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Diane's DiaryJuly 13 Sunday I am still not feeling well so I am not doing much. Mima came over to visit. It rained on and off the entire day. I was lying on the settee in the early evening when my eyes started to hurt very badly. I thought I had maybe strained them since I now know I need reading glasses so I decided to go to bed early. Well in the middle of the night I knew something was wrong with my eyes- they started to ache very badly, and to run. When I looked in the mirror, my eye was swollen shut and crusty. Something definitely was wrong! Plus, Larry had to be careful not to get an eye infection and I definitely have some kind of eye infection. There was really nothing I could do until the morning so I just went back to bed and waited till first thing in the morning. July 14 Monday Arnoldo, the dock master, helped me with the name of an eye doctor first thing this morning. However, they don't take appointments here in VE. Local people just go and put their name on a list and wait to be called. Larry wanted to come with me but I feared I was contagious and was worrying about his eyes. Steph volunteered to come with me, which was very nice. I was not feeling well at all and if they put drops in my eyes I might not be able to see. So, we got to the clinic around 10am, the doctor didn't even come in until 10:30, and there was already about 15 names before mine. Great! So we waited about 2 hours when I could not stand it any longer and asked how much longer it would be. Besides the eye infection, I definitely have something else so am not in the best of moods since I am sick. Finally I got seen. The doctor spoke no English and no one else did either. I did find out what I expected - pink eye, which is very contagious and is easily spread. Great! That goodness it was just this and not something worse. Larry cannot get this after just having the eye surgery so I don't know what to do. Steph was very kind and said Larry could come sleep on Mima. Much as I hate to see him leave, I think this would be for the best as I am very scared he will pick this up. After I picked up the medication from the pharmacy, I basically just went back to bed and rested for the remainder of the day. I need to take the medication for 2 weeks to make sure the entire infection is out of my system. We did find out there is an epidemic of this going around right now. For many of the locals, medicine is very expensive so they just take the antibiotics for a few days and save the medicine for the next time. Unfortunately, as most of us know with antibiotics, you need to take it for 14 days to make sure you have killed all the infection off. Since the locals aren't doing this, the infection keeps spreading. Elias is still working on the varnish as we have decided to get the entire interior done. The boat really needs it and we will be here for another month anyway. He is doing a great job and we are very satisfied with his work. July 15 Tuesday Well, I just lay on the couch the entire day today, as I am still not feeling well. I do feel much better than yesterday but am still not myself. The eye is starting to clear up but I definitely have some other type of infection in my body. Larry went to the hardware store with Tom and Steph but did come back on the boat tonight to sleep. July 16 Wednesday My eye is improving greatly and I feel much better than I did although not nearly 100%. I was actually able to do some things this morning. I cleaned the AC grate and 2 110-volt fans, as they get really dirty with all this dust in the air. I also made some phone calls to doctors. Elias is continuing to work on the varnish. Larry is working on repairing the dinghy. So, all in all it was a much more productive day than it has been. July 17 Thursday Even though I am still not feeling 100%, we decided to go to Plaza Mayor to have lunch, pick up a few things at the grocery, and get sunglasses for Larry. I definitely just needed to get off the boat for a few hours since I was "boatbound" for the past few days. Larry has hardly ever worn sunglasses before but the doctor told him he must. I have been telling him that all these years but he has never listened to me on this. I know it's very easy to develop cataracts if you don't wear sunglasses and take care of your eyes. I remember working at Jones Beach when I was a kid and how much the sun has always bothered my eyes so I have always been careful to use sunglasses. We just happened to bump into Tom and Steph while we were in the food court so we all had lunch together. We looked for Larry's sunglasses and didn't get back to the boat until around 5pm. I didn't feel like cooking tonight so we ordered a Domino's pizza and watched a video. July 18 Friday I finally got a hold of the doctor in Caracas to get my medical results. My WBC = 17,000 and there is bacteria in my urine. So, that explains why I have been feeling so bad - I have a bacterial infection. The doctor recommended I see someone around here and rerun the test results. I tried to get an appointment but it was to late in the day, it's a Friday and I couldn't get hold of anyone so I just started taking antibiotics myself. I did make an appointment to speak with a GYN on Monday at 8am to discuss the fibroids, cysts, etc. so maybe this infection can be addressed also. Steph came over and we went swimming and talked. Elias did 1 coat of varnish on the companionway and it looks terrific! What an enormous difference. It looks like an entirely different boat! I'm glad we decided to get it done. July 19 Saturday I went back to Plaza Mayor by myself today as I bought some whipping cream that had already turned bad and I never got my eggs that I paid for. Also, I really wanted to treat myself to a manicure and pedicure. I also had lunch in the mall. Other than that, it was a very quiet uneventful day. July 20 Sunday Today was a very quiet day. I try to update my logs, do the finances or do emails on Sundays since it's such a quiet day. I made bacon and eggs for breakfast. Afterwards, I did a whole bunch of emails. Mima came over in the afternoon and we all went into the pool. We