Geraldine Oliva: Her Fight Against Kidney Disease and the Making of an Ugly Duckling

Geraldine Javier-Oliva, once a beauty queen of her town, Balayan, Batangas, Philippines; happily married with Mario Esguerra Oliva; sired  children; with a stable job but been challenged by a severe kidney disease; causing her beautiful features to turn into an ugly duckling.

When I saw an update of the news regarding her condition on television, particularly at ABS-CBN Channel 2, I was aghast with what I saw! Dane, as her family and friends call her, is slowly turning into a fragile human being, bones are slowly deforming, her mouth becomes swollen and she cannot talk fluently, her teeth are separated by swollen gums and cannot even move by herself. Geraldine is reduced into an ugly creature because of the chronic kidney disease!

With no job to maintain and finance her medication, particularly the weekly dialysis or cleaning of her blood ( she is not perspiring anymore), her husband, parents and friends launched several fund drive in order to help prolong her life.

Last October, they were able to collect some amount from "Run for Dane" which was organized by her friend Shielah Marie de la Cruz. Heiend also posted blogs, like "Save Geraldine" to draw an appeal to the public.

I pity Geraldine so much, that I decided to use my Hubpages account to write a hub dedicated to her. This is my personal appeal that I hope will draw worldwide attention and send donations to help Geraldine restore her beautiful life, if there's left to it.

Time is running out. Hope is what drives Geraldine to keep on living. She's optimistic that she can still go back to work, live with her family longer and be beautiful again.

Help is on the way, Geraldine. God will always answer His children who believe that "Anything is possible". In God's time.

One of the leading death-causing diseases is kidney failure due to many complications. We often ask ourselves if it is hereditary or acquired. It's in the genes, bad genes: if we want to blame somebody. It's the other way around, if we acquired it from our lifestyle s(I mean, the food we eat and our liking with heavy drinking).

While I'm writing this hub about a chronic kidney disease patient, Geraldine Javier-Oliva, I began reflecting about my lifestyle , too. I searched for the site revealing the A to Z of Kidney diseases. I found the link at National Kidney and Urologic Diseases Information Clearinghouse (NKUDIC).

The revelation made me tremble! We are all in danger if we will  re-evaluating our daily routines.

Let me cite instances why Geraldine caught the disease. Since she was a child, she had cravings on salty foods, like junk foods. Well, who can resist those spicy snacks? Not even me? She was hospitalized then, due to overintake of salty foods. We all know that it can trigger urinary track infection (UTI), just like what happened to my niece.

She grew up with a warning not to overeat 'salty and spicy foods'. She married and bore children and that fatal incident during her childhood was partially forgotten.

The recurrence of the kidney disease is inevitable, but the most tragic was it becomes chronic -meaning - she will be fighting it 'til the end of her earthly life.

The good thing that continue inspiring her to fight is her support group, the unconditional love (if not pity) of her husband, Mario, her children, parents, officemates and friends.

She was reduced into an ugly duckling (that's gonna be your first impression, once you see her); bedridden due to the severe effects of the disease which continue ruining her body.

But life must go on. Help continue to pour from here and abroad. More and more people are becoming aware that kidney diseases are not to be taken for granted.

It is worst than the least we expect it.

Note: Geraldine passed away last March 10, 2011. She didn't undergo further surgery due to her very frail conditions.

From  HubPages family, our condolences.