Dr O lowers the boom

Just when I thought I was out of the woods, medically-speaking, Dr. O set me straight yesterday after reviewing my blood test. Would you believe I'm 42 points too high on cholesterol and anemic?

My friend Ale, who came along to serve as translator, saved the morning from being a complete disappointment by regaling me in the waiting room with all the news about her upcoming family reunion (they take over the Fiesta Hotel, play music all day and talk all night, what fun!) and how the Hermosillo pork industry is going to use all the surplus meat they couldn't sell during the swine flu scare: have a party! They're going to be selling tacos four for ten pesos, all day Saturday, in a big park in Hermosillo, with live music, entertainment and no face masks.

I'm always learning something new from Ale: Spanish phrases, the latest political gossip, glimpses into Mexican culture.

Dr. O is a quiet, gentle man about five feet tall, very businesslike. He presented me with prescriptions for the anemia and cholesterol, and a strict diet listing comidas permitidas and comidas no permitidas, and told me to come back in two months.

Then Ale and I went prescription-shopping. Dr. O assured us that I could take generics, so we found the farmácia he recommended and by buying the full amount of each drug I'd need for the next two months we got a discount, plus Ale bargained us down another 20 pesos. I never heard of haggling in a pharmacy, but haggle we did. She's very polite and charming about it, and the clerk had no objection.

After a stop at my favorite coffeehouse for a coffee break, I took her home and got a quick tour of her new house, which is quite an improvement on her previous place. Lots of space out back for her two dachsunds, a more spacious kitchen plus a guest room and a TV room. I like the neighborhood, too—it's close to stores, but quiet, clean and well-kept, giving the impression the neighbors care about their homes.

Back home, my heart sank when I opened the fridge and saw all the comidas no permitidas—after having already given up cheese, yogurt, and sugar it just didn't seem fair. I never really took the whole cholesterol issue seriously before, just figured if I stuck to two-percent milk and didn't fry anything I could squeak by. But no.

And taking iron is no piece of cake either. A website I read yesterday said the best way to take iron is an hour before a meal, but since it upsets the stomach most people take it with a meal, thereby losing 60% of its effectiveness. And it should be taken with orange juice. But it's not like I can just add 60 percent more iron...or can I? Hmmmm.

I Googled "How to Avoid Iron-Depleting Foods" and found that caffeine and soy products (they contain peptides) are both bad news...there goes my soymilk cappucino and tofu! And peanut butter (or any legumes with polyphenols)…so much for my favorite Thai peanut sauce. And phosphates (no more lemonade with mineral water.) And chocolate! The list goes on. I'm amazed we aren't all going around with anemia.

Then I Googled Colesken, the generic form of Zocor which I'm supposed to take for at least two months for the cholesterol. Uh-oh, I'm not supposed to have grapefruit. And my friend Gail has a big bag of home-grown grapefruit waiting for me at the library tomorrow.