Day Twentyeight

Tijuana: Wed 20 July 2011

Last full day at CHIPSA. Well, it's been fun, but I'd be lying if I were to say that I wasn't glad to be moving on. Maria has been champion in all of her treatment, and I myself feel incredibly good and considerably lighter. Maria finished off with her Autologous shot, which I administered this morning and an IV this afternoon, so that she is fully energized before we continue on our trip.
Tomorrow San Diego! Here's a couple of pics of
some of the staff here, and a couple of Parsley roots.

Maria and Dr Mora. Easy girls!

Day Twentseven

Tijuana: Tue 19 July 2011

Humble Pie! Sorry, couldn't resist it. Woke up and watched the BBCs live feed of the MPs select committee hearing over Murdoch's alleged phone hacking. Pretty interesting, unfortunately, not such a tough committee apart from a few exceptions.
Just two days left at CHIPSA and then on to San Diego for a couple of days before our break in Cabo. I think while it has been great here, we are ready to start heading off. Met again with Dr Mora, and I gave Maria a sub cutaneous Coleys. We have now upped the dose to 0.18cc. Another multivitamin IV and tomorrow we shall be giving her the first shot of the Autologous vaccine, and hopefully going through her blood results that went off to the lab this morning. Another really cool chat with Gar this afternoon, who had actually checked himself in to CHIPSA last week after he got a crazy fever. There's a practice what you preach testimonial!

Day Twentysix

Tijuana: Mon 18 July 2011

Hip Hoorah! Dr Mora is back! Was really great to meet him again and have a go through of everything. Maria got an IM Coleys which reached a pretty good 38.6 fever and an IV. I think he wants to boost her vitamins a bit before we leave.
Three more people came today, one patient Zue or Sue (not quite sure), and her sister Katie, who was just staying overnight, along with Anita, who is Robin's girlfriend of 20 years! It's quite cool when there are a few more people around, there's a little more of a vibe and the staff start running around a bit more.

Day Twentyfive


Tijuana: Sun 17 July 2011

Very simple quiet day today. No shots for Maria, so we took it fairly easy went for a little walk around the block. Oh, and by the way, that's the Gym! Check the abs!

Day Twentyfour

Tijuana: Sat 16 July 2011

OK. The next few days will be a little concise, as the Internet has been a bit flaky here. Maria had Coley's sub cutaneously today as well as an IV.
We had a little trip down to the beach where there was a really cosy little shack type coffee house, where we enjoyed a nice Peppermin tea. Maria was feeling a bit feverish, so I went down there with Clare and her Mum, Steph.

Day Twentythree

Tijuana: Fri 15 July 2011

Funny thing happened today. Feli came in to show me how to perform a Liver injection, which is basically into the bum. She firstly showed me how to load the syringe with the medicine, and then she was going to show me where to inject into the bum, but Maria was busy. So she called one of the cleaning ladies over, pulled down her trousers and gave her a shot straight into the bum!
"What are you doing?", I cried.
"It's OK with some extra vitamins", She replied with a smile.
Freaky.
Really nice day today. Maria had an IM Coleys with a fairly medium reaction. We actually all ate lunch up on the sun deck, which was great.
Well Dr Mora, should be back on Monday and hopefully we will be getting the Autologous vaccine, which has been specially developed from Maria's own blood. These I think are taken once a week, and don't give any kind of major reaction, I think.
The picture above is of the Coronado islands, which we can see from our room. They have some pretty interesting history, especially during the prohibition. You can read about them here.

Day Twentytwo

Tijuana: Thur 14 July 2011

Today is exactly a week until we leave. Just thought I'd start today's entry with a picture of my sweetheart.
No Coleys for Maria today as her arms just can't take it so she got a day off, and it was quite remarkable the difference. It is amazing how quickly (apart from obviously the pain in the arm), you recoup from the Coleys. Extremely different to chemotherapy! Today is my last day of Enemas, I have now been doing them for about two weeks, although I will take the odd one now and again.
Had a chat with the hospital director today about some of the small things we were a little unhappy about, such as some nurses and doctors wearing perfume (which is no no on any kind of immunotherapy ward); and in good old Central American style he got on the phone straight away, to get his secretary to start a new memo about the subject. Love that old school styley!
Went for a quick walk around the block, as though she feels better Maria is still a little weak. Just realized I haven't put up a picture of dinner, so I'll start with that tomorrow.
Toodle pip!

Day Twentyone

Tijuana: Wed 13 July 2011

Happy Birthday Maria! My little sweetie is a year wiser today. She even got a cake, Gerson of course!
Birthday or not though she still had to have Coleys, however, we tried sub cutaneous which was a slightly milder reaction.
Clare and her Mum bought Maria some flowers as well as a couple of presents.
It was otherwise a fairly quiet day.