Too busy blogging about our hotel (P.S. the toxic smell came from the complete renovation of our floor that was completed in a matter of 8 hours...they needed to impress the President of El Salvador), I went into little detail about J.R.'s actual treatment.
J.R.'s injections go as follows...
First he is given a a shot of saline to be sure the catheter is in its proper place. Next he is given two vials, back to back, of the stem cells. The amount seems small. Then one quick shot of heparin (a blood thinner) before a final push of saline to be sure those suckers don't clog in the line. The whole process takes five short (try describing them to J.R. as short) minutes.
The funniest part is that at the first treatment I had no idea how many injections he'd receive nor how long it would take to administer them, yet to distract J.R. I'd say "okay let's count" at the start of each.
"Oooooooooooone, twooooooooooo, thrrrrrrrrrreeeeeeeeeeee..." I counted slowly.
"Onetwothreefourfivesixseveneightnineten" J.R. counted OVER me and was on 10 before I hit 2. I just love that little boy.
After today's treatment we were off to our planned excursion to the Zoo which included a traditional Costa Rican lunch and a stop at a souvineer sweatshop (oops I meant factory). J.R.'s version of a traditional CR lunch was picked up on the way at El Burger King. To give you an idea of traffic, we could throw a rock at BK from the clinic, but after having to "serpentine" (which prompted lots of "look kids, Big Ben, Parliament jokes") it took 20 minutes before we had J.R.'s "cajita" (kidsmeal) in hand.
Our driver's name was Esteban, and Tim prompty calls him Steve then tells "Steve" that I speak Spanish. Great! I did NOT want this trip to be work! Interestingly enough I am encountering LOTS of people just like Esteban here in Costa Rica whose English is about it good as my Spanish. We end up having the greatest conversations! I can't tell you what great exchanges I've had, talking about what it's like to learn a foreign language and how difficult it is to retain without practice. Every person I spoke with is (happily) studying very hard, which is respectable I have to say.
Don't ever take a tour with us, because inevitably every tour guide we've used takes a pre-destination side trip to his home town and points out about 200 points of disinterest adding 50 minutes to the ride. Point in case: we left Kauai, Hawaii not knowing it was once a massive pineapple plantation but got to see where Lana kept her goats during the rainy season.
I really like Costa Rica. I can't stress enough how genuinely nice everyone is, and I honestly didn't mind seeing Esteban's elementary school, te prometo.
The traditional lunch was at a neat shack made to look authentic for tourists. The food looked and was, according to Tim y Esteban, very tasty. I simply ordered a batido de fresa because I had nervously downed J.R.'s BK fries on the trip over.
As for the Zoo...it was very lush and just J.R.'s pace. For my hometown friends, let's just say it's the Costa Rican version of Flamingo Gardens...just riddled with conservationist slogan-filled signs (oh yeah and cardboard cutouts of animals that may be asleep). I think Tim actually attempted to pet a two dimensional tapir.
The highlights included Tim and I nearly getting clipped by a Toucan (darker in color than Toucan Sam from what I saw), and J.R. coming an inch from getting his ass torn off by a peacock. As if this were not entertaining enough, an exit sign warned that it was not very eco-friendly to harvest turtle eggs for Viagra production. !Que divertido! (...o horror)
The Zoo is famous for its birds, but I swear more effort was put into providing a habitat for its turtles, squirrels (no I am not kidding) and (two) iguanas. I wanted to ask if I could help build the population by letting the zookeepers visit my BACK YARD! LOL!
I'm off to fight the VP of Chile for the last piece of sushi at the concierge spread. The bomb squad thinks J.R. is cute so I may have an in!
Peace!
K
OK first of all LOVE the pic of JR "watering the plants" at that high tech zoo! Classic, sooo going in the book!
ReplyDeleteSecond I am so impressed with your medical terminology you sound like a professional!!!
Third I think it's classic that the people in Costa Rica make more of an effort to learn English than all the morans here in south Florida that have been here for 20 yrs and still don't speak a lick of English, AWESOME!
So glad the hard part is over and it is nice and quick for JR everyday, thank the Lord for Ports!!!
Thinking of you guys everyday. Counting down the minutes till you get back! Did some talking with Jason Bank over the weekend ...so we are getting there! Lots to talk about. Miss you, can't wait to read the next one. Love ya!
This is soooo great. I think I may hire you to work with me as a medical translater!!! Know that you are all in my thoughts and prayers. Looking forward to your next blog.
ReplyDeleteyou are just too much as usual! lol
ReplyDeleteInteresting about the blood thinner, must be a new part of the protocol as well. We didn't have that! LOL at JR's counting. Dylan would do the same thing and then break down when we got to 20 and still not done...poor thing.
Oh and hillarious about the side tours.
I am soooooooooo impressed with your "bogging". Kev was in tears last night reading parts. I hope you guys are getting just a bit of relaxation while you are there. It sounds like everything is going fairly smoothly. Give JR kisses for us and tell him KE, KO and KA miss him and ask about him everyday. Love and prayers!
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