Today is my three week mark, I'd have to say I'm pretty pleased with my progress over the last week. My pain has come down enough to where I'm not needing to rely on ice nearly as much. To me this is a good sign of improvement. If I get up and try to be normal, like go to my boy's football games, then yes, I come home and break out the ice. And no, I did not sit at their games, in case anyone was wondering, I stood the whole time. I'm still very sore and extremely sensitive in the in-between area, I'm not quite ready to take this step yet. Hopefully soon.
So yesterday I had a very busy day. It started with a doctor's appointment and then a funeral, (very sad) which between the two took up a big part of my day. I came home and laid down with some ice, but after a hour was back up, and spent most of the night down stairs with my family. I was really surprised that I had gotten through most of the day being up. I realized that I had gotten through the day without any of the terrible burning pain that started back up just before getting released from the hospital. I hope, after two weeks of intense burning, (and the last 20 month's before surgery) that this has finally stopped for good. It is really hard to say for sure, because it was for only one day, but I hope this is the first of many more days to come. Now I am waiting for that raw, sore, super sensitive and tender feeling to leave, and the pressure that comes with the unavoidable trips to the bathroom, and also standing too long. I still have some numbness in the in-betweens, but for now, it looks like I'm heading one step in the right direction, and I'm so happy!
I wish I could be as excited about my leg and foot. Unfortunately, my leg has started to become very painful, it burns, throbs and aches all the time, sometimes it feels like someone shot a bullet right through the middle of my foot. Nothing I take touches the pain, and the pain keeps me up most of the night. I am starting to get a little worried, as I can see a familiar pattern of nerve pain begin somewhere new on my body. Some may think this is a good sign and that this means my leg is healing, but I have not been told by any doctors if this is the case yet. We went for an ultrasound last week, and just not your average everyday ultrasound. When we left the physiatrist, his office was going to call the Riverton hospital to set up the ultrasound appointment. A couple of hours after getting home I received a phone call from his office, explaining I only had two options for the type of ultrasound ordered. I had no idea there was options or a difference, strange. She explains that the doctor ordered a musculoskeletal ultrasound and that there was only two places in the Salt Lake Valley that could perform this. My choices were the Salt Lake Regional Medical Center, or the University Of Utah Hospital. Knowing that I am not covered through our insurance at the U Of U, I chose Salt Lake Regional. I went up on Wednesday morning for what I thought was just an ultrasound, but once arriving I learned I had an appointment with a sports medicine doctor? I asked "why am I seeing a doctor?" "I thought I was here for an ultrasound?" They explained he was the only doctor trained to perform this type of ultrasound, and so my appointment would be with him. I was not impressed, after waiting for a very a long time while they worked on getting my medical records from the other office, all I learned, was that I have a very swollen peroneal nerve. He offered to do a cortisone injection, but really wanted me to try some sugar injections instead. This is not covered by insurance, and it is not a cheap treatment. It does sound interesting, and I would like to do some more research for this type of treatment, but not interested in this route until I learn more. He also does Regenerative Medicine with Platelet Rich Plasma, this was not offered to me, but I am very curious about this treatment, and would like to do some research for this type of treatment as well. I told him I would think about it and call back for an appointment if I decided to do the injections. I walked away feeling very frustrated, obviously my nerve is swollen, did I really need to go through all of that to hear something we already knew. For now I am waiting for my follow-up with the physiatrist this Friday. Feeling like this isn't really going anywhere either, I have made an appointment to meet with a neurologist on Nov.8th. I hope I soon get some clearer answers about the issues with my leg, and we can get to work on a treatment plan.
Tuesday, October 30, 2012
Friday, October 26, 2012
Fun Facts About My Blog
I felt like sharing some fun facts about my blog. As anyone knows who has a blog, there is a section where you can look up stats. One of my favorite stats to check in on, is the audience. I am amazed at how my little story about my huge pelvic pain issue, has spread across the world. I had no idea my story would be followed by so many people, and in so many countries.
Me and my husband started my blog because we thought this would be the best way for our friends and family to check in on my progress, while on the other side of the world. We felt that two weeks would be a long time for our close friends and neighbors to wait to hear of any results. We also felt that our kids, and our family helping with our kids, would probably get bombarded with questions day after day while we were away. So we created this blog to make it easier to get updates, and without everybody needing to rely on my kids or our parents for any information. I knew updates wouldn't be enough, I knew that there would be a lot of questions on why we were even going out of the country for a surgery, and about the issues that created me needing this surgery in the first place. So I started to share my story, so everyone would have a better understanding of what brought us to the decision of going to Turkey for surgery.
