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How does a son show love for his father battling cancer?
By shaving his head.
Miguel Osmeña did just that.
He surprised Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña by picking up an electric razor and shearing off his hair even before his father could shave his own head to deal with severe hair loss from chemotherapy.
“Miguel shaved his head ahead to show solidarity with his dad. Doctor said he knows of many fathers who voluntarily shaved their head for their kid. First time he witnessed a son shaved for his dad,” said Tomas in a text message to yesterday.
“We both look OK. It will match my Marine uniform,” said the mayor, who holds a rank of lieutenant colonel in the Marine Reserve.
Mayor Osmeña will have his third round of chemotherapy on Dec. 29.
Wife Margot has no complaints about the new look.
“I kept telling Tommy that he looks younger with his shaved head and with Miguel also bald, they are my rock band members!” she said in a text message.
According to Tomas, he decided to shave his hair because he was shedding “more than my dog, Shadow,” a black Labrador.
“In the morning, I wake up with hair on my pillow, in my hairbrush and when I shower, hair in my chest! The final straw was when the shower drain got bara (clogged),” he said.
Tomas said he teased Miguel that he would look funny with a bald head. Still, he scheduled an appointment with a barber.
But the next morning, before his barber's appointment, the mayors son picked up his electric razor and shaved his own head.
“Actually I felt guilty because it (shaving his hair) didn't really bother me,” the mayor said.
“That's why I'm very careful to even hint that I'm down because they (Miguel and Margot) both overreact and are supportive. Actually, so many people are so supportive (that) I stopped counting,” he added.
Tomas said his wife drives a Mercedes 500 SUV owned by a Cebuano whom they met in Houston, Texas. Sister Minnie Osmeña Stuart wanted to lend her Bentley, a luxurious but fuel-guzzling vehicle. They declined. “I cannot afford gas,” the mayor said.
The Osmeña couple has been staying in Houston since November after Tomas was diagnosed with cancer of the bladder and a tumor in the lymph node.
He is undergoing treatment at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center (MDA). So far, he has undergone two cycles of chemotherapy. The first was in mid November and the second was on Dec. 4 to 6. He will rest for two to three weeks before another cycle.
Doctors will decide after a five-month treatment whether or not to remove the tumor in the bladder and lymph node. This means Osmeña will have to stay in the United States at least until April.
An MDA medical bulletin earlier said the mayor's chemotherapy protocol was an “innovative and aggressive” combination developed by MDA. After the second cycle, CT and other laboratory tests were conducted.
According to Tomas, he underwent a transurethral resection of the prostate, a surgical procedure to remove a tissue from the prostate using an instrument inserted through the urethra. The procedure is conducted under a general anesthesia.
Initial findings showed that the main tumor in the bladder had shrunk. Laboratory results would be released in a few days. The tumor in the lymph node also shrunk by 35 percent.
The MDA doctors did not also see signs that the cancer was spreading because his lungs were clear as well as his nuclear bone scan.
Tomas said he lost three inches in his waistline.
The Osmeña family will spend Christmas in Los Angeles, where Margot has siblings. However, they will be staying in the house of a good friend. Tomas had lived in LA for 15 years before he went back to Cebu in the late 1980s.
Asked if there was something he would miss, he replied: “Sinulog.”
He said it would be his first time to miss the annual festivities in honor of Sto. Niño in 20 years. CONNIE FERNANDEZ
