A doctor's life: "The doctor is out"

It started as a burning sensation at the upper abdomen, which became more severe overnight. The following day I was vomiting and taking pain and anti-acid medications to no avail. In Landasan, the next thing to do when things don't get any better, is to go to Cotabato city for treatment, where the Notre Dame and the government regional hospitals were. 

I drove to the Catholic hospital where some tests were done and medications were given, but after one day the symptoms became more severe. The doctor then decided that I needed to have diagnostic imaging to differentiate some possible disease entities, but the machines were not available in Cotabato. The pain and weakness of not having enough nutrition made me unfit to drive the distance to Davao, and with no other driver available I couldn't bring the family along at that moment. 

The predicament of deciding to wait until I felt better to drive or to leave the family behind until they found a driver was real, but again the unabated pain necessitated my immediate departure. So I boarded a bus and upon arrival at Davao City went directly for admission to Davao Doctor's Hospital.

Luckily the next day Jo ann was able to get someone to drive for her, but they had to go the long way around Tacurong, because of the impassable bridge at Tonggol.

Leaving a young wife and kids in Landasan is not an easy thing. Their safety in the isolated hospital and the dangers of the long drive home with a driver who I was not acquainted with and who hasn't driven my car or the whole stretch of the road to Davao is quite unnerving. In those years there was no mobile phone or any communication that I could use to check if they were able to leave or where they were. 

Seeing my wife and the two grinning kids enter the hospital room where I was confined no doubt helped much in alleviating the symptoms and in a few days I was discharged well.