Back To The Doctor

Roy has had very swollen feet for the last few months, he never wanted to go to the Dr. about it to see what the cause is.  Is it just men in general or is he more stubborn than most?  This said with a smile, of course.

A couple of days ago our landlords daughter in law came up with a birthday party invitation and was aghast when she happened to notice his swollen feet.  I guess coming from someone other than me had an effect on him as he decided we should go to the Dr. and see about it.

We went to a Farmacia Similares to see the Dr..  I have seen this particular Dr. before and liked his approach so I was glad when it was him.  The Drs. at the Farmacia rotate in and out and also change from mornings to afternoons so I am never quite sure who I will see.

The Dr. asked lots of questions and gave him a fluid pill to get rid of the worst of the retention problem quickly.  Then he wrote a script for a blood and urine analysis and also an ECG.  Paid the Dr. his 30 pesos, (about $2.50 CAD) and we were on our way.

This morning we headed down to the laboratory that is run by the Similares people also.  There were very few people ahead of us and after giving the clerk his information we maybe waited 5 minutes, then blood work, he handed in the urine sample and waited maybe another 5 minutes for the ECG.  She gave him a couple of minutes to remove the metallic objects on his person and his shirt and returned and did the test.

While we were waiting they had to do a blood test on a little girl about 1½ yrs. old.  We both figured we were in for some ear splitting screams; but she emerged with mom with a lollipop and dry eyes.  I said something to her mom about there being no tears.  Mom just proudly smiled and said no, she just sucked in her breath a bit and that was it.  Wow.

Cost for all of Roys tests was 324.00 pesos or about $27.02 CAD. We can pick up the results on Monday morning after 8 AM and then we will have to return to see the Dr.

All in all a good experience.  Very friendly, professional people, very clean place, would definitely go there again.  Thankfully, we didn't have any communication problems and were happy with the appt..

I did notice that they have a special on right now for the basic analyses.  For 426.00 pesos, (about $35.52 CAD), you can get your blood and urine tested for all the normal stuff and a ECG and something else.  It said that this checkup will tell you how well your liver, kidneys,heart, etc. are functioning plus your cholesterol levels, sugar, etc..  I thought is was a pretty good deal and am thinking I might go for that myself as I haven't had anything like that checked in a very, very long time. 

Next installment to follow.

Museum And The Doctor

Museum And The Doctor

This probably seems like a goofy title, and no, my doctor does not belong in a museum. It is hard to think up an appropriate title day in and day out. I usually try and put something up there that describes the day and sometimes it is goofy.
This morning we decided to go and try find the museum that Ciro has been telling us about. With his directions in hand we set out. We found it right away with no problems. After paying our $1.oo entry fee each, we began to look around.
This is one of the doors on the building that the museum is in. It is my favorite color of blue, so naturally had to take a photo of it.

This is a poor photo of a piece of a meteorite that landed close to Guaymas in the 1960's. This piece is very heavy and weighs over 200 kg.

There were many interesting displays. The paleontology specimens all (but 2) came from this region of Mexico. The oldest of the fossils were about 570 millions of years old. They also had a diorama of a Seri Indian cave and the paintings that they made, apparently similar paintings may be found in the Guaymas region. There was also a showcase with objects used by the Yaqui Indians. One historic fact that I found interesting, was that during the Mexican Revolution Guaymas had to print their own paper money for a time, as they were under seige from June 1913 - July 1914. They had several objects from the battles including a one meter projectile fired from the ship El Guerrero. Right at the doorway they have a large case featuring many, many beautiful shells. These shells are 1/3 of a collection of one lady, collected between 1920-1970, it is hard to find shells this size now because of over fishing the brochure says.
Part of the shell case.

It is not a large museum; but is laid out very well and also is looked after well.
From the museum we walked down the street on our way to the doctors office, where I needed to get my blood pressure checked. Ciro had told us about an old home (covering a block). He says that inside the doors, there is a courtyard with a fountain and the rooms are built around 3 sides of the courtyard. We found the house; but of course the doors were not open so we couldn't see into the courtyard.
Door to the huge home.

We also wandered by "Patios Leon", it is an area that you can rent for weddings, parties, etc.. I liked their doors/gates. The lions were cut out around somewhat like a stencil would be. On the right hand side lion you can see the light coming through the cut outs.

We continued on our way to the doctors office; but first had to stop and sit in the park by the Iglesia de San Fernando (San Fernando Church). The doors of the church were open, so we wandered in and I took some photos. It is a beautiful church.
A couple of the stained glass windows in the church.



When we arrived at the doctors office, it was nice to see that the only other person waiting was a salesman. The receptionist told us it would only be a little while, so we sat down to wait. You do not get rushed in and out here as in Canada, so I knew it would be a little wait. Two other people came in and the salesman decided to leave. I saw the doctor and we chatted about a couple of questions that I had for him and then we were ready to leave. We also stopped at the shop where I get my chocolate chips to see if she carries molasses. I want to make some gingersnap cookies, so need molasses. She didn't, so we continued on to catch our bus. Before going home we needed to stop at the grocery store about 3 blocks from us. This is the same street as the "shrimp taco lady", as we got close to the grocery store, we could hear the tacos calling us, so were forced to head there and have some tacos and a coke. While we were eating, I was reading the newspaper and noticed that there is supposed to be a Christmas Parade this afternoon at 5:30 PM (if I translated the paper correctly). So we may go to that. After eating we did go to the grocery store and then home.

If you are interested there are more photos from today in the album here:http://travel.webshots.com/album/556224469YzzOJQ?start=60 on pages 6,7,8 and 9.

