Bandaged Santiago says her cancer is real
MANILA, Philippines – Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago’s bandages are not “accessories for beauty or sex appeal,” she said Wednesday in response to some disbelievers that she has lung cancer.
“Some people doubt that I have cancer at all. You mean it’s a figment of my imagination? I wish,” Santiago said in a press conference.
She showed the bandages on her fingers and toes because of bleeding caused by her lung cancer.
“You think I would report to office like this? You think these are necessary accessories for beauty or sex appeal?” Santiago said.
“A person who is suffering from lung cancer is prone to bleeding and becomes very brittle. I used to have very high pain tolerance, that’s why I was in politics I could tolerate any kind of pain. The whole of politics is one pain in the neck,” she joked.
Santiago recalled how her blood sample was taken using a one-foot long needle for a test to check if she had cancer of the blood.
“Normally people are terrified but I turned to my doctor and asked if that [was his] best shot because I hardly felt anything,” she said.
“But when you get cancer all your immunities are taken away from you and you become as vulnerable as any other person,” she added.
Santiago is recovering from Stage 4 lung cancer after she took two months off from the Senate to seek treatment.
Originally posted at 01:48 pm | September 17, 2014
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