Inside Philippine politics & beyond

Please include Billy Esposo in your prayers

Share:
LinkedIn0
Pinterest0

Good Friday has come earlier for Philippine Star columnist Billy Esposo, writes his sister Carol.

I am praying for him.

BILLY’S GOOD FRIDAY

writes Carolyn Espiritu on her Facebook wall

Today, they did a kidney biopsy, then they worked up his weakened enlarged heart to test its limits, injected a dye and put him under an MRI machine. They also injected an anti-rejection drug which I was told cost P250,000 per shot–he was given a double shot. (I would waive treatment and choose death if I am charged this.)

He was in so much pain that he told his doctor to put him to sleep while they transfer him from his bed to the MRI table. He was given propofol–the same drug that killed Michael Jackson in overdose.

He is heavy (280 lbs) and it took 7 orderlies and male nurses to lift him. He aches all over–his back, his legs, his arms. His back pain is from the cancer growing on his bones. Breathing is difficult, made worse by water retention which weighs down on his lungs. He has to be drained daily of retained water lest this also put pressure on his heart. He is given daily dialysis as temporary relief for the congestion in his system. If his transplanted kidney slips to 15% efficiency, he will have to return to dialysis, something he dreads.

We are lucky his doctors are the best . We know his ailment cannot reverse itself and his life depends a lot on how his doctors manage his treatment. We have seen Billy the Big Mac defy the odds too many times, we cannot discount this to be yet another one of his triumphs. In between his pain, he manages to crack the unexpected punchlines that defuse the worries of loved ones around him.

Billy had long been prepared to celebrate his Easter. That and only that gives us consolation.

Comments

  3. RIP Mr. Esposo. I may not agree with a lot of your opinions (60-40 disagree/agree is about the ratio) , but you delivered them with conviction and aplomb lacking among today’s opinion writers.

  4. in case some CPMers still get into this page
    here is something about vote buying:

    A PLEA TO ALL CPMers to help STOP VOTE BUYING.
    Let us not lose our FOCUS, our sense of URGENCY
    The May Election is at hand not sabah or north korea.
    Other wise natutulog na naman tayo sa pancitan.

    Please THINK AND WRITE about the ways on
    HOW FILIPINOS CAN STOP VOTE BUYING, I am sure CPMers
    Can come out with a thousand and one ways to stop vote buying.

    Let me start with the ESSENTIALS and later with the MINUTIAE:

    ONLY THESE INSTITUTIONS CAN STOP VOTE BUYING (1) Office of the President,
    (2) the COMELEC, (3) the DILG, (4) the PNP, (5) the AFP, and the Bureau of
    Prisons of DOJ.

    CPMers can provide DETAILED AND SPECIFIC suggestions on how these institutions CAN STOP VOTE BUYING, Example :

    1-The President can issue an Executive Order STRONGLY directing . . . . . . .
    2-THE COMELEC can direct its deputized agencies to move their butts . . .
    3-THE DILG through its field staff can start identifying politicians’ BAGMEN . . .
    In past elections some DILG people themselves became bagmen.
    4-The PNP and AFP prepare its INTELLIGENCE and be ready to use their police powers to temporary detain vote buyers days or hours before the election ,
    5-DOJ and its correctional facilities should work in Tandem with AFP and the PNP

    For PEOPLE AND THE POLITICIANS TO BELIEVE THAT PNOY WILL REALLY JAIL THEM TO ENFORCE ELECTION LAWS AND BE PRESIDENT OF THE PEOPLE AND NOT OF HIS POLITICAL PARTY, THEN WE CAN HOPE FOR A CLEAN ELECTIONS.
    Vote buying follows the law of supply and demand. CUT THE SUPPLY COMPLETELY AND THE DEMAND WILL DISAPPEAR.

    If WE STOPPED JUST 70% OF VOTE BUYING in this coming elections, we are likely to cut both arms of DYNASTIES. Losing both arms in this May elections, VOTE BUYERS in the 2016 ELECTIONS will lose its head, DECAPITATED and the dynasty families might THINK of forgetting public service. All that depends on how many will be put behind bars, hospitalized or in wheel chairs.

    What says you CPMers? Let’s help stop THE COMELEC from making it itself continue to be the biggest joke among the constitutional offices.

    Minutiae: Can CPMers compare vote buying WITH illegal drugs business? Who are the drug lords? The pushers? The addicted? There are 18,022 elective positions subject to people’s choice come that fateful day in May 2013.

    • Thank you.

      Billy’s reference to past and current events is masterful. The article is a life booster especially to readers who are presently suffering.

