New Bionic Back
Day 16 Post-op Woke up in a lot of pain this morning, we went for a short walk last night to a restaurant that was close, our first real meal out. I was OK for a while but sitting there did start to get the better of me after the first hour, even with 2 […]
Tim and Command Central
Tim and Command Central No matter where we go in the world, Tim manages to run the world from command central! We always take 2 monitors with us when we travel, one for him and one for me but as I can’t sit yet for more than half an hour, there’s not much point in […]
Day 14 post-op
When we all talked about me getting that third disk put in, Dr Clavel warned me that it would take one to two extra weeks to recover, L5/S1 is harder to get to, so needs more recovery time. We decided it was worth it because I for sure was not going to be able to […]
What Tim didn’t tell you about the day of the operation!
Tim kept a set of notes so he wouldnt forget anything when I woke up and wanted to know all the details! Bless his cotton socks, his posts are short and upbeat (one of the reasons I love him) but sometimes he leaves out so much detail that you never really know the anquish he […]
Sonja left the hospital today and doesn’t need her stick!
Missed a day, sorry guys! Day 8 Post-Op Sonja left the hospital today and doesn’t need her stick! After a visit from Dr. Clavel, several from the nurses and a whole bunch of pills to take over the next several days as well a daily (anti-coagulant) injection pack, she has to do herself, they let […]
Sonja does not need any painkillers, for pain but…
Sonja is certainly getting a lot of attention, I think the nurses and doctors have been to see Sonja 20 times today. Her sense of humor is back and I’m listening to her now laughing and joking with a couple of nurses and the house doctor. Today Sonja had an EKG, also they took her […]
So, what exactly did Sonja have done?
Here are a bunch of absolutly amazing and interesting resources (non-gory) showing what Sonja had done and what the Artificial Disks look like It's right out of Star Trek: First, the disk Check out this animation of how the disk is constructed and moves! Here is a graphic showing which disks she had replaced L3 […]
Sonja feels that she really turned a corner today
Sonja feels like she turned a corner today. She got me out of bed in the morning and made me take her for a walk before I could even get dressed or get a coffee!!!!! After a short rest she then got up again so she could have breakfast sitting up. Within a few minutes […]
Generally Sonja is doing better, no pain just very weak
11am Sunday June 9th – Day 4 Post-op Dr. Clavel came by (on a Sunday!! – I cannot even imagine a surgeon doing coming out to see his patients on a Sunday in the States). He has Sonja and one other patient to see. He took the drain out and started reducing the morphine (2ml […]
I’m finding it therapeutic to write about this experience and…
I'm finding it therapeutic to write about this experience and how Sonja is doing. This is a first for me in lots of different ways… It's now 5:30pm Saturday for me here and after getting Sonja on feet and in a chair for a short period, eating lunch and getting her original dressing changed […]
Sonja out of ICU yesterday, doing better, still very weak – Day 3, Post-op
Sorry it’s been a day since I did an update, it’s surprising how time consuming it is to keep up and look after someone in hospital. Well it’s surprising to me anyway! Sonja got out of ICU yesterday and is doing better, though still very weak, Sonja had the operation on Wednesday and it’s now […]
Sonja is much more coherent – even bossy : )
3pm went down to see Sonja in ICU with Yolanda and she was much more coherent. She knew what was going on and was chatty and somewhat bossy. She was still somewhat intermittently confused though and bossy at least to me. We chatted for an hour with Yolanda, the doctor came and said they she […]
Update – Sonja in ICU but okay now!
Sonja had some internal bleeding yesterday after the operation and had to go back in for a remedial procedure in the evening. They are kept her lightly sedated in intensive care (ICU) overnight to make sure she remained stable. I got to see her last night and this morning though she was sedated, she looked […]
Sonja is good after the surgery and in recovery!
Got a call from the surgeon (Dr. Clavel) at 12 noon, the operation went well, he replaced the three disks with no complications. Sonja will be in recover for about the next 2-3 hours. So at that point I felt I could relax so I went out to wonder about in the sun for an […]
the nurse came and collected Sonja for the operation
Arrived at Quiron hospital “Clinica” 7:30am. A cab was waiting for us at 7:15am. By 8am we were in Sonja’s room, Yolanda met us in reception and escorted us through the check in and to her room explaining everything. The nurse came in about 8:15 and took blood pressure and asked the usual questions. By […]
Quick update from Sonja
This is what I posted on the ADR forum, sorry too tired to write or rewrite this. Don’t know when I’ll be able to post again but as Tim is willing to post for me you will at least get a different perspective on things. He should be posting pics of me pre and post […]
First post from Tim for Sonja – We are now installed in…
First post from Tim for Sonja – We are now installed in our cooool apartment in Barcelona with 8.72Mbs of bandwidth, bit slower than I am used to…. but pretty good I guess! Big operation day tomorrow, so will be distracted over the next 2 -3 days, probably… We had a meeting with the surgeon […]
My new umbrella arrived, yeah!
My new umbrella arrived, yeah! Silly but it’s one of those things I’ve been meaning to get for ages. I love walking but the older I get the harder it is for me to control my core temperature and the easier I burn. Don’t ask me how but I’ve been known to blister, badly I […]
Barcelona here we come, 8 days…….
Barcelona here we come, 8 days……. Well so much for my posting every day. That went out the window when the pain upped. Hard to do anything except just what's necessary to get through the day. Work comes first, if we don't keep working on our business we don't make any money and I have […]
13 days and counting………
Wow less than 2 weeks till we fly out. Getting a bit nervous now. Am I doing the right thing? Do I really need this surgery? Can we really afford it? Will it just help or will it actually solve the problem? Will I even survive? The pain in my back had been pretty bad […]