Recovery Day #56!
I had set the alarm on
my cellphone to 5am. It went off and we got up. I showered, shaved, dressed and
we left the apt by 5:45. Teresa alerted the portero she would be returning from
the hospital in an ambulance. I understood the portero told her that the
ambulance won’t fit into the garage because of the low entrance. There must
have been a miscommunication between Teresa and the taxi driver because he went
a little past El Tesoro mall to a Covid-19 vaccination site.
Five minutes later we
were at the mall. We went up to the 4th floor of Quirofanos where Teresa
checked in. We were told that they do have a bed for her so she will be able to
stay overnight. (Of course we had planned on returning to the apt today; I
didn’t even bring a toothbrush.) At 6:15am Teresa pointed to a corner chair and
told me I could sit over there. I sat down and as the minutes went by I
wondered of she was coming back or had she gone in for her surgery. At 7am I
gave up and asked a lady at the check-in desk if she had gone in for surgery.
The lady took my name and phone number and I understood she would contact me
when Teresa got out of surgery but it would be at least 1pm.
I went outside and
quickly caught a taxi to the Cedimed clinic on Calle 7. I handed my
prescription and cedula to the lady at the entrance and she asked me several
things the only one of which I understood was bicycle and horse. (Not sure if
she was talking about the past or the future.) Trying to be funny I told her I
haven’t been on a bicycle, a horse, or a cow. I paid 58,500 ($15) for my PSA
test and was given a little piece of paper with instructions as to how to
recover my test results online. While waiting to be called I talked briefly
with a man originally from Chile but had worked many years in New York. Soon I
was taken in the back where a phlebotomist asked me a number of questions. I
knew enough to show her what medications I’m taking and she did a blood draw. I
understand the results will be available tomorrow.
I went next door to the
Boulevard café where I had breakfast for 11mil.
I returned to El Tesoro
by taxi. I printed some chess notes, changed my AD in a handicapped bathroom
then had coffee in Santa Leña.
At 10:40 I received a
text message that Teresa’s surgery was over and she would be in recovery for
the next 2 hours. (I learned later that her surgery was supposed to be 2nd
but got changed to 1st for some reason.)
I had a Caesar salad
lunch in J&C Delicias. I received a number of unknown calls which I
had difficulty answering so I returned to the clinic. At the desk a rep took me
up to the 5th floor and into hospital room #3.
After some time Teresa
was brought down and moved from the gurney to her bed. She said she wasn’t in
pain and a couple English speaking doctors checked her over.
Later the doctors said
she had a hematoma and they would soon try something but if it didn’t work she
would have to go back to surgery. When they returned with what looked like a
huge hypodermic needle I made my exit.
I went to one of the
pharmacies in the mall where I bought a package of ADs, cream for my sensitive
penis, and a small package of sleeping pills.
When I returned to the
room they had finished their procedure. I understood they would wait a couple
hours to see if it worked.
Teresa complained that
her cellphone was dying and she asked me to go buy a charger. I finally found a
double charger in Ktronix for 100mil. When I returned I learned that they had
taken Teresa up for surgery, a simple procedure but she would still need
general anesthesia.
While waiting for her
to return the sun went down and the room soon got quite cold. I played with the
thermostat and got it set to 26 degrees (79F) but even though the current temp
was 20 degrees (68F) the A/C never shut down.
By the time they
returned with Teresa I was sitting on the sofa with my t-shirt, jacket and a
blanket wrapped around me to try to stay warm. Even though I complained to a
number of different people it never got changed.
The sofa folded down
into a bed that was fairly comfortable. I asked for a second blanket as
otherwise I would be freezing all night.
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