Day 14: El Gatito

We had a pretty uneventful day today. Good right? Yup! In order to pass the time today after treatment, John and I made friends with los gatitos. There are five cats (gatito) that roam the clinic area, we decided to make friends with them. John had some leftover milk from breakfast, so we poured it into a bowl and set it outside the back door of the apartment. We waited. Soon, the cats smelled up the milk and were mewing around the door. John made friends with the seemingly king cat - he named him "Spot."

Day 13: Life is Good

I just finished reading a really good book called "The Year of Living Biblicially" by A.J. Jacobs. The author, a New York "Jew like the Olive Garden is Italian," is a agnostic and decides to live for a full year according to the Bible to see if he can find God. As time goes on, he learns to love to pray. He finds a lot of benefit to it. What he ultimately decides is that, if anything, he has learned that prayer is a major key to life as it makes you focus on small things in life and makes you understand you're an important part of a much bigger thing; it made him grateful.

This weekend, John and I went to Carlsbad/La Jolla. We were able to stay with a Global Hero friend of mine and her family. She has an 11-year-old son and 13-year-old daughter, so John was in his element. We had a great time! It was so fabulous to go to an American grocery store, buy the things are most familiar (Cheddar Bunnies, chardonnay, trail mix...) or go to American stores and SHOP! John got his "boy fix" of baseball, Wii and the park. Momma get her "fix" of Ann Taylor, J.Jill, LuLuLemon and Z. Galleria. Oh yeah!! My friend and I also did a long 12-mile run this morning along the Pacific Coast highway. Oh my gosh...I have been to some amazing places in the world and this is definitely in the Top 5. It was so utterly beautiful that I ended up running only 10 and walking 2 so as to not miss any of the scenery. We were running up on the cliffs overlooking the ocean, so we could see all the surfers and boaters and hear all the waves crashing against the cliffs and rocks. Up on the trail, we had to dodge other runners and cyclists constantly because there were so many people. The coastline also happens to be the route for the Carlsbad Marathon, so I kind of ran the Carlsbad Half Marathon (which most of the people out the running were training for)! How fun! Anyway, it was surely a run I'll never forget. We could see the coastline for miles and miles, either north or south and the spray from the ocean hitting the cliffs created this kind of muted affect between the actual coastline and ocean so they blended in together so smoothly.

Unfortunately, as they say, all good things must come to an end. We had to leave as my friend and her family had things to do. They took us to the train station and we rode the "Surfliner" back to San Diego. We rode the upper deck. The train followed the coastline, so we were able to enjoy it for just a little longer. When we got back to San Diego, we put-putted around downtown for a little while, visiting Seaport Village (where John got a "Life is Good" t-shirt, hence part of the reason for the title of today) and stopping in some extremely fancy hotels. We walked around the harbor and enjoyed the million-dollar yachts anchored at the slips. Nothing like the slips at the Northside, I tell ya! Some of the yachts were almost as big as my house.

We finally jumped on the trolley, back to San Ysidro to get across the border before dark. The trolley ride (the trolley is actually an electric train) takes about 30 minutes from downtown to the border. The further south we go, the poorer it gets. It was so sad and disheartening to see the landscape change from beautiful coastline, gorgeous homes on cliffs and shimmering tall buildings to factories, warehouses, boarded up stores, tiny stucco homes with laundry hanging outside, yards filled with garbage, children playing in parking lots, even homeless people camped out behind buildings or under trees. What a change of scenery within an hour. While watching this amazing change take place, it reminded of the book I mentioned. The author's ideas came back to me that we can be grateful for the smallest things in life and really appreciate everything we have. My heart went out to the people I watched as we zipped past...I prayed they had appreciation for the smallest things in their lives, as difficult as that may be. I know as we drove through those areas, I became more prayerful and appreciative about the small things in John and my lives - grateful we're able to be here, grateful we have a good support system, grateful for the doctors and nurses treating John, grateful that we were able to spend a beautiful weekend with friends, grateful we were on the trolley and not sleeping against the dumpster...I mean, it could go on and on. Bottom line is that my family is enormously blessed. We have much to be grateful for and I thank God for reminding me of that today. As ironic as it sounds given our current circumstances, Life really is Good.

