"Backing" into Mexico

One and all,

I am sure at this point that most, if not all of you, are tired of hearing about the progress or, at times, the lack of progress with my back problems. Frankly, little else is going on. Every hour or so, Polley inquires as to “how I am feeling,” and I respond accordingly: “not so great,” “about the same,” or “pretty good.” We then make our way down the hill and measure my progress by the number of rest stops I need to make, most times because of pain, and, occasionally, usually on the trek uphill, because I am winded, having had little or no exercise for about 5 ½ weeks. Unbelievable!

At this point, I am pleased to report that progress is being made. Saturday was a quite good day in terms of the number of rest stops I needed to make. However, yesterday was positively terrific. We made it down to La Fuente, needing just a single rest stop. Perhaps the first time that has happened since arriving. After a couple of beers for fortification, we then proceeded to Guadalajara Pharmacy, located about 6 blocks further into town. I needed one brief pause for that journey. Because of my limitations, we had not really ever stocked up on necessary items. We had been living off what we could get from a little local grocery store that is about the size of a phone booth and a half! Finally, necessity (the local store had completely run out of cat food!) and my encouraging improvement allowed us to venture down the street. For me, walking has been somewhat limited, but standing in place has been truly painful. 20-30 seconds and I have had to find a place to sit. So the fear with grocery shopping was no so much getting to the store, but getting around in the store. In actuality, things went quite smoothly although I do confess to attacking the store with a kind of commando attitude and did have to take a brief break on a step outside before making the second assault. We did get it done, however, and then, with our bundles and my trusty cane, we grabbed a cab to take us most of the way up the hill.

Of course, one fairy successful and painless excursion does not necessarily assure that I am better. As you know, I have had other good days, only to have the following day be discouraging. However, yesterday was different. After coming back from our trip and having lunch, we were scheduled to have dinner at Vitea, our regular standing reservation at our favorite restaurant. So about 6:45, we started down the hill. Vitea is about 1/3 of a mile from us. In that distance, I needed to only pause twice! Even the second break was more for convenience than necessity. Things were definitely on the mend. We had a lovely and leisurely dinner with a very nice Greek salad and a complex and flavorful crab cannelloni. Delicious! Again, we grabbed a cab for the brief trip up the hill. But the important thing was that it had been a busy day and I seemed none the worse for wear. WE don’t want to push it too hard, but I do feel that I can say that the corner has definitely been turned. Updates for follow.