I have a way forward! (cervical & lumbar surgery with Dr. Pimenta, Brazil)

[Katie]

Hi guys!!!

Well we are sitting in the hotel lobby waiting to go to the hospital. We saw Dr P yesterday and he had quite the surprise for me. He only wants to do two discs...my c5/6 and L4/5 . After looking at my new MRIs, he said the other lumbar discs look nice and white, and he does not want to touch them. That bothered me a great deal, worrying about coming home and something still not being fixed, but he guaranteed that if I still had problems, he would treat me free of charge. So I signed on the dotted line

Everything is so expensive here, and the hotel is twice as expensive as what was first mentioned. We will be moving as soon as I am able to get mobile. Dr \p thinks that \i should only be in the hosptial for one or two nights but can stay as long as I like of course. We may take him up on that. Rob is allowed to stay in my hosptial suite; it is supposed to have two bedrooms! I will report on that later

We see the anesthetist today, plus get bloodwork, then surgery tomorrow morning at 7. He predicted a totol of four hours, but surgery itself is only about one hour. 40 min for the lumbar and 20 for cervical. It would have been an extra hour or so if the other two disc were being done. No savings on the price of the surgery though......

He also said that my facet on the L5 is quite big, and he can´t tell if it is causing pain or not, so I asked him to inject it just in case. I know he thinks I am owrrying too much, but we are a long way from home, and with him only doing one of the lumbar, I want to cover all the bases as much as possible. Once I am at home I will not be able to get any help, so have to do it right now. He was amazed that it has been such a fight to get help. Again, I am not sure that he doesn~t think I am exaggerating, but he has no idea of the system here.

I´ll sign off for now, and head off to the hospital after giving Justin my change in email.

See you all on the other side

So far, my nerves are pretty steady...just shakey this past hour or so, but not sure if that has something to so with food, rest, or drugs...or nerves We brought a supply of small bottles of maple syrup and are tipping the waiters handsomely for extra help with my meals. With having so many allergies...no grains of any kind, including rice, etc. plus corn sweeteners/thickeners, no potatoes, it makes it interesting getting something to fill me up. But a little bribery makes the kitchen staff a little more willing to accommodate

The weather is hot and very humid, much more so than we thought it would be, with it going into fall. Glad we didn`t come a couple of months earlier!

Without Rob, I would be lost...trying to communicate with the taxis etc. but he has a built in GPS system in his head He can get us anywhere in record time by figuring out the maps, and knowing that the taxis are not taking us on the long route for fun.

The people here are incredibly friendly and helpful in general...no problems. When I told the hotel staff that I was going for surgery with Dr. P, they were very encouraging...he is very famous here in a city of 11 million! And apparently I am the very first Canadian to be coming here for surgery.

So glad to have a number of you emailing me and keeping my mind busy. For those who don´t have my traveling email, I will try to change it on here so that you can reach me. Justin, maybe ~I´ll send it to you and you can make it work please. I am running out of minutes on the hotel computer, and we havent been able to get our laptop working yet...some technical difficulty, but we have our blackberry set up to send messages here so it is almost as good.

Our friends from Toronto are coming down to stay for ten days, starting on Tuesday, and I am hoping to be well enough to travel a bit and see the sites. Dr and staff made it sound like it would be a piece of cake...but listening to others on here with their recovery time, I am not that optimistic.

It is too bad that I can´t have two adr as the recovery time is so much shorter...three months vs one year, but beggars can not be choosers

I am sorry for the spelling problems, etc here but the keyboard is wierd and I feel the pressure of minutes running out!

Thanks again everyone.

Katie,

We are thinking about you. You're in great hands!

[ajj1001]

If you can get away with less surgery then thats great and much less to recover from. Glad your nerves are holding up. Praying for you tomorrow. xxx

[KenG]

See you on the other side, Katie !

[Justin]

Katie,

I updated your email address. Good deal on less surgery! :thumpup: You're almost there.

[linda]

Hi Katie,
Been thinking about you a lot and was so glad to see you have make it there and seem to be in good spirits. I'm also glad your other discs look good. Good luck Katie Girl and I will be praying for a successful surgery for you. Can't wait to hear more about your journey.
Take Care,
Linda

[dalhousie]

Good luck Katie! Keeping everything crossed that all goes well as I'm sure it will. Dr Pimenta seems highly thought of.

See you in "Surgical Outcomes".

[Lynda]

Hi there Katie,

I just want to send you my wishes for the very best possible outcome to your surgeries, (I've not been on here lately but you have often been in my thoughts). You're in very good hands with Dr Pimenta that's for sure.

Looking forward to your post op postings, when you're able.

Much love

Lynda

xx

[Carson]

It's 3:30 in São Paulo so you're about 7 hours post operative and into your recovery as I type.

Best wishes to you today as you begin to recover!

[Cindylou]

Yep, you should be in recovery now, so congratulations on being on the other side! Thinking bunches about you Katie!!!

xoxoxo Cindy

[michelle]

I have a way ahead.

I spoke to Dr. Pimenta this evening and he calmly and confidently told me what no other surgeon would...he can do surgery on me, and soon.

He asked about a new MRI, as my last lumbar one was in Sept/08, but was astounded when I said it would take six to eight months to get one here. "That's crazy", were his exact words..."we can get you one in a day or two", he said. So I will travel to Brazil to get my MRI, and four levels of surgery.

The details of dates, etc. are still to be hammered out in the next few days, but there is now no doubt...I will have surgery, and soon

Thanks to all who supported me over the past months, years even. It has been a monumental journey, and one I hope to document properly, so others won't have to take the same rough road.

Thanks. You know who you are.

Hi Katie, I am new to this and all forums really LOL. I was reading about you and was wondering where you stand with all of this. I have a sister which is in soooo much pain. It hurts me to see her like this. she has four collapsed discs and her condition DDD is pr ogressing rapidly. i do have family in brazil, but was wondering if you still feel great (which i hope you do)? Any suggestions???? Anything helps. thank you