Life in Central America

Maria likes fussing over my medicine

My personal physician likes vitamins, and when I last saw him he prescribed a new kind: Sargenor. This is a solution, and it comes in plastic tubes with the ends pinched off. You break off the ends and mix it with a liquid. Maria was very impressed with this.

After a while, I stopped taking my vitamins, even though they seemed to help. I made sure I took my serious medicines, but I forgot about the vitamins. Maria noticed there were no broken vitamin tubes in my wastebasket, and she got on my case. I must take all my medicine, absolutely!

So I gave all my medicines to her, and every morning and every evening we go thru my medicine ritual. This makes her feel important. And Sargenor seems to be good stuff. Maria gets sick every once in a while: she calls it gripe. But Sargenor knocks her right out of it.

My knee operation has given them a new kind of status. Javier (the head of the family) makes a point of taking me each time I go to the Clinica Biblica. They can’t afford to go there themselves, but they like to be seen in such an expensive place.

And it is a place where you meet everyone who has any money (including bums like me who can afford health insurance of about $85 a month.)

Your knees affect your feelings

Certain parts of the body have a strong effect on your emotions. Take the lower back, for example. If this goes out, you are in big trouble – all over. I used to have back problems and I was convinced that the lower back was the seat of the soul.

I now feel the same way about my knees. I never paid much attention to them before, but it became obvious that I had to get my left knee fixed. My knee pain was messing up the quality of my life too much.

My knee operation has changed my life. Most of the pain is gone, of course, but the effect on my emotions is unbelievable. I feel like I’m on some kind of a drug trip. I wouldn’t be too surprised if your knees make some kind of hormone. Our emotions are mediated by hormones; this is well-known. (This includes your sex life, that’s why taking a pill can effect this part of your life too.) But I digress.

Our knees are an under-appreciated part of our life. (And indeed, our whole body is an under-appreciated part of our life. It is our life, in a way, but when we are younger we live in our head, and seem to think our body is some kind of obedient servant, that will follow our every command. Later on, we learn differently.)

Our knees are fine, complex instruments, and I wish I knew more about them. My surgeon tried to explain what he was going to do, in English, and failed completely. He might as well have been talking about the far side of the moon.

In college we learn about all kinds of subjects, but practically nothing about the most important subject of all: how we are human. And a big part of that subject is how our bodies define our lives. We are intensely interested in how we fit into corporate life, but care nothing for how we fit into our bodies. (Until our bodies remind us, forcibly, that they are there, and that we can’t ignore them. And by that time, it may be too late.)

After my knee operation

The knee operation was a piece of cake, the easist operation I have ever had. I had little pain or swelling, and I don’t even need the crutches I rented.

But the rest of my body got sick. In the middle of the night, after the surgury, I got very depressed, had hot and cold flashes, and diariahi. Part of the problem was one of the pain pills I was taking: Vioxx, they did not agree with me at all. I think my reaction was unusual; most of the patients do have a lot of knee pain afterwards. Evidently, my knee was easily fixed. Three days later, I am almost back to normal.

These arthroscopic operations are a miracle, but a mixed blessing. The benefits seem to be unpredictable, and the side effects are powerful. For example, my blood pressure has gone down, which is obviously a good thing, but that shows you how strange some of the side effects can be.

At the breakfast table the next morning, I almost passed out. This is not so unusual for me, because I faint easily, but Maria panicked - full blast. She must have thought I was going to die. She insisted I go see my doctor, right away. I couldn’t reason with her, and convince her I would be better tomorrow, that is was just a temporary downer. When you faint, people tend to freak out, especially Latinos.

So Javier and I went down to Clinica Biblica again and spent all morning waiting to see my doctor, and taking another EMK, and getting some more medicine. There was nothing wrong with me, which I knew already. It was just that my body was in shock. A case of nerves, the doctor said.

But he spent quite a bit of time talking to Javier (in Spanish), and calming him down, so I guess it was worth it.

My knee operation

I’m going to have arthroscopic surgery on my left knee tomorrow at 9:30. At 1:00 Javier will pick me up at the hospital and we will go home with my rebuilt knee. About a month later, I should be back on my feet again.

This means I will not be on the Internet for a couple of weeks. But don’t worry, everything should be under control. Most of my body is in good shape, for my age, but my poor old knee has suffered. Hopefully, this suffering will end – after it gets worse, of course.

Being an organism instead of a mechanism has its disadvantages, because organisms weren’t designed to be taken apart and rebuilt easily. It’s a messy business, actually, but it is done on a routine basis. I’m quite fond of anesthesia, actually, it’s a pleasant drug trip, and I tolerate pain well, so I don’t expect any big trauma. But it will be irksome to be restrained to quarters.

The flesh is weak

“The spirit is willing, but the flesh is week.” Is that in the Bible? I don’t know, but if it is, that is one part of the bible I believe.

Maria and Javier asked me to go for a walk with them this morning. I agreed, of course, I didn’t know we were going over some rough country. San Ramon is right on the edge of some wild country, and right on the edge of the mountains. Maria had on her running shoes, and she ran most of the way, going uphill. I was huffing and puffing and sweating, and at one point I was afraid I was going to faint. So Javier slowed down to give me a chance to catch my breath. Javier is a good man.

I am not the man I used to be. I can still pound a keyboard, but I can’t pound the pavement like I used to. Old age is the ultimate indignity, and we have made it worse by living twice as long as we should. In the good old days, say a million years ago, I would have been food for a saber-toothed tiger or something.

But there aren’t any saber-toothed tigers anymore, and even if there were my old body probably wouldn’t tempt them. They aren’t interested in something that can’t run away from them. They would probably leave me for less particular, smaller creatures to make a home in.

Carpe Diem, or something like that.

My life revolves around my knee

And my knee is not going to let me forget this. It needs lots of expensive care. It cost me so much that I ran out of my medical coverage last year, and I had to stop going to my rheumatologist. My knee did lot like that at all, and it really started hurting.

So we both went back to see Dr. Manley, my knee doctor. I explained my financial situation, and he understood. Then he started to work, drained the fluid off my knee, and gave it a cortisone injection. This is supposed to be helpful, but it has never made much difference. Then he prescribed a pill that is part anti-inflammatory, and part pain killer – and is cheap. And I am back on glocusamine powder, and I have a nice, powerful-smelling herbal ointment, Biocalor. He is not interested in the herbal part, but it contains a chemical that is known to work for sore spots, and it’s made right here in Costa Rica.

With all this attention, my knee is bound to get better. I will keep you posted on further developments, which may include orthoscopic surgery.