Ajijic Life: Today we went to see a doctor and other adventures

After yet another night of only 3 hours sleep, I decided that it is time to see a doctor and get some help .. I am exhausted and don't want life to stop being fun.

After Spanish class we started walking to town - on the way we came across Daniel from 'The Hot Dog Shop' which we all know on Ocampo # 3.  Today was the first day that they have (semi) opened further down Ocampo near to where we live.  There are several business moving out in this direction or expanding out to this direction and we asked Daniel if it has anything to do with the rent being cheaper further out west - he agreed that he is paying a little more but getting more space for his money out west and that more people are also moving out in this direction.  Although he is still setting up the new place and intends it to be more like the existing place in town, it is already looking good and I think that it will be very successful, especially since he will be opening from 11 to 11 each day and in this Mexican neighborhood supper is usually eaten late in the evening around 9 or 10.

Onwards into town, we stopped at our favorite coffee shop on Colon for coffee in La Casa del Cafe - a second cup of coffee is definitely OK when you haven't been sleeping he he

On the way, we came across one of the local fish sellers who was doing good business today but stopped for a friendly photograph - yup tilapia from the lake are sold fresh from the wheelbarrow every day in Ajijic.

Finally we walked on to our destination - the rooms of Dra. Jessica Flores whom we met when she made a house call to a friend of ours while we were visiting with them.  Yes, in Mexico they still make house calls and the fee is the same nominal charge as it is at the doctor's rooms.  We paid only 300 pesos for our consultation today and Dra. Jessica took a very thorough history of my sleeping disorder, realizing that I am very resistant to sleep medication so probed further in order to be able to find a sleep medication that she felt was a good starting point in order to find out what is going to work for me.  I also had her look at a nail fungus issue that has been unresolved during the last several years.  Although we had not made an appointment, she patiently spent more than half an hour discussing matters with us and sent me off with a prescription for what she thinks is going to be a good sleep medication to start with, knowing that we may need to add something else to tweak the effects if one tablet a night does not work for me.

Off to Farmacia Cristina (probably the best generic pharmacy in town) where I filled my prescriptions at 643 pesos for a 2 month supply of the sleeping pills (Tasedan) and 314 pesos for the 2 boxes of anti-fungal medication - a grand total of 958 for a two month supply of both medications.  Remember the doctor visit and the medications are all charges without any insurance at all and we are talking about $15.50 USD for the doctor and $49.80 USD for the medications ..

Since it was well after lunch time by the time we finished with the doctor and the pharmacy, we decided to stop for lunch at Chopsticks which we finally caught open (they only open from 11 to 4 each day and every time we pass by there, it is outside of those hours).  Today's special was beef and shrimp won-ton soup and we had a bowl each (80 pesos each) - it was really superb and made my hungry belly feel a whole lot happier.

They have changed the way that they used to offer Dim Sum (wow, 2 minutes from notification that they were offering Dim Sum and they were sold out).  Now they are offering Dim Sum every week on Tuesdays and Fridays at 2:00; 2:30 and 3:00  Reservations are still essential and already the whole of July is booked - it really is that popular.  For $250 you get the following:
Shrimp Dumplings (Har Gow)
Port Dumplings (Sui Mai)
Fried Spring Rolls
Chicken & Mushroom Dumplings
Scallion Rice Rolls
Sweet & Spicy Chicken Balls
Steamed BBQ Pork Buns

We saw them making an order of 'fresh' (as opposed to fried) spring rolls and even though we have been making our own lately, we decided to order some of theirs (which really looked so very good) for a light supper this evening.  We wanted to order 4 but the serving size they make is 3.  While Gerald came to discuss with me whether or not we really only need one order of 3, Quy came over to our table and said that he will happily make an order of 4 for us and charge us accordingly (67 pesos for the 4).  Yet another good experience that we will repeat again one day.

The day is not yet over, like so many of our days there is always more fun to have and my brain was telling me that dieting just cannot be the order of this particular day and I need to have some desert that is not remotely 'healthy' - we started on an adventure to find a small/individual chocolate cake or something similar but I just couldn't find what I wanted without it being too big (tomorrow is a different day and leftover chocolate cake would not be a good thing in my life).  That is when we happened to walk past Donas Donuts - problem solved.  Tonight we are going to enjoy healthy fresh spring rolls followed by unhealthy (poco saludable) desert .. I am going to enjoy every morsel.

We also stopped in at a new, modern grocery store to get some cocoa powder and finally bumped into Rafael who is a very good Mexican friend of ours that has done excellent construction work for us - a quick hug and chat and finally we got back home at around 4:30.  Another day of fun and adventure in paradise - we are so blessed and happy to be here living such a free and relaxed lifestyle where we are free of so many of the political, legal and cultural bonds that used to limit us in USA