ACL Reconstruction, next on “This Old Knee”

Just a quick note as I’m blowing through the house of the parental units here in Texas (still) since my wife had knee surgery about 48 hours ago. She had a medial menisectomy two years ago (as I did, further back) and finally had her long-needed-and-awaited ACL reconstruction (which I still have yet to have) and a surprise lateral meniscal repair. Orthopedically speaking, ACL reconstruction is no walk in the park, but it’s so “bread-and-butter” for any seasoned orthopod (unless they’ve had the luxury of subspecializing into one area) that I wasn’t too concerned about the procedure.

The recovery, however, is a different matter; which, with an 11-month-old, is why I’m still here and not back in school as I should have been this last week. I hope to be back by this weekend, but it will probably be Monday or Tuesday that I’m back in Guadalajara. I have this stupid-ass midterm for Kaplan USMLE Step 1 prep, but that’s another post.

Another post is also the 12-inch laceration I received in the pre-op area of the hospital while Claudia was getting gowned, and especially fun–the 12 hour wait it took to even get the wound tended to apart from the original shoddy dressing done to keep me from bleeding everywhere. Yes, folks, this is while my wife was in surgery, recovery, and the sweet delicious afterglow of the application of a fentanyl patch. Like I don’t have more to worry about here.

So, as you can see, the blog has been temporarily paused, but not just because I’ve been busy. The surgeon wanted Claudia closeby, and her family lives in a city 45 miles away.  My parents’ house is out because of a very unfriendly set of stairs, so the next choice was my grandmother’s.  Plenty of space, nice yard, mostly quiet. However, my grandmother’s house has no internet connection (as well as being so infernally hot that it would melt any computer components left on for any length of time). To steal time away to fire off a post/email is defintely doable, but not when you add the drive to another location, so more soon. All is well with Claudia, which is the main thing. I’m being beaten like a Hebrew slave taking care of our daughter full-time as well as helping around the gimpy better half. With all this childcare, I’ve gained new respect and appreciation for my wife. I’ll take studying any day…sheesh.
More soon…

categories Fatherhood, Personal | enrico | datetime April 20, 2007 7:55 pm | comments Comments Off

Hi and Bye!

Hello all! Today begins Semana Santa, or “Holy Week” in the Christian calendar, which beginning on Palm Sunday, commemorates Christ’s entrance into Jerusalem and follows the last days of his life, his death, and his resurrection. It is the last week of Lent and is both the most pensive and important time in the church year.

In Mexico, it’s also the beginning of near anarchy. Being a 95% Catholic country, almost everyone has the week off. There is no comparison in the States; the entire country, with the exception of those involved in tourism/travel, all but shuts down. Especially here in Guadalajara, this also begins the mass exodus to nearby vacation spots, particularly Puerto Vallarta, Manzanillo and Mazatlán. Yesterday, I was running errands, and instead of the full-but-manageable traffic of a weekend afternoon, it was mad gridlock, people running red lights to avoid being stranded in intersections, people honking non-stop, and grandmothers beating each other with their canes–and that was just getting out of my driveway! ;)

I too will join this mass exodus, but I am going back to Texas to finally reunite with my wife and daughter whom I miss so much. I am taking some study materials, but since Claudia is having knee surgery next week, the priority is just maximizing time with them, relaxing as much as I can, and just enjoying getting out of here in general. Vacation for us is two weeks, and I plan to be gone as much of that as possible. I’ll have internet connectivity here and there, but posting will be sporadic, as it has been this last week because everybody and their mother wanted stuff turned in before this break (and with good reason–it’s a ghost town otherwise).

I’ll write in the next couple of days, but now I must brave the airport and the sea of people waiting out the door. Literally. Those who have never been to a Mexican airport taking a domestic (not to/from the U.S.) flight during vacation season are missing one of the wonders of human social interaction. It’s a tense mix of near-warfare under a facade of orderliness. People even go so far as try to fly with cardboard boxes that must be taped down to not collapse. I am not joking. This is not just because they might be poor, but because in general, people seem to take everything including the kitchen sink and will use anything to board it. Hopefully, my time will be more serene. I can only hope!

categories Living in Mexico, Travel | enrico | datetime April 1, 2007 10:20 am | comments Comments (2)

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