Everything you ever wanted to know about blood draws and pacemaker tests

December 29th was the 6 month anniversary of my open heart surgery. January 6th was the 6 month anniversary of my pacemaker installation.

Yesterday was an exciting day. I had my first appointment over the phone with the pacemaker clinic. Crazy stuff. I also had to get my blood drawn for my bi-monthly INR test to make sure my blood is thin enough to get through the new valve without clotting and thick enough that I don’t bleed to death from a paper cut.

My friend Lise came along to document the procedure. And, as it turns out blogged about that morning too:

(I also need to let my good friends, who care about these things, know that after seeing these pictures I ran right out and got a haircut.   haircut.jpg  It’s good - not as good as Heather does, of course, but definitely better.)

The lab I go to is on the top floor of a hospital that is in a big old colonial building in the center. We should have taken a picture of the beautiful terrace that is outside her lab. Oh well.

This is the nice señora who sticks a very long needle into my arm every 2-3 weeks and who is very patient with me and my Spanish.

It doesn’t actually hurt that much, it is just the anticipation, sometimes she has to wiggle the needle around to find the vein.

Today was good day though, she hit it right away. Just look at that blood rushing into the needle.

Then she writes down my info in a little spiral notebook on her cluttered workbench and I pay her about 11 dollars, (110 pesos.) She does the test and in the afternoon I get my results in a legal sized envelope in the front lobby of the hospital and take them to a copy place to FAX them to my anticoagulation nurse at Kaiser, who then emails me my coumadin instructions. It’s a great system.

At noon it was time for my pacemaker test. The telephone appointment was scheduled before we left Portland. Someone from the pacemaker clinic called me at the appointed time and I had my little machine ready.

I had little wristbands connecting me to the machine, then I put the handset onto the machine and she got the signal from my pacemaker, all the way up there in Portland, Oregon USA.

Then I had to put this big strong magnet right over the pacemaker - I wasn’t so crazy about that. It flips a switch in the pacemaker to get another reading. I don’t totally understand, (I think they explained it to me in Portland, but I don’t remember.) My heart definitely felt different and I was glad to have it done with. She said it was a clear signal though, and that my numbers were good, so that’s good I suppose. Then we made another appointment for four months from now, hung up and it was done.

Cheese god, my hair was bad!!

This is why

it was so great to have Shane and Denise here…

just kidding

A walk

Shane and Denise left yesterday. It was so great to have them here. We took many walks (even an epic one) and did many touristy things. Over the next few days I’ll be posting more, but here are some pix of a walk that Denise and I took the other day.

We walked up a hill on the other side of town and decided to go through this tunnel. Have I talked about the tunnels yet? This town is full of them. Most of the cross town traffic uses the tunnels that go under the city, that were originally dug to divert the river, which would flood the town, but it had flooding problems down there too, so they diverted it to even deeper tunnels and made the first river tunnels into roads. (Is that sentence too long?)

This tunnel is actually up on the hill though.

We found ourselves at the temple of Guadalupe. We were going to go in but it was closed. I think it may have had something to do with Kings day that was coming up. Notice the huge wasp nest in the right, top corner of the window.

I just love Jesus. He’s so pretty.

We came to a nice little neighborhood at the top of our journey, and were greeted by dogs on rooftops.

And once we got to the top, we headed down.

There’s Pipila in the distance.

Once we got to the bottom, I found these fairies serenading the virgin. Makes sense to me.

Another Blog to check out

My friend Lise, who is here from Seattle for a good part of a year is making a blog as well. It is another report and another perspective from a NW gal on her time in Guanajuato with her family.

Her post of Dec. 24 “Navidad and its Activities” also has link to an excellent video of Matthew leading a large roomful of people in “The Twelve Days of Christmas” complete with hand motions.

New Years Day 2008

We brought in the new year with a trip to an amazing hotsprings outside of San Miguel Allende, called Escondido. There a number of establishments (including a fun water park we went to early on in our stay, Xote,) in this area out side of San Miguel, on the way to Dolores Hidalgo.

We took a bus to San Miguel, then another bus to Dolores, but asked to be let off on the highway near the road where the row of hot springs are.

Shane and Denise a the bus station.

Once we got off the bus, it required a long walk down a dirt road.

