The endoscopy shows no problem. Back to square one. Now Greg is saying he has a sore throat. Is it from the endoscopy? “Open wide, honey.” I peak in and am shocked by what I see. All those pustules. Is this strep throat? After we share the results of the endoscopy with Dr. Angulo, he examines Greg’s throat and prescribes an antibiotic. “Vuelve dentro de diez días.” (Come back in ten days.) There is clearly a horrible infection in my guy’s throat. And it doesn’t go away. Not even after the whole series of antibiotic are finished in ten days.

Our dear friends, Sean and Dori, are both veterinarians. As you may be able to tell, they are also quite the hilarious couple.

We often discuss medical issues with them. Not just regarding our dog Isabela’s issues. Our medical issues too. They are doctors after all. Most of their patients have at least four legs, but what the heck? When talking with Dori, (she isn’t mincing words) she admonishes us. Apparently we made a big mistake not getting a culture done on Greg’s infected throat. “A culture will tell exactly which antibiotic will work on this particular bacterial infection.”

Of course. Anyone knows this. Even we know this, but somehow the location where this information got stored in each of our brains is malfunctioning. Asleep on the job. Like Dr. Angulo. Why didn’t he take a swab and do a culture? Instead, he only sent the fluid from the endoscopy to the lab (to see if it is acid reflux I’m assuming) and they found nothing significant. And as far as we know, the throat infection is not related to the original problem. But this infection problem can be solved with the correct medication, so we decide to stick closer to home and go to St. Jude’s Hospital/Clinic in Todos Santos to request a throat culture. As it turns out, we never go back to Dr. Angulo.

It takes a couple of days for the throat swab sample to grow, so we wait. For someone who rarely sees a doctor, my husband is visiting many of them now. He’s not a happy camper about it either. “This is going on and on,” he tells me, “and I’m sick of it.” If we only knew what was in store for him.

Things did not progress as we hoped. Now the results of the culture come back tainted from all the antibiotics he’s been taking and he needs to wait a week before they do another culture. Get the antibiotics out of your system and come back. August is turning into September and we are no closer to discovering an answer to our original question. Why is there pain with yawning or opening wide? Greg has seen 4 doctors in a month, had two procedures, and the only thing we know for sure is he has an infection on his left tonsil.

You cannot accuse my husband of having patience. He has not been known for it, even on one of his good days. While he will learn to have a little during the next eight months, he is sorely lacking in this area at this point.

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He’s not one to “reign himself in” about his frustration either. If you have a problem with expletives, you don’t want to be around Greg when he is exasperated. This time I do not blame him for being highly aggravated, but really there is nothing we can do now except follow through with the next culture and do some more waiting.

We agree to take one thing at a time, and the second culture gives us the name of the right antibiotic. A doctor at St. Jude’s in Todos Santos writes up the prescription and none of the pharmacies have it.

This is the first in a series of writing about our journey with cancer.

When you hear of someone being diagnosed with cancer you feel sad and, of course, sympathetic. If truth be told, there is also a part of you that breathes a sigh of relief that it’s not you. Of course you’re glad it’s not you, even though you are grieving with the one cancer has chosen to call on. Cancer is what happens to someone else.

Until it isn’t.

For my husband, getting the diagnosis confirmed took time, and while we allowed ourselves some hope it was something less devastating, we mostly began making decisions about how to deal with it. In the beginning we were stunned. This can’t be happening. We have things to do. We don’t have time to have cancer.

~~~

2016

It started simple enough. Sometime in the beginning of 2016, Greg mentioned to me that he had a funny soreness when he opened his mouth wide to yawn or take a bite of a big taco or sandwich. Not a big deal really, but something. He brought this up casually a few more times, but by August, when it was still an irritant, I suggested he see the ear, nose, and throat specialist in La Paz. Dr. Angulo had impressed both of us previously; he was thorough in his examinations and treatments of Greg’s ears, when he had seen him after a couple of surfing incidents. My husband, who seldom goes to a doctor, felt a bit silly going for this minor thing, but he made an appointment for the next day at my insistence.

The hour drive to La Paz is easy, most of it on a four-lane highway, but there is little scenery to keep one’s interest. Rather it is miles of dry desert landscape. As a passenger, I might notice a caracara bird atop the cardon cactus and the occasional herd of goats, sometimes on the roadway, but most of the trip is monotonous. If we have to go to La Paz for any reason, we usually make a day of it for shopping and doing other errands. So for us, this drive to La Paz was just business as usual; this medical issue was probably nothing.

The hospital Fidepaz has a good reputation among expats and Mexicans alike. We’ve been going there for minor things for a few years now. It’s clean and the doctors have given us good care.

As it turned out, Dr. Angulo immediately thought Greg had acid reflux. He gave him a prescription for Nexium and made him an appointment to get an ultra sound. The puzzled look on Greg’s face told me he didn’t agree with this diagnosis, so when we left, Greg decided not to get the prescription. Mainly because it cost so much, but he swore he didn’t have acid reflux. He told the doctor that too, but with our lousy Spanish and the doctor’s inability to understand English, we decided to get the ultra sound and forego the Nexium.

Thank the powers that be the ultra sound appointment was for the same day, just in a different location. Angulo was adamant we see this particular doctor and not use the one at Fidepaz. That much we were able to ascertain even with the language barrier. We made the 15 minute drive and Greg got the ultra sound. The results were instantaneous and we were happy to learn that the test showed no problem. However, the problem that began our excursion remained. What next?

Back we go to Dr. Angulo armed with our test results, and the doctor insists that Greg has acid reflux. Greg insists that he doesn’t. Now Dr. Angulo wants him to get an endoscopy. Okay, we’ll do that in an effort to rule this out. We aren’t so lucky as to take care of this procedure in the same day. Instead we must make another drive to La Paz a few days later.