Catch All

Oh hello there...it's been a long time. My fault completely. Well, not completely my fault. Let me see if I can explain. About a month ago I was diagnosed with carpal tunnels and tennis elbow in my right arm. It made typing a bit painful and I was doing more than enough typing between work and school. I had nerve testing done and they found no significant nerve damage and I am still able to respond to light sensation in my finger tips. That's a good sign. I went to an Orthopedic Hand Surgeon and he gave me two injections of steroid and lidocaine -one in my wrist and one in my elbow. After three days of extreme pain, I felt better. He also gave me a wrist brace, which I wore while at the computer and driving. Everything was going fine and I was planning on going back to the Ortho Doc and telling him that I was ok. I wasn't thrilled at the prospect of wearing a brace for the immediate future, but I wasn't in excruciating pain, so it seemed like a trade-off.

Then I went to the physical therapist for my elbow. My pain isn't actually in my elbow, it's in the tendons in my forearm, on both the topside and the bottoms ide, for lack of better words. The therapist told me that I was over wearing the brace and could cause muscle weakness and soreness. She wants me to stretch and strengthen the tendons to see if that gives me any relief and wants to know when I'm in pain. Basically, she wants to use my pain as a diagnostic tool. I'm not a big fan of this approach - mostly because it means that I have to get worse before I feel better. I'm willing to give it a try. As I write this, I'm not wearing my brace and feel some pain at the top of my wrist, forearm, and twinges in my elbow. Not much fun.

Let's see...what else. It's been six weeks without any car accidents. Given my recent string of them (3 in two weeks) I consider that a significant improvement.

I'm on a break from school right now. Technically we are in a module called "Cross Cultural Management", but really it should be called, "Traveling to Central American Countries and Trying Not to Get Sick or Stressed Out". I showed up for my flight to Panama last week, only to be turned away. My passport was only valid for the next 60 days and Panama required that your passport be valid for 90 AFTER the departure date of your trip. I couldn't leave with the rest of my class. I left the airport and went speeding to the closest regional passport office (conveniently located in downtown Houston) and arrived about 45 minutes before they were about to close at 3:30pm. First, let me say that I would love to have a job that ended at 3:30pm every day. That sounds lovely. Second, I can say that miracles do happen, even in the realm of government bureaucracy. I paid for an expedited passport and was told that I could pick up my passport at 2:30pm the next day. Well....that wasn't going to work because there are only two flights a day to Panama on Continental, one at 9am and the other at 3pm. I needed to be on the 3pm flight or I'd miss another full day on what was turning out to be a very short trip.

I went up to Huntsville to see a guy that I've started dating. We hung out and the next morning I drove down to the office in Houston around 11:30am. I asked if there was anyway my passport was done and the guy behind the counter said it was my lucky day because my passport was ready. He handed it to me and a rush of excitement went through my body. It actually worked! I was actually going to go to Panama. I went from there immediately to the airport where I met up with my Tulane professor that was on the same flight as me.

By the time we got through customs and got the hotel, the group (my grad school class, 10 Guatemalan, and a couple Venezuelans) were returning from an evening at the Panama Canal. I was bummed that I missed that, but still glad to be there. The weather there was unbelievable. About 90-98 degrees with 90-100% humidity. It rained almost every day and felt like Houston in August, minus the scorching sun. It was hot. So hot that I think I sweated the entire three days I was there. Just really damn hot.

I did have a good time while I was in Panama, including a jaunt with some Guatemalan students to the largest mall in Central America. I purchased some overpriced Panama souvenirs and sweated some more in the dense crowd in the mall. Fortunately, much like Central Asia, I was taller than most people in the crowd, so at least I could see. That's something.

When I got back to Houston I almost immediately started cramping and going to the bathroom 4-5 times an hour. The cramping continued on through the next day and I went to the doctor after some blood was involved. I won't get into particulars here, but let's just say that strong antibiotics and anti-cramping medication have seemed to solve the problem. Thank God. That is the last time that I will drink "filtered" tap water at a hotel, but even if I avoid that, I was still brushing my teeth with tap water and consuming ice from who knows where. They could have been filling up their ice trays from a hose in the back for all I know or an expensive filtration system. According to the Panama Tourism Authority, the water in Panama City is fine - in fact, it's the best in the world. Then again, that guy also said that everything in Panama was the best in the world so maybe I should doubt the source a bit more.

In two weeks we are leaving for Guatemala. We're spending one night in Guatemala City and the next two nights in Antigua, the ancient capital of South America. Guatemala is supposed to be much more temperate, although a smidgen more crime-ridden than Panama. Panama is the white-color crime center. There banking and financial sector rivals America's. It was amazing. They don't even print their own currency. They just use US dollars.

Other than that, I'm back on my diet after falling off the wagon for the last six weeks. I felt huge and awkward around the slim Latin Americans. It was good motivation to try to focus on dieting again. Plus we don't have actual class in Houston until June, so at least I can't blame school food or boredom during class for high calorie snacking. I'm trying. That's what's important. I usually feel so disgusted with myself that I don't even want to think about it. I cram food down my throat to make me feel better, then feel intense amount of shame at what I just did. I hate it. It's a vicious cycle that I'm trying to get better at.

Well, I'll try to be better about updating more frequently. I have a lot to talk about and I've missed blogging. Hope you all are well. Drop a comment and let me know what you've been up to.

-B-