Bienvenidos al ultimo ejemplar de La Voz para el año 2023. Parece que no, pero este año pasó medio rapido para mi. El el caso mio, me pusieron un pacemaker en enero porque me andaba cayendo. Como decia un doctor, “the top part of your heart was not talking to the bottom part of your heart.” En el mes de Marzo, se me murio mi carnalito Tommy. He had been ill for a long time bat-
tling the effects of brain cancer. Initially the doctors only gave him 5 years to live. He went way past that number and lived to see his children grow up to graduate from college. El Tommy boy was 65 years old when he died.
This summer, after repeated urgings from family members, I went and had a colonoscopy. (O como dicene en el barrio, un chequeo del mofle.) Everything checked out much to my relief. Luego en Octubre I went to see my podiatrist and he saw that I had a foot ulcer. Since I am a diabetic, it was a diabetic foot ulcer. He treated me and put me a boot. A follow up visit two weeks later showed that the ulcer had shrunken 50%. Clearly that was progress. But a few days later I told my wife that my foot was hurting. A quick trip to the emergency room revealed that the foot ulcer had in fact grown.
Two days later the doctors decided to operate. After two more days of observation, they came back and said they might have to operate again and take the big toe. My wife and I had a discussion and told the doctor to do what he thought was best. I am now a “nine toe” guy and in recovery at home. I share all of this with you so that you may be more vigilant than I was. Although we
were on top of the situation, it still got away from us.
I will continue to publish La Voz as I work from home. But if you don’t see me, it is not because I am anti-social. It’s more an issue of not being able to walk. May you and your family have a great holiday season!
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Copyright 2023 by Alfredo Santos. To read this month’s entire issue of La Voz, visit: www.lavoznewspapers.com