Down in Mexico

My sister  Renee and I left Chicago from O'hare Airport on Sunday, August 29th to travel to Clinica Ruiz in Puebla Mexico. We had a connecting flight in Houston. There was not  much time between flights, and I said to Renee - I hope the other gate is close. She said - It probably isn't. She was right, it was in terminal B and we were in terminal C, but the airport staff were WONDERFUL about getting us on our next flight. It was quite an adventure with the combination of a transport taxi and a staff member pushing me in a wheelchair on and off the train, then all the way onto the tarmac and up a ramp to the door of the small plane that was to take us into Puebla. It was a new experience for me since I have always been able to walk through an airport in the past. But we never would have made our flight if I had to walk that distance. The smaller plane held around 75 people but the flight was smooth and uneventful.

When we arrived in Puebla our driver Javier from Clinica Ruiz was waiting for us right outside the doors, with a sign. We picked up four other people and drove for about 40 minutes to the clinic.

When we arrived we were brought to our apartment  in the Center for Outpatient Residents (COR) where we'd be staying for the next 26 days. 

Clinica Ruiz is the largest private patient center for HSCT in the world. The COR is impressive and the care given to the patients and caregivers really is wonderful. 

The first night we were instructed to stay in our room. We are able to order food from the restaurant, and they bring it up to the room. The food here is actually good, and sometimes really good. We don't suffer too much.

 I had to fast for 8 hours and Renee had to fast for 4 hours. We both were tested for COVID at 7:45am Monday morning and they took several vials of blood from me. They told us they'd get  the COVID results by 2pm. I had a lot of anxiety waiting for the COVID test, because if either of us tested positive we would be sent home and given a refund minus $2,000.

With nothing else to do but eat and watch Netflix, Renee turned on Breaking Bad since I had never seen the show. She had
watched it years ago and said it's like watching it for the first time, since she forgot everything. Surprisingly, the show has some parallels with my life right now, one being that the main character goes through Chemotherapy.

 This is me enjoying my last beer (for at least 6 months) on the rooftop of the COR. The city of Puebla is in the background.