Day Four - LONG DAY. Argh.

Adrian, one of the Pharmacists

Mariachi band at Negro Durazo

Valentina waiting patiently for Mama.

Debra when she got her AMAZING news!!

Well, I might just happen to be Little Miss The-Glass-Is-Half-Empty today. Considering I haven't yet had a good night's sleep yet, last night didn't make matters much better. The party animals next door left around 0030 & headed across the street, which is right outside our window. So I heard a bunch of boys yelling & singing, mixed in with car alarms & honking horns until Mom woke up & told me to turn the fan on. Great idea, right? Well, yes, but not after I realized I couldn't control the temperature. So I shivered all night long, might as well have been sleeping out on the deck at home. Brrr! We were up early to haul our luggage out of the Hotel Pueblo Amigo & off to the clinic.

I was able to get in for my treatments right away & Mom had her blood work. Poor little Valentina was left at the hands of her ever growing fan club. She'll be the mascot for the clinic before our time is up! I chatted with a Mrs. Groot from Smithers, BC this morning. She came to the clinic in 1992 (?) with Leukemia. She's healthy & happy these days! I'm getting to know the faces & stories of the people at the clinic & they are all fascinating. My happiest moment of the day was when Debra shared her good news with me... Her sedimentation rate when she arrived was 69%. She couldn't walk or dress herself. She was crippled with pain & 4 auto-immune diseases. To see her today, just 2 weeks later, she looks as healthy as any other human. Her sedimentation rate today was 16%. (Your sedimentation rate shows the amount of inflammation in your body) It was truly a miracle! We were hugging & crying. That woman got her life back today! She can finally carry on with her life as a wife & mother - something she hasn't done for over a year! Wow! Amazing! Inspiring!

Mom was having an appointment with Dr. Rubio this afternoon, so we ended up waiting for the late shuttle. While I waited, I decided to head out for tacos camaron. A lovely fellow from Sudbury named Jordan agreed to join me for the journey to Negro Durazo. He seemed a little nervous when my Espanol wasn't as fluent as he hoped! But we made it there & back & the shrimp tacos were perfect!

I waited & waited & waited for Mom to finish up. Finally she came out at 1545 & we were off. Wow. What a queue at the border. Not fun. We had to wait in line in the van. Then bail out of the van with ALL our luggage & wait in line inside the building. After customs checked our passports, we had to scan our luggage. However, everyone was dumping their stuff through at the same time. I was sure I was never going to see some of my luggage again. I have no idea how, but we managed to collect it all on the other side. Maybe it was too heavy for anyone to run away with?!? :o) So we made it through to the other side, now what? Where was the van? Where was the driver? Great. Oh wait, there he is. Phew. And after we headed north on the highway, what a queue of vehicles waiting to cross the border into Mexico. Yeesh. At least a 2 hour wait in your car to get back home. It is mind boggling to think of all these people busy on their wait to & from their jobs every day, thinking they are all significant. It just goes to show you how insignificant we are on the grander scale of things. Grains of sand, that's all we are!

Off to the hotel... Here we are in the US of A & I am so sad. No practicing Espanol, typical food, typical traffic, typical, typical, typical. Mom & I both agreed that we were having far more of an adventure on the 'other side'. At least we'll know for next time. Buy groceries in the US & stay in TJ.

I know, I told you, Little Miss The-Glass-Is-Half-Empty... We had a relatively nice meal at Coco's & bumped into a few more people from the clinic. The one couple was kind enough to offer us a ride to the nearest ATM to pull some $$ for Mom to pay Dr. Castillo tomorrow. Les & Linda from Hinton - they had some fantastic stories to share with us! In fact, they told us a story about a fellow from Alberta who was diagnosed with cancer. His Doctor told him he couldn't help him for one month, as he was going to be away. The gentleman didn't want to waste time, so he looked around & heard about Dr. Castillo's clinic. He came down & ran smack into his Doctor! His Doctor was being treated at Dr. Castillo's clinic! Ha! Great story!

So, it's a short note tonight, but I'm a wee bit tired. Forgive my lack of enthusiasm & here's hoping that tomorrow will be better! We're going to try & head out to Palm Desert tomorrow afternoon if all goes well. I'm super excited, as I've never been there! Until then, thanks for tuning in! xxxx