#164 - 61
Well, another birthday has come and gone. I’m 61 now. I have been in Medellin for the last three weeks, primarily concentrating on my physical therapy and getting my back in working condition again. As part of that process, I ran into somebody who had been experiencing a significant amount of pain and limited range of motion do the soul shoulder surgery almost a year ago. He discovered through a friend of his something called ozone therapy. The guy was literally standing up in the café and demonstrating to me the difference in his range of motion and lack of pain after one treatment just 10 days prior. Alternative medicine. Fair enough. So, I went to see his doctor, and he impressed me by not immediately rushing me into doing anything. Instead, he insisted that I go get an MRI of my spine before we did anything. I had been meaning to do this for quite some time and somehow, I just never got around to it.
Sidebar: here in Medellin, just for comparison with those of you who know how things operate in the United States, the doctor called somebody at a clinic he knew and they were able to get me in for an MRI four hours later, for a cost of $180. And like all the other medical experiences that I’ve had in Medellin, the place was clean, up-to-date, professional, and everything was done on time.
However, the MRI showed that I had six herniated discs. As the doctor said, no wonder you’re having problems. Anyway, there are a couple treatment options with this ozone therapy. I don’t have time this visit to do it, but I’m going to take them under consideration and probably, no not probably, I will do one of them the next time I come back to Medellin. I’m not going to go into what I looked at in terms of ozone therapy, but I have direct feedback from two people here in Medellin that it’s working really well for them and they have not suffered any side effects. So I’m willing to try it. I don’t really see the downside.
As is usual on my birthday, I take a look back at the previous year and try to look at what I have done. And for the last year I have to say that I’ve gotten an enormous amount accomplished.
Good Stuff
· Was able to return to the Philippines
· My Spanish is now advanced level, and I am determined to get to fluency
· I started refreshing my French
· Learned a little Bulgarian
· St. Kitts & Nevis Citizenship - went from zero -> waiting approval
· Argentina passport process back on track
· Re-entered the dating environment
· Back to working out in spite of a couple of accidents
· Got an apartment in Varna that I’m sharing with Jakob – Have a European base
· Income flow has resumed
· Communicated to partners about being tired and not wanting to do another project
· I seem to have been retired to basically silent partner status
· Added Costa Rica and Panama to my list of countries
· Gotten really familiar with Medellín
Not So Good Stuff
· Identified back issues - multiple herniated discs (But have possible solutions)
· Had COVID (and survived 😊)
· Discovered I have some slight prostate issues (oh well)
Obviously, there are good things and not so good things during the last year. But, I would consider that the good by far outweighs the not so good. And as I sit here, this morning, in Medellin, I’m actually feeling very good. Things are going well, even with all of the physical problems that I have, I actually feel pretty good, and I can see that there is improvement. I’m heading back to the Philippines in a couple of days via Bulgaria. I am hoping that in the next 30 days I will have gotten the approval for my St. Kitts and Nevis passport. And by the end of the year, I would hope that my Argentinian citizenship has come through.
Jakob sent me this. I love it.
Pictures from the Marriott Auditorium in Madrid just next to Barajas Airport. I’m on my way back to Clark via Madrid (1 night), Bulgaria (3 nights). - I think having 24 hours in a nice hotel in Madrid may have really helped with the jet lag. I stayed awake. Swam a few laps, just generally relaxed and was able to get a pretty good night’s sleep.