The Concrete Jungle and the Opium Den

Catching the red eye from Tijuana I wasn't sure how I would fare with the weakness and lack sleep and just the all out toll it takes flying late night.

Tijuana Airport at 1am

I was unsure how if Id be able to stand in long lines at the airport in Mexico City, but I did fairly well. Lines were short and wait times minimal which is good as I was having premonitions of dropping from exhaustion while waiting for customs. Flying or traveling all night always upsets the my body's balance; food and rest cycles are off and bodily functions are disrupted. Well... you get the picture.

At the airport, I could still feel the familiar burn of what feels like a bee sting of the lovenox stick, (I mean really, why cant they use a smaller needle and mix it with a little lidocaine.) Our flight was only 3 1/2 hours which pales in comparison to the 16 hour monster from South America last year that almost claimed my leg to a blood clot. I'm ultra conservative these days as a blood clot now and my health goes from poor to horrible about as fast as a (insert your favorite super car here) twin turbo goes from 0-60. Still I did my calf pumping exercises every hour and got up and moved about regularly. The days of washing down a xanex with some vino tinto and slipping off into a gentle slumber are dead to me now.

In my last post I mentioned a friend of friend (actually a cousin of a friend) was traveling down here to see a shaman and pitched me on joining him for the trip. My friends, who I'm traveling with now have asked that I not show their picture on line or publish their names as they are trying like to keep a low profile to discourage kidnapping. (Revised and details omitted) . So for purposes of protecting my sources, (and no, I'm not willing to go to prison indefinitely in the name of journalistic integrity,) Ill call them by their code names, Amigo Mio and Estimado Doctor or simply AM and ED. The two friends I'm traveling with pictured below



Proof that ANYONE can look better with a little "digital retouching"

 While Ive touched on my poor health, ED is redefining the severity of what I ever imagined the word 'sick' could mean. His knees, hands, elbows are all swollen and his face has that puffed out prednisone look. They don't really know exactly what he has (besides Lupus) but in the last three years he has seen 33 different doctors, done 28 alternative therapy treatments, seen 3 other shamans, a black witch AND a white witch (whatever that is) and says the shaman we are going to see is the only one who has helped him. Currently they are giving him Chemotherapy to shut down the immune system and ED is running on what AM terms, " 8 months of overtime." Which means 8 months ago he was given 4 months to live. He is too weak now to lift his own suitcase onto the conveyor belt at the airport. On the Microsoft Windows scale of sick, or MWSOS, If I'm "Windows ME" sick then he is "Windows 7 Ultimate Professional Edition with Home Multimedia Pack and Encyclopedia" sick. We have a few of the same symptoms which scares me a little, the dry eyes and mouth, pain and fatigue. The fatigue is a hard one for other people to get and for me to explain, but Ill give it a try. You know when you've had a long exhausting day and the muscles in your legs, back and whole body ache and are tired? The discomfort we don't generally call "pain" and is non specific, meaning it not just one single thing that hurts locally, but your whole body. Now imagine that all-over fatigue actually hurt like the pain of a headache and the worst ever full body hangover you've ever had at the same time, all 24/7. If you can get a grip around that then you{re close. Lack of sleep heightens those symptoms and the weakness can become debilitating.

Sick or not, his story is none the less fascinating as hell and beyond blog worthy. ED is one of the leading diabetes experts in the western hemisphere and has had 2 articles published in the New England Journal of Medicine. while that's all well and good, the cool part is that he doesn't charge to treat patients, instead making money from speaking fees usually paid by drug companies, studies and teaching. Severe diabetes often involves amputations and ED boasts that in his practice he has reduced amputations from 6 in 10, to 2 in 10. While I'm not in his shoes and wont be, (our diseases are different, I hope) I cant figure what keeps him going. He says its his daughter and his dedication to medicine. I'd probably have checked out long ago and gone the way of the Gurn, but I guess you never really now until you have to make that choice. I cant decide if ED is an inspiration for me in my fight against this largely misunderstood disease, or an example of knowing when to throw in the towel. One effect it  is having on me is how I view and define things as 'important' in my life. I'm sure Ill be overhauling that definition for years to come.

He wants to see my medical records (which happens to be a request I can easily oblige as I keep EVERY test, xray and result on a thumb drive on my key chain) and says he can cure me with a new stem cell treatment he used on his dads Ankylosing Spodylitis or Espondilitis Anquilosante in Spanish. He says I will be the first patient he charges and its going to cost $100. Ummm well, OK. He doesn't think my problem is AS and that AS is a symptom of something else and we will see after we visit the shaman he says. Actually he says "Its all in your head."