I didn’t take many pictures, but the park was very lush and green, with paths winding between little ponds and nice soaking/swimming pools. The main attractions were two series of connected pools, one indoor and one outdoor. I tried to draw a picture. It is from above showing both the roof and what it is inside of the indoor pool.

Enscondido.jpg

The one thing I left out of the drawing was the random couple plastered against the random wall in tender and intimate embrace. Nothing hardcore, just intimacy.

The design was ingenius. The little tunnels let water and people pass back and forth, but generally kept the heat separated. The spouts of water were warm to hot and you could stand under them and get a massage. And the pools were deep enough and big enough to swim in.

We wandered between those pools for a while and then found a grassy spot near a warm, outdoor pool to picnic. Mikko spent most of the rest of the time playing in that pool, while we took turns wandering back into the indoor pools.

Mikko and Denise are floating.

Poor Shane was getting sick and we had thought that the hot springs would be good for him, but the wind was quite strong and midway though our time the sun went behind a cloud and the temperature dropped considerably.

We decided to take a taxi back to Guanajuato, which cost 45 dollars. It was worth the convenience of not having to take a few buses,

especially when Shane was so miserable.

When we arrived in Guanajuato the temperature was in the 30s and there was a stong, frigid wind blowing. We finished out the day at the place that Carlyn and Steve had been house/pet sitting on a snuggly couch with a cat and some dogs and a big TV.

All in all, a lovely way to bring in the New Year.

New Years Eve

Carlyn and Steve took us all out to a nice Italian Restaurant on New Years Eve. It was their last night here and the eve of their 22nd wedding anniversary. We had a great dinner, despite the fact that there was only one waiter and when we asked to see the wine list, he said “sorry, no wine, it should come in about 30 minutes” (Just a reminder, this is an Italian restaurant on New Years Eve.) Everything from then on happened so slow, that waiting for a shipment of wine, fit right in and we did get a bottle just a short way into the meal. The company was good, no one got low blood sugar and when the food did come it, was all delicious.

One thing we have learned about eating here, is that there isn’t the same preoccupation with timing that we have in the states. We often each get our meals at very different times. It is that whole comfort in waiting and having odd ambiguous times that people in the U.S. don’t generally have.

Then we all, except the abuelos, went back up the hill to our house. We tried to stay up ’till midnight, but all got too sleepy by about 10:30 and decided to set off the biggest sparklers we have ever seen, or purchased. They were close to a meter long! And threw sparks almost that far. As it turned out our balcony was alittle too small for us all to have them going at the same time - live and learn.

I also had some sparkler type things that I had bought that said that they did not represent any danger and were made specifically for children, (that is what it says isn’t it?)

It turns out that they shot out a particular harsh flame that hurt when the sparks hit you and really didn’t have a handle.

Denise propped hers on a glass, and we all thought she was a genius until the glass shattered.

Then we all went to bed.  Mikko had me set the alarm for midnight,  but even though he had only been asleep for 15 minutes or so, he wouldn’t wake up.  There was quite a bit of firework action outside - but NOTHING like Xmas eve.

Presa Mata

Shane and Denise arrived on the 28th, so their time overlapped a bit with the grandparents, (Carlyn and Steve,) which was perfect. I haven’t posted or written much since then because we have been very busy doing fun things.

Shane is feeling under the weather, so we are all using that as an excuse to sit still today. The weather yesterday suddenly got very cold. So it was a good thing we planned our day at Presa Mata early on, while the temperature was in the 80s.

On the 29th we went out to the Presa Mata a lake that is about an hour walk out of town. Matthew had a period of taking long hikes and discovering cool places, while Mikko and I were in school. Now we get to take advantage of all of his scouting. Matthew, Shane and Denise walked out there, and Carlyn, Steve, Mikko and I took a 10 dollar cab ride to meet them. The Presa Mata is actually a resevior that supplies the city with water, but there are little beaches that you can hang out on and swim, if you can handle the super cold water. Mikko, Matthew, Denise and I all dove in but it was too cold to stay in and frolic. It did give us that fabulous tingly feeling after we got out and the sun hit our skin.

We had a great picnic, rock skipping, and general lollygagging, then took the long scenic walk home.