Sunday, February 27, 2022

Last night I went to bed at 10pm without taking any sleep medication. I figured if I can nap without it maybe I can go to sleep without it. I gave up and got up, made a trip to the bathroom and returned to bed. I looked at my watch and it was 12:30, so did it work or didn’t it? I got up again at 3:30 and took my 6-hour pills. I got up again at 7:15 (Teresa was already up), made a trip to the bathroom, couldn’t fall back asleep, finally getting up at 8am.

Today is Glenn’s birthday, Happy Birthday Glenn!

Both of my chess opponents are on vacation, so I started another game with a German fellow. Btw, my rating has fallen from over 1600 to 1566.

Teresa left at 9:45 for a rumba class.

She returned at 1pm.

Most of the afternoon news is about “Ukraine under attack”. I found I can set my Translator app from Spanish to English and push the microphone button and it will translate what’s being said. That, along with reading the chyron gives me a good idea what’s going on.

I watched more episodes of Succession on MTV.

I decided to watch 60 Minutes tonight to see if they had coverage of the war in Ukraine. I tuned to Chicago CBS channel on MTV and watched the last 30 minutes of the news. (Did they really have to give the weather report 3 times?) At 7pm 60 Minutes came on but only the first 10 minutes or so was Ukraine war coverage. After that, I switched back to Colombian news for Teresa.

I’ve been able to avoid sneezing up until now but today I sneezed twice – ouch!

 

The New York Times’ 7-day average of new daily infections and deaths has the US with 70,706 ð 67,725 ð 65,285 new cases and 1,903 ð 1,886 ð 1,855 new deaths.

Per Medellin Guru, as of yesterday, Colombia has a total of 2,158 ð 2,078 ð 1,908 newly reported cases with 80 ð 97 ð 95 newly reported deaths. I won’t be providing the new case statistics for Medellin and Envigado any longer.

 

Funny pix of the day

Saturday, February 26, 2022

Last night I went to bed at 10:15. It’s getting more comfortable lying on my left side with the drain in front of me.

I got up at 2am, made a trip to the bathroom but again peed on the back of my underwear as I was taking them off. I changed into another pair that I had already prepared with a pad inside and returned to bed.

I got up again at 3:30 and made a trip to the bathroom. This time I managed to keep myself and my clothes dry. I took my medication and returned to bed.

I woke up at 7am and got up at 7:45. We haven’t any bread in the house, so Teresa made blueberry pancakes.

I gave myself a sponge bath using a washcloth in the shower trying to keep my bottom half as dry as possible.

I texted Glenn, having breakfast in La Buena Mesa, asking if he would bring me 6 English muffins or bagels from Eduardo Madrid.

Teresa insisted I put on a shirt and put the blood container in my pocket before I went downstairs. Glenn and Bianca soon arrived and he delivered 6 poppy seed bagels for 16mil.

 

The medications I’ve been taking are:

·     Cefalexina (Cephalexin): an antibiotic.

·     Acetaminofen (Acetaminophen): an analgesic used to relieve pain and lower fever.

·     Ketoprofeno (Ketoprofen): used to relieve pain, tenderness, swelling, and stiffness caused by osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis.

The latter medicine might be why my feet no longer hurt. That or because I haven’t been walking that much.

The news here mainly covers the war in Ukraine.

After many failed attempts I think I finally found a program worth watching – Succession (8.8).

Teresa reminded me she has an endoscopy procedure next Tuesday at 8:30am. I reminded her I have an appointment the same day with Dr. Castaño at 3pm. Now, I only lack an appointment with Dr. Gomez, hopefully Monday or Tuesday.

 

The New York Times’ 7-day average of new daily infections and deaths has the US with 74,100 ð 70,706 ð 67,725 new cases and 1,859 ð 1,903 ð 1,886 new deaths.

Per Medellin Guru, as of yesterday, Colombia has a total of 2,249 ð 2,158 ð 2,078 newly reported cases with 57 ð 80 ð 97 newly reported deaths. It doesn’t look like I’ll be able to provide the new case statistics for Medellin and Envigado any longer.

 

Funny pix of the day

Friday, February 25, 2022

Last night I emptied my blood drain and went to bed at 10pm. I got up at midnight, 2:15, 5:30, finally waking/getting up at 8am. Teresa was gone I assume to a gym class.

Sleeping seems to be improving due to my improved position in bed and I get out of bed easier.

I watched An Innocent Man (6.5), Coherence (7.2), and Infinity Chamber (6.3) on MTV.

Teresa left with her niece Daniela, the bacteriologist, to look for possible sites where she could open a beauty parlor in Envigado.

Teresa returned at 8:30. She told Daniela this probably isn’t the best time to start a business because few people have money. Daniela invited us to stay at their place in Guatapé sometime in April.

