Wednesday, January 16, 2019

Last night I fell asleep quickly, got up once during the night, again at 6:30 finally waking/getting up at 7:45.

I left for the gym at 9:30.  I was on one of the leg exercise machines when an old man walked past me wearing a Green Bay Packers t-shirt.  When he was taking a break on another machine I asked him if he was from Wisconsin.  (From his accent it seemed more like Germany.)  His name is Max and he said he is from Switzerland.  He has a Colombian wife from Bogota and he is on what I call the 6-month plan.  I completed all my exercises in an hour and 30 minutes.

Teresa had lunch alone and we left the apt at 1pm.

At El Tesoro by 1:30 we stopped at O’Cake where Teresa had a bottle of water, I had a café con leche and Laura had juice with a pastry.

Heading to the Cedimed building we saw a young man wearing a helmet on a scooter.  I wondered what he was doing when he turned around and headed right for us.  Surprise!  It was Dr. Rendon on an electric scooter.  He said it’s his new transportation system.  I asked if he took his family skiing again this past Christmas and he told me they went to Cartagena.

In Dr. Ossa, the oncologist’s, office he said he had good news, that Teresa’s Her2 is negative.  I said “great” does that mean she won’t need chemo?  He said, “well…”.

After a visual exam he said she is healing remarkably quickly.  He went to a Cambridge University site called Predict at https://www.predict.nhs.uk/tool where he entered 10 inputs which included her age, the size of the tumor, etc (you can see it yourself via the URL).  The result is she has a 10-year survival rate of 81% from the surgery alone or she can increase it to 84% with hormone therapy and 86% with chemotherapy.  (Compare this to a 91% survival rate for a woman her age without cancer.)  According to “protocol” he said we have to see a medical oncologist to discuss further cancer treatment options.  In the end it is Teresa’s decision if she wants further treatment.  He said we will see him again in 4 months and we left.

We had lunch at Crepes & Waffles although Teresa didn’t eat anything because she ate back at the apt.

We took a taxi to the Cedimed on Calle 7 for a prescription but I believe she was told we have to go downtown.  She said we’ll go early tomorrow morning.

I went across the street with Laura and we went up to the 8^th floor to the International Vaccination Center where she wanted to get a shot – I think to prevent colds.  I understood something about April, anyway she didn’t get the shot.  We walked up to the 9^th floor to the Vaccination Center but I understand she struck out there also.

We rejoined Teresa and took a taxi back to the apt.

I watched a couple more episodes of The Walking Dead.

I spent part of the evening entering and translating the 4-page letter from the doctor.

Teresa tells me she wants to leave at 7am tomorrow to go downtown to buy her medication.  I said I will go with her if I’m up, which I probably will be.

Joke of the day

One day at the end of class, little Johnny’s teacher asked the class to go home, think of a story, then reach a conclusion as to the moral of that story.

The following day the teacher asked for the first volunteer to tell their story.  Little Suzy raised her hand.  “My dad owns a farm and every Sunday we load the chicken eggs on the truck and drive into town to sell them at the market.  Well, one Sunday we hit a big bump and all the eggs flew out of the basket and onto the road.”

The teacher asks Suzy what the moral of her story is.

Suzy replied, “Don’t keep all your eggs in one basket.”

Next was little Lucy.  “Well my dad owns a farm too and every weekend we take the chicken eggs and put them in the incubator.  Last weekend only 8 of the 12 eggs hatched.”

The teacher once again asks what the moral of her story was.

Lucy replied, “Don’t count your chickens before their hatched.”

Next was little Johnny.  “My uncle Ted fought in the Vietnam War, and his plane was shot down over enemy territory.  He jumped out before it crashed with only a case of beer, a machine gun and a machete.  On the way down he drank the case of beer.  Unfortunately he landed right in the middle of 100 Vietnamese soldiers.”

He shot 70 with the machine gun, but ran out of bullets, so he pulled out his machete and killed 20 more.  The blade on his machete broke, so he killed the last 10 with is bare hands.”

The teacher looked in shock at Billy and asked if there was any possibility of a moral to his story.

Billy replied, “Don’t fuck with Uncle Ted when he’s been drinking.”