John in the Pacific Ocean at Solana Beach

Justice, Addison, Kristine and Travis - our Carlsbad friends

Day 12 and 13: La Jolla

Going to La Jolla (pronounced "la hoya") for the weekend. Will be back later on Sunday. Will post then.
Have a fabulous weekend!
~ John and Mom

Day 11: Live Cell Shot

John got his live cell shot today. Wow. What an experience for someone who's never had a shot before. Okay, he had 2 immunizations when he was a baby (less than 3 months old) but that's it. Nothing after that. He was not a happy camper, but with the people around here being as kind and generous as they are, he was talked through it by several others who've been through it.
Live Cell Therapy is the crux of the IBC. You can google it and find all kinds of information, mostly negative and how it's quackery. The hidden truth is that they use it in the US but call it "Living Therapy" or something like that. Doctors who use it say it's the lastest invention of condition control. It's not. It's been around for over a hundred years. It originated in Greece and was/is used extensively in Europe.
The live cells that John received today are from the embryo's of a calf. We expect him to grow a tail, 4 stomachs and start mooing next week. Just kidding. The embryo's are non-species specific, meaning they'll adhere to any organ in any species. They haven't developed yet to anything specific - calf, human, dog, cat, etc. These embryo's will attach themselves to the organs most needing repair - the organs with the most damage. Specifically for John that is intestinal, lymbic (thyroid, pituitary) and placental (general cells for any other organ damage). He had three tubes of cells injected into his cute little hiney cheek this afteroon around 3:30. Elias (remember, our nursing savior?) was so great with John, although we all lost our patience a little bit. John was extremely anxious about receiving a shot (if there are any downfalls of not immunizing, the lack of experience with needles would be it) and really acted up about it. Finally, Elias told John in no uncertain terms, "Buck up, boy. You're getting a shot and that's that." John was shocked into compliance. Sweet Elias has never spoken like that. Elias grabbed a chunk of butt, told John to take a deep breath and stab! In goes the needle. John didn't even flinch - Elias had to tell him the needle was in and the cells were going in. We don't know which was injected first, it took about 10-12 minutes to do all three tubes but it was easy. Elias just unscrewed the tube of one injection and screwed in the new one so the needle never had to come out. That's a smart way to do it. So John survived his shot, now he's got a lump the size of a golf ball on his butt cheek and it hurts to walk. All I know is he better improve before tomorrow later morning as we walk the mile it takes to get across the border. Damned if I'm carrying his tiny little hiney! I am proud of him, though. Once he calmed down, he did a great job and he's handling it well now. Another story for him to tell, another adventure he's lived. And he's all that stronger for it.



Tijuana Trivia: Around Tijuana, people stand in the middle of the street, selling stuff. This guy is selling ice cream in the middle of a very busy street.


For 5B:
No, it's not cold here at all. It was 74 today and sunny. Tomorrow and Sunday it's supposed to be in the 80's. We're going to La Jolla (that's in California near the ocean). Sorry you slipped and fell in the ice, Jake. We don't have ice here. I hope you're okay. It never snows here, either. People don't understand how we can live in snow.

Day 10: You Got Mail!

After treatment this morning, we were delightfully surprised when Juan delivered some mail and a package for John! Yippee!! A card from Grandma Mary and Grandpa John, an "I love you" picture from Daddy and Andrea and a package full of crayons, coloring paper, mazes and suduko from Aunt Cathy. Hurray!! Thanks to EVERYBODY for thinking of John!!!


Here is a picture of John getting his treatment. The man sitting next to him is his nurse, Elias. What a gentle, caring person. He's really great - everyone around here just loves him. Elias is injecting the Alivazatos serum into John's IV.