A Visit To The Doctor

A Visit To The Doctor

I needed another bag of soil to top up some of the plants and also to plant the yellow rose that Ciro had brought back from the tianguis on Saturday. I also needed to get a pot for it. We decided on Sunday to take the car to get the dirt and pot, so I was in the process of making a grocery list when Irene came to the door. They had bought a Jasmine plant for themselves at the tianguis on Saturday and she had it in her hand. She told me that it was for me, I told her I would pay for it and she wouldn't let me. I thanked her and she left. I can't quite figure this out as Ciro had been showing it to me and telling me that Irene had wanted one because of how nice they smell. Then the next day she is giving it to me, I don't know. So now we needed 2 pots and saucers. The pots here are not sold with the saucers and the only place that I have found the proper saucers for the pots, they have been as expensive as the pots. I have just been buying plastic dish pans to go under the pots as I don't want the excess water running all over the patio.

The yellow rose and the jasmine plant.

It seems like it is always a Sunday when we end up taking the car out for these errands. Why, I don't know, as that is the busiest day of the week for the big grocery store as most people are off work. It is not like we have a busy schedule, I think it is just that we tend to forget what day it is until we get there. This retirement thing is tough!! We got the soil from the nursery and proceeded to Soriana, which as we expected was busy! As we had the car, I stocked up on some of the heavier things so that I wouldn't have to carry them on the bus. I needed flour, I had asked Roy to get some one day and he had come back with a bag of lard, which I already had. I had gone uptown for some other things that day and realised when I got uptown that I hadn't shown him the flour bag so that he would know what it looked like. He doesn't know the spanish words for things like that. So I was wondering what he would get. I told him that I thought he did it on purpose so that I would have to do more baking. Ha ha. So, on Sunday I got a couple of small bags of flour and forgot to get yeast, oh well.

I have been intending to go to the doctor for awhile now and decided that yesterday was the day that I would try that. I needed chocolate chips for cookies, Roy has been mentioning them and the last couple of times that Alan has been up, I think he has been looking for them also, as his face kind of dropped when I gave him a lollipop instead of cookies. From the directions for the doctors office it seemed that it was only a couple of blocks away from where I get the chocolate chips. Two birds with one stone! I have never been to the doctor here in Mexico, so I wasn't sure what to expect. I found the office easily, (he also has a small hospital attached) and asked the receptionist about an appointment. Yes, she said, you will be after the man in the hat. OK, I sat down to wait. From the speed that people were coming in and out of the room, I realised that this doctor must be taking time to talk to the people. No in and out in 5 minutes like in Canada, this is a good thing, I thought. The receptionist by the way did not take my name or any medical history or anything else. There were lots of people waiting and I decided that I would be there most of the day, until I noticed that everyone else that was there was in a family group. I was the only person there by myself. People were friendly and there was lots of conversation going on, which they included me in. There was a cute little boy sitting beside me that everyone was getting a kick out of. He asked where his dad was and his grandma pointed at an elderly man waiting and said, he's right there. No, the little boy, said that's not my daddy. This went back and forth for abit with everyone getting a good laugh out of the little fellow. I gave him a candy and he didn't seem to like it. I asked him if it was dulce (sweet) and he said, no it's malo (bad, no good), his grandma stuck it in her mouth and told him that yes, it's sweet. He insisted it was bad and kept putting it in and out of his mouth and getting all sticky before she finally took it away from him. That kept everyone laughing for awhile more. Time passed slowly as there were no magazines or anything to look at other than a couple of large paintings on the walls. There was a huge television in the corner; but it was not turned on. I read all the diplomas on the walls, the doctor had trained in England with some other courses taken in Arizona. When it was my turn the doctor ushered me into the exam room himself as he had done with everyone else. I explained why I was there and he chatted with me for awhile before taking my blood pressure. He then went and phoned the pharmacy and came back with the information that I had asked for, we chatted about something else and he again went and looked something up and phoned the pharmacy. When he came back we chatted some more and he wrote out the prescription. He told me which pharmacy he had phoned so that I would know that they had the 2 things. During all this, he never asked my name or took any written medical history. He did ask lots of questions about my medical history; but nothing was written down. At the end of the visit he came back out with me, told the receptionist the charge and ushered in the next patient. A very different visit from in Canada; but very nice, as I didn't feel rushed, he took time to listen to what I had to say and was very helpful and informative.

After the doctors visit, I went and got the chocolate chips and then to the pharmacy for the prescriptions and then to the store for the saucers for the plant pots. This store was very busy and the lady behind me was showing me the santa claus hat she was buying for one of her children/grandchildren. It had long white braids on it and little red plastic stars on it. I showed her the switch and told her that there were lights in the stars. She hadn't realised that; but when we hit the switch nothing happened. She went back to the counter to pick out another one. She returned with another one and it also didn't work, there was a clerk right there so she asked her about it. The clerk either said that the batteries were missing or dead, I am not sure which, so the lady went back to the counter again. This time when she returned and showed me the hat, I showed her that one of the wires was hanging totally unattached. She rolled her eyes and returned to the counter again. This time she returned with one with no lights, she had given up on them, she said and laughed. A fun way to pass the time standing in line. After finishing my shopping I debated going home or heading to the bank as I was getting low on funds and it is almost rent time. I decided to do the banking and got on the bus, to go to the bank that gives out a higher limit per day at their ATM. I did my banking and caught another bus to go home, I was getting tired so decided to be lazy and do a transfer (they actually don't do transfers here, you just get off and catch a different bus). When the first bus stopped at one of the hospitals I noticed that stopped right in front of us was the bus that would take me to within 1 block of home. I hopped off and hopped on the other one and was home shortly. I was too lazy to pot the plants when I got home, so need to do that today. I used all the cheese making supper last night, so I should go and get some more of that today to. Instead of painting yesterday while I was gone, Roy decided to dust, and mop the floors for me, it was nice to come home to a clean house. He may get back to the painting today, maybe.