Hospital Angeles: Day 1

The first 24 hours have passed at Hospital Angeles in Tijuana and I sit here knowing I should get to bed early.  It is hard however to give up the solo quiet time that the night brings.  Time for a bit of self reflection, yoga and meditation.  I woke to a dream this morning of walking through an orchard.  There was something strange yet comforting in the image as I woke.  Even more relevant though was the timing, the nurse walked in to take blood just moments later.  Refreshing for sure to get such an undisturbed night of sleep in a hospital.  In fact, the nurses and doctors here are super sensitive to interrupting meals and sleep.  On many occasions, "I can come back when you're finished."  Por ejemplo, the psychologist today wanting me to have time to finish my meal before our visit and the nurse last night apologetic for waking me for something we could do in the morning.  Strange indeed when coming from a paradigm where I have been literally woken up in the middle of the night to be given sleeping pills.

After giving up the blood, urine and stool for sampling Christopher and I went outside for some morning sun and a bit of stretch time.  Breakfast followed.  It's been interesting comparing my meals the acompanante meals (those they prepare for Chris).  I'm usually jealous of his, particularly with the lack of dairy in my meals.  However, the organic and gluten-free preparation have been tasty and darn near satisfying.  They bring 3 meals plus 2 snacks daily and adjust my dietary needs based on the results of my blood work.  A big focus on adjusting to the body's needs through nutrition as opposed to drug therapy.  The big outing today was to the biological dentist.  An animated brother/sister team checked me out.  My perspective on the whole experience was it felt half like important information regarding my cancer situation and half a sales pitch on dental work.  A digital xray showed no significant concerns with my bone and roots (particularly regarding infection), which was great perspective as I have had major concerns with this for years due to auto-immune issues, gum disease and root loss.  I have also had much more tooth sensitivity since my rounds of chemo.  The quote for minor cavities and cleaning certainly seem like an afterthought for me.  I'm feeling a bit more of a priority on surviving prior to dental work.  However, upon my survival, the dentist (who through his stories relayed much informacion, including how he broke his ribs surfing and busted-up his knee skydiving) personally offered to give us the best personal guidance on a healing Mexican vacation with the best unknown places to stay and eat.  He also managed to get Dr. Lepisto's opinion regarding his father's prostate cancer.  We have his card!

I experienced a bit of an emotional shift later in the day after finally meeting Dr. Perez, the head oncologist who we've had various phone consults with.  We ironed out a few miscommunications regarding my chemotherapy treatments and the second marrow biopsy that I did not end up having done back in the states (again, the biggest challenge here is the language barrier despite the fact that the lead docs speak good English).  He had a bit of abruptness and his concern regarding my immune-compromised state heightened my own concerns.  I realize I am very empathetic and am very good at observing and taking on energies as opposed to just information.  My worry and angst later in the day I had to process as I began to feel like I was not getting enough information and another day passing was bringing up a sense of urgency within me.  By dinner time a visit from Dr. Garcia with a run down of most of my lab work returned a sense of calm and optimism.  Other than my white blood cell count, which is even lower than it has been, the rest of my counts looked improved.  Both Chris and I felt really good about these numbers in comparison with past recent labs.  We were also assured that we would see the hematologist in the morning and would get a much clearer picture on treatment options.

I did squeeze a nap into the day, however, now that we have settled here the exhaustion has settled in as well.  It certainly was an amped up couple of days as things unfolded to get here.  Last minute flight logistics, uncertainty in arrangements and faith with a journey to Tijuana, puddle jumpers with pilot characters across the southwest, emergency pee in my Nalgene bottle, a backroads shuttle with a driver who "retired" back to Tijuana because living in the states was way too scary and dangerous (great perspective in that story), checking in to the hospital and dealing with a moment of concern about whether or not we would be staying here, and finally landing in my room and going, "WHOA!"  Here's a video wrap up of the day as well: