Zena showed up as she always does, with a big smile on her face and her basket full of cleaners. She does not speak English and we don't speak Spanish, and so we have learned to use the few words we both know in each others language to communicate. We both laugh when our communication is confusing each other. I like her. Zena is very efficient and she has a consistent routine. In a little over an hour she can be done with everything and on her way to the next apartment. Having Zena has made our stay here much easier.
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| Zena our lovely housekeeper |
After Zena left, Doug settled in to watching CNN and snoozing off and on the rest of the morning. Me, I took advantage of Cyber Monday. I had a goal to have my Christmas shopping done before I left here. Of course when I left, I had imagined I would have lots of sitting around and quiet time. It turns out that things have been a bit busier than that. I also took some time taday to see if Doug's insurance would cover any of his stay in the hospital down here. I purchased travel insurance as well, when I purchased our airline tickets. I had to pay for his care when we checked into the hospital with a credit card. They charged my card $13,000 pesos for the hospital, ambulance, hospital stay, medicine and care and an additional $4000 for his x-ray. At the time the last thing I was worried about was the cost. Now with a few days behind us, I decided that I had better start working on reimbursement if possible. The good news is that it looks like his insurance will pay a portion and I am not sure if the travel insurance will cover any, since he traveled here for a medical procedure even though I don't think the cough or extreme weakness is related to the treatment. We will see.
Doug is still coughing, and so his sleep is still interrupted. Waking this morning he is still fairly week and the cough is hanging on. The last steroid infusion did not slow it down much. It may have made him slightly stronger. It is very hard to say. Dr. Priesca sent over a medication to use with an inhaler. It arrived about 5:00 p,m. The medication is in a pill that fits into an inhaler that you squeeze which punctures the pill while you are inhaling. The funny thing is that the directions were all in Spanish. There were pictures and everything was going well putting it together, except after Doug inhaled, he did not taste or feel any medication. I opened up the inhaler and the pill was still sitting there and the pill had a powdery substance in it. I thought for sure it did not work. Doug tried again. Nothing. And so I called Dr. Priesca, however he was not available. And so I sent him a text. Thirty minutes later, I had not heard anything and so I called Marianne our patient advocate. She said she would call Dr. Priesca, and she did but she to had to leave a message. An hour later Dr. Priesca called. We have spent so much time with these two in the last few days that I feel like we are old friends. We reviewed everything I had done and he said, yes, that is it. And if there is something more to it, he will walk through it with us tomorrow at the clinic.
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| An inhaler for Doug's cough. |
Tomorrow if all goes well it will be last day that Doug is under direct medical care. In the morning the nurse or doctor will come to take a blood sample to once again measure his white blood cell count, hemoglobin and platelets. And then at 12:00 p.m. Doug and the others in our group will get the final infusion of Retuximab. We will meet individually with Dr Ruiz and he will provide Doug's discharge consultation and make recommendations for continued care once we return home on Saturday.
Faith: believing in things unseen. It was faith that brought us here to Puebla and now it is faith that we will carry with us as we return home. Faith and trust in the healing power of our God, our bodies and God's servants who have worked so hard to develop this treatment.
And so we pray:
Wonderful Counselor, it is you who drew us in, whispering words of healing and hope to us. It is you who listened to our prayers and have counseled us to keep taking the next right step. Be with us now as we finish this treatment. Encourage and counsel us as Doug's moves towards healing. Strengthen us in our faith so that we will remain steadfast in the knowledge that you are doing better things for us than we can ask for or imagine. Give us eyes to see you at work in all things. In your name we ask it. Amen.
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| Sleeping wrapped in healing prayers. |
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