Mighty Mike

The first thing that Mike Enriquez did as soon as he woke up from a three-hour quadruple bypass was, as he recalled with a laugh, “say crazy things” because he was delirious from the effects of the general anesthesia, adding, “I was hallucinating for several minutes and my doctors assured me that that was normal.”

For three post-surgery hours, Mike said that he was at the Recovery Room and at the Telemetry (of Makati Med) where cardiac patients are monitored 24/7. Before the bypass procedure, a pigtail (coiled tube) was inserted into his lungs to drain the fluid from it. 

Mike went under the knife on Sept. 14 and went home on Sept. 28. Last Monday morning, he resumed anchoring the DZBB radio program Radyo Na, TV Pa (with Arnold Clavio, Joel Reyes Zobel and Ali Sotto) and, that same evening, the GMA early-evening newscast 24 Oras (with Vicky Morales and Atom Araullo).

Last Thursday, he walked into the Via Mare restaurant (on Timog Avenue, Quezon City) for this exclusive (his first post-operation) interview, smiling widely as if only two months earlier he didn’t undergo a radically life-changing episode in his checkered, multi-awarded life. He just came from his DZBB program in which, as per his doctors’ advice, he shouldn’t stay longer than one hour, looking, to use a line from the popular song, strong and mighty as a tree.  

“Are you as good as new?” we asked Mike who was enjoying his bowl of chicken arroz caldo and a glass of halu-halo (no sugar and no ice-cream, please…Mike is diabetic). I offered him my fried banana (saba) and he said, thank you, “It’s one of my favorites but I am advised not to eat it.” Bad for his kidneys, you know, and that’s why he has to have dialysis thrice a week. “Look,” he lifted his sleeve, revealing the plaster on his upper arm. “I just had one yesterday.”

After eating, Mike downed a handful of pills, saying, “I take even more at night.” He has lost 19 lbs. and that makes him look younger than his 67 years. “It’s not how old you are,” he philosophized. “What matters is how young you feel and how young you look, and how young your perspectives are.”

You do look as good as new.

“Yes, yes, yes. But ‘as good as new’ has many aspects…mentally, emotionally, physically, psychologically and, most important of all, spiritually.”

So how are you in “all aspects?”

“Let’s put it this way: I have everything to be thankful to the Lord. Let’s start with my health, which is my main issue in life now — my heart, my kidneys and my lungs. Nagkasabay-sabay, eh. My original confinement in the hospital was not because I had a heart condition; it was because of my congested lungs, which may have been due to my diabetes. My blood sugar was high and maybe it was due to my busted kidneys.”

Oh that was after you underwent a series of tests…

“Yes. They did all the tests. One of them was ECG (Electro Cardiogram). When my doctors saw the result, they said, ‘Wait a minute, there’s something in your heart.’ Then, they did 2D Echo and angiogram. The angiogram didn’t last 20 minutes. The doctors came in and said, ‘You need to have a bypass. There are three or four blockages in your arteries.’ They showed me the video and the video didn’t lie.”

Wow, really?

“Yes, really! But you know why I said that I should be thankful to the Lord? Some people who are much younger than me, they are supposed to be in the pink of health and yet they just keel over. The Lord blessed me with the chance for my condition to be addressed. It wasn’t something like we had to do it now. (My wife and) I even bargained with the doctors when to have the surgery. I was not an emergency case. I was able to plan and schedule the operation.”

With Radyo Na, TV Pa co-anchors Arnold Clavio, Ali Sotto, and Joel Reyes Zobel

And you continued working?

“But with my doctors’ consent. I never did anything without clearing with my doctors. Everything that I do was always with my doctors’ go-signal…every step I took and every move I make. I have very caring doctors — Dr. Dante Morales (Vicky Morales’ father), my cardiologist; Dr. Adrian Manapat, my surgeon; and Dr. Antonio Villegas Cayco, my kidney doctor. They assured me that the bypass procedure has become very common.”

