It was a 7 Didi ( Uber ) day!

Yesterday, Tuesday, August 19th, Colin left as he does every Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday at 9:30AM for his hour long physiotherapy session at the clinic. Following that he had his every 4 -6 week meeting with Dr. Patino, whom we call the stroke doctor. That was Didi #1. About an hour later, I left and took Didi #2 to meet Colin at the doctors office next to the clinic.

We had a good 45 minute relaxing appointment. It always starts with the doctor asking Colin how he feels and if he has any questions. Then I have questions ( usually about medications and decreasing some )and finally we review Coli’s recent blood work and discuss a plan for the future. At this meeting we realized just how much direction the good doctor is taking in shaping Colin’s daily sessions and always suggesting other exercises to do at home. Colin has had different physiotherapists from time to time and sometimes within a particular week, a different therapist everyday. Dr. Patino sets objectives for each week and leaves it up to the individual professional therapists to reach that objective and they each have their own set or type of exercise to use.  Colin is not bored and enjoys the variety of exercises and the various approaches to reach the goal.

Each appointment with the stroke doctor cost us 1000MXN / $73.90CAD / $53.30USD. The best rate for physio sessions is to pay in cash ( not debit ) and to buy 12 sessions at a time. If you do that you get the 13th session for free. So 13 sessions for 3900MXN cash works out to 300MXN / $22.15CAD / $15.98USD each. We did not know this and spent 4800 MXN for the first 12 sessions using a debit card which made each session 400MXN or $29.56CAD.  So far we have purchased 3 sets of 12/13 physio appointments which will take us to September 5th inclusive. So very roughly it is costing per day,  $7.11 CAD for a physio session plus approximately $4.50 CAD for transport from the RV and back to the RV – a whopping $11.60CAD/ $8.35USD! That is a total of $452.40CAD from July 2 to September 5th.

Monies very well spent. Colin is improving albeit slowly. According to the doctor Colin will need 2 to 3 months more of therapy.  So another 26 sessions will take us to October 21st, I think. We discussed with the doctor some extra ways to improve certain aspects of Colin’s finger dexterity. Of course this relates to future guitar playing. Colin’s bloodwork is excellent. We continue to be in touch with Doctor O who was Colin’s doctor in the hospital and continues to follow Colins’ care and does not hesitant to add suggestions. Dr. Patino warned Colin that the next few weeks will be very tiring as he is moving to floor exercises and to getting up from the floor without using ones hands.

From there Colin took Didi #3 back here to the RV while I took Didi #4 to see a new ophthalmologist. About 3 -5 weeks before Colins stroke we went to see Dr. Jorge Garcia de la Rosa, whom we refer to as our family doctor, for some recommendations of specialists re eyes, veins and dermatology.

I was happy with Dra Diana and her eye examination. However her laboratory could not get my prescription transferred to proper progressive lens that I could actually see out of. The entire process took a long while because of the stroke and my being unable to leave Colin alone. She actually  had four pairs of eyeglasses made for me and each time it was worse. They actually refused to try a different lab. I gave up and did get a refund for the cost of the lenses but not for her fee.  However when I asked for the final prescription on paper I got there different ones!!! Our new dematologist, Dra Maria suggested that I see her personal eye doctor. So I saw him via Didi #4.

So had the usual eye exam but with a few more modern differences from the first eye doctor. I refused to have him numb my eyes so he could do a more detailed investigation into my eyes. That miffed him and he said the session is over and told me that I had attitude! I just had surgery a year ago and I know that state of my eyes. Plus I was on my own in an area of the city I was not familiar with so no gracias. I had no idea how much it might affect my vision. I asked why his prescription was different from each of the three from the previous eye doctor. He simply said ” potato – potatoe” !  All the same. He smirked when I mentioned that they all had different numbers. Turns out that he no longer does eye glass for his patients as it’s too much trouble. So I asked if this would allow me to see? His answer “for today”! I did ask for a referral of a place to go and one of them was Galeria Optica. I did not recognize the others and I had have two other referrals to this same place.