I read that Medellin no longer requires facemasks to be worn on the streets. Yay!

I have medication I’m supposed to take every 6 hours. I wasn’t sure if that meant during the night also. I checked how many pills I have and since its supposed to be enough for 7 days I deduced I’m supposed to be taking them at night also. I took my last dose at 9:30 which means my next dosage should be at 3:30am. We’ll see if I can make that happen.

 

The New York Times’ 7-day average of new daily infections and deaths has the US with 78,443 ð 74,100 ð 70,706 new cases and 1,899 ð 1,859 ð 1,903 new deaths.

Per Medellin Guru, as of yesterday, Colombia has a total of 2,174 ð 2,249 ð 2,158 newly reported cases with 79 ð 57 ð 80 newly reported deaths. It doesn’t look like I’ll be able to provide the new case statistics for Medellin and Envigado any longer.

 

Funny pix of the day

Thursday, February 24, 2022

Last night I emptied my blood drain and went to bed at 10pm. I found a position pretty close to my usual right-side position with the drain behind me on the bed.

I got up at 1:15 (it was a bit of a struggle) and made a trip to the bathroom. I quickly fell back asleep finally getting up at 6:30.

I gave myself a sponge bath using a washcloth in the sink. Washing my hair was a little trickier so I did that in the shower trying to keep the rest of me dry. Unfortunately, I got my socks and moccasins a little wet.

I had a 45-minute nap before lunch and a little over an hour nap after lunch. No problem sleeping today.

I watched Nomadland (7.3) on MTV.

In the evening Esmeralda came over with my faja; not very comfortable. I understand Teresa is going to a 7pm gym class in Parque Envigado then they will go for pizza at Antica Pizza and bring me back a slice.

They left at 7:15 and Teresa returned at 8:30 with a slice of vegetable pizza for me.

This faja is quite uncomfortable; I think it’s too big but Teresa said the doctor recommended the Large size for me. I certainly won’t be able to sleep in it.

My daughter Jeannie informed me for the past month she’s been experiencing BPPV, benign paroxysmal positional vertigo. She says it feels like she’s on a boat.

I finished reading John Grisham’s Sycamore Row.

 

 

The New York Times’ 7-day average of new daily infections and deaths has the US with 86,553  ð 78,443 ð 74,100 new cases and 1,939  ð 1,899 ð 1,859 new deaths.

Per Medellin Guru, as of yesterday, Colombia has a total of 2,174  ð 2,174 ð 2,249 newly reported cases with 80  ð 79 ð 57 newly reported deaths. Medellin has 97  ð 67  ð 57 new cases from February 23^rd to 24^th. Envigado has 5  ð 0  ð NOT FOUND new cases from February 23^rd to 24^th. Medellin Guru will no longer report cases by municipality as this is reported late every day. You can see this data on the Antioquia Salud Twitter website.

 

Funny pix of the day

 

Wednesday, February 23, 2022

Last night I tied a plastic bag around my blood drain container and went to bed at 10pm. I found a position pretty close to my usual right-side position with the drain behind me on the bed.

I got up at 1:30 (it was a bit of a struggle), made a trip to the bathroom but peed on the back of my underwear as I was taking them off. I changed into another pair that I had already prepared with a pad inside and returned to bed.

I got up again at 5:45 and made a trip to the bathroom. This time I managed to keep myself and my clothes dry. The blood drain container felt heavier so I didn’t want it to lie on the bed and possibly leak so this time it stayed on the floor and I slept on my left-side. I woke up at 8am, got up and gave myself a sponge bath using a washcloth in the sink. Washing my hair was a little trickier so I did that in the shower trying to keep the rest of me dry.

Teresa had milk delivered and I had my typical breakfast of scrambled eggs, toast, and coffee. I’m back to my usual vitamins and supplements except today I skipped the Omega-3 because I didn’t want to take the chance of upsetting my stomach.

Teresa left at 11am for a doctor’s appointment. After she’s going to shop for a faja for me. What is a faja? I would explain it as like a corset or girdle. The doctor wants me to wear it to compress my surgery site.

For lunch I used Rappi to order chicken from Frisby.

My brother called and we chatted for a while.

I watched Reservoir Dogs (8.3) on MTV, not for the first time.

For the past few days I’ve had a funny coughing feeling I’ve been able to suppress so as not to experience the resultant stomach pain but I finally spit up a large amount of phlegm that must have been in my throat.

After Teresa returned we took a nap for about an hour.

We had a brief shower in the afternoon.

In the afternoon I had my first BM since my surgery and I plugged up the toilet. Teresa had to pour about 30 buckets of water in the toilet to clear it.

