From KT- Nov. 9, 2018

Greetings from the jungles of Colombia!

On Wednesday I woke up in Rio in Brazil, at 6:30 am and headed down to the gym.   I did 45 minutes of lifecycle pedaling at a solid pace, followed by 8 sets of arm strengthening internal and external rotation exercises with the exercise bands I brought with me (I take them on pretty much every multi-day trips).  I was moving a bit slowly as we had flown in from Sao Paolo, Brazil the prior night and had a late dinner.  Anyway I then did 5 minutes of leg stretching, and 25 push-ups.

Off we went to a day of meetings with our kidney care team.  Their office, called The Rock, has some beautiful views and is filled with vibrant colors.  We are growing at a rapid pace in Brazil, and doing wonderful things in improving care, including dialysis adequacy and CVC reduction.  I had an earnings call with our shareholders at 8 pm that night, got back to the hotel a little after 10 pm, had a light late dinner and went to bed.

Got up about the same time on Thursday, yesterday, and had another good 32 minutes on the bike.   I did the same 5 minutes of leg stretching, and another 10 minutes of various stretching exercises.  We then headed straight to the airport to fly to Bogota, Colombia.  It was about a 6 hour flight, I got a lot of work done with that wonderful uninterrupted time.

Once we landed in Bogota I did a conference call back to the US, and then went to a meeting with the Health Minister of the country.  He is new in the job, and was quite thoughtful and impressive.  We had a good conversation about our accomplishments in Colombia, where we now take care of 20% of all the dialysis patients in the country.  Once again we have achieved excellent improvements in clinical outcomes, it was fun to talk about them.  It is also the case in both Brazil and Colombia that the Village spirit is high!

Even though my hotel in Rio was right on the beach, and a nice walk would have been good for my emotional well-being, so far each day on this trip which started on Sunday afternoon in Denver with a 13 hour journey to Brazil, has been too jam-packed to allow that to happen.  Oh well.

I then headed out to the jungle, for a meeting with The Nature Conservancy.  More on that later!  I hope each of you is achieving your goals!!

One for All, your Mayor, KT