Monday, August 24th, 2015

My alarm got me up at 5:30 and I gave myself an enema, inserted something they call an “isodine egg” and went back to bed at 6am.  I tried sleeping but got up again at 7am to take my usual tablet.  I went back to bed and finally fell asleep, waking/getting up at 8:55. 

I turned on the Today show and right away they had a Special Report that the stock market had fallen 1,000 points after it opened and had recovered a little but still was down 600 points.  The COP that had closed Friday at about 3,097 was now at 3,227.09.

So, at 10:10am after I came out of my shower, Teresa informed me I probably won’t be able to have my exam today because we don’t have the results of PT, TPT tests, whatever they are.  After all I went through to prepare for this exam, and now I might not be able to take it?  Sigh!

We left the finca at 11:40 and got past the killer dogs undetected.  We only had to wait 5 minutes for a bus to Mayorca CC (Itagui).  We took a taxi to San Rafael Hospital #1 (Carrera 51A #45-51).  We waited from 12:40 to 1pm for an office to reopen and then paid 20mil for the blood tests I need before my 2:30 prostate biopsy.  

After a short wait I had my blood drawn for the required tests.

Remember the “dead muchacho”?  Well, he was dead, then in a coma, then in intesive care, and now he’s fine and back at home.  At least so I understand the reports.

We went to their cafeteria/restaurant where for 8,000 pesos ($2.50) Teresa had chicken soup, pork, rice, beet salad, carrot torta (torta means cake but this wasn’t cake), and juice while I read my Nook.

Back in the waiting room at 2pm we waited for my name to be called.  Besides the usual seats they had a couple gurneys with people on them – probably waiting for their turn for some test.

I was called into the procedure room at 2:45.  They asked me to remove my shoes, my pants, and my under pants and put on a robe, of course with the opening in the rear.  They had me lie on a table with a pillow and face the wall.  A woman came in, who spoke English, and she told me “it’s going to really hurt, but everything will be all right”!  Well, that made me feel better.  Lol.

After they prepared things for about 5-10 minutes finally she told me “okay, now we’re going in” and all I could think of was poor Andy Dufresne in The Shawshank Redemption.  After moving around for awhile she told me they’re going to take the first of 14 cuts.  I could kind of feel the “snip” but it wasn’t as bad as when she manuevered her “joystick” around to a new position for the next cut.  Finally, after 5-10 minutes they were done and she told me I might have a little bleeding over the next day or two but that’s normal.  They plugged me up with a wad of cotton and sent me on my way.  Teresa gave me an extra pair of under pants I had brought with me and also a Kotex pad to line them.  Very strange but it’s better than the adult diapers I wore last time.

First I went to the restaurant/cafeteria and had the same lunch that Teresa had only they gave me lettuce salad instead of beet salad.

We stopped at another office and they gave Teresa a container with my 14 prostate specimens.  I’m not sure what she’s going to do with it.

Outside it was obvious it had rained and the taxi driver replied to Teresa’s query that it rained hard for about 45 minutes.  At least now it was cooler than before.  We took a taxi to Nueva eps in Envigado, I understand to switch appointments.  She asked a receptionist a question and then we went outside and she called Olga.

We stopped at El Palacio Del Mango where Teresa ordered a fruit salad with ice cream (and cheese) for 8,500 which I helped her eat.  We walked over to Carbón de Leña where we waited about 20 minutes for Olga to show up.  They discussed things for awhile and then Teresa asked me to go make a copy of my Cedula.  I did and it cost me 400 pesos for both sides to be copied onto one sheet of paper.

I gave Olga 5mil and we walked over to Exito where Teresa picked out a few things.  We took a taxi to the highway and a Tratam bus was waiting for us.  When we got off it was obvious it had rained hard there this afternoon also.  The killer dogs heard us coming but Guillermo came out and yelled at them and they didn’t bother us any further.  We got back to the finca just before dark.

The Colombian Peso (COP) closed over 3,100 and 3,200 for the first time at 3218.51 to the US Dollar (USD).  It sounds like this is connected with the China stock market problem.

On the news they showed photos of Tom Cruise posing with some of Colombia’s armed forces.

I finished watching Backcountry (6.0) on Netflix.

I took my sleeping pills at 10pm and went to bed.

T-shirt of the day: Love conquers all.