"I can't even imagine how she dealt her life with so much grave psychological, emotional and physical suffering.”

Dear Steemians,

I have been serving my community patients for a long while now walking down to their individual houses to check them out regularly.

Having conducted a home visit, a concerned neighborhood came up to me and asked me to see this person immediately. This person has not ever entered my health center because she's very conscious and ashamed of her appearance and condition.

Upon seeing her, I was dumbfounded...

I would like to introduce this poor woman named Ester Durban. She is 58 years old whose husband is unemployed just like her.
She once served as a barangay health worker long time ago and now is surviving for a welfare. She is currently suffering two diseases: Psoriasis and Cholelithiasis (Gallstones).

Unfortunately, I can't show to you her abdominal ultrasound result that showed a diagnosis for Cholelithiasis as well as her other medical files about Psoriasis because all of them got vanished during terrible flood in the community few months ago.

She got diagnosed with Psoriasis 6 months ago and had been told that there is no cure for her condition. She was really weeping and broke into tears as she narrated all to me how she deal with excruciating pain and unbearable itchiness all over her body every single day.

She said:

“Maam, di na nako kaya ako pag antos. Pobre rako di nako makaya and mga mahal na tambal na mkapawala sa katol.”

“Ma’am I can’t take this suffering anymore. I couldn’t afford all the medicines to at least give me comfort.”

As you can see on the images below, red scaly patches have spread through her entire body including her genital area, buttocks, face and scalp. (It took me several attempts to ask for taking pictures of her because she is very shy, but nevertheless, she has permitted me to do so )

She has not having a good sleep ever since the skin lesions appeared on her skin because of persistent itchiness and discomfort. The itchiness can only be temporarily relieved by very expensive topical medicine which she couldn’t afford. She is also suffering from joint pain in various parts of her body specially her both knees which cause her to unable to walk and move about.

Ashamed of her appearance, she declined to even go outside for a fresh air or socializing with her neighbors because they thought her illness is contagious. She became more depressed and decided to cover herself with a blanket all the time.

On the other hand, she is also suffering from Cholethiasis. This was recently diagnosed by her physician after she had consulted for an excruciating pain at her upper right portion of her abdomen, nausea and lack of appetite. She did take pain killers to relieve pain when she still has money to pay for but however has been stopped when she got buried with debts.

You can refer here for more information about Cholethiasis.

Her doctor advised her to undergo a Gall bladder open surgery to extract the stones inside. The procedure alone costs quite expensive excluding the medicines she will have to take by the time her post surgery. The topical medicines needed for her psoriasis costs also an expensive amount per small container as shown below.

Me and Hive account@rachelrach25 have been trying our best ways that can help out this woman. We have donated small amount for her topical medicine that would at least cover her 15 days of dosage. We as well as Nanay Ester would appreciate your upvotes and donations on this blog.