Day Seven: Please You Buy My Stuff?

I almost forgot what day we were on today! Without the regular day to day routine from home you lose track of time pretty quickly. We're over the hump now, moving towards our last five days of treatment. Today was the second round of vitamin C for Krissy along with a new addition: activated vitamin D. This vitamin makes tumors even more vulnerable to the vitamin C and oxygenation process so more cancer killin' can take place. Today the therapy only made Krissy tired, she slept through lunch and some of the early afternoon. Tomorrow she'll be back on the oxidative blood infusions and Perftec/vitamin C combo. We're really in the heart of the effective part of the treatment and Kris will need to keep her energy up for the next three days until things taper off. Of course, the effects of this treatment are much less icky than what she'd experience from just one round of chemo, so I'm thankful for that. Nasty western medicine! :)

Sunday is typically new arrival day here at Oasis and true to form we met a few new folks. First up is Marilyn. Another Aussie from Brisbane like our good friend Sharon, she's back on the first of her follow-up treatments after already having completed her initial three month cycle. She had stage four ovarian cancer and after undergoing the Oasis program her tumors have shrunk nearly 80%, down to the point where she could now have surgery to remove it if she wished. However, she's keeping her faith in the program here and will continue the regimen until it's completely healed. She's the first person we've talked to that's currently in follow-up maintenance and to hear she's responded so well is very encouraging. It just strengthens our confidence in the decision we made for Krissy's treatment. We also met Michelle and Brian this evening at dinner and I'll get to their story in a bit.

This afternoon was the second of the scheduled shopping trips into downtown Tijuana. We missed yesterday's trip due to treatments and today Krissy just wasn't up for going out. I decided to give it a shot and waited downstairs with Jenny, Sharon and Marilyn. After sitting around for 20 minutes we asked if the trip was still on only to be told it was canceled due to one of their drivers calling in sick. Marilyn, being the feisty Australian that she is, said "Well why don't hire a taxi and take our bloody selves!" If that wasn't the best bloody idea I'd heard all day, I don't know what was. So we hopped in a cab, said "Artisan district downtown por favor" and started off on our adventure.

For those of you who have been to Mexico you know that most of the tourist towns have a nice part of town to draw vacationers and their money in and just outside of that is what the town is really like. Well, Tijuana has about four blocks of semi-touristy stuff to do and right around the corner is ol' dirty Tijuana. Make a wrong turn and you're bumping elbows with the roasted corn guy and the police. We found the "artisan district" was really just a few blocks of storefronts hawking the same silver jewelry, beads, handbags, sombreros, mini guitars and Spider-Man wrestling masks at every stop. They're all identical too, right down to the Spider-Man wrestling masks. Each one has a guy trying to persuade you to check out his wares and after three blocks it just kinda stops and the rest of the town starts. One hawker tried luring us by stating "Hey mister, I have the same crap all these other guys have but mine is cheaper!" I gave him props for honesty but had to keep walking. The funniest guy was outside an open patio bar & grill type place. As we approached he was clutching a rolled up rug, and once we were about ten feet away he dramatically unrolled it red carpet style and shouted "Welcome, we have been awaiting your arrival!" It was definitely good for a laugh, and if I were hungry I'd probably have gone for his pitch. We ended up settling down for a quick coffee in an off the strip cafe, I found Cori a cute trinket and then we caught a cab back. Unfortunately he got a flat tire about two blocks from the hospital. He dropped us off and I offered the help him change it, but he just drove off out of sight. Flat tires must not be as big a deal down here.

I arrived back just in time for dinner and Kris was up and ready to eat. After a pretty tasty lunch of pinto beans, baked potatoes (double yay!) and some crazy tasty breaded cauliflower thing in red chili, dinner was a bit of a bummer. Broccoli soup, rice and boiled mushrooms. I nearly said "meh" out loud, but that would have been rude. The rice wasn't half bad with the shrooms mixed in, and we had a chance to chat with our other new arrivals Michelle and Brian.

These good folks are from Pittsburgh and have three boys. Michelle has had breast cancer for two years that has metastasized to her bones and spine. She's in nearly the same situation as Sharon, but the condition of her bone cancer is such that she can't walk without excruciating pain so she's in a wheelchair for now. They're both very friendly folks and I'm looking forward to talking more with them this week. Since they arrived late on a Sunday, most of the staff was gone and they missed out on their introductory tour of the hospital and info packet. So we gave them the rundown of the place, now that we're seven day veterans and all. We also warned them of the hot water situation. Wait, I haven't told you about this yet have I? Well well, let's just fix that right now!

So, we have no hot water on our floor. We haven't had hot water since Friday. No, we didn't shower yesterday cause it was fricking freezing. This morning I bit the bullet and took an ice cold shower because I couldn't stand myself anymore. Yes, there was significant shrinkage. Thankfully the sister clinic on the fifth floor did have hot water and Krissy was able to go upstairs and shower like a civilized human being. I gave our patient rep Dorian some shit about it after breakfast and he's trying to get it resolved. I guess plumbers are hard to find on Sunday in Mexico. All I know is they better get it figured out by tomorrow or I'm washing up with hot water from the Deep Rock dispenser in the hallway.

Well I think I've had enough excitement for one day and will call it a night. We just finished watching Blades of Glory and now it's time to put visions of Will Farrell in a leotard out of my mind. Let's hope he's not replaced by short mexican men chasing me with red carpets. G'night!