I'm a bosconian. Proud Bosconian!

Here it is. My speech during last Sunday's DBS Grand Homecoming. My mom read this coz I can write (and I have A LOT to share), but I can't deliver it. But still, I CAN! It's 3-pages long, size 14 Calibri font, narrow margin, single space and it's focused on just one topic. Haha. Ako na ang madaldal! :P

Very short intro

I copied a couple sentences from of my previous articles & writings, should I sue myself of plagiarism? LOL.

Read on.

I am Maria Kathrina Lopez Yarza. I am known as Kcat to everyone, but most of my DBS friends call me Tack. I belong to the pioneer batch, DBS Batch 2000. It is really a great honor to be sharing my story with you, my fellow Past Pupils. Thank you so much for making me a part of this.

Our home is our first venue of learning; the second is our school. After studying nursery school at a learning center near our home, I was ready to study in a bigger school for my preparatory schooling.  My parents learned that there was a newly opened Don Bosco School in Manila for girls, and since my dad and my mom’s brothers were Bosconians, they were eager to enroll me here. I was accepted and I was lucky to become one of the first batch of students in DBS way back in 1989 and proud to be one of the first graduates in year 2000.

In those eleven years, I thought I was only here to study, study, and study. I have learned a lot, but not only lessons from textbooks, but DBS also taught me about life: what life is, how to value life and how to live it well, not by myself, but together with everyone. And all these form a big part of who I am today.

Please help me shoo this big bad tumor away!

Hello! I’m Kcat Yarza. As you all know, I was diagnosed with Neurofibromatosis (NF–tumor of the nerves) and I have so many tumors all over my body (inside and out), including the brain. I got lots of small, benign and harmless tumors in my brain except for one aggressive big bad tumor that measures 3.8 x 4.7 x 4.3 cm and causes further compression of the brainstem. Although no too severe (yet?) this causes my frequent dizziness, nerve pain and headaches. If I am able to walk by myself, I would have fall down often and lose my balance. Maybe that is why I fell from my chair countless times.

This tumor needs to be treated with 5 sessions of hypofractionated stereotactic radiation therapy that will cost Php 400,000 or it could be more. It’s not really an emergency but we need to prioritize it because it’s already big and we don’t know how aggressive it is. If it gets bigger, it could cause more harm. How soon is soon? Hopefully before Christmas. Maybe. With your help, this CAN be possible! God will provide.

Every cent counts.

Big bad brain tumor

In May or June (this year), I noticed that I frequently have headache, nerve pain (inside my head) and I often feel disoriented. Good thing, I already know how to manage it. That’s what life is with Neurofibromatosis (NF) and I’m used to it. Then a few weeks ago, I’ve been feeling disoriented and I almost had a seizure. I know the feeling every time I’m about to have seizures. I just know. Amazing, right? I just have to stop what I’m doing, be calm, drink water, drink my anti-seizure, drink water again, and deep breathing. Inhale. Exhale. It works all the time! I never had seizures ever since I started doing this. Almost seizure but it never succeeds! I always win! Haha.

After that, I told my mom that I almost had a seizure and told her about that ‘disoriented feeling’. Then we remembered that it’s been a while since my last cranial CT scan to monitor my tumors. After that, my mom told my neurosurgeon, Dr. Lopez about it and a few days after we got the letter of request and I was scheduled to have the CT scan at PGH-FMAB.