Day 9: Boring Again

It's good that it's boring here. That means treatment is going well and we've fallen in to a routine. We'd much rather have that than constant drama each day. Some new people came today - an Amish couple from central Ohio. Their names are Joesph (they all seem to be named that) and Martha. Very young...maybe early 20's. Joesph has cancer. They left three children back home, a 4-year-old, 2-year-old and 1. Martha seemed very sad when she told us about her kids. They'll be here three weeks. The family we've made friends with leaves tomorrow. That puts no one in the apartments except John and I and two patients in the hospital. The nurses say this is the slow time of the year but it should pick up in the next week or two. Ho-hum.
We did have a bit of excitement during dinner, I suppose. Tijuana is a city of 3 million people, most of them poor. There's going to be violence in a city of that many people. Just think of what happens on the North side of La Crosse once in a blue moon. The government has never had much control over the drug cartel (which has most of the power here) until now. They have a new president [just heard gun fire] and he's cracking down on the cartel. Cartel are acting like spoiled children and rebelling big time. Tonight, during our dinner, about a mile down the road, the cartel raided a restaurant, starting shooting up the place and kidnapped a patron. This went on unknown to us...so as we're all sitting in the dining room (see photo from earlier post), there are suddenly 5, 6, 7 cop trucks screaming up and down the street in front of the clinic. Their sirens are blaring and they're just tearing up and down the road...squealing tires as they turn the corner. The cops had their guns drawn and they were in the "ready" position. It really scared us all. Everyone stopped eating and wondered if we should hit the ground. None of the night staff at the clinic spoke Spanish. I'm the most "fluent" speaker here and that wasn't getting us far so we really didn't know what was happening. We found out later through one of the English-speaking doctors who came in for rounds. Soon after the cop cars came, the helicopters came out. It was seriously like in a movie. And, like in the movie, we sat there like waiting ducks. But where were we to go? Back to our rooms? Not us, I'm not taking my kid outside. In the kitchen? Not allowed and there was no gun fire, so I doubt they'd let us. The clinic was locked, so we couldn't go there. We just sat there, all together. Figured we had some safety in numbers. Finally the night guard we have at the clinic came in and we asked him what was up. His answer, "No habla englais." Great. He went straight to the kitchen, the cooks, servers and he spoke for a bit. One of the servers came out and told us to just stay here. "Everything is fine." Everything DID turn out fine (obviously since I'm writing you), but it was quite scary. As of writing this, the police have not found the gunmen or the kidnap victim. The news showed shot out cop cars and rows of police lights(that's one thing they don't lack down here are cop cars). The doctor I spoke with about the incident said cartel has been focusing on people who look like they have money: people who drive fancy cars (either citizens or Americans) or dress nicely. Since we're neither, I really do think we're safe. But I think there will be no more walks to the grocery store like earlier today. I'm not willing to take any chances. We'll have to get everything we need on the weekend when we're over the border. No one is clear if just anybody is being targeted on these attacks or if it's just cartel killing cartel. Hopefully that's the case. Not that you want anyone to to die, but if it's gonna happen it might as well be them killing each other. Well, on that note: Good night.

For 5B:
This John. I can't come home early. I have to stay 21 days and Sundays. Thanks for your notes. I like them. They make me laugh. I miss you all, too. Street ball is just a made up game of ball in the street. We didn't play in the street. We played in a patio. We kicked the ball against the wall. The other person tried to kick it back. You had to kick hard to trick the other person. It was fun!

Day 8: Boring

So today was pretty darn boring. We just stuck around the complex. We slept in this morning til 8:15. Woo-hoo! We're getting lazy now. So, we got up, John went to have his treatment, I did my run (out on the treadmill), John played video games, then we had his IV removed. It was bugging him so he chose to have it out. A new one will be placed again tomorrow. Needles are becoming a NBD thing for him now ("no big deal" for you non-texters). Then I took a shower (one can get pretty darn sweaty and stinky running in 70 degree weather), we ate lunch and John made new friends: Jose and Raoul. See, we bought a playground ball at Target this weekend in San Diego. Christmas clearance thing that is totally worth its $3 cost. It's kept him very busy for the last two days. Praise God for small favors. Anyway, the ball got a little flat today, so we were going to go across the street. There's a mechanic across the street and my plan was to borrow his air hose to pump up the ball. The problem was I didn't know how to say "air" in Spanish. There were 2 clinic guys standing outside the clinic having a lunch of coconut slices sprinkled with paprika from the fruit cart guy that always parks outside the clinic during the week (I think that was a run-on sentence...). Anyway, I approached one of the guys (we later found out his name is Jose) and asked, "Como se dice 'air' en espanol?" - How do you say "air" in Spanish? Jose answered, "El airo." Seriously, it was almost too cliche. I tried not the laugh, but a smile did slip. He got it and added, "Really, it is." Okay. I told him my plan and being the helpful Mexican they all seem to be, he went with us to visit el mechanico (again, not kidding) to be our translator. Now, notice how I did not say our "interpreter." It's two different things, something I am painfully aware of as a sign language interpreter, never a translator. Anyway. He helped us out at the mechanics, John got his air and he also ended up getting an hour of play with the big boys. The boys ended up skipping work for an hour and took John to the patio next door to play Street Ball. John had a lot of fun! I sat and read while they played their boy games. While seemingly mundane, it really made our day. If anything, being on "Mexican time" makes you appreciate the really small goings-on like this one. Mexican time means people get to sleep on the job. Can you believe that?! My work contract actually tells me I cannot sleep or I get fired (this kind of irritates me - what idiot fell asleep at work, was caught and fought it? Lowest common denominator, baby.). Over here, anytime you walk into the treatment room, there is at least one person sleeping. Okay, so Dr. Park, the acupuncturist doesn't count. He rents space in the clinic, so he can sleep if he wants. It's his money. But when you see the nurses, office staff or even some of the doctors taking a quick nap (usually an hour) it's another little reminder that we are no longer in Kansas, Toto. I think Americans can learn a little from Mexicans in that regard.