So Didi #5 took me there. A lovely place with many many types of frames for sale. For certain I will be getting my new frames from that location.  However I love my current frames and want to keep wearing them. Lovely friendly people in the store. Sadly the optician told me that at the moment there is a shortage of progressive lenses and they are waiting for a shipment and that it could be several months, they really did not know. He could se that I was devastated with that information. I asked him for his recommendations for the best places in Mazatlan to get progressives and the best people. He was very kind and told me it was only a three ( very long ) blocks to walk. With the heat and my compression stockings there was no way I could do that at this time of year.

Shortly after I hopped into Didi #6. I kept calling Colin with updates and he could not believe my day. I ended up at the Gran Plaza – entrance to the cinemas. There was no master map of the mall at that entrance. I asked the security guard near by in Spanish. He hemmed and hawed and wavered and finally pointed down a corridor to the slight left and to go all the way and then turn left and then turn right. Once I got there I saw a mall map and sure enough I was in the totally opposite direction that I should have gone in. So right back to where I started and then I took the slight right corridor and just a few stores up I found my destination – Optica Mirada.

Very long story short I met with the owner of the store who has been in business for 44 years. His grandfather, his father, himself and his wife and their two children are all in the business. Relief!! So he measured using a machine I have only previously seen in Canada, not once but twice. And also marked the actual lenses of my glasses with the black dot of my pupil location. He did this four times. I was impressed. I am getting Zeiss lenses and it will take 10 days. I mentioned that eye doctor #1 made the lenses in two days max. He said that was cheap Chinese lenses. Proper progressives take at least 7 – 10 days, just like back in Canada. The new high end progressives will cost me 1390MXN / $102.75CAD more than the first pair that kept getting made over and over. I am so looking forward to being able to see again.

After a ten minute wait and my increasing the suggested fare by 12 more pesos I climbed into Didi #7. I was so relieved to be going home at long last. Such a very long 7 Didi day.

I reflected on the day. The visit with Dr. Patino means another 2 months of living here at Las Jaibas but a greater chance for rehabilitation for Colin. Right now this RV park is full of tall weeds and grasses and thousands upon thousands of mosquitoes. Colin would likely interject millions of those biting nasty critters. Each time we open the RV door hundreds fly in. Yes we have a special mosquito light and a plug in thingy but they don’t really help. The poor girls are getting bitten on their smooth heads and body parts.  So sad to watch them licking and biting their legs. I am the one who has over the years been eaten alive as they say an of course still am. Colin not so much, but now perhaps because of his medications, he is a mosquito magnet and each bite is torture as it constantly itches. After a few intense scratch episodes he has learned that because of his blood thinners he can’t scratch that itch. So now when he goes out he wears long pants, long sleeves and a hoodie but of course the heat irritates him as well. And those buggers still bite him.

We have discussed renting for a few months in a fully furnished condo nearby on the beach. But then the logistics of packing and moving and carrying things – well just thinking about it all is exhausting. The worst of course is the girls. They would have to be taken outside several times per day on a leash and walked to do their business.  Of course they would expect beach walks.  Right now they don’t know where we are or that the ocean is fairly close by. Who could handle two pulling dogs on a leash, wanting their freedom to run? Neither of us! Not to mention just going in and out of an elevator several times per day. Right now all we do is open the door and off they run, sometimes for 10 minutes but often less because of the heat. They just come back to the door waiting for us to let them in. It is not the best solution but based on low, to no energy levels, it is what we are dealing and living with. But oh how I dream of watching the ocean every day as we all used to.

So in our minds we will be moving somewhere between October 21st and the 29th when our rent is up here. Our four month exile is almost halfway up. But to be honest this is perhaps one of the most difficult things that I have ever had to do.

The storm is wild and loud and scary and the girls need TLC.  Our power keeps shutting off so I am publishing this without checking for errors…