Tuesday, November 25, 2003

Yesterday Rebecca said that the doctors think her anemia may have been caused by a rare allergy to fava beans. (They are still not sure). Her “alta”, the projected date of her release from the hospital, is Thursday and she feels much better already. When we spoke to her, Alfonso had just brought her computer and a VCR to the hospital so now she won’t be bored. Freddie tells Rebecca a joke a day to keep the doctor away.

Today I received a lovely e-mail note from a client’s lawyer thanking me for my “gracious and prompt assistance.” That made me feel good.

But, I hurt myself in Juana’s class today! This time it is my Achilles tendon on the same foot. Toshi came this evening and worked on both Freddie and me. He showed me where the swelling is in my tendon. He said I have to rest it or it could take months to heal! I left class today crying because I knew I had done something to my ankle again. I stopped doing the footwork immediately but of course it was too late. I came home and put my foot in a bucket of ice that Freddie prepared. It probably all helped.

Wednesday, November 26, 2003

I have a full-blown cold today and have not done much except rest and clean. Our landlady is coming over to show our living room and kitchen to a possible tenant today. So Freddie and I have done some long needed cleaning to make it presentable! Anticipating today, I stuffed a large rubber tray under the sink in the kitchen last night and unknowingly moved the plastic pipe under the sink just enough to cause a leak. We just found out now, right when the landlady is coming, what caused all the water on the kitchen floor! But Freddie fixed it and cleaned it up. The house sure does look beautiful.

I have canceled my dance practice for at least a few days and I am not sure if I will even go to Juana’s six o’clock class tonight and just do arms and body. I am not allowed to do footwork again, at least until my tendon stops hurting. And Concha will be back Sunday. (I had wanted to take some more classes with her but now I probably won’t be able to!).

Thursday, November 27, 2003 Night

I can’t believe I am so sick. I have been sleeping almost all day. I did go out this morning to the pharmacy and I bought some antibiotics because we are coughing green phlegm. Last night Rubina bought me some pills to dry up my cold. She said her pharmacist had given them to her when she had a cold and that they worked very well. The directions said to take one a day with breakfast, so I waited until this morning and then Freddie and I took them today. I developed a reaction and thought maybe I was going to have a heart attack. I put some heart oils on and felt a little better. But at 5:30 this afternoon when the pharmacy opened after siesta, Freddie and I hobbled together, holding on to each other, slowly down the five minutes of narrow, beautiful streets of Barrio Santa Cruz to the Alta Mira Plaza. The pharmacist looked up the ingredients in her computer and some of the side effects were speeded up heart and arrhythmia. The pharmacist took my blood pressure, which was fine, but my pulse rate was high. But knowing I wasn’t going to die from that made me feel a lot better, so we began to hobble home. I remembered that I hadn’t paid her for the blood pressure test and I went back and she just motioned me away. She is always so nice to me. She has done special favors for me before. I am so glad I began to use this pharmacy. A few years ago I was using a pharmacy where the people were never friendly. Then one day I decided to try this one, thinking that it might be a little more expensive because of the location. But it was not more expensive, it was more convenient, and the people who work here are lovely. This was the woman who gave me the pearl necklace one year.

On the way home Freddie and I were admiring the red roses, which have just started to bloom in the square of “our” Plaza de Santa Cruz. Juana Amaya and her daughter were walking through the plaza on their way to dance class. Juana could see that I was sick. Even if I hadn’t hurt my ankle, this cold has knocked me out. The antibiotics are six-day and they should start working soon. Freddie was sweating a lot a little while ago after he ate a pear. He still hasn’t touched the chicken soup I brought to him. It is on a stool next to the bed. I am sweating now since I ate my soup. And my stomach hurts. It is boring to be sick. I don’t feel like doing anything. I’ll just go back to sleep. I took one of Freddie’s pain pills last night and it knocked me out for the night and I could sleep without my leg waking me up. I felt much better when I woke up and then I took that cold pill and started feeling worse again. Now it has finally worn off and my nose is running again! Freddie has stopped coughing.