Laura received her DHL package.

I watched The Station Agent (7.6) on MTV.

For supper I used Rappi to order chicken wings from Rocket Wings.

The New York Times’ 7-day average of new daily infections and deaths has the US with 107,065 ð 86,553  ð 78,443 new cases and 2,218 ð 1,939  ð 1,899 new deaths.

Per Medellin Guru, as of yesterday, Colombia has a total of 2,910 ð 2,174  ð 2,174 newly reported cases with 110 ð 80  ð 79 newly reported deaths. Medellin has 139 ð 97  ð 67 new cases from February 22^nd to 23^rd. Envigado has 7 ð 5  ð 0 new cases from February 22^nd to 23^rd.

 

Funny pix of the day

 

Tuesday, February 22, 2022

Happy Twos Day!

About midnight a doctor came in and said, “Terry Lee”, and I said, “Yo soy”. After that the conversation was all in English. He asked me where I am from, and I said the United States. He asked me if I’m having trouble peeing and I said I did. He said he could fix that.

WARNING! The following paragraph is very graphic.

He left and came back a couple minutes later and put a number of items on the side of my bed. One looked like a rod at least 18” long. Gulp! He opened a packet and took out a pair of gloves and put them over the gloves he was already wearing. He opened a small tube and spread some brown stuff on the inside of the packet. He then cleaned my penis three different times so maybe there was more than one tube. He took off those gloves and put them inside the packet with the used tube and put it to the side. He opened another packet and put on another pair of gloves. He opened another tube and put something on the end of it and said this is the anesthesia. He put it inside the tip of my penis and squeezed it in. He opened the package with the long rod and said “it might be better if you didn’t look”. I looked at the ceiling and five seconds later I looked back down and urine was coming out of the other end of the rod into the container. I almost filled it halfway reaching 450CCs. He removed the rod, I felt much relieved and he left.

At one point in the middle of the night I heard a beeping sound outside like a truck backing up. It went on for about half an hour, then Teresa got up and I soon learned it was from behind me, the fluid had run out. I rang for the nurse several times but it was at least another 30 minutes before a nurse came and quickly turned it off.

My breakfast was two dinner rolls, a chunk of Colombian cheese and a café con leche (at least it was warm).

I got up and did some walking in the hallway.

Again I was concerned I hadn’t peed but finally it happened so I felt I was ready to go home.

By 10am we were ready to leave, we just needed to see the doctor, get our papers, and have the IVs removed from my hand.

At noon Teresa went to the cafeteria and came back with a plate of chicken breast, rice, salad, a glass of watermelon juice and a little dessert. I wolfed all of it down and Teresa went back to get lunch for herself. In the meantime a worker showed up and delivered my lunch.

Dr. Gomez finally showed up at 1pm and informed me that surgery went well, I should stay home for the first week and then I could start resuming normal activities as long as I avoided heavy lifting. I would see him next week and he would remove the drain in my side.

My surgical site is a little numb. Kind of like when your arm falls asleep, you can feel it when you touch it but it doesn’t feel quite right.

A few minutes later Teresa reported that Dr. Gomez was sleeping in the next room. We’re at the end of the hall in room 505 so that means he’s in room 504.

We had to wait a couple more hours until we got our discharge papers, including medicine I will be taking for the next week. We even have a paper that says we can get a 410mil refund at Bancolombia.

In the meantime, I found The Family Man (6.8) on Claro TV and watched it in Spanish. Teresa talked to a couple in the hallway; he had just gotten a prostatectomy and was busy walking the halls.

A tallish slim blond poked her head in the room and left. She obviously was not on staff nor a patient. Later I saw here try to get into room 504 but it was locked. She came back a little later and a nurse let her in. Hmmm!

We had to wait a couple more hours for someone to remove my IVs from my hand and I got into a wheelchair and was taken downstairs. There was a Todo Drogas on their property, so Teressa filled my prescriptions right away.

Of course, we hit the rush hour traffic and didn’t return to the apt until 6:15.

 

The New York Times’ 7-day average of new daily infections and deaths has the US with 108,240  ð 107,065 ð 86,553 new cases and 2,227  ð 2,218 ð 1,939 new deaths.

Per Medellin Guru, as of yesterday, Colombia has a total of 3,381 ð 2,910 ð 2,174 newly reported cases with 127  ð 110 ð 80 newly reported deaths. Medellin has 165  ð 139 ð 97 new cases from February 21^st to 22^nd. Envigado has 6  ð 7 ð 5 new cases from February 21^st to 22^nd.

 

Funny pix of the day

Monday, February 21, 2022

Last night I went to bed at 10:15, fell asleep quickly, got up once at 4am, ate an apple, went back to bed at 4:30, woke up at 7:30, did my Kegel exercises and got up.