      His uplifting optimism was carried through despite the downing pains…despite having to face reality.

      Down to its last episode (No. 16), I’m sure “The Walking Dead” will have another season coming.

      Happy Easter!

  6. Here’s an update from Billy Esposo himself:

    1. My problem with the enlargement of the heart, the ailment that claimed my younger brother Richard’s life in 2008, took a turn for the worse. I had a weak left side muscle. A weakened front heart muscle now worsens the weakened heart.

    2. This is on top of my kidney problem and constricting arteries that worsen heart and kidney functions. These are excellent reasons for going and we thought we saw that happening last March 15 – The Ides of March, no less – when I felt a massive exit of energy and stamina from my body.
    3. A week later, during a sumptuous lunch at the Sofitel last March 22, ES Jojo Ochoa and Cabsec Rene Almendras couldn’t believe their eyes when they witnessed my indifference to the duck foie gras. That’s how bad I felt.

    Last March 23, I checked in at Makati Medical Center for tests and emergency coping mechanisms to decongest the heart and lungs. From an average fluid output of 2, 100 ml over a 24-hour cycle, my kidney production is down to 110 ml. That is what is causing the heart and lungs to congest.

    My other friends and kin updated me about your expressions of love and support, as expressed over Facebook. I can only trade you with my love.

    Best personal regards,
    Billy

  8. Thank you, Raissa. Thank you everyone who wished Billy well, sent out positive thoughts and love and who stormed heaven with prayers and sacrifices. He has surmounted the worst of his crisis. Although enlarged, the tests show his heart is not blocked and his water retention has abated. But he will need constant medical attention, including that of an oncologist, because of his multiple ailments. Hopefully he can return to his home soon.

    His doctors prohibited him from reading the barrage of text messages he has been getting since he was confined so I will read your comments instead to him. It will surely perk him up.

    Carol

    • I am so glad.

      Tell him he is loved by a lot of people.

      Tell him it is not yet his time to say hello to Mrs. Betty Go-Belmonte.

      • P-Noy’s Speech during the Book Launching of Surviving Chronic Kidney Disease, 17 Aug 2012

        • “Billy had long been prepared to celebrate his Easter.”

          He had helped others in their helplessness.

        • Thanks, Baycas. Billy has helped so many people. We were orphans before we finished schooling and he stood as a mother and father to us, his 3 younger siblings. He had to quit college and work to see us through. But he had the brains and the willpower to beat the odds.

        • thanks a lot you for this information. i have read, enjoyed and valued his balanced, thoughtful, and enlightening columns, and have wondered what past life experiences hehas had. the information you share here increases my respect and admiration for him. will be praying for his healing and recovery..

        • Mr. Chair Wrecker, appears to be very much loved and admired by many people based on comments here alone. Until recently I have only enjoyed reading and learning from his musings. Now I learn that he does have a BIG HEART! We still have so much to learn from you. Get well soon Sir. I hope to meet you one day and shake your hand.

  10. Get well, Billy. The trees you and many of us planted are beginning to bear fruit..finally. You got to be well to enjoy the harvest.

    • It is also posted on his own website. wwwDOTchairwreckerDOTcom.
      May the living GOD touch him and heal him. Know the song We Are the Reason? It is not at all a Christmas song (though there is a mention of Christmas morn) but rather a Lenten Song. Billy and everyone else is the reason why the God had to send the Messiah to redeem us. Included in His redemption plan is the healing of our sicknesses ..
      But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed. – Isaiah 53:5 (NIV)
      A blessed lenten to all.

    • That’s Billy thinking ahead. He always sets aside columns he can submit on days he can’t write.

      • apparently, billy cannot keep his hands off the keypad. and if ordered to, he’ll probably just laugh his head off. his toes can type/text at a speed of 120 words a minute, faster than the 4cylinder rice burner he drives around with. it goes put, put, put on the road. traffic enforcers daw have to push his rice burner, sometimes lift it off the road too. get well, billy, or I’ll steal your rice burner and sell it on ebay.

  12. I do have a relative, a doctor. He was medically advised to undergo heart by-pass at a cost of about P250, 000.00. That was 5 years ago. He said “I’d rather enjoy my P250, 000.00 than go for by-pass, and let death overtake me after I have enjoyed my last days.” He’s about 76 years now.

    Pray…indeed for the right choice. Amen.

  13. Hey Billy, I am here to cheer you up. Think to fight harder to keep your antibodies happier and fight double time to help you. Yeah, your immune system needs strong and positive encouragement.