I called Pili to see how they were doing, because Paco had canceled a lesson with Freddie the other day because he had a sore throat. Pili had taken him to the doctor today and he will start his antibiotics tomorrow. She offered to take us too, and if Freddie isn’t better tomorrow, I may take her up on that. I hate to impose because she is already busy enough with a young daughter. But on the other hand, here is help offered. We’ll see what happens tomorrow.

We talked to Rebecca today who was getting out of the hospital right after we spoke. She sounds a lot better today. She said that here in Spain there seems to be more sickness than in the US. Now she will invest in health insurance, which is about fifty Euros a month here.

It seems to me that the world is sicker in general than it used to be, or is that because we have better communication so we know that more. This is the most I’ve been up today and I think I will go back to bed! But at least I had enough energy to write! How are we going to get packed to leave?

Friday, November 28, 2003

Another day closer to leaving time. I don’t think I will take any other dance classes. It seems like all I can do is to just prepare to leave. Once we get boxes for the things we are going to send, I know I will feel better. Thanksgiving came and left and Freddie and I both slept through it. I can’t believe I have been so sick, although today I feel a little more alive. I took my second antibiotic today with my last egg. I need to go out today to buy eggs and more green tea. It is boring to be sick because I don’t feel up to doing anything fun. Freddie took a Zanax about midnight last night so he could continue to sleep and they always knock him out for at least a day and a half. So he is still sleeping, although earlier he said he felt better. I want my playmate! Earlier I really wanted my mother. I was disappointed because she won’t even come to me in a dream. (She died in 1997). But I think when I am sick, I want that image of someone taking care of me and in reality there is no one, especially when Freddie and I are both sick together!

Friday, November 28, 2003 Evening

We slept most of the day again. Only I went out to the MAS for eggs and green tea in the morning and again this evening for more yogurt, bananas, oranges and toilet paper. Then I went to the pharmacy for more tape for my foot; we are low on this wonderful tape that supports my weak ligament. It felt good to get out, although I had to push myself to leave the apartment. The cool, fresh air seemed to revive me a little and I gained energy from the people around me. But before I got home, I felt tired and dizzy again, both times. And when I returned home, each time, I was amazed at the hot, stale atmosphere of our apartment.

But tonight, after sleeping almost all day, Freddie is better. He scheduled a lesson with Paquito tomorrow and he is playing his guitar now, instead of just sleeping. Freddie made us both orange juice by peeling the oranges and then crushing them with the hand mixer we use to make gazpacho. One orange made a glass of juice, pulp and all; it was delicious. Yesterday it took me five oranges to make two glasses, squeezing them the old way, in the flimsy green plastic hand squeezer that Christina Hansen gave to us when Freddie was sick here two or three years ago! Now we are finally getting creative. Next year we might even buy an electric juicer.

Freddie has lost ten pounds since he last weighed himself in pounds. We have a scale here, in kilos and just today I got around to looking for a converter on the web. The forty-six kilos I weigh is one hundred one point two pounds. I have lost about ten pounds too, (or a little more) but most of that has been intentional. I just didn’t realize, until today, how much I’d lost in pounds! It feels good. Right now, because of being sick, I don’t have much of an apatite, a first for me. I am usually always hungry. But with this sickness, I seem to have lost interest in food (or maybe it is due to the antibiotics). But I think I will feel better tomorrow. It is nice to see Freddie back in healthy mode. We washed the sheets today and he hung them out on the roof. We help each other. And I just love listening to him practice again.

Saturday, November 29, 2003

We are waiting for Paquito to pick us up for the flea market. He was supposed to come to give Freddie a lesson, and then last night Freddie and I realized that we only have two more Saturdays left, so we called this morning to re-arrange the day. But they had to take Pili’s mother somewhere this morning so things began to get delayed when we added Pili and Solea into the equation. I took another one of Freddie’s Oxycontin’s to sleep last night and I am still dizzy this morning. They are just too strong for me! They seem to last a day and a half! So maybe it is good that we are going to the flea market (rastro) a little late. Hopefully it won’t get too late to go! I really don’t want to leave too much last minute shopping until next Saturday. We still need to get the boxes to mail things and we still need to get our energy!