I noticed USAA now has my name spelled correctly as an account holder.

I set my Chess.com games to Holiday mode just before we left the apt at 11:30.

We confirmed our reservation, paid the bill in 2 debit card payments for some reason, and presented the payment receipt.

We were soon taken in back where I was asked a number of health questions. I was then asked to go to the restroom and wash my hands. A couple of other guys were there too. I washed my hands but to rinse them no water came out of the faucet. I poked my head out of the door and told a nurse there isn’t any water. She wiped the window thingy that automatically starts and stops the water and it worked again. I guess I accidentally got soap on it.

Dr. Gomez came in and asked a few questions and assured me everything was going to turn out okay.

I was walked to the surgical room and laid down. I noted it was 1:10pm as they put me to sleep.

I woke up in a small recovery area and I saw it was 5:20pm so my surgery lasted 4 hours. My first impressions were: cold feet, dry mouth and some stomach pressure.

I was soon taken to my private room where Teresa was waiting for me. I had brought warm socks with me and Teresa put them on me.

A nurse ran an IV line and hooked me up to bags of liquid of some type hanging from one of those stands.

Every two hours or so a nurse came in to change my medicine bag or take my blood pressure, temperature and oxygen level. The liquids seemed to alternate between antibiotics and saline solution. I refused pain killers because I wasn’t really in pain as long as I was just lying still on the bed. It felt like something was stretching my stomach area.

It was about time to go to sleep for the night but I hadn’t peed since before my surgery and I definitely felt I needed to go. We asked nurses several times to help me with that. In the meantime I had this large container between my legs just in case I did pee.

 

Funny pix of the day

Sunday, February 20, 2022

Last night I went to bed at 10:15, fell asleep quickly despite the partying I could hear across the street, got up once during the night, woke up at 6:30, did my Kegel exercises and got up.

Teresa said she got in at 11:30 last night and wanted to sleep in so I should have breakfast without her. (I think I forgot to mention she wanted to join Glenn and I at Hija Mia Nomada for breakfast. The plan now is to have lunch at home then we’ll go to El Tesoro so she can exchange some clothes in Zara.) I texted Glenn but he saw the message too late to meet at the gas station so we’re going to meet at the restaurant at 8:30.

I took a Didi car and arrived at Hija Mia by 8:30. Besides 2 lattes I had the Acai bowl. Glenn ordered a bagel and scrambled eggs but forgot to ask for them separate and it arrived as a sandwich. A lady at a nearby table had a border collie and I did a little googling about that breed and learned how challenging it can be to keep them exercised and entertained. The check was a little over 80mil; I think I recall the total used to be closer to 60mil so I guess this is an indication of inflation here.

When we left we walked to the other side of the block but La Pequena Grand Libreria wasn’t open. On our way to Calle 10A Glenn missed a step and took a fall but didn’t appear to be injured.

We took a taxi back to Envigado. I told Glenn I would love to meet him Wednesday for breakfast but next Sunday would be more feasible.

I guess Teresa talked to her friend Vicky who told her all the clothes in Zara are ugly so there’s no hurry to get to El Tesoro.

Teresa wanted to order some medicine for an itch she has on her eyelashes, but I guess it was too inexpensive to have delivered so she added a large box of MPs to the order. When they arrived I gave the muchacho 45mil for a 44,100 order. I didn’t realize until later that there was no delivery charge added or I would have tipped him more.

I heard from Michael again after I asked if he got his son out of Kyiv, “I did. We flew out this morning to Dubai. Will hang here for a few days to see how things unfold. I still think Putin will pull back within 48 hours, but who knows. The guy is clearly out of his mind. Thanks.”

I finished season 2 of The Wire.

For supper Teresa suggested we go for pizza and I agreed. A few minutes later she decided she had too much work to do in the apt so she wanted me to go for pizza and bring her back a slice. Uh-no thanks. We finally ended up ordering chicken wings delivered from Rocket Wings.

Since I can’t have anything to eat after 5am I told Teresa if I get up during the night (usually around 3am) I would have a little cereal to help tide me over until my next meal. She suggested I have an apple or two instead.

 

The New York Times’ 7-day average of new daily infections and deaths has the US with 109,664 ð 108,240  ð 107,065 new cases and 2,219 ð 2,227  ð 2,218 new deaths.

Per Medellin Guru, as of yesterday, Colombia has a total of 4,020 ð 4,498  ð 3,381 newly reported cases with 136 ð 127  ð 110 newly reported deaths. Medellin has 224 ð 165  ð 139 new cases from February 19^th to 20^th. Envigado has 19 ð 6  ð 7 new cases from February 19^th to 20^th.

 

Fun pix of the day