Day Five: Coffee and Corn

I'm writing this a bit later tonight than usual. We just returned from Movie Night with the volunteers here, Bruce and Vicky, and a few of our fellow Oasis friends. We watched "The Terminal" with Tom Hanks and Catherine Zeta Jones. It was a fun little comedy, and Vicky brought homemade popcorn seasoned with Vege Sal, a vegetable based salt. It was pretty tasty stuff. The movie room was a bit cold but but everyone seemed to enjoy the show.

It's worth noting that we both started and ended our day in the presence of the incomparable Bruce and Vicky. You know the end, so I'll tell the beginning. This morning we headed down for breakfast, ate plain omelets with oatmeal and started back to our rooms. On the way we met up with Jenny and Sharon who were interested in getting outside and finding some coffee at Starbucks. Well, you all know that's the magic word for Krissy, so off we went. Unfortunately, the Starbucks in Mexico is not as dedicated its counterparts back in the States and after a short walk we found them to be closed. So we headed off to the yogurt place. Alas, they were closed also. We had one last option available, a small cafe down on the beach that Jenny had heard might be open this morning. We walked the three or four blocks down to the beach and tried the cafe but they were closed also. Slightly dejected we started back to the hospital. As we walked a bit we heard a familiar voice behind us and found none other than ol' Bruce on his morning walk. We explained the purpose for our morning sojourn and he smiled and said "Hold on, let me make a call, I can get you coffee." He informed Vicky of our dilemma and invited us back to their apartment for a coffee.

It was just a few minutes to their apartment, which was also right there on the shore front. He and Vicky live in an absolutely adorable two bedroom apartment with a grand patio that overlooks the ocean. Vicki brewed some organic coffee and green tea for the six of us and we sat and talked for about an hour over our drinks. I've always been fascinated with the ocean and was mesmerized by the waves and sound of the water as we talked. I could tell Kris was relaxed and enjoying herself also. What started out as a trip to the familiar Starbucks ended up being a happily unexpected morning among friends. Saying that Bruce and Vicky are good people is much more than an understatement. They packed up their lives, moved to Mexico and volunteer at the hospital full time, for the simple purpose of providing friendship and faith to people that are a long way from home. I'm truly grateful for them and they've given Krissy and I much needed support and prayer every day.

After our surprise coffee detour, we watched the tide roll in for a few more minutes and then headed back to the hospital to start treatments for the day. Today was the start of Krissy's immune therapy, where she received an IV drip of donor lymphocytes to supercharge her immune system. The process was very fast this morning and only gave her some minor discomfort. The lymphocyte solution must be kept cold at all times and stung a bit when it hit her veins. And in one of strangest side effects I've ever witnessed, it caused her to experience the taste of creamed corn or "old beer" as she described it, and made her breath smell like corn also. The nurse said they can smell the immune therapy patients for a few days after receiving this treatment. Totally weird! Other than bearing the aroma of a human corn cob, she's felt pretty decent with just some diminished appetite at lunch and dinner. Hopefully the oxygen/vitamin C therapy tomorrow goes well. I've heard the synthetic blood they use to carry ozone to her system can cause some discomfort and possible allergic reactions. It's called Perftec and is very safe, but they'll watch her carefully during the two and a half hour process. I'm sure she'll come through it fine, she's a trooper.

Outside of breakfast and movie night, this was a pretty slow boring day. The treatment only took 10 minutes and we had nothing else to do for the day. Kris wasn't up for going into town and there were no classes planned with most of the staff out for the holiday. So we sat in the room and surfed the web, read, watched movies on the laptops and basically vegged out. It wasn't bad but I have a feeling boredom is going to set in soon, with seven more days of this exact routine ahead of us. We have plenty to do but this room gets old. I'm hoping Kris feels good enough for one of the shopping trips that are planned for this weekend so we can get some air.

There were two new arrivals last night but we haven't had a chance to meet them yet. Two gentlemen were checked in across the hall from us. They popped their heads into the movie but didn't stay. I'm hoping to introduce ourselves tomorrow just so I can say hi if we bump into each other at lunch or dinner. The fellow that is obviously the patient, on account of wearing his jammies and carting around an IV, looks like he may have skin cancer or a condition that's metastasized to his skin. Hopefully his treatments start soon so he can get to healing.

I'm looking over at Krissy and it looks like she's just crashed for the night. I'm still kinda wired from popcorn and water. Crazy party animals right? I know, I should slow down. Anyway, I'll be signing off now and reading until I fall asleep. I hope you all back home had a great New Year's Day and are kicking off 2010 with resolutions to stay happy and healthy. I haven't decided on my resolutions for this year but I'm pretty sure #1 will be to love my wife the best that I possibly can. Number two might be to do something fitnessy now that I've lost a few more pounds here. Eh, maybe that'll be #3 or 4, Camryn is enough exercise for me. G'night!