Our retired ambulance may have been an omen.
We worked like dogs on Gitana when we arrived in Fall of 2013. Greg sanded the bottom for four weeks straight - seven days a week - while having an occasional "stop and chat". He then tackled rewiring the boat. I busied myself with removing the head (practicing my human pretzel yoga), making the new V berth mattress and refinishing the saloon bulkhead.
In December I started to have severe backaches. By Jan 2nd I was in agony. I begged Greg to get a doctor for me on Friday morning the 3rd. He found Dr. Canale in San Carlos. Dr. Canale thought that my back problems were minor, simply a muscle strain, and could be fixed with a steroid injection. Dr. Canale is a cardiologist and gerontologist.
The next day at about 2:30 pm, while strenuously pulling at wiring, Greg suffered a stroke. It was immediately obvious to me (unable to move left arm and leg, unable to talk and excessive drooling), and although I had difficulty walking, I got down the ladder and walked to the boatyard office. When I got back to the boat I called for our neighbor, Frank, to help me. The staff called Rescate, the local EMTs, and within 15 minutes they arrived and were checking Greg's vital signs. He was taken out on a stretcher and lowered on a front loader. The ambulance took him to the Rescate center about a mile away. Frank and his wife Cheryl met us there. When asked if I had a doctor I wanted to meet us, I said Dr. Canale (I didn't know any other doctor). Canale was there within the hour and administered all the necessary drugs to combat the stroke. He was taken to Guaymas for a CT scan and brought back to the Rescate center. By 7:30 Pm he improved greatly, regaining use of his arm, leg and voice, and we were sent off to a motel - no hospital nearby and going back to the boat was not possible. Frank and Cheryl went with us and Frank volunteered to spend the night to help Greg as needed. Greg declined the offer.
After three weeks and three CT scans we finally got the okay to head back to the states. I felt that we needed to go back to the states not because of poor care, but because we had to pay cash for all the medical expenses and medical care for my back was a great distance from Guaymas. Language wasn't an issue in Guaymas. Everyone but the EMTs spoke English. I didn't know about other locations.
All of our medical expenses, including ambulance, medicine and 3 CTs came to a little over $1,000. We have spent well over 10 times that amount since Greg has been back in the US getting care. His last MRI was $9,000.
Greg had gotten a medical checkup before we left for Mexico and was in good physical condition. How could a man with low blood pressure, low cholesterol and normal weight have a stroke? It turned out that Greg had developed an "atrial flutter" (similar to atrial fibrillation) and racing heart beat (150 per minute). What brought this on? Was it the heavy metals he was exposed to while sanding the bottom of the boat? We may never know. Greg is currently on meds, that the doctor assures us, will prevent another stroke.
I do know what caused my back pain. When I returned to Washington, I had an MRI and it reveled that I had a herniated disc at the L3-4 position. A pre-existing L2 compression fracture contributed to this. All the contortions that I went through while working on the interior of the boat caused the blowout.
Its been 3 months now since my back surgery and I am slowly recovering.
We are currently preparing for a trip to northern British Columbia to fish for the big ones: salmon, halibut and ling cod. If all goes well we will be returning to Mexico in the fall. This time we will be much more careful.
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