CELEBRATING LIFE

My adored little sister has been receiving treatment for a Lymphoblastic Lymphoma, a very aggressive type of cancer that in a very few months evolved to an over 1’x 8”x 6” size tumor in the middle of her chest.

The diagnosis was made in December, by our cousin (a darn fine oncologic surgeon) right at the door of her house, when we all traveled 8 hours to be able to spend Christmas with her, in Dec 23/06. She traveled to Houston first days of Jan/07 and was blessed with not having to wait too much to start her treatment. She found a very fine, compassionate and brilliant oncologist, who started a treatment as aggressive as the tumor: eight cycles of chemotherapy (regular terms would be six) with six different antitumoral drugs (regular schemes give four).

After third cycle she was in total remission, but her bone marrow did not take it well. It took longer and longer to recover after each new chemo cycle. A month ago, after 6th cycle, her blood counts were life threatening: anemia was so intense she could hardly breath; a compensatory tachycardia took place and the beats of her heart, doubled in number, were perceived at her neck. Her platelets were so low that any little effort (walking even) provoked small bleedings. Her defenses went down to zero and developed a severe infection from a normally harmless bacteriae present in our bodies. We almost lost her to this. She was hospitalized for several days. The bone marrow was exhausted and not recovering. The doctor decided that the risks of continuing with the two more cycles of chemo were way higher than the possible benefits, and decided to stop there. She was scheduled ford new Positrons Emission Tomography, new complete blood test looking for tumoral cells in peripheral blood, and new bone marrow biopsy for a “rearrangement”. The dreadly "bone marrow transplantation" phrase started being mentioned often. I was ready to donate would that need rise.

We were given the results today: there is no evidence of Lymphoma whatsoever. She is in complete remission. Her blood tests are back to normal. She was scheduled for a one month daily sessions of radiotherapy starting this coming Monday, to finish her treatment. She looked adorable with the scarves covering her bald head, but I have never seen her more beautiful than today, when she flashed Me the hint of her hair that has started growing after one month without the venoms.

We got out of the hospital at 2 pm, and walked around the malls laughing and joking and embracing each other. We had hot dogs and icecream for lunch, just like when we were little girls, she and I, celebrating her life under the sultry embreace of the sun in this texan summer

MOTHER'S DAY, MOTHER'S LIFE II

Year 1948.

A male centred culture in a third world country. An 18 year old girl named Violeta is accepted in Medical School. There were only two other women studying medicine at that time. A handsome 6th semester student notices the strong, dark haired woman and gets closer and closer to her. They are seen together very often, and some months later, he asks her to marry him.

They get engaged, but Violeta wants to finish her career before marriage. He decides to work as an intern in a private hospital, to wait for her and graduate together, which they do. They eventually get married 10 days after the two young physicians entered the college of surgeons, after 6 years of betrothal.

Five years have gone by since that day. Every morning, three little girls of 46, 28 and 10 months old fill the house. The 30 year old physician has brought her mother to live in when she became a widow 1 year ago.

And all of a sudden, life has a twist. In a tragic car accident, the handsome young father is killed, leaving Violeta alone, with her back injured as she was also involved in the accident, with 3 very young daughters and her own mother to take care of.

During the 6 months Violeta was kept hospitalized, she sells most of her belongings to be able to feed her family. When she recovers, she leaves the town where her husband passed away. After having accepted a new position at a hospital in the major city of her little country, she wins a scholarship and travels to North America (Mexico and USA). Upon her return four years later, she is the only doctor specialized on anesthesia for neurosurgery in the country, and thus, is designed head director of the anaesthesiology department in the major hospital of the country. She was the only female and the head of the team.

Violeta raises her 3 girls and the three of them become physicians. The photography above is her favourite. “My three doctors and I”, she often brags about, showing off the picture that was made with us wearing white lab coats because she wanted it to be that way.

34 years after her husband died, she decides to retire and to re-marry. Her labour is done, in accordance to her. The picture above shows her with six of her seven grandkids.

I was not able to post about you on Mother’s day, but as I said before, there is not such thing as mother’s day, but a mother’s life. And this is a tribute to your life, mother mine, the bravest woman I have ever known. I love you beyond words.

~ May 15, 2007 ~

MOTHER'S DAY, MOTHER'S LIFE

As mother's day approaches, I decided to offer the husband a gift (yes, I always celebrate him on mother's day as he has been "mother and father" at home, tendeding to my boys during the long duties at the hospital when I was a med school student, an intern or a resident). I went through old pictures of my wonderful kids, and did several compositions of our treasures through different ages. For the very few friends that visit my blong, here are some of the pictures I chose.

The last picture shows two fine young men. The elder one, to be 29 by late september; a professional with two careers: he is an economist and a sociologist, with a masters in social development and a diploma on Leadership for development given by Georgetown University, where he is standing in the picture; he works for the German Cooperation for Development Office. The youngest one, just turned 27; an artist who started to study psychology first and then switched to Human Ecology; in the picture during one of his classes; he teaches theatre in a private college and in a private high school.

Unhooks bra before it bursts out. Mother's life has been a good life. I love you both so dearly, my precious, darling sons.

~ May 11, 2007 ~

HOUSTON, WE HAVE A PROBLEM

I find myself in Houston for longer than what I expected. I arrived 5 weeks ago, to keep my sister company while she received treatments for a Lymphoblactic Lymphoma. My original plan was to remain in Texas for a month, and here I am, 5 weeks later and without any specific day booked for my return home. With all the comes and goes of chemotherapy sessions, blood tests, other medial procedures and so, I've been fairly busy until the past weekend, when my neice arrived to visit her mother. On having to show the lovely young one around and not being familiar with Houston, I of course ran to the laptop and googled "Houston". I started with general information about the city. And the first thing I came across was a description of transportation. "Public transportation: Have a car. That's all I'll say about that."

