Man ‘wins two battles of life’ after recovering from COVID-19, brain tumor

A 35-year-old man from Manila shared his journey to recovery from COVID-19 and from the surgery he went through after being diagnosed with a brain tumor, both of which happened consecutively in December 2020.

Filip Lloi Wycoco, president of The Global Filipino Investors, shared a lengthy Facebook post on January 18 about what he had gone through for almost two months. He said he experienced all the COVID-19 symptoms and later tested positive for the deadly virus on December 5, and was admitted to the Gat Andres Bonifacio Memorial Medical Center in Tondo, Manila. Fortunately, no one from his family got infected aside from him.

I survived Covid-19 and fought against brain tumor, today i just won both battles of my life. What’s next for me?

It…

Posted by Filip Lloi Wycoco on Monday, January 18, 2021

“That fight was long for me as in my first week of acquiring the virus, I already got fever and night chills. My second week was harder as I can’t control myself from cough which led me to complain about my head and had my first ever CT scan,” Wycoco wrote in his post.

After a few days, his wife, Jel Vale-Wycoco, 35, was told about the result of his CT scan from where she found out that her husband had a tumor in his brain. At first, Jel could not help but refuse to tell Filip of the real condition as she knew that her husband might get stressed further, knowing that he is still recovering from COVID-19 then. Eventually, Wycoco learned about his tumor on December 8.

“When my doctor finally told me about my tumor, relaxed lang ako on the situation. The first thing [that] came into myself was that I will get through this and just allow God to take control over my life,” he said, adding, “But definitely takot ako to undergo surgery as this was the first for me and at the same time, utak ko pa.”

“This is when I started to ask for more prayers and different people, even those who are strangers to me, have been messaging me as they told me that they’ve been praying for me until I get better.”

Despite the fear of undergoing surgery as it may be fatal, Wycoco decided to proceed with it and asked God to give him more strength during his operation. His surgery was completed last January 11, 2021, at the Makati Medical Center, and he woke up two to three hours right after the surgery.

“On the day of the surgery, I never felt afraid and instead I just imagined Him bringing me all the way to the operating room. [As] I woke up from the surgery, the first thing I said was, ‘Thank you Lord for the second chance you gave me,” Wycoco said.

“We even skipped the ICU stage as my doctor said that my condition made things easier for them, which means that I made it and it was a successful operation.”

Wycoco’s hospital bills almost reached P600,000 as he had major surgery, but luckily, his insurance covered all of his medical expenses.

In a Facebook update on Monday, Jan. 25, 14 days after his operation, Wycoco shared that he was scheduled to have an appointment with his neurologist. Later on, the surgical staples were already removed from his head.

Today I was scheduled to have an appointment with my neuro doctor. It’s been 14 days since the day of my operation and…

Posted by Filip Lloi Wycoco on Monday, January 25, 2021

“Right now, I’m still in the recovery stage and I’m still getting minor headaches, but I’m feeling better now. I still have medications and I’m working on being back to my normal condition. We can say that the surgery was successful as I did not have any complications since the day after the surgery,” he further told INQUIRER.net in an interview.

For Wycoco, together with his family and friends’ support, he declared victory from the pain he had suffered. He said his journey might have been tough, but he felt the presence of God through all the prayers he received. With that experience, he reminds netizens to “never underestimate the power of prayers.”

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