A lazy day

Our bags arrived a few hours after we had left for the magical mythical, mystical, and misty mountain retreat, Macchu Picchu. We now have enough clean clothes to change our attire 3 times a day until we leave. They were waiting for us on our return.

MP is a full 900 meters and the village of Aquas Calientes is 1300 meters lower than Cusco, so the air is richer and it is the beginning of the jungle which offers some amazing and terrifying hikes. We walked along the edge of a cliff in the jungle to the Inca bridge.

MP is a very special place. The Incas knew how to pick a good location, and then maximize its beauty. It is worth the effort and is surprisingly well run.

Back in Cusco late last night, we went out for dinner with some friends who were hiking on the area (Brie and Arash) which was sorta magical too in its own way. Meeting dear friends from SoCal in Cusco.

Today we caught up on sleep and rest and fluids and Peptobismol but not on oxygen. It is less than 70% of what we are used to breathing.

It was great to just sit in the central square and watch the world go by.

In Cusco's main cathedral there is a portrait of a Jesus at the last supper eating the traditional Pascal chinchilla or some say guinea pig. Judas is the spitting image of the deceitful and murderous Pizarro, not that Inca kings were angels by modern standards.

Peru's bloody history is worn on its colorful sleeves everywhere you turn.

It has not easy with no bags, hours on SKYPE with American Airlines, trying to buy replacement clothes and basics that fit average size American males and from someone that could give a receipt, altitude sickness, traveler's tummy, cold hotels, and sore knees. but it has been good, in fact very good to have this special time with my son in a wild and exotic place.

Tomorrow Lima, then home sweet home.

Found myself thinking about my leukemia only once for a few minutes on the trip when during a much need and much welcomed hot shower, I could tell my nodes were growing.

Not bad 5 minutes about CLL in the last 5 days, a minute a day. I like that ratio.

Good and Bad News from Peru

One of the many advantages of having the winning trifecta of CLL a medical degree and the tendency to envision the catastrophic is that I carry with me medicine for everything.

The high altitude has hit my son much harder that it has hit me. If he can hold down the meds I brought just in the case the other meds we are already taking didn't work, he should start to feel much better.

Than k G-d my emergency meds where not in my checked baggage.

Which brings me to the good news.

Our bag has been found and is on its way to Cuzco! And American Airline has authorized some money to reimburse us for when we buy some warm clothes and other necessities until if arrives.

Now as long as Ben starts to feel stronger, all will be well.

Peru First days highs and lows

Made our connection by 10 minutes in Miami to Lima after a nerve wracking change of our flight to Peru three times, but our bags didn't and are still nowhere to be seen.

Mild altitude sickness, cold (41 degrees in the the Sacred Valley) with no heat in our hotel and no warm clothes (all in the missing bags), very sore knees after miles of walking through the wonderful Inca ruins in Pisac (hiking sticks and the more than 3 oz of Voltaren ointment were in the luggage), hail, our original guide getting stuck in Puna and sending his excellent younger brother, our hotel losing our reservation, not able to get a working SIMS cards for our phone, and almost no sleep for two days now- none of this has stopped us from being thrilled to be here.

Amazing and beautiful and friendly.

Peru has been wonderful, Not easy, but wonderful

Tomorrow should be even better after some sleep and buying new clothes and hiking sticks.

Good news for PERU

Lab tests were great going 17 days between treatments. That is a full 3 days longer than my usual cycle.

Platelets were a wonderful 409,000, Hg was OK at 13.7 and WBC was steady at 6.8. Diff is pending.

All of those are good or very good.

Certainly good enough to travel.

There is always some drama and breath holding when I get my blood results and my IVIG infusion often the day before I am scheduled to I hit the road.

And I am not talking about the 3 pokes to start the IV and the 4th to draw the blood. OUCH! I sure don't want to look like an IV drug user when I arrive at the airport in PERU. Long sleeves for me.

What I am talking about is that more than once I have needed to cancel my trip at the last minute due to a low count. It has taught me to never take anything for granted.

But no need to use my cancellation insurance with the more expensive pre-existing rider this time. Not for a long time. The low dose of cyclosporin seems to be keeping my ITP at bay.

I am grateful and excited.

One Small Price of Fear

Instead of clearing my mind and calming my soul and studying my destination, I spent way too much time today and last night strengthening the defenses ... of ... my computer.

Hour and hours of backing up, adding and strengthening my password protection, encrypting all my home files, throwing out stuff to make room on my bulging hard drive to do all this, all completed so that if my computer is stolen in Peru, not only will I be able to recover everything, I will be the only one able to recover everything. The bad guys will not be able to gain access to my data.

This whole process was aggravating, circuitous, inconvenient, distracting, tedious, slow, and very scary at times. Couldn't and wouldn't have done it without my friend, Howard S.

Thanks, I guess.

But is it done.

I would have loved to have spent those dozen hours or so reading about the Incas and the history of Peru.

Am I paranoid? Am a nerd for insisting on bringing my aging MACBOOK with me? Or am I just preparing for the worst?

If you think I am over prepped, you should the number of medications that I am bringing.

And the organic raw vegan snacks.