Amen! is what I uttered, on agreeing wholeheartedly. Public transportation are just two words that might as well belong to a foreign language when it comes to go from one place to another in Houston, a city with some ineffable sprawl: it is spread out like nothing else imaginable, I swear! I thought I had been to several places where traffic was bad; however, the worst traffic that I have EVER seen is in Houston. Not even the crazy traffic of Guayaquil holds a candle to the traffic nightmares of Houston, where exits aren't clearl marked, or are located exactly to the opposite side of where they announced them 1 mile ago, forcing people to change five lanes to get to where they need to go because you are given little to no notice about the upcoming exit. I do thank the goddesses from the bottom of my heart because the black Mercedes I have been driving for the past 5 weeks remains intact in spite of the number of hours I spend in the packed highway, on daily basis.

My next search brought me the weather information. "Houston, Texas is full of excitement and surprises and unpredictable rainstorms. If you live in Houston, Texas, you can't be surprised at flooding in the city."

Well yeah, thanks for having told me in advance (not!). The past week, we had two days in which it simply poured and poured to no end. Interstate 10 was closed in various periods of times, traffic was interrupted by crashes due to the rains, a lightning stroke a house in the neighborhood destroying the roof and we had enough water as for people to take out their boats to try to cross the intersections under the freeway. If that is what they meant by surprises, then yes! they are right! Houston is full of surprises!

Then, I stumbled onto this article on culobrids; here the quote that caught my attention. "The majority of snakes are harmless. However, all snakes will bite. The snakes come out a lot after heavy rainstorms. (...) Snake bites, in general, last longer than raindrops, and the spaces between snake bites are generally longer than the spaces between raindrops"

Why thanks! it sure made me feel good to find out I had also gotten my dose of the above promised Houston excitement, when we found two snakes coiling outside at the backyard, after the last severe rainstorm! I was not game for finding out about how lingering snake bites might be and worse to go into a double blind survey on the width between two raindrops versus that of the separation between two snake fangs, thank you! The picture above shows the place where the texan snakes were found, right outside of the my sister's bedroom window, which I now found to be too close to the grass of the backyard!

It is not that I am complaining, no. Not at all. There is a lot of fun things to do in Houston. The Kennedy Space Center is definitely something to check out if you are visiting. In the pic illustrating this blog, my sister (with the scarf) and her daughter during our visit to the Space Center. The Richmond strip is loaded with clubs and bars to check out, all of them with long happy hours! Houston is also a shopping paradise. The Galleria, Katy Mills, Memorial City Mall among many others, are shopping centers that are beautiful and wonderful to check out.

Houston does have a ton of restaurants to check out as well. And it has numerous museums to check out too! I have heard that the Houston Rodeo is awesome and probably one of the best in the country.

But above all, Houston has given me a sense of having been of help to my beloved sister. That alone, makes up for all the above mentioned little inconveniences and makes of Houston a city I shall always remember.

~ March 19, 2007 ~

MY SISTER

There she is... she, who has been my mirror, shining back at me with a world of possibilities. She who has been my witness, who has seen me at my worst and best, and loves me anyway. She who has been my accomplice, my partner in crime, my midnight companion. She with whom there is no need of a language but that of winks and frowns and snarls and smiles. She who has been my teacher, my defense attorney, my personal press agent. She with whom I have shared childhood memories and grown-up dreams.

She who entered a hospital tonight, to receive her first dose of chemotherapy -an aggressive one, for that matter- and still had the strenght to jest on phone before the first injection as we talked, telling me that in 11 more days she shall have no hair of her own, but at the same time, she shall have the chance to buy the hair she always lusted for.

That amazing woman is my beautiful Sister. In the picture, She peacefully smiles 15 years ago, next to her daughter and next to me while I hold her second son.

~ January 11,2007 ~

ARICUCHICOS AND DIABLO HUMA

A nice surprise over the weekend was to watch a wonderful piece of local folklore: the dance of the Aricuchicos and the Huma Devil, performed by a group of young dancers the we host every afternoon as they attend to a folkloric dance club.

The aricuchicos are local villangers dressed in their most beautiful outfits, that gather to invoke a good harvest, crying out the mantra "ah...rih.... cu.....tchee... co" while dancing vigorously. Huma, in quechua language, means head. Thus, Diablo Huma means the head of the devil.

The Diablo Huma is dressed with a mask that has two identical faces, one looking to the front and one to the back, with twelve horns on top of the head. In hand, he holds a long whip made of a goat leg as the holder and goat skin for the tail, that he cracks against the floor as he dances. It is considered to be Satan.

Aricuchicos represent the natural order of things, while the Diablo Huma represents the supernatural happenings.

Aricuchicos and Diablo Humas dance in a fight-like dance with continuous short, half steps imitating a confrontation. Eventually, shouts of victory and euphoria overcome the Aricuchicos, and the dance is over.

~ December 18, 2006 ~

ANDEAN GASTRONOMY

Day 8 in Cuzco

It was time to get to know the profound Cuzco, so following Francoise Sagan ("you get to know a country by its tastes"), we went to visit a small town festivity. By lunchtime, I was brave enough as to have "Fritada de alpaca", a dish made with deep fried alpaca (the lovely andean camelid in the picture) and quinua (an andean cereal) pie for dessert.

Then, a visit to the traditional art museum, a place full textiles and pottery, where there were many rooms entirely devoted to pots where sex is realisticly shown. I must say that the erotic pots depicted most sexual practices, some of them rather imaginative!

Ethnical Noshy

~ December 4, 2006~