DUBAI, United Arab Emirates: A breast cancer survivor, who has a mild pneumonia she developed following 16 sessions of chemotherapy, has succeeded in dealing with another threat in her life, this time, COVID-19.
Forty-six-year-old Brenda R. Fondevilla, donut store manager from Digos, Davao del Sur, said she first tested positive on June 10 but subsequent tests on June 12 and 16 came out negative.
She needed two consecutive negative COVID-19 test results to be declared free of the disease. Health workers were wary that her underlying condition – pneumonia – might complicate the situation and so they put her on close watch.
“Meron daw akong konting issue with pneumonia na long-term side effect ng chemo,” said Fondevilla, mother of two kids – the eldest being a 15-year-old boy who was just a baby when she left for UAE in 2005.
“Hindi ako natakot. Galing nga akong cancer. Wala naman akong nararamdamang kakaiba,” Fondevilla said.
Her COVID-19 ordeal started when a house mate, Jennifer Tolentino Trinidad, a sales lady, tested positive twice.
Trinidad had just started reporting back for work when restrictions were lifted and shops started to re-open around May 4 when she got infected, she said.
“Bago kami nagbukas, pina-test kami ng management for COVID-19 kasi yun un po ang patakaran ng Abu Dhabi Municipality,” Trinidad said. She said she tested negative during the first round; but the second subsequent test came out positive.
She said she could not be sure whether she got it at the shop or from commuting to work. “Hindi ko lang sure kasi nagba-bus din ako papasok sa work and taxi pag-uwi,” she said.
She again tested positive but later on also got her two negative results.
There were four occupants in the house including Fondevilla and Trinidad. The two others tested negative as well.
Fondevilla said she and the two other occupants immediately went for a COVID test upon learning about Trinidad. She and Trinidad were on a 14-day home self-isolation as of press time.
Fondevilla said she was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2012 and went under the knife in November of the same year. In 2013, she started undergoing chemotherapy in 16 sessions and 25 radiation sessions, she said.
Fondevilla, who arrived in UAE in 2005 on a visit visa and now works in Al Ain, has no immediate family in the UAE. Her husband is a former overseas Filipino worker (OFW) in Dubai, who now rides a tricycle for a living back home.
The Daily Bread 