Renal Failure

For sure, you’ve heard several stories about a friend of a friend of yours who suffered and even died of Kidney failure. The same is true for me too. I’ve never had a first hand experience or knew people who suffered the same fate. An Aunt of mine actually died last year of kidney complications but it isn’t counted as first hand information since I wasn’t there when she was suffering from the disease.

I was so shock last Wednesday when somebody told me that my friend, who works for Schlumberger collapsed at the workplace and was rushed to the hospital. He was then diagnosed as having a kidney problem. His company with the advise of the Saudi doctors sent him home (to Philippines) in order to receive kidney transplant. He’s currently confined at the National Kidney Institute waiting for a donor. That explains why he wasn’t answering my calls when I came back from vacation last week.

I initially felt left out when I found out of my friend’s predicament. He was one of the first people I know in Saudi Arabia. Our friendship had a long way. It was only an initial reaction since another friend told me that they really tried to contact me when he (the kidney patient) was first confined in Al Khobar. I shed some tears for my friend but I accepted the fact that I couldn’t do anything except to pray that everything will turn out well.

Working in Schlumberger has some disadvantages. The employees have free overtime and they have work even on Fridays and official holidays. My friend would often complain of fatigue and extreme tiredness. I remembered that I once told him to at least take a one day a week rest. He owes that to himself. He would just say that ‘Sayang ang overtime’… ‘Sayang ang pera’. I never really thought that fatigue and tiredness are just few of the symptoms of the renal failure.

Another friend of mine said that if your kidney is not anymore working, you have to go through dialysis in order to have your body cleansed. The dialysis would is usually done three (3) times a week at the cost of Php. 6,000 per dialysis. Imagine the exuberant cost of the treatment. If you are poor and don’t have the money to spent, your life will only depend on the money that you can spend. There’s an alternative to dialysis and that is the organ transplant.

I pray that my friend will soon find a donor. That’s the only way he’ll survive this predicament.