The Big City is Guadalajara -- at least in this part of the world. And The City is Manzanillo -- with no apologies to San Francisco.
But, then, what should I call Colima? I guess there is no choice. It will have to be The Second City.
And that is exactly where I went on Monday morning. To see an ear, nose, and throat specialist in the hope that he could find a possible cause for the on-going infection in my jaw.
As happens so often when I need to be on my way at a given time, we had a major change of circumstances in the house. A power outage. And the power was out when I headed off to bed -- not certain I would get up in time to get to my appointment. Colima is just over a two-hour drive from Melaque.
When I got up, fortunately, the power was on. "Fortunatly," not just because it is difficult getting dressed in the dark (which it is when you are trying to find you socks and long pants), but fortunate because I needed to calla friend to coordinate airplane reservations from London to Seattle next September.
With that accomplished, I was on the road to Colima. As you can see by the photograph at the top, Colima is not Melaque. You could easily believe you were in Los Angeles -- with the golden arches and membership-welcoming arms of Sam's Club.
But this was not a shopping or eating day. My consultation with the doctor was brief. He stuck his camera up my nose, in my ears, and down my throat. All vividly displayed on a large flat screen. I felt almost like Kathie Lee Gifford's colon.
The prognosis? My dentist is doing good work. I have a bit of tropical fungus in both ears, a slight allergy to something, and a pesky infection in my left ear that is causing pain in my jaw.
I walked out with a prescription for three drugs that cost me $1950 (Mx) -- about $151 (US). The doctor's fee? $500 (Mx) -- about $39 (US). That is the most money I have spet for Mnexican medical care in one day since I broke my right ankle. But this is The Second City. They have a McDonald's.
Before you ask -- yes, I did press the doctor as to the connection between the ear, my jaw, and my tooth. The answer drifted off into Spanish that I did not fully understand.
What I did understand is that when I return to Mexico, I am to go to an an x-ray shop and get a full panorama of my face. That will be sometime in December.
By the time you read this on Tuesday, I will be on my way to the dentist in The City to discuss some alternatives. I suspect they will all start with: "We need to wait until December."
When I got back to Melaque from Colima, I swung by the source of our power difficulty on Sunday night. Apparently, a driver ran his car into a power pole on a corner a few blocks away.
The impact was great enough to topple one of those concrete poles we saw in pile driving man. But not just one. The weight of the wires pulled down a second pole. And then a third.
The result? The town went black. And the driver sped off.
Even though the power company restored my electricity within two or three hours, the people who live on Three Poles Down block were without electricity until Monday afternoon.
I stopped by to the thank the crew that was working so hard in what was once again a scorcher of a day. They really do good work.
And while we are talking about the return of old blog topics, it appears that normalcy is being restored to my little pond. The water is still shallow, but a mother crocodile has returned, in the night, to the beach where the clutches of eggs hatched earlier this year.
Maybe it is time to break out the cocodrilito volunteer squad again. But they may still be at Sam's Club.
No comments:
Post a Comment