We are winding down, emotionally, and this time we are really preparing ourselves to leave Spain! Maybe it is because we are sick and that is more boring. Freddie is practicing now but I don’t have any energy to dance or even to think about dancing. I may be able to stumble around the flea market if that still happens today!

We went to the flea market and didn’t find what we were looking for and we both got exhausted. But we enjoyed seeing Paco, Pilar and Solea. Paco is still fighting a sore throat, but he is also taking antibiotics so he probably won’t get really sick. He and Pilar spoke to us about getting Spanish health insurance while we are here next year. We will do that and Pilar will help us. Freddie was too tired for his lesson today so he will have it tomorrow. When we got home he took a short rest to prepare for his Toshi massage tonight.

Toshi came at eight fifteen tonight and he worked on Freddie’s cramping hands and it helped a lot. Toshi is the nicest man. We both love him and so does everyone we know who knows him. He always has a compassionate and calm presence about him. He bows when he comes in and he bows when leaving, even after shaking Freddie’s hand and giving me the Spanish double kisses. I think his Japanese culture won’t let him leave without also bowing. Before he left, we were telling him about Freddie’s new way of making orange juice and that peaked his curiosity. So Toshi stayed for a glass of fresh squeezed orange juice. Then Freddie made us both orange juice too. While Freddie was making the orange juice, Toshi was slighting tapping his feet in Flamenco rhythms, like I do. Think how incredible it is to have a Flamenco masseuse. He is used to working on dancers and guitarists and, being a dancer himself, he really understands the body.

We had planned to see Paquito tomorrow, at least for a lesson for Freddie, but we had forgotten about the flower tribute to La Niña de los Peines in the Alameda this Sunday. Toshi reminded us. It starts around one PM at the Alameda, the side closest to the Teatro de Alameda and the Barqueta Bridge. Afterwards El Sordera will be singing at the Torres Macarena Peña!!! Perhaps we’ll go with Paco and Pilar and Solea. We’ll tell them tomorrow. Toshi’s wife, Francesca-Diana, had written us an e-mail earlier about this, but it was up on my computer desktop with a bunch of other things I might need to remember. And so I forgot. So I was glad that Toshi had reminded us again.

Monday, December 1, 2003

We didn’t go anywhere Sunday. We slept. We have been in bed, sleeping for days. I am so tired of it. I went to the MAS today to get oranges, yogurt and garbage bags. It was my major outing. It actually felt good to be outside and to breathe the fresh air. It felt good to walk. But inside the MAS, waiting in line to pay, I felt like I was going to throw up (but I didn’t).

Pili is going to bring us to her naturopath doctor today at four. If that doesn’t help, we will go see Dr. Boloños, whom we saw in 2000 when Freddie was sick. In 2000 he was referred by Paco Lira. That time he even came to our “house” (our room upstairs at La Carboneria). This time he was referred by Delia and Francesca-Diana, who have known him since he started his practice. You can go to his “consulta” between four and six and there is usually no wait because he doesn’t have many patients now. He also works in the mornings as an opthamaloglist in a clinic. In his “consulta” he primarily sees his old patients and visitors that Delia refers to him. Delia says that he maintains his small practice as favor to his patients, many of whom, like Delia, have been with him for years.

Concha and Curro Fernandez arrived from Switzerland last night at eight. They leave again in a few days for France. Paquito will be going with them. I tried to call Concha today but her phone wasn’t working. She knows that we stayed because her sisters have told her.

If we get well enough, we will be ready to come home this time, unless feeling well will renew our enthusiasm for being here. Francesca-Diana says that many people here get sick in the fall or winter and remain sick until the spring. We don’t want to be like them. Is there more sickness here? Saba and Omar just wrote us that everyone in California has the flu too. I wonder where we can buy facemasks for the plane?

