October 27, 2007 – Today, after 8 days of waiting, we had our first appointment with Jhon Rodriguez of Salud Total. Totally useless! The doctor could do nothing more than take my blood pressure as just on the other side of the enormous windows of his office were 5 men washing the windows! We left with 30 days of folic acid and 30 days of iron, a promise from Jhon to see us in 24 weeks and mega frustration for wanting the doctor’s final confirmation. I mean, we knew, I had known for weeks, but you still want to hear from guy in the white coat that we’re on our way! We walked away, slightly annoyed, from our 6,900 peso appointment wondering if there was any way we could defy the unpredictable odds of being able to count on anything in Colombia and find ourselves a blood test before lunch with Beatriz. We found one Laboratorio, but had to break through a iron grate to get in and then found we were the only people there, with a seemingly 16 year old nurse. The place was more like a prison cell than a clinic, but I was desperate. Steve, however, was not as anxious to see his wife passout with the cockroach corpses so we left, once again, on a mission. After some walking and some questioning, we ended up at a different place. Walking up the stairs it looked mysteriously similar, but at the top of the dark corridor we were greeted by a lovely bright, white and clean office, two waiting patients and a friendly 50-something nurse. Within minutes the test was over and I didn’t even faint! The nurse said the result would take 10 minutes but after just 3, she got out an old fashioned typewriter and began to type away on a small piece of white paper. I wondered if what she was writing was for us but she neither cracked a smile nor looked our way. I remember thinking how sad it is that this test is not as exciting for everyone, that for some the result is full of fear and dread. Nevertheless, a minute later, the typewriter dinged, a noise I haven't heard in years, and the paper was ready to be ours. She handed it to us and as quickly as I could I scanned the print. POSITIVO! We exclaimed, we shouted, we kissed, we thanked her as if this was somehow thanks to her, we paid our 13,000 pesos and got to the windy stairwell and celebrated our new, official baby! Life is good!
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