Arriving in Mexico City ED hired a car and driver for $2000 pesos a day so we wouldn't have to hassle with taxis. After braving the Brutal Mexico City traffic at 730am doing extreme Mexican U turns. We arrived at a breakfast with a friend of AMs, Ill call him ELE (FB, you ll remember ELE, he was the guy that sewed the sleeves on his tee shirts smaller to make his biceps look bigger when we were in La Paz.) We had breakfast and I managed to force down a fruit plate although I knew my stomach would make me pay for it later.

"What your immune system is haywire? Why, you can hardly tell!"

 ELEs a cool guy that grew up in Coronado, an entrepreneur, and his apartmento is in the Polanco section of Mexico where as he puts it, "no one is scared to come here and its close to everything."

Polanco Section, lots of trees, calm, safe, nice, ahhhh

The weather has generally been nice, alternating from high clouds to sun when all of sudden this happened...



Later ELE took us out for dinner at a pretty upscale restaurant called "Trece," or 13.

Charging the camera always means the best fotos escape immobilization

So named for a striking coincidence between the owner and the number 13. Not only was he born on the 13th, at the thirteenth hour, in the 13th building on the 13th floor, his fiancee is 13 years old (kidding she WAS born on the thirteenth though) and a string of so many other thirteens I forget. ELE knows the owners and it was one of those 4 hour meals where one delicious course come after another with good food, good drink, good conversation and good freinds. Topped by one two glasses of Johnie Walker Blue Label.
Now, I expected this trip to slide from one end of the fourtwenty friendly scale to the next, so far its been pegged to the maximum reading which I term as "opium den."  Which is fine, I'm not exactly a ball of fearless ball of gringo fire rearin' to go and tear up the city, but I do want to explore and unleash my own special brand of travel madness upon an innocent unsuspecting Mexico. So kicking back for 3 1/2 hours in an Internet cafe writing this blog is cool by me.

Thursday we are off to Oaxaca, either by bus or plane, depending on how ED feels to see the Shaman. The basic idea of how it works is you line up and take a number, seeing the Shaman one-by one. When you get your audience you ask him your health/life related question. I'm envisioning this to Neo meeting the Oracle in Matrix .

So for the next couple days Ill be kicking around what the great all mighty life changing question I should ask might be. Should I keep it strictly medical or venture off into the vast largely unexplored area of spirituality? Should I try to tie both together like a good BSNYC segue? Is the cause of my physical suffering a by product of not placing enough straws in my own nest? Clearly this question could hold the key to the garden gate blocks my life's path. Here's a few ideas Ive been kicking around:

1.) What are my lucky lotto numbers and can I get a quick pick while I'm here too?
2.) Will a sheep's wool coat shrink, constrict and kill him if he goes in a hot spring?
3.) How can I get the grey out of my hair and still have it look natural?
4.) Can I have 3 wishes, the last one being to have three MORE wishes?
5.) Are breast augmentations "real" or "fake?" Ive always been on the side of "if they exist they're real."

Clearly I have some soul searching to do before I distill these important queries down to the one that might set my spirit on a path of truth enlightenment and peace.

Meanwhile back in Distrito Federal, AM and ED are off to meetings all day and ELE and I are out sampling fine dining. Lunch was at a very nice restaurant called "Primos."

 Apparently they've just opened up 3 new locations called "Tios" "Sobrinos" and Mi Tias." I had the Queso Manchego and Jamon Serrano with a baby green salad and agreed, its not exactly a Thanksgiving feast but I did manage to finish it handily with little discomfort. Maybe that progress or just a "less than bad day."

A hot chick recently told me that Mexico City reminded her of a "concrete jungle," sort of cold, artificial and impersonable. I have to agree. But there is something exciting about cities that are alive with culture, history and arquitectura.

After I period of time though, living in a concrete jungle must be like working for a large organization in a cubicle farm. Complex, impersonable and rigid, while in contrast the  opium den offers the timeless simplicity of what-you-see-is-what-you-get.

As always I leave you with a disclaimer. These entries are written on the fly so you will excuse the punctuation, grammar, and missed apostrophes as Latin keyboards share few keystrokes to those of ours. Spellcheck only corrects Spanish words here, so use your imagination, it'll be more fun that way.