Hospital food, not bad. White monkfish maybe with soup, yogurt and fruit. Pain lessening. Can't wait to get back out to the beaches here.

BTW, Dr Pablo Clavel is the best.

Morfina drawdown now, I can tell there's much more healing required. Oucho.

But still not too bad.

Ugly belly here. Knife fights do that.

Hey man. Glad your doing well! Walk walk walk as best you can. You can escape downstairs after hours and go outside next to the ER area. There are Vending machines as well with goodies. Get back in by ringing buzzer they don't mind in the middle of the night if you cant sleep. Guards are great.

Oh and there is a pizza shop you have to try. the street acroos from the main entry right then left down the hill. Awesome pizza and bring back to room. Yolanda will know.

Yeah the morphine. Good thing its not too strong so you shouldn't have too many issues getting off of it.

Really happy for ya. Just be patient it takes time. Enjoy Barcelona!

Frank

ADR outcome
 

Drew,

How are you doing? I hope everything is going well and you are pain free, the pre-surgery kind. Was it worth it and would you do it again? I am interested in your thoughts as I will be talking with Dr Clavel on thurs. via Skype about my neck. Hope you are doing better

Would do it again, pain free save wounds(don't forget drainage tube).

Dr Clavel isn't just highly skilled, but highly ethical.

My pastor and I prayed with him preop, and not only was he open to the idea, he got up first to do so. That meant a lot to me.

When we talked later the day of surgery, he said it went perfect, perfect, perfect and that God was definitely in the room.

Again, he is more than IMO the best neuro. He listens and is a creative which means he can adapt on the spot.

He ran the extra DEXA scan on me because he wanted to make sure where I stood. And I'm glad he did.

A week tomorrow morning. Overdid it on La Rambla today. Need to slow down a little.

One thing Dr Clavel emphasized is that any ADR at the L5/S1 level will experience greater sheer forces, Activ L, ProDisc or M6L, any of which could fail due to sheer forces. He's guided away from L5/S1 and looks intently at sacral slope, mine being nearly 70 degrees was too steep. I prefer it anyway and already intuited that prior to any doc telling me since it just made sense. Hybrid, fusion the angular bottom and stack ADRs flat like pancakes above that at more steady levels. Just 'saw it' and knew from observation and had already determined 'sheer force' in my own God given common sense. Who knew I could have done neuro seminars? LOL.

I wasn't planning on any pickup basketball games or setting downhill slalom skiing records at 45 yrs old regardless. My goals were simple. Live a quiet life, enjoy family and friends, no more weightlifting, but still do Stairmaster and treadmill, perhaps machines. And just be able to sit in a chair, drive a car, etc.

Congratulations! You should send those photos to the Kaiser surgeons who refused you ADRs. Is all of your back pain gone, other than pain from the surgery itself? I know you have 2 M6 ADRs, but what hardware is that Clavel put at L5/s1? Is that a fusion? I am so excited for you. You are smart and brave to find this amazing surgeon and make this choice. I wish this option had been available to me in 2002. I would love to meet you some time. Keep us updated please on the forum. Best wishes.......Wendy from Berkeley (spine patient & Kaiser Oakland employee)