Surgery!

Well I had my surgery yesterday - everything went well according to the surgeon. :D Apparently my bottom disc was a little hard to get at from the angle it was at but ultimately it was fine and it looked great on imaging.  Still pretty sore from the procedure but I have a nice morphine drip to take care of that. Last night was tough for sleep and my friend Ben literally spoon fed me my soup.:P

 Later today I will walk for the first time post -surgery and try to sit.  I also have to put on a brace because my stomach is swelling quite a bit - not a rare side effect the surgeon told me.

Everyone here on staff has been great, my Spanish is definitely improving but the had an interpreter here over night to help the night shift since they tend to have fewer English-speaking nurses on staff.  I will update this post later after the session with the physiotherapist.

All in all I'm feeling pretty good though considering what I went through but I'm not looking forward to getting up as I am sure it going to be pretty painful just from the pains I am getting shifting in the bed.

Edit: So I saw the physiotherapist and I did a little walk around the room. :) the most painful part is the incision, my back itself doesn't really hurt at all.:O  Currently sitting in a chair relatively pain free (with some help from meds). 

So I finally arrived in Barcelona after a missed flight due to delays and a 3 hour layover in Frankfurt.  The hotel here was a little iffy at first as Ben and I would have been in a little cozy in the first room they put me in - it was essentially one long room with dividers and only slightly frosted glass for the bathroom and shower which were right in the middle of the room.  When I explained my situation they moved me to another room that has a better divider and totally separates the bathroom area.  Only slight hitch is that it is a bathtub shower, we'll see how I navigate that post surgery. :/

Overall Barcelona has been pretty cool thus far, really nice people and clean modern city.  Looking forward to my appointment with the surgeon tomorrow and then sneaking it a quick bit of site-seeing in the afternoon if time permits.

Well travel day is finally here, Barcelona here I come (flying tonight)! It's weird to think in 4 days I am technically going to be a cyborg, or more technically bionic, with my three new artificial discs.

Still pretty nervous about this whole thing and praying that I have made the right decision and that all goes well  but everything is out of my hands now so I am trying to be pretty Zen.  I also have confidence that I have done all the due diligence I reasonable could and am just hoping for a good outcome.

I've probably packed too much, but I wanted to err on the side of not wishing I had something - read too many stories about people regretting they didn't bring X.  I only have one suitcase though (which isn't even that heavy) so that seems like a win. ;)

Next Stop - Barcelona!