definitely need days like this. We definitely get consumed with doing boat chores. I try to get on the computer to update my logs on Sundays but it has been difficult with only 1 computer now and Larry is always on it! Hopefully, we'll be able to get this other one fixed! July 21 Monday I went to the GYN at 8am this morning. She said I was basically fine and not to worry about the cysts or fibroids at this time although I should just get them checked regularly. Wow, that was good news. I was afraid the fibroids had come back again. I did make an appointment to see an internist tomorrow to get the bacterial infection checked out although I feel much better than before. I got a blood and urine test done so they could have the results when I go to the doctor tomorrow. It was on and off rain again today. This has been very unusual for VE that it has been raining out every day. This is the rainy season but it usually doesn't rain this much. Elias is having difficulty getting the varnish done with all this rain so we think we will rent a little storage room for him to work in. It's only about $8 week so it's pretty cheap. Elias rented "The Pianist" for us so we watched it tonight. We had already seen it in Margarita in the movies but were so impressed by it we wanted to see it again. I also picked up my laundry at CMO and had lunch while I was there. July 22 Tuesday I went to see the Internist at 9am. They asked me to come at this time but by 12 they still hadn't taken me and I was really annoyed. Again, apparently, they can't get the locals to make appointments. He was very nice but they hadn't even sent the lab results to him so he had to call himself. Anyway, there are still bacteria in the urine but the WBC is closer to normal. I think the antibiotics have helped a lot. Plus, I think I was already recovering, as it's been almost 2 weeks since I first got sick. Anyway, he said we could run some more tests but since I seem to be feeling much better, I don't think I'll bother. I didn't get back to the boat till almost 2 as I stopped for a quick lunch. I made meatball stew in the pressure cooker and it came out great. This is definitely a dish I will continue to make! July 23 Wednesday I went over to Makro, the warehouse-shopping store, this morning. Cruisers can get in for free by showing their foreign passport. Anyway, you can't take ANY bags into the store - you have to pay the cab station 500B (less than .25) to watch your bags, as they don't have a free check in as most other stores do. Anyway, they do have bulk things but I noticed a lot of the items were expiring soon. This probably means they are buying expiring products so that's how they sell things at a cheaper price. I will be very careful NOT to buy these things when we go to leave here for the out islands. We finally put the dinghy back in the water today- it makes things so much easier! Larry went to play chess with Tom in the pm. I finally unpacked from our trip to Caracas. Since I wasn't feeling well before this, I didn't bother unpacking. July 24 Thursday The rain hasn't let up- it has rained almost every day so far and Elias is unable to complete the varnish work. So, we have definitely decided to rent the storage room so he can complete the work. We'll have it for a week and see how much he does but maybe we'll just keep it for a month. We have lots of doors to do! We watched "Terminator 3" and "the Nucleus" that Elias rented for us, both good movies and well worth the cost! Did I mention that first run movies rent for about .40USD? They are all bootleg copies but we don't care. So, it's really nice for us just to watch movies at night at such a cheap price. Unless we have lots of electric while we are at anchor, we rarely watch TV and mostly just read at night. So, it's nice when we are in a marina to finally watch some TV, as we don't go out at night too much. We ordered another pizza from Dominos tonight- 2 large pies (with everything on it) for $11US is not too bad especially since the cost at home is almost $14 for 1 pie! Plus, they deliver it right to the boat! More heavy rain in the PM today! July 25 Friday This morning we moved everything into the rented storage room for Elias to start working on. That goodness it's not to far away from our boat. We took a cab into downtown PLC to look for Larry's sunglasses. They were very expensive so we'll try to use an old pair he had and just replace the lenses. We had lunch than went back to the marina, as Larry wasn't feeling too well. July 26 Saturday We went to the mall by dinghy today so Elias could varnish the companionway and we would not be in his way. It was a big mistake going by dinghy, as there were a lot of local big powerboats that don't slow down when they see smaller boats and just swamp us! Plus, they speed through the canals. We will never go through the canals on weekends again! Anyway, we were able to get the lenses replaced on Larry's sunglasses in just a few hours. I ordered some reading glasses for me and they will take about a week. We met Tom and Steph for lunch and afterwards went for ice cream. I called Mom and Dad and found out our cat, Mr. Cinnamon is sick with kidney disease. This is not good and I am very worried about him. They are taking him back to the vet next week so I will call back than. I may go home but we'll have to see. I really worry about my old guy and miss him loads. My parents have down a terrific job with him (Thanks Mom and Dad) but he's our cat and I miss him. We got him when we first got married almost 18 years ago. He was around 6 months old when we got him from an animal clinic but don't know exactly his age. Anyway, we'll just have to wait and see how he does. I'll call them back next Thursday after he goes to the vet. July 27 Sunday Larry went over to play chess with Tom, and Steph invited us all to come over for a taco lunch so I walked over later since Larry had the dinghy. I wanted to do a few things some finances and emails before I walked over. Anyway, we wound up staying a few hours as it was on and off again rain the entire day. It was just a quiet rainy Sunday in paradise! Can't get much better than this! |