Monday, October 06, 2008 Mass found in Tomas’ bladder By Linette C. Ramos Sun.Star Staff Reporter
CEBU City first lady Margot Osmeña confirmed that Mayor Tomas Osmeña is suffering from a mass in his bladder. Doctors found it during an executive checkup over the weekend.
Margot said the mayor decided to go to the hospital last Friday for a series of medical exams after complaining of discomfort and seeing blood in his urine.
The mayor is said to have been suffering from the condition for about a month already.
Contrary to rumors circulating, the tests showed that Osmeña’s liver and heart are fine, said Margot.
“There is a mass in his bladder. He was confined for a thorough checkup because there was something bothering him, and that’s what they found. So we were advised to get a second opinion, and also to find out if it needs to be taken out,” she told Sun.Star Cebu yesterday.
Margot said the mass is the size of “a small egg,” which was detected after a series of tests, including an ultrasound and a CT scan.
It was not the first time the mayor complained of blood in his urine.
According to Margot, the mayor complained of the same discomfort last year, but tests only showed that it was a result of high uric acid levels in his body.
The Osmeña couple is scheduled to leave for the United States on Wednesday for a second checkup and for a surgery, if necessary.
“We want to leave on Wednesday to get a second opinion and if he is advised to have an operation, he will have it there right away,” Margot added.
Osmeña was confined at the Chong Hua Hospital last Friday afternoon and was discharged past 9 a.m. yesterday, just in time for his speaking engagement at the Cebu City Sports Center and at the Kalunasan barangay assembly yesterday afternoon.
The mayor declined to be interviewed after his speech at the opening of the Children’s Month celebration at the sports center yesterday.
He said, though, that he will discuss his health condition during his news conference at the City Hall today.
The mayor and his wife led barangay officials and the Cebu City Commission for the Welfare and Protection of Children in the Children’s Month activities at around 2 p.m.
“You saw the mayor, he’s okay. Of course there is a certain amount of fear—there is a fear of the unknown. But now that we know what it is, he faces it head-on, like he always does. And I have to do the same,” Margot said.
Osmeña has previously suffered from a hypertensive crisis in March 2002. It required him to rest and go on leave for two months.
He also had an angiogram in May last year, and a minor surgery a few days later to repair a swollen vein.
Last August, false reports about the mayor’s heart attack circulated through text messages but the Osmeña couple announced that everything was normal.
