Troubling times; happy times

Dad

I received an email from Sophie this afternoon to say that the hospice called and said that dad had a big bleed today so I called the hospice and spoke to Nurse Donna. She said that Dad had a bleed last night and they managed to contain it but he had another more aggressive bleed today and that was a bit harder to control.

It’s the biggest one he’s had since going to the hospice. They eventually manged to get it to stop and used some new dressing for bleeds that they have not had to use before. By the time I called, he was doing okay and there was no more significant bleeding. She said that he appeared more confused today and that could be attributed to a number of reasons – weakness, maybe internal in addition to external bleeding, tiredness or medication or a combination of all of those. She said that I should enjoy the last day of my time in Mexico because there is nothing I could do anyway.

They just wanted us to know. I mentioned to her that had Dad not been at the hospice in the capable hands of the entire very caring staff, I would not have gone anywhere Prior to going to the hospice, I was trying to manage his home care staff schedule, his medications, his meals and any doctor’s appointments.

So to have qualified medical staff taking care of all of this now, means that I can breathe a little easier – although I bought trip cancellation and interruption insurance just in case I had to return home early.

Isla

This morning we decided to go to the Miramar Restaurant for breakfast. This is the first restaurant that did not serve good food. I got my huevos mexicana (Mexican eggs) but it was pretty tasteless and instant mashed potatoes is not my thing at all. We all got that on our plates. Yuk.

Sunita and Robin had huevos rancheros and that was passable. Ronin had pancakes and bacon and his seemed to be okay. This was his second breakfast. The first thing that he wants to do when he wakes up in the morning is to eat so I gave him a bowl of cereal and milk and a glass of pineapple juice.

The best thing I could say we had at Miramar was the freshly squeezed orange juice but that’s likely because they didn’t prepare it themselves. I walked away disappointed that my last breakfast in Isla had instant mashed potatoes. That has to be the grossest thing that anyone can eat. It tasted like powdered nothing. So it’s not Miramar tonight. It’s probably going to be Rolandi’s again but we know for sure that the food is always, always good.

We went to Viva Il Gelato last night and the food there was incredibly good. It’s on Ave. Hidlago and it’s surprising that there weren’t more people there and that we didn’t think to try it before. I had a Caesar salad with chicken and there was enough food there to feed three people easily.

Ronin had a half serving of spaghetti with pomodoro sauce and it was definitely enough to feed an adult comfortably. We asked the server if it was a half portion and he said yes because we would be surprised to see what the full portion looks like.

We went back to the hotel with a hibiscus that Ronin picked for me and then changed his mind and wanted to give it to Lucy who is the owner of the hotel we are staying at. He’s taken quite a liking to her. I bought some Oreo cookies for the kids in the yard (her son, her step daughter’s children and her chambermaid’s kids).

Ronin gave it to her two days in a row to give to the kids and she kissed him on the cheeks so he walked around town that evening with lipstick on his cheeks showing it off to anyone who would make eye contact with him.

The next night he wanted to repeat the whole thing all over so of course I let him. Then last night it was a flower for Lucy and she kissed him again but this time he hardly had any marker (lipstick) on his face.

We went off to the square to get a latte, a leche flan and some churros (which Ronin calls Chew-Woes). The churros man had some already made but since I have been buying them every night, he made me a fresh batch. It was deliciously yummy like I mentioned before – sugary and crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside. We went off to the seawall to enjoy the rest of the evening.

We got back to the hotel which is all of a two minute walk from the seawall, had our second or was it third shower of the day and went off to the roof to watch the stars and the crescent moon. There was something going on the square during the day and evening so there was lots of music.

We listened to that for a bit and then went back to the room to start reading a good book that Sunita just finished – Water for Elephants. I now on page 173. I took the book to the beach today and read some of it there.

Ronin and I went into the water and we were jumping, floating and riding the waves. That kid has more energy than ten people.

The sun was blistering hot on the way back to the hotel but we had to stop to see three iguanas basking on a rock. I gave Ronin his shower before lunch and he wanted to get into his pyjamas because he was so tired from the water. He ate lunch and went to bed a few minutes later

I took him for his after nap ice-cream and Sunita wondered what he’ll do when he goes back to daycare on Tuesday. He’ll be asking Eunice for an ice-cream when he wakes up from his nap. I’ll miss my little grandson but I’m loving the time I have with him.

Tomorrow we leave Isla on the 8am ferry for Cancun and on my way home. This trip has been a Godsend. I had not planned to go anywhere for the next few months but I got such a good airfare at very short notice and it was a direct flight so someone must have been looking out for me.

I have so much stuff to do when I get back that I am deliberately not thinking of any of it right now – at least not trying to work on it while I’m here. There’ll be enough time for that when I get back.

In the meantime, I’m going to have some guacamole and think about where we can all go at Christmas for a big family vacation. Sunita was looking at a house rental in the Orlando/Kissimmee/Davenport area or the Phoenix/Scottsdale area.

We are even considering Isla again but it might be a challenge for all of us to come here. Anyplace with a heated pool or a warm ocean will do and it won’t be -30C.

Brent if you are reading this, it only seems like my life is one big vacation, interspersed occasionally with brief periods of work. I guess when you like the work you’re doing, it does seem like being paid to be on vacation.

Now, what do I want for dinner? Pizza? Pasta? Grilled chicken? I can’t believe that I am saying this but I think I’ve had my fill of fish and shrimp for now.

Off to throw some rocks to the sky with my grandson…It’s now later in the evening and we had our pizza at Rolandi’s. We threw lots of rocks on the west beach this afternoon and the waves were quite high. Later in the evening, we went up on the hotel roof top and watched the stars.

Ronin and I were singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star but when we got to the part where it says “…like a diamond in the sky…” he observed that the stars did not really look like diamonds but circles so we revised the song to sing “…like a circle in the sky…”. Somehow that doesn’t sound quite as nice but he is accurate, They do look more like circles than diamonds. We should tell songwriters to be more accurate…