Tuesday, December 2, 2003

Last night Pili took us to her Naturopata and Homeopata doctor, Paco Luque. His flier says he is not a doctor and that his work should not be a substitute for a doctor. But we met a woman in his office who has been seeing him for twenty years! His patients swear by him. Little Solea runs up to him and hugs and kisses him. He gave us each an injection (I have no idea of what) and we have a syrup to take every 1/2 hour, and sub-lingual drops to take every hour and some herbs to make tea from and drink three times a day after meals. -A lot of stuff, and expensive for Spain. But, but by the time we arrived home we were already feeling better. This morning I had enough energy to wash my hair. Freddie felt worse again and slept until noon, but I started giving him the drops and teaspoons of liquid as soon as I could and by the afternoon he felt much better. Rubina came by and we all went to eat lentils and salad at Casa Diego. I had not been there in more than a month! They thought we had already left and returned. That is the most we have done for days, except for last Saturday, which tired us out. Now we are waiting for Pili to pick us up to go for our next (and last) injection. The doctor said we should be better in three days. I am amazed that it is working and working so fast. Naturopaths in the US don’t seem to get such quick results. I have no idea what we are taking, I was too sick to ask or to be concerned. Now I am thinking of it because I am feeling so much better. We still need to get our boxes and then mail them and then I will feel even better.

Francisco “Paco” Luque Castillo, Naturopata – Homeopata.
Teléf. 954-57-50-31,
Maria Josefa de Segovia, 56
Esquina Avda. El Greco, 46 (junto a Talleres FRANLUQ), 41007, Sevilla.
Referred by Pilar Dominguez, wife of Paquito Fernandez 12/03

Paco is again giving a guitar class to Freddie. They are going over scales. Pilar has taken Solea over to her godmother’s, Juana Amaya, who lives nearby. Solea is excited about playing with Juana’s ten-year old daughter, Nazare, who already has a computer. I am still too tired to go, having just come back from the doctor’s again. He gave us more shots and some more liquid to drink. We are to come back one more time, tomorrow for more shots unless we already feel totally well. Paco explains one of his exercises to Freddie, “Como congrejo”, like a crab. He is great about explaining exactly what Freddie must do and how to do it. Then Freddie’s guitar playing gets cleaner and easier. Paco is a wonderful teacher. As I have written before, Paco is both knowledgeable and caring. He just taught Freddie an exercise for individuating the fingers. He knows a lot about the mechanics of guitar playing. And he does it with joy and heart. He says, “It is important to look for the sound.”

Paco is trying to think of how to give guitar classes over the internet. If any of you already know how this can be done, please let us know. Then Paco can begin to collect the equipment. He returns to Japan in May and may be able to buy some of what he needs there. It is an interesting concept and may be the next best thing to going to Spain. It would certainly be more individualized than learning by videotape, which was an idea I had for him. But I think personalized learning would be the key. He would also have to figure out how to get paid. Does Paypal work internationally? Is Paypal good or is it better to use credit cards? These are all questions that have to be answered. But I think his idea would be great. Although, the very best and most enjoyable thing would be being here in Sevilla in person, face to face. But in the absence of being in Spain, computer/video live lessons sound like a fabulous idea.

The music is beautiful and soothing as I write. It floats around me.

I read today’s writing out loud to Paco and Pilar, translating simultaneously as I read it. They were amazed and impressed. It is hard for people to understand what I write if they have not read or listened to it. Even though I tell them what I am doing, hearing it made it real. They said, “Yes, this is exactly what happened!” I would love to translate all of this into Spanish.

SPAIN CHRONICLES 2003

Sept 14 – 15 Writings
Sept 17 – Oct 4 Writings
Oct 5 -12 Writings
Oct 17 – 20 Writings
Oct 25 – Nov 2 Writings
Nov 4 – 9 Writings
Nov 11 – 17 Writings
Nov 23 – 24 Writings
Nov 25 – Dec 2 Writings
Dec 5 – 8 Writings
Dec 10 – 14 Writings