This morning, I hopped the bus again at 7:15 . Got to Clinica Sanchez at 7:35 including a three-minute walk.  (I hopped off the bus where it was in closest proximity to Sanchez yesterday and today to save my tweaky knee the extra steps.)

 

My appointment was at 8:30 but the bus from San Isidro to Grecia only comes by once every hour and fifteen minutes or so, and I didn’t want to risk being on the subsequent bus and missing my appointment time.

 

So, I got checked in super early and was able to do so completely in Spanish.  “Buenos Dias! Estoy aqui’ muy temprano. Tengo una cita con Doctora Pacheco a ocho y media.”

 

The receptionist asked “Tiene MediSmart?”

 

“Si’.”

 

(The receptionist and doctor at Clinica Sanchez speak English, but I prefer to speak Spanish here as much as I can when I know I can make myself understood without a translation app.)

 

She had Medismart send a code to my phone so the appointment would cost just $17.50 (in USD). Which was a good thing because the subsequent antiobiotics and kidney medication added $231 to that total down at Farmacia Central, even with my MediSmart discount.

 

I Waited Maybe 20 Minutes in the Lobby

 

…while three other appointments took place with various doctors.  Then Dr. Pacheco came out to escort me to her office. What a nice lady! Patient, listens carefully, and knows her stuff!  She’s very young.  (Well, I think she is. At age 75, most younger women look “very young” to me!)

 

I brought my records from last April’s kidney function test

 

… in the States so she could compare the results. Two of the numbers in yesterday’s kidney test were printed in red, indicating too high, so she compared those to the April, 2025 test to assure herself that the results weren’t plummeting precipitously downhill from the earlier results.

 

They weren’t, but (unlike my WA doctor) she prescribed me a three-month supply of some kind of kidney medicine to see if that will bring the numbers back to, or closer to, the norm. If the medicine does that — even if it doesn’t — she wants me to see a kidney specialist every six months starting in July (as I was doing before in WA) so professionals can keep an eye on the status of the kidney.

 

That’s cool

 

Hopefully by then, I will have my DIMEX card and be on CAJA (or very near to getting both) so my meds will be free after this time. But $230 for three months’ worth of a daily drug, a five-day course of antibiotics, and two small boxes of bandaids is a perfectly affordable outlay of money to ensure my health.

 

After I left the clinic

 

..I walked down the sidewalk toward Farmacia Central to put in the prescription order. On the way there — across a street from the world-famous red metal church — I stopped at Pali to get more cat food pouches, because the price there per pouch (at least right now, on sale) is two for 1000 colones (a little over two dollars) and the pouches are usually 600 or 750 per pouch.  So, I stocked up on them yesterday and today.

 

At Farmacia Central, I put in the order, received the MediSmart code and read it to them, and then waited about ten minutes because they didn’t have enough of the kidney drug on hand, so a nearby pharmacy was called and I waited until they delivered it.

 

I left there and went to the bus stop

 

…because the 9:20 bus back home had just pulled in and would only be there ten minutes before it pulled out again. So, I didn’t stop for breakfast because 1.) I would have missed the bus, and 2.) because the two days’ worth of Sanchez clinic vists and tests and the prescription prices “told” me, There goes your in-town lunch money for at least six weeks!

Well worth the trade-off! I am certainly not complaining!

 

Deb and I extended the dates on the lease agreement

 

…this morning and she will type up the new one and have a good friend print off copies for us to sign. That will happen sometime this weekend, most likely.

 

Deb checked my apartment to be sure it’s still in great shape (it is!) so she was happy to extend the lease for six months.

 

Cleaned the birdbaths this afternoon

 

Took a broom outside and swished it around in the bird baths to clean them before putting in  fresh water.  The birds, Mao and Charli appreciated that, I’m sure!

 

I do it every couple days (I’ve adopted this chore) because it isn’t good to let water sit unperturbed outside (because mosquitoes will lay their eggs in it!) and because fresh, clean, clear outdoor water is probably not easy to find nearby. The cats would have to traipse down to the river (a long way, NOT a good idea) or come back indoors to drink out of their dishes, and sometimes they just like to be outdoors. Like me!

 

We’re in PuraVidaLand, after all! 

 

Winter or summer (Costa Rica’s only two seasons), it’s always outdoor weather. Sometimes ya just need an umbrella or a covered, shady patio to escape the hotter/wetter hours, which are usually just a couple of hours in the afternoon, by which time most of us here near the equator are ready to go indoors anyway.

 

Prepared and ate two small meals today before three today

 

The two new meds I’m on require me to eat meals with them, so I had to do a little figuring to decide when to take them, as they can’t be taken at the same time as my warfarin or each other.

 

So I took the first antibiotic at 10:30 (with my breakfast meal) not long after I got home and then waited until 3 to take the kidney pill with my lunch meal. Tonight before bed I’ll take the warfarin and then starting tomorrow I’ll have the following schedule for four days until the antibiotic is gone:

 

Upon waking — levothyroxine tablet

10:00 The antibiotic

3:00 The kidney pill

Upon retiring — the warfarin.

 

After Tuesday, the antibiotic regimen will be over and the other three pills will remain, daily. Except for Wednesdays, when I’ll skip the warfarin pill. (The antibiotics will mess with the warfarin, raising it some. Not sure what the three month supply of kidney drug will do. I’ll research that and get my INR checked in a couple weeks to be sure it’s behaving on this new regimen.)

 

I Get to Dogsit Again on Tuesday

 

Adilio has already committed to driving me back home at 2 p.m. that day. I will ride into Jon’s and Francisco’s with their beachgoing compatriots, who live near here.

 

Guess that’s all the news that’s fit to print for this time!