September 27, 2011

Rainbow diet

In her final years, my mother would say it's best to eat something of each color every day. Some green, yellow, orange, purple, red. That was before the breakthroughs on phytonutrients. And my friend Kathryn from Iowa thinks the same way.
So there we were, a couple days into no purple foods: no red cabbage, eggplant, red onions or even wine. We went to Vivian's Qubano for lunch and that solved everything.
We split a Vivivian's salad, which had beets, just a hint, shaved into it with a peeler. And we split at vegetarian sandwich, which had eggplant slices.
We immediately felt better! I had been drinking iced tea the past few days, so there were other phytonutrients I was getting-specifically catechins. Beta carotins were plentiful in spinach egg scrambles, salads with radishes and peppers. And athocyanins from our fruits. But purple! It made a difference.
We were quickly able to muster the energy to go shopping! Bought dresses, paint and a trash barrel. Eat purple!

September 21, 2011

The White Light

Carmen, head of housekeeping, returned to work Monday, eager to work hard. In the time she had been gone, she had gone to her village to take her mother to Merida and then taken her mother to the village to die. Or so it seemed. She was called back on a Tuesday, after working a bit here, and helped transport her mother back to Merida.
There, she was placed in a family style suite. Carmen bathed her, powdered her and applied cream to her rough spots. She hugged her a lot and doused her neck with vanilla perfume.
She said her mother's pain was taken care of and she drifted in and out of consciousness for several days. She would always wake up alert and talk about seeing a very bright white light and her mother and father. Her mother and father! At age 84, she said they looked the same in that bright white light.
Carmen thought she was asleep when she went to dab the corners of her mouth, but she was not breathing. Two nurses came in and said a doctor would have to say if she was gone. He did.
It was a peaceful passing from the pain of ovarian cancer.
Carmen returned to her daughter's re-hospitalization after a c-section birth. My gift in desperation for the child who had everything turned out to be perfect. Karina didn't get to buying Huggies, baby powder, zinc oxide and a baby bottle. Which Carmen quickly put into service while Karina was being patched up.
Talk about the circle of life!

September 14, 2011

The Shit Show

A recent visitor at Zina's Guest House has a habit of using the phrase "The Shit Show." Where did he get that? "Think about it," he said. "We all have one."
Yep, obsessive-compulsive or the perfect opposite, we all go through our motions to get it on the road. Is the bed made? Where are the keys? Can I print a boarding pass now? Same show, different shit. It's the shit show.
Just like college in the '70s, getting one's shit together is our ongoing, life-long goal.
So. the lab results were published yesterday for the food poisoning case for 27 tourists at Playa Sol. E. coli was the culprit, general demerits for food handling. The rectums of the entire staff were swabbed by the health department. I imagine we are awaiting that shit show before the future of Playa Sol and its owner Sergio Contreras is decided.
For today, the shit show at the Municipal Palace has started. New head of health, some money in the coffers from the fines levied after state inspections done in the aftermath after the poisoning cases.
Sit back, ladies and germs. This is one helluva shit show!

September 13, 2011

Going back in time

I had three hours to kill between the dentist and the doctor, so I parked myself at Casa Rolandi and ordered a personal pizza - pepperoni and cheese - and iced tea and contemplated what the dentist had said.
Inexplicably, my organism had absorbed the equine bone implant in my jaw. We would have to do something again. Soon.
I dragged out the pizza for nearly three hours, reading from my Kindke. That is a welcome thing in low season: bodies attract bodies to restaurants. At one point, the waiters gave me a quarter because there's no use for them here. A tip to me.
I moved on to Don Chepo's Restaurant, for OJ, where I was joined by Samantha of Knoxville, Robby Lavia's girlfriend, also waiting for Dr. Salas. A great waiting room, we concluded.
The morning newspaper had featured Salas explaining the load of chronic illness cases ISSTE and other government clinics see. Illnesses caused by obesity.
Salas was running late and Samantha called. Another half hour. An hour after our time, he took Samantha, then me.
"I thought of your father," Salas said, "And I talked about World War II to my patients today."
My father was a Britsh Red Cross doctor in post-war Germany in the British Zone, tending to liberated POWs, refugees and former concentation camp internees.
He used to talk about how the chronically underfed would outlive most of us. And in the US, he would point to his waiting room and tell me, "80 percent of the people have no business here." They should take their colds home and quit eating and drinking so much. I shared that with Dr. Salas over the years.
"I felt like your father today." Salas said. Mexico is finding it costly to put people on lifetime cholesterol and diabetes control for acquired diabetes. "There was none during World War II," Salas said. "People had to make do."
So he was running late because he was making out the paper work for nutritionist referrals. "It will be better for the patients," he said. "Really, we don't know the liver toxicity from being on statins for 30 years to control cholesterol. But we do know we can make a great impact with diet. Type II diabetes, virtually curable with 15 kilos weight loss."
My diet is back to normal now. The violent bile vomiting caused by the anti inflammatories is over, tended to by myself and a coupe friends while Salas and the ISSTE doctors were working on the new treatment strategy.
"You did a remarkable job, did all the right things and stayed in touch with me while I was in Chetumal. I wish I had more patients like you," he said.
Dr. Salas, I wish more doctors were like YOU!

September 2, 2011

Soy confundida!

Confused is the least of my problems. I am also in pain. Every time I take a pain pill, I get confused. So, since it's been a week since oral surgery and the dressing has been removed, you'd think it would be better. It's just like a fresh surgical wound!
Yesterday morning, I tried a banana and milk smoothie at La Bruja. It burned like hell. I felt little crystals of sugar entering the wounds. Did you put sugar in this? Well, yes, it's presumed, Roberto answered. I sent it back and asked for one with ONLY bananas, milk and ice, blended.
I'm sorry. I am someone who always orders water melon water without sugar. I presumed they knew me well enough. Still, stinging as I tried to eat it. But I ate a lot before commenting that it burned like sugar. Claro, hay azucar.
I'm sorry. What part of sugar hurts me after dental surgery did they not understand? This morning, I made mocha with stevia and ice and milk. No burn. Much better.
But now, without a cold beverage, it's time to take a pain pill and apply and ice bandage. Excused me. I'm confused. It's also time to take a Cipro. I'll wait on Robert and Katey to get back from scubaing with Enrique Avila before deciding how to proceed.
They did bring me an Android I bought on eBay. I am confused and cannot consistently call up the touch key pad. I guess a lie down is in order.
Carmen is washing out some clothes and wants to iron a couple blouses. Me, I'll just be still in my pain and confusion.