Mommy J.

AT SAN VICENTE WARD

Alice M. Sun-Cua

“… it must be that I want life to go on living…”

- Robert Frost

I clutched the small stuffed teddy bear and walked briskly along the hospital
corridors. I had just done my morning rounds, discharging two patients who delivered
normally two days ago, and looked in on another that was operated on for a ruptured
ectopic pregnancy the night before. I was on my way to Room 314 at the San Vicente
Ward in our hospital, to pay Mrs. J. a social visit. It was Valentine’s Day.

Mrs. J, a 58-year-old teacher, was diagnosed to have advanced ovarian cancer

two months ago, and was referred to me by a physician friend from a southern city
because of abdominal enlargement. She was operated on in the province with
removal of all pelvic organs when the ovarian malignancy was discovered, but the
disease had already involved other parts of her body, causing ascites (edema fluid) in
the abdominal cavity to accumulate faster that it could be drained.

The first time I saw her, she had extreme difficulty of breathing. She looked young
to be 58, her thick lustrous hair secured at the nape by a clip surrounded by fresh
sampaguita flowers. I later learned that she always had someone to pick fresh
sampaguitas in the morning then fashion these flowers into a fragrant bunch to be
attached to her hair clip. In spite of her breathlessness, she managed to smile and greet
me when I introduced myself, her Tagalog bearing an unmistakable, lilting Hiligaynon
accent. Taking salient points of her history, I realized that she had full knowledge of
what was happening. Two of her children, Rowena and Roberto, both in their twenties,
updated me with lab work-ups and medications from the previous hospital. Their father
will be flying in tomorrow, as the family business needed his close supervision.

After a formal referral to Dr. M., a gynecologic oncologist, ( a gynecology

specialist who deals with cancer of the pelvic organs) I became a frequent visitor at
Room 314, not so much as an attending physician, for I had transferred Mrs J. to the
service of Dr. M., but as a friend.