MRI Results 3.29.08

Michael returned from the states – sick. He picked up some killer cold while travelling and is still trying to kick it. While he was in California, however, his knee was feeling so much better, he was ready to forget about surgery. We decided to have an MRI done to better ‘see’ what was going on. He had the MRI on Thursday. We went back to the same place we had the x-rays done and laughed as we were moved into a different waiting room – one with leather couches, water, etc. – must have been the high-roller suite. The center has the new ‘open’ MRI and it took about 30 minutes to complete. Cost? $3250 pesos, so with the exchange rate averaging about 10.50, it was a little over $300. The next morning we went to pick up the slides & results and headed off to visit Dr. Olmeda again. The results confirm a torn meniscus. See the picture below. There is a yellow circle where the tear is located. The picture should show all black in that area, but there’s a definite white line, indicating a tear. Michael & I talked to Dr. Olmeda again about surgery and Michael was explaining that it was now about 85% better….until the Dr. manipulated it again. After the visit, he was right back in pain again. So Michael will do have a blood test done on Tuesday, take the results to the Dr. on Wednesday and have the surgery on Thursday, the 2nd. Whew!

In the meantime, we are scheduled to return to the states on April 15th. We have to get the boat packed & ready for hurricane season and there are a lot of tasks that must be completed in the next couple weeks. We have a 5 page checklist that was given to us by another boater that helps and we’ve added/removed items to make it our own. I’ll put some of it here…

We’re also losing friends right and left. Lots of boats are heading North into the Sea of Cortez for the summer, some are heading home, & some are making the ‘puddle jump’ across to the South Pacific. In the last couple days we’ve lost Dennis & Janet from Shilling of Hamble, Anne & Jeff on Outrider, Mike & the crew on Esprit, Richard & Janet on Chessie, John & Linda on Seabird, and many more. If you want to follow Shilling, go to http://www.shiptrack.org/ and type in MHZR3. They are currently in Cabo waiting for a weather window to make the jump. Esprit is right behind them and I didn’t manage to get their info before they left so I’m waiting to hear from them via e-mail.

The only good offset to losing friends, is those that are stopping in Mazatlan for a few days before heading North. A sister boat to ours – another 45’ Fuji, Pat & Barry on Pacific Voyager – that we met in Channel Islands just before we left pulled into the old harbor and we hooked up with them for an evening at the Best Western & potatoes along with Tony Morelli on Sweetie, Anne, Jeff & Tom (a friend from Ventura), & Lee & Nancy (10 of us!). We had a wonderful time visiting & watching the wonderful sunset & incredible potatoes.















While we were at the potato stand, we had some funny ‘local run-in’s happen. I had gotten up to take a photo of the stand & workers when a man got up from the table and in perfect English said he would gladly take my picture. I wasn’t expecting to hear English and had to translate it in my head (haha) and then explained to him that I was going to take a photo of the stand. He had a couple of young daughters sitting with him, 8 years old or so, and said to me “My daughter just asked me if any North Americans came & ate at these stands and then we see you!” So in my best Spanish, I tell her that we all really like the potatoes here & enjoy much food in Mazatlan. She reeled and said ‘You speak Spanish too!’…it was really comical. Then, while we were eating, we had a very young boy, maybe 4 or 5, come running around the corner & stopped beside Tom. Now this happens a bit when you’re in the tourist areas & the young kids are usually attempting to sell candy or gum. So Tom simply looked at him & said No, Thank you. The kid lingered a minute or so (Tom was in deep conversation) and then ran back over to his family. I caught the eye of the mother and smiled and the kid came running back over to us and yelled “A B C D E F G!” in almost perfect English. We all laughed as we realized he was trying to communicate with us! So Tom attempted to sing the ABC’s with him while the Mom just beamed across the street. We were a little ashamed that we just jumped to conclusion that the kid was trying to sell us something when all he really wanted was to talk to us! In any event, we had a wonderful time with the group, enjoyed everyone’s company.





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Rene