National Kidney and Transplant Institute. He said that one of his kidneys was taken out when he was 22, or 66 years ago, after he suffered from tuberculosis in the kidney. “I’m not a kidney donor or recipient,” he said. “I just lost my kidney in 1950 due to tuberculosis… but I am still perfectly fine.”

I entered the New Year 2016 with my kidney function at 40 percent in March. A few months later… it was down to 23 percent function and believe me, it was disturbing albeit alarming. It was then that I decided to seek for donors for a kidney transplant while I’m not yet under dialysis treatment. When I went to my doctor, Dr. Alvin Roxas, he welcomed the idea of my having a pre-emptive kidney transplant and it is because my compadre, the late Jesus “Dodong” Tequillo, the father of my son-in-law, Atty. Jennoh Tequillo passed away four years ago. He was under dialysis treatment, so I didn’t want to follow the path he took. Also my mentor, the late Sir Max Soliven also had a kidney transplant years before he passed to life eternal.

Meanwhile, I can only hope that the Kidney Transplant Association of the Philippines that launched the Renal Gift Allowing Life for Others (REGALO) organ donation advocacy also has branches in every major city in the country because apparently even in the treatment of kidney problems, Imperial Manila rules. Thankfully, the Vicente Sotto Medical Center (VSMC) now has a surgical facility to handle kidney transplants.

Everyone is telling me to have my operation at the National Kidney Center, however I’m confident with my doctor that he can do the operation in Cebu because the post operation treatment is equally as important as the transplant itself. But what about those people who are in a similar situation as I’m in now? Mind you, there are many who have kidney problems here!

When he was still alive, my compadre Dodong Tequillo created his own support group in Cebu dubbed KFC for Kidney Failure Club, wherein he wrote songs and held song and dances to uplift the spirits of people under dialysis treatment. Sadly he is gone… but the KFC lives on as his legacy.

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Yesterday, I attended the Kahayag Forum with the theme “Strength of the Family, Hope for the Nation” held at the jam-packed Social Hall of the Cebu Provincial Capitol sponsored by the Community of St. Johns, the University of San Carlos Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies and the Worldwide Marriage Encounter Movement. This forum was designed to help the youth have a clearer understanding of Family and Marriage.

Then it was the turn  of Mrs. Preciosa Soliven to speak on the topic of “Discovering the Secrets of Childhood from Infancy to Adolescence 1966-2016.” It was her way to sharing what she learned from decades of handling children from OB Montessori, which is a rare treat indeed. Let me say it here loud and clear that the war vs. illegal drugs is done to save the Filipino family unit!

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