SAVING MY SISTER

Please let us help Roxanne to fight over her battle...Let's give her a chance to experience life that God gave her...It's not yet too late.  Her name is Roxanne Rosano; “Anne” as we call her. She’s a very loving and responsible daughter. She worked as a ticketing officer in an airline company in the Philippines. This was her first job after college. She’s a very hardworking and committed employee. That she doesn’t care to travel from home to work for 2 hours because of heavy traffic. She wakes up early in the morning and prepares to work and arrives home past midnight. Although her body seems adjusted on that routine, but at times she fails to remember to take her health seriously for she thought that she is young and able to do more. She is like an average girl but she has an extra ordinary sense of responsibility for her family for she saves and spends her salary to buy things that would benefit our family unselfishly. I remember one time, when she bought a microwave oven as a present for our mother’s birthday, because she said; she don’t want our mother to wake up at night and reheat the leftover foods whenever she comes home late at night. Until July 2014 she started to feel backaches, thinking that it was only due to the stress and fatigue at work and her every day commute, she self medicate with some pain killers to ease the pain. August 2014, she complains of loose stools and back pains at the same time, she went to a clinic and was given antibiotics. She was referred to ortho-spine for Xrays, the result of all testing was normal. She was given muscle relaxants and went back home. September 8, 2014, she was about to report back to work when she had bloody loose stools. She was rushed to the emergency by our youngest brother together with our mom. Upon the doctor’s abdominal assessment he said that he had palpated a mass, and so they did some blood test and scans. She was immediately admitted at De La Salle Medical Center and was scheduled for colonoscopy on the September 11th. Anne was sedated during the procedure, after it was done the doctor talked to our parents and said that Anne has colon tumor and biopsy was done at the same time. Our mother was crying and our father was shocked but still we need to wait for the official result for confirmation. It was a heartbreaking moment for my parents who at that time were shocked of the devastating news. Anne was transferred back into the room. We spoke through Skype as I am at work. Recollect myself and answer all her queries...I felt her fear. I felt my heart melting with each word and with her trembling voice of telling how scared she was to undergo the operation. At that point, I felt so helpless and hopeless. I could only do such is to emotionally support and reassure her to be strong and that we’re here for her. CT Scan was done on Friday that week, they saw some nodules on both lobes of the liver and some areas of the pancreas. The doctor discussed to Anne together with our parents what suppose this case is and the doctor finally broke the news to Anne that she had a stage 4A colon cancer and needed to undergo tumor-reduction therapy/chemotherapy before doing operation or the other way around. Anne cried her heart out…Pouring her unspoken feeling to her tears as our parents watched her deal with the news. We felt her world crumbled down. After that she became quiet and always seems so tired. She was discharged on that weekend. The Doctor gave us enough time to think and what plans will be decided on. We then sought for a second opinion with the help of some friends, and let Anne decide what she preferred. On September 18, 2014, two days prior to the scheduled operation she was admitted in University of Santo Tomas Hospital in España Manila, Philippines. That time, she suffered from pain endlessly and it worsened that she can no longer stand and walk without assistance, she was scheduled for operation. September 20, 2014 at 0645 in the morning the operating staff fetched her. She was very scared and not a single word came out of her, we told her that we love her so much and we’ll be waiting outside the operating theatre. Some of our relatives came over. We prayed for a successful operation. While waiting for Anne, we started planning everything for Anne’s fast recovery. What needs to be done and the changes we would go through. The operation lasted for 5 hours and she stayed in the recovery room for 2 more hours. Around half an hour before 12 noon the surgeon called us and said the operation was successful and no colostomy was made, the 5-inch tumor was totally cut–away from Anne and stitched together the colon that was cut. The recovery was quite fast. She managed to sit on the bed on the second day after the operation and on the following day she was already standing. Seems that everything was on its right path as we planned and we’re happy to see her improvement. Wednesday, September 24, few bowel sounds was heard by the doctors but still the intestines are not that active, so we waited for a few more days. Anne was very cooperative; she was able to perform mild exercises she needs to do. She even asked for assistance if she wanted to walk as per doctors’ advice. Friday, she was allowed sips of water and gradually progress to soft diet on the succeeding days. We thought we can go home a week after the operation and started planning Anne’s recovery to prepare her for chemotherapy. But on the night of September 28, she started vomiting, once or twice each day with large amount of yellowish to brownish fluids. Doctors didn’t allow her to eat and decided to put her on naso-gastric tube to decompress her stomach. She was on Total Parenteral Nutrition which cost very high. She is still in the same hospital at Room 3043, Sto. Domingo Ward. I told them I have some savings but it’s not enough to settle the bills as it increases every day. We still have to consider the cost of chemotherapy and other medicinal needs. Anne is very brave, she really fights for her condition, and she needs more emotional and spiritual support and every ounce of courage to fight this battle. A battle that no one is brave enough to surpass…a situation no one is asking for. But we have faith in God that we will be able to overcome all to be able to this trial in our family especially with Anne’s life, our family is knocking on your kind heart for prayers and kindness. We know that the Almighty Father will never abandon us; we have faith that He will touch and send people as instruments to help us in this trying moment in our life… We will not be able to this alone, but with God’s grace and your help…We can face this bravely… “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God” - Philippians 4:6 “Whoever asks receives, whoever seeks finds, and to whomever knocks, the door will be opened.” - Matthew 7:7-8 With joyful heart, I thank everyone in advance, Nydalenn Joy Rosano Anne’s sister Email account: [email protected] Facebook: nydz rosano