Dear Blogary

Dear Blogary,

I was informed by my husband that his father is getting frail and has difficulty breathing. Da urgently advised me to send him money for an immediate medical check up in Bacolod City. When I checked with his younger sister, she said that they had brought my father-in-law to a doctor who had his chest scanned. The x-ray result showed that his heart and lungs were enlarged. He was complaining of shortness of breath when he took long walks in the barrio.

My father-in-law is a smoker. He is a retired employee of a sugar milling company and has been smoking more than half of his life. He is an alcohol drinker too. He and his fellow senior citizens would always go on a drinking spree for leisure.

My sister-in-law accompanied him to Dr. Pablo O. Torre Memorial Hospital (commonly known as Riverside Hospital) Medical Arts Building this morning for his medical check up. Unfortunately, the highly recommended cardiologist Dr. Nanette Arriola’s schedule was in the afternoon so they looked for another physician instead. It was around 4pm when they texted me that the doctor scheduled them for ultrasound next week to really distinguish what the cause of his illness.

I know smokers generally have difficulty smoking although they are fully aware that the habit is detrimental to their health. I just hope that my father-in-law would minimize and eventually quit smoking before it could further damage his health.