osodecanela | What a superbly wonderful way to end my week.....

Edith recently came back to my practice after more than a dozen years at Kaiser.

We're similar vintage, she and I. I took care of her during her last pregnancy, at which point neither of us were spring chickens. Her daughter is 17 now, starting her senior year in high school. She was 4 when their insurance changed, and I remember how upset this child seemed back then, not that she remembers. Edith was not happy about the change, but they had no financial alternative. She told me how much the child cried the first several times they had to go to Kaiser. Coming to my office was a treat; I talked to her, I let her play with the stethoscope. I tickled her. She never left without jumping in my lap and giving me a big hug.

Now that her employer offers a second insurance option, Edith grabbed it and is back. Her husband and daughter are insured through his employer and for the time being are still over at Kaiser.

She was here today to go over the results of her neck films. I'm sending her off for a course of PT. The topical anti-inflammatory I gave her last time is working and not bothering her stomach. I've already figured out that she has Helicobacter Pylori, the infection that can cause ulcers and gastritis. That's now being treated. She's a much happier camper than she was 10 days ago, when she first cam in.

All of that should have been a relatively short visit today. However, it was the end of my day and we visited. We must have spent half an hour talking about food and family. I mentioned I was making mole tomorrow night. Her mouth dropped. Her little latina heart was tickled I was making mole, from scratch no less. We wound up comparing recipes; she uses that same four chilis that I use (guajillo, negro, mulato, and New Mexico) plus another two I don't (arbol and cascabel). We both use almonds. I toast mine, she does not. She also adds peanuts. We both use both roma tomatoes and tomatillos, but while I blacken mine, she does not. We both use raisins, garlic and sesame seeds, and from the sound of it, I use more garlic. We both prefer Ibarra chocolate, and she found my idea of adding unsweetened baker's chocolate intriguing. Oh, and neither of us thicken it with stale tortillas. Neither of us strain our mole, so why thicken it?

Then she laughed. Actually, we both did. She couldn't believe here we were, comparing mole recipes.

As she was leaving I asked if she had seen, "Cinco Dias sin Nora". She shook her head. She'd heard about the film, from family in Guadalajara, but had missed it when it was in the theater locally. With subtitled films in this town, blink and you've missed them. I told her I just got the DVD. Her face lit up. She's going to borrow it, as soon as she gets back. They're off to Cancun next week.

After not seeing one another for so long, it was like picking up where we left off, almost as if the 12 years we hadn't seen one another never happened.