The Adventures Continue

Photo: Lyn and Lisa along the Long Island Sound beach in Connecticut.

It has been an exciting couple of months for me, and not all of it in a positive sense. Here’s the news!!

Class Reunion

As you remember, I went to Colombia at the end of September. While I was there, I caught a cold — I think from someone I sat next to on the plane. Anyway, I was sick for a few days while in Cali, and then, when I got home, I continued to have trouble with coughing and some asthma.

But, you know me! I toughed it out, and at the end of October, took another trip to Connecticut to visit friends from high school who were getting together. It was our 50th reunion! Hard to believe, but it is true. We are all getting old!

On this trip, Lyn accompanied me. Our flight schedule made it impossible to take the bus to the airport, so the first thing we had to do was drive four (4) hours from Merida to Cancun to catch our flight. We left about 5:00 a.m. The total travel time was another six (6) hours and, when we arrived in Hartford, CT, we rented a car and drove another hour and half (1.5 hrs.) to get to my friend Lisa’s house. We arrived at midnight EST.

The following day, Lyn and I went to get our flu and Covid vaccines. I had a reaction to the Covid shot — the same as I had the first time — achiness, a little fever — but very mild. That day the weather was beautiful. Around 70-degrees (farenheit) / 20-degrees (celsius). Fall was in full swing, with the trees festooned with bright yellow and red leaves. A lot had already fallen, and so my allergies also went into full bloom.

The following day, the temperatures dropped considerably, to about 40-degrees (4-degrees celsius), with temps slightly higher during the day. Nevertheless, the change in temperatures combined with my allergies and all of the vaccines, having never fully recovered from my cold in Colombia, and the long travel days, set off a chain reaction in my immune system. More about that later.

The Party

On Saturday we went to another classmate’s house for the party. Teri lives in a beautiful place in upstate New York. Her house is set back off the road and has a large pond in the front. I hadn’t seen Teri in 50 years, so it was really a treat to spend time with her. Her husband is an absolute angel, too!

There were many classmates at the party that I hardly recognized, and some that I didn’t really remember at all. Here is a group pic from the end of the party. I wish I could tell you who everyone is, but I will have to stick to the one’s whose names I remember.

Kurt and Teri also set up a big bonfire in the front yard. It was sooooo big, there was a little concern it might set the roof on fire! Fortunately, Kurt had a hose handy and the only damage was a hole in Bobby’s jacket.

There was some sadness, too, as we had lost two of our friends in the past year or two — Larry, our. teacher, and Corey, our classmate. Alfie, Corey’s brother, shared with us some photos of Corey and several people gave tributes to him and Larry and the important roles they played in our lives.

The rest of the visit we stayed with Lisa, along with Neil and his wife Lori. It was great to get to know them again after all of these years. Lisa is a wonderful host and a good time was had by all.

The Trip Back

On Monday, after a very short and busy visit, Lyn and I headed back to Mexico, reversing our route, so 1.5 hours driving to the airport, 6 hours in the air, and 4 hours driving from Cancun to Merida. Once again, we arrived home at midnight after an exhausting travel day.

It is no wonder, considering all of the events, that I got sick the day after we got home. It felt like flu, and I needed to take another week off from work to recover.

But that wasn’t the end of it. Flu turned into an upper respiratory infection, which forced me to see a doctor and get antibiotics.

Interestingly, here, if you need to see a doctor, there is one in most pharmacies. You can’t get antibiotics without a prescription, so I had to see someone and get the script. Most other medications do not require a prescription, but antibiotics and controlled substances do.

What’s next, you ask? A Hospital Visit.

Well, just as I was improving, I started looking after my neighbor’s cat. She had gone back to the US for Thanksgiving. On day three, Myrrh (the cat) was rubbing up against my legs, and, when I reached down to pet him, whammo!, he bit me. Hard. I didn’t think much of it at the time. It was just a cat bite. So, I cleaned it and put some antibiotic ointment on it and figured it would get better.

However, the next day, I woke up to tremendous swelling, pain and heat in the arm. Once again, I needed to see a doctor. This time, though, I decided to go to the emergency room at a local private hospital. It’s a good thing I did.

Turns out I had a “significant” infection and needed to stay in the hospital for IV antibiotics. All told, I was there for 4 days!!!!! Along the way I developed an allergy to one of the medications and then had some issues with the IV catheter. Nevertheless, I survived, got better and finally went home.

Never in my life did I imagine that a cat bite could land you in the hospital. Lesson learned!

Of course there were other interesting things along the way, like having to deal with all of this in Spanish. I guess my language skills have really improved, as there were only a couple of instances where I didn’t understand what the nurse was saying to me. Fortunately, there were also a few people who did speak English to help.

One of the benefits of this experience is that we found a great doctor, Dr. Gabriel Magdaleno Lara. He and his partner, Dr. Salazar, were so nice. The hospital staff were also wonderful. The cost, too, wasn’t bad. Considering we don’t have insurance, the total cost was about $3,500 US (just under $70,000 pesos). My neighbor very graciously offered to pay the costs, although she is young and doesn’t earn that much, so it make take her some time. Thank god for credit cards!

Today

Today I am back at home, back to teaching and living my normal life. No plans right now for any more travel until March, when Lyn and I are going on a 16-day European tour (Spain, Tangier, Morocco and Portugal). My goal is to be so healthy by then that there is NO CHANCE I will get sick again.

We shall see!