You have your “very caring” doctors to thank… 

“You know what, they were the same doctors who treated my father. Once a month, I visit the graves of my father and mother at the South Cemetery where we have a family plot. I would offer them fresh flowers. On one of my visits, biniro ko ang dad ko; I talked to my dad, ‘Marami naman akong puedeng ma-inherit sa’yo, pero bakit ganito, Pa? Busted kidney, busted lungs and busted heart’.”

I know you to be a prayerful person. Do you have a favorite saint?

“St. Francis of Assisi. I grew up with the Franciscans in Sta. Ana. Up to now, I keep in touch with the Franciscan brothers.”

How was your regular pre-surgery schedule? Were you active?

“Active is a mild term to describe my daily grind. I would wake up at 4 a.m. for my four-hour DZBB program that ended at 10 and then I would run the radio business of GMA which has 27 stations nationwide. In the afternoon, I would go to the newsroom to start working on 24 Oras. Thursdays and Fridays naman were for Imbestigador for which I was doing voice-over even while I was recuperating. I worked out regularly in the gym, three times a week. I would go to bed at 10 and got six hours of sleep. And then…this happened.”

Mike has a lot to be thankful for this Christmas and, as he puts it, to the Lord.

How about your post-surgery schedule?

“I would wake up at 7 or 8 a.m. and linger in bed. I have no tapings or interviews to worry about. I would take my first cup of coffee leisurely. It was a relaxing life…my wife and I (They have no child. — RFL) would eat out, watch Netflix. That’s when I realized that, my God, this is the life that I missed out on. There is this kind of life pala…slow and leisurely…you wake up anytime you want to.

“For decades, all I did was work, work, work! (After graduating with a Liacom degree from La Salle, Mike continued working on radio as a deejay. He joined RMN [Radio Mindanao Network] and then GMA where he was tasked to expand the radio business. He has been with GMA for decades now.) To be honest, I kind of started to like that kind of life. But then, it also struck me that doing nothing is not good; it can also be tiring. No physical activity is also bad for your health. After a while, I found out the hard way what people have been saying. You know, the key is balance.”

What are the do’s and don’t’s?

 “I’ve been watchful about what I eat. For example, I cannot eat my favorite fruits, banana among them, nuts and beans. My kidney doctor advised me to eat more protein because I am undergoing dialysis. But I can eat only a matchbox-sized meat in one day. I have to monitor my water intake. I am not supposed to take coffee but I ‘cheat’ every now and then because I am a coffee drinker.

“And I must do light exercise regularly but I shouldn’t tire myself. I should avoid stress. Actually, it’s the kind of discipline that everybody should practice, even if you are not diabetic or a heart patient. Don’t wait until you become a basket case. By the way, I continue to have a cardiac rehab at Makati Med.”

Enjoying his breakfast of arroz caldo at Via Mare Timog with his favorite paper, The Philippine STAR

Good advice.

“The thing is…listen to your body.”

When you listen to your body now, what does it tell you?

“There’s life with dialysis.”

You and your wife love to travel (together with good friends Joey de Leon and wife Eileen Macapagal and Danee Samonte [with girlfriend] who himself is recuperating from a stroke). So papano ‘yan?

“I’m careful about that because of my dialysis. Maybe not long trips but short ones okey lang. In fact, next year, my wife and I plan to take a vacation either in Hong Kong or Singapore.”

How long are you undergoing dialysis?

“For life…unless I undergo a heart transplant. But as of now, I cannot have that because my heart is not strong enough. But next year, my doctors and I are going to discuss the possibility. Hopefully, we can find a kidney donor kapag kailangan na.”

Any advice for not only heart patients but for everybody?

“Have faith, have a sense of humor. And remember that the Lord will not leave you alone in your journey.”

(E-mail reactions at [email protected]. For more updates, photos and videos, visit www.philstar.com/funfare or follow me on Instagram @therealrickylo.)