March 1, 2018
Hello, Tracy.
UTI's are never convenient, particularly when they occur in a foreign country and your cell phone has become difficult. This was the situation I faced Feb. 13-20 when I visited Joanie in Chacala, Mexico,
Here's a map showing how I got there, and some information from Wikipedia about this little Shangrila on the Pacific Coast of Mexico:
Chacala is a beach-town set in a small cove on the Pacific coast of Mexico in the State of Nayarit. It is located about 100 kilometers (62 mi) north of Puerto Vallarta. The name means "where there are shrimp" in Náhuatl, and is part of the coastline known as the Riviera Nayarita.[1] The population consists of approximately 300 full-time residents, but can swell to over 1000 during Mexico's most popular vacation periods such as Semana Santa, (Easter Week) and Christmas. Chacala is known for its physical beauty, unhurried lifestyle.
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Chacala's small bay has a gently-sloped sandy beach ideal for wading out into the crashing waves.
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I decided, spur-of-the-moment, to fly there, using airline miles on American Airlines. But after I purchased the tickets, I found myself with preliminary indications of a Urinary Tract Infection. (After a while you learn to see them coming.) It came in the form of frequent needs to urinate, with a hint of discomfort. I tried to hydrate and clear it out, and it calmed down on my flight to Puerto Vallarta. I arrived, and hailed a taxi to the bus station. But enroute I decided I was tired and taking the bus to Las Varas and then taxis to Chacala seemed like more complication than I needed. So I paid the taxi drier to take me there.
Balking phones and missing passwords
After I arrived, the fun began. My new Verizon phone reads a finger print or requires a PIN for access, and for a while it opted for the PIN, but the interface didn't provide an "action" button once the PIN was entered. When I tried to e-mail Kaiser Permanente, I realized that I had not brought my updated password for my laptop -- had changed the password after losing my original phone in Zurich. Meanwhile, I was enduring sudden urges accompanied by incontinence. I had brought a diaper along as well as several absorbent pads similar to what ladies use. Joanie and I decided to take a bus to Las Varas, where there was a pharmacy where I could purchase diapers and she could have her non-working cell phone fixed. At the cell phone repair facility my phone decided to display its number pad with a new symbol -- a check; to my embarrassment the lady at the counter pressed the check and I was into my phone for the first time in a couple days. That was handy, because Verizon requires your phone to be working so that they can send you a text message so that you can get your phone working. Technology like this is very aggravating when you are in Mexico with a UTI.
There's a small mountain near the beach -- it's actually an extinct volcano, and we hiked to it's caldera.
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The caldera of a small extinct volcano overlooking the bay.
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Too late the banyo
And down the beach there was a tapas bar protected by a structure with a thatched roof. We went there to read one day, when the urge hit me just before the bar opened for business. The surf and the calm lulled me to a sense of complacency, and I failed to act before the urge hit. By the time the owner had unlocked the bathroom, I was pretty sure it was already too late, and I was right. Afterward I quietly offered her 100 Pesos and apologized to her for losing control and directing fire to the waste can in the banyo. (Where, in Mexico, they normally deposit the tissue due to plumbing problems.) A few days later she joined Joanie and me at our Valentine's day dinner, acknowledging by that gesture her forgiveness and understanding.
The mural urinal
The trip back to the airport was punctuated by several needs to stop -- the advantage of taking a taxi instead of the bus. It also represented an introduction to a Mexican custom -- peeing on a wall in plain sight. We were stopped in traffic and I exited the taxi, crossed in front of stalled cars, descended to a lower street, and looked in desparation for a banyo. The driver caught up with me and direted me to a wall. The next stop was a few miles down the road at a gas station, where he purchased a bag of peanuts. In the car he offered me some and laughed when I noted that this trip came with a meal. There was a significant language barrier, but we were able to share that joke.
Incident on the plane
There were other accidents, of course, and I learned that the best solution was just to walk out into the surf, so that no-one would wonder why my safari pants were wet. That didn't work on the plane home, however, when I made the silly mistake of sipping water while I was waiting for a passenger to exit the bathroom. I was pleasantly surprised at how the absorbent pad had caught most of the urine so that it wasn't obvious to others on the plane what happened to me in the aisle.
Things are better now. I got home, drank lots of fluids, and eventually urinated the offending bacteria out of my system. It was just one more aggravating experience on what I believe will be the final stretch toward recovery.
Later this morning I go to Kaiser Permanente for my blood draw to see what my PSA level is.
Love,
Dad
