Beating a big problem with a bigger heart
A POPULAR notion people have is that those who are the happiest are those who have gone through the most difficult times.
For Arielle Sta. Ana, or Yel as she is fondly callled, nothing could be more accurate.
Graduating just last March from Ateneo de Davao University with a degree of Bachelor of Science in Management Accounting, Yel went to Visayas on vacation with her classmates to reward themselves after four years of hard work in school.
Everything went great and the group was all set to come back to Davao on April 21. But even before that happened, Yel woke up in the morning of April 20, the start of the three most excruciating days of her life.
Describing that fateful morning, Yel said, “I woke up with a pain in my abdomen. And after I while I started vomiting and it wouldn’t stop. So I was rushed to the hospital. We thought it was food poisoning or appendicitis.”
She was taken to Cortes Hospital in Cebu, where she spent overnight. Her boyfriend remained with her at the hospital and her mother enplaned to Cebu to stay with her.
On Sunday morning, Yel felt better and was about to be discharged by the doctor who thought that food poisoning was the only problem. When Yel drank the first glass of water she had in 12 hours, however, she vomited again and the pain in her abdomen returned.
The doctor ordered for an ultrasound, where they found mass in her body, and she was subsequently transferred to Cebu Doctors Hospital for a CT scan.
After which, the problem was revealed. Yel’s right fallopian tube had twisted around the ovary, which then had become blackened and swollen, turning into a 13centimeter tumor. The doctor told her that the tumor was roughly the size of a threemonth old baby, way larger than an ovary’s normal size which is comparable to that of a grape.
Even the doctors were surprised at the size of the tumor, and Yel said that she never had any clue about it until that morning on April 20.
Not even the doctors could tell how long the tumor was there, but they tested her for nearly the entire day of April 21. When they finally confirmed the tumor, the doctors ordered for immediate surgery to be done to remove the tumor from her.
At 10 p.m. on April 21, Yel was on her way to the operating room. At 2 a.m. the following day, she woke up in the recovery room. With her birthday just a few days from her surgery, it seemed like she had been given another chance at life.
Other special occassions were also scheduled for the upcoming days, aside from her own birthday on April 25 and her best friend’s wedding day right after that, her grandfather’s birthday and her mother’s birthday were fast approaching as well.
She didn’t let fear drag her down, however, and shared that anticipation of these helped her get better even quicker, saying, “I was really sad that I wouldn’t be able to be with my friends and family on their birthdays and that I couldn’t fulfill my role as the maid of honor. But as what the doctor said, I’m young and I was very eager to recover, so the emotional eagerness will help me recover faster raw, and it did.”
Looking back at it after more than a month, Yel talked about that morning she woke up after the successful operation. “I felt renewed, really. I never thought something like that could happen to me. At the most unlikely time pa, at a vacation away from my hometown,” she said. “Until now I can’t believe it happened to me. Parang one time big time agad. I learned how to let go and just trust people and God. Parang ‘kayo na bahala’ na feeling kasi nga I was helpless,” she added.
She also said that it helped her appreciate more how her parents work together, saying “I saw how they were both in it, how, together they made things possible for me.”
Today, Yel has recovered from what was one of the scariest periods in her life. As the saying goes, “what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger,” and with the smile she has worn everyday since her operation, Yel is living proof of that.