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CEBU CITY, Philippines - Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmena is facing the biggest challenge of his life.
He and his wife Margot are flying to New York on Wednesday after doctors found a mass the size of a chicken egg in his urinary bladder, which was suspected to be cancer.
“The suspicion is cancer, most likely in the urinary bladder. It is not final yet. It has not spread, if it is cancer. That's why we're leaving for New York on Wednesday,” Tomas told Cebu Daily News on Sunday.
The mayor, 60, said he does not know how long he would be gone.
But according to Margot, they would not stay long in the US. The longest would be a month, she added.
The city's first lady said they told their only son Miguel about his father's diagnosis.
Miguel was very concerned but was taking it well “like his father,” she said.
The mayor said he decided to publicly come out with his doctors' findings because it would not be fair to withhold the nature of his illness to the Cebuanos especially that he holds a “very responsible position.
“I am employed by the City of Cebu,” he said.
While he would focus on his treatment, he said he would remain at the helm of the city government, especially in the transactions concerning the South Road Properties (SRP).
“My mind is very active. If people will presume that I am going to be weak, they're wrong,” he said.
The mayor, however, was not his usual vibrant self when he talked to yesterday in his home in Barangay (village) Guadalupe, Cebu City.
He said he was not sad.
“I just have to think of my responsibilities as mayor and see to it that if worse comes to worst, I have been able to fulfill my responsibilities. It looks okay naman,” he said.
He said he had to stop worrying.
“What's there, it's there. We just do what we can,” he added.
Last year, the doctors found traces of blood in his urine but did not find anything wrong. The doctors suspected these could be crystals or uric acid that solidified and caused an abrasion, especially that Tomas had a history of gout.
Tomas said he had then thought that it was just the stress of the campaign for the 2007 mayoral race or the heat. Also, it did not happen again.
But in the past weeks, Margot said she noticed Tomas was waking up at night to go to the bathroom, which he normally does not do.
On October 1, the mayor underwent a check-up after blood was found again in his urine. This time, his doctors were concerned because no infection was detected. This meant that the blood was caused by something else.
The next day, Tomas underwent an ultrasound scan in his abdomen and doctors found a mass in his urinary bladder, a hollow organ in the lower abdomen that stores urine.
But doctors could not identify the mass. A CT (Computed Tomography) scan was conducted on the bladder.
There, the mass was seen - “41-by-38-by-31-millimeters,” according to Margot, or the size of a small egg.
To confirm the findings, a biopsy was conducted on Saturday. Tomas was confined at the Chong Hua Hospital on Friday to prep him for the biopsy. His blood sugar level was at 200 or twice the normal level of 100. It later dropped to 78 after he was given medicines.
Margot said she did not cry when she was told of the diagnosis. But she only started to cry after she was overwhelmed by the outpouring of support from friends and relatives.
“I cried when my best friends called me. I didn't cry because of fear. I cried because I am very touched by the concern (showed) by the people. Now I am going to cry again,” she said.
She admitted she was also scared but she has to remain strong and focused.
“I cannot afford to lose my wits. I have to be in control of myself first. If I cannot control myself, I cannot control anything else,” she said.
While she found it hard to accept her husband's diagnosis at first, Margot said she was not bitter.
“I have been too blessed. Good things have happened to me. I have been blessed with a good husband. I have been blessed with a good son. I have been blessed with a good marriage. I have wonderful friends who have been my friends since kindergarten,” she said.
“I have too much to be grateful for to be bitter about this,” she said.
Margot said the mass can be removed because it is in the bladder and has not encroached on the prostrate.
The cause of the mass was not specified: it could have been due to smoking, drinking or stress. But she pointed out that everyone is predisposed to cancer because everyone has cancer cells. If something triggers it, then the cancer breaks lose.
Margot said they will seek a second opinion in the US but they don't expect to stay in the US for long.
“There is a chance na derecho derecho (from confirmatory test to removing the mass) Yes, we'll take it (the mass) out. But he will not be gone for a long time. One month, maybe that's long na, two weeks to a month,” she said.
“It is going to be over one way or the other... We have to take it out; that's for sure. If treatment is going to be made, we will just do it. That's how I look at it,” the mayor's wife added.
Margot said they are looking at two hospitals. One is the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Hospital in New York, which she said has the best cancer center in the United States.
The other is the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) in Boston where Osmena underwent treatment when he had an aneurysm in 2002.
Margot said the MGH is like the Philippine General Hospital because it is a training hospital for students of the Harvard Medical School, among others. She also had no complaints during Tomas' confinement there in 2002.
Minnie Osmena, Tomas' elder sister, is doing the “ground work,” she said.
They will stay in one of Minnie's apartments in New York. Minnie had also been sent a copy of her brother's medical records and synopsis.
Margot said she also gives updates to their son, Miguel, who is taking up Philosophy at the University of California Los Angeles.
She said her son was taking the news well. She added that Miguel has joked to her that his dad's illness just meant that he would never have a younger sibling.
She said she also hoped that people would understand that her husband would not be able to attend some gatherings while he focused on his treatment.
Tomas, for his part, said he would have to delegate some workload to his management team. But he will remain hands on in matters involving the SRP, especially now that the city has received Filinvest Land Inc.'s (FLI) unsolicited proposal to buy and develop land in the area.
FLI proposed to build P80 billion worth of infrastructure in the reclamation area that will be for both the international and local markets under a joint venture arrangement with the Cebu City government.
The mayor said there would be less signing of documents, explaining that this task has become more stressful since each document “is a new problem.”
But handling the SRP, he said, is not “stressful.” “I love it,” said the mayor, because “it is like winning in a game of monopoly.”
As to his food intake, Tomas said he would have to cut down on sweets because, according to his doctors, he was “starting to pick up” diabetes.
He said he would stop smoking. Then he smiled, “Maybe I am going to sneak one stick,” a remark that elicited a howl of protest from Margot.
“No, once you start you cannot stop,” she told him.
Alcohol will be taken in moderation.
“I just have to focus on my treatment,” the mayor said.
But Tomas said that his medical “crisis” is also an opportunity for the Cebuanos to realize that he does not own the SRP and that they would have to start thinking about what would happen to the project after 2010.
“Let me take this opportunity. This is a critical stage for the city, as far as the SRP is concerned. And if anyone files a case against the SRP or this (Filinvest) transaction, they better be right because I am going to sue them like hell for economic sabotage,” the mayor said. /Connie E. Fernandez