Before leaving for Turkey, I think I had only gotten about 9 post published, I still needed to share more of my story, but decided to put it on hold, so I could post about our upcoming journey to Turkey. At the time I had just over 300 page views, but, what I found to be the most interesting, is I noticed my audience consisted of not only the United States, but Germany, Turkey, Russia, and South Korea as well. I felt a little surprised, because I assure you I didn't know anyone outside of the U.S., with the exception of a good friend who had recently moved to Germany. Assuming this was why Germany was a part of my audience, she told me that she hadn't gotten a chance to check out my blog yet.
One week before leaving, I joined facebook, specifically to join a PN support group that I had recently learned about. I put my very first post on FB, explaining how I had felt so alone living with this condition, and how surprised I was by the number of people who suffered with PN just like me. (over 250 to be exact) I also shared that I was leaving for Turkey to have pudendal nerve decompression surgery in a little over a week. The response was overwhelming, other than sharing the same debilitating condition of PN that gave us all a common connection, these strangers soon became my friends. I found this to be such a coincidence, or just one of life's little ways of giving me exactly what I needed at that particular time. Everyone was so kind, and there was a continual out pouring of support and prayers being sent my way. They all wished for me to have a pain free life, and wanted me to keep them posted on my progress. I no longer felt alone in my fight against PNE, and over the last couple of weeks, my PN group has turned into a lot more than just friends, but more like family. Thanks FB PN Support Group!
Well with that being said, while we were in Turkey I watched my page views grow and grow, and everyday I was seeing new Countries added to my audience. I had no idea that my story would have such an impact on people all over the world. I am completely overwhelmed that this blog has reached out to so many people like me, and I thank you all, for joining me in my journey to a pain free life.
So here are the stats to date, I now have almost 5000 page views. My mother in-law assures me that at least 2000 of those are her, ha, ha, I think that's funny. The page views are not too big of a deal, where I am completely surprised, is by the audience stats. Obviously the United States is my biggest audience, with over 3000 views. It's the other 1500 plus view that completely shocks me, but in an exciting way. Turkey comes in second, with over 400 views, I know Prof. Erdogru follows my story and progress, but I doubt all 400 of those views are him alone. The next 1000 views comes from audiences all around the world, let me share. United Kingdom, Canada, Russia, Israel, Pakistan, United Arab Emirates, Australia, New Zealand, Norway, France, Germany, Italy, Finland, Ireland, Switzerland, Austria, Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Latvia, Romania, Greece, Croatia, Macedonia, Cyprus, Ukraine, Iraq, Uzbekistan, Bulgaria, India, Sri Lanka, Japan, Malaysia, Guam, Spain, Philippines, South Africa, Georgia, Guatemala, Poland, China, and South Korea.
Unbelievable, I am amazed! I'm sure that a lot of my audience in the other countries come mostly from the PN facebook support group. There has been a lot of positives in starting my blog, I was a little hesitant at first, because sharing my story about the most private parts of my body, isn't exactly easy. First of all, I have had the opportunity to talk to some of these people from here (U.S.) and also in the other countries, who suffer just like me. Talking to someone who understands exactly what I am going through is a big comfort. Also, this has opened my eyes, I had no idea PN was such a big issue, and I now know, although it is a rare chronic pelvic pain condition, that PN affects people from all around the world.
For everyone who has been following along on this journey of mine, Thank you! This has given me something to look forward to everyday, and has revived my inner energy. What a great healing instrument this has been during my recovery process.
Thursday, October 25, 2012
Surgery Progress Oct. 23rd, 2012
I know, I know, I'm sorry, it has been a few days since I have posted about my progress from surgery, so sorry! I am just tyring to get back into the swing of things, all while trying to take it easy. If that's possible? Probably not, but I'm doing my best.
Today is my two week mark, and I have to say I have had a rough couple of last days. I know that I way over did it in Turkey, taking in some of the sights before leaving, that was followed by a layover in Paris, that came with all play and very little rest, and than an 11 hour flight home. It was a lot to ask of my newly repaired nerve that is trying to heal, and now it's giving me grief. On Sunday and Monday I couldn't even rate my pain it was way beyond anything on the 1-10 scale. On Monday I also noticed things were starting to wake up a little, the numbness is starting to leave, but the nerve is waking up very angry and agitated. OUCH!!! On Monday the pain kept me up for most of the night. I started to get a lot of shocking sensations, or quick zaps of shock like pain. At first it started in a couple of areas in my in-betweens, and before long there was no rhyme or reason, I was feeling the shocking pain all over. I could find no relief, I broke out the strong med's, and for the first time ice was offering no comfort. The way I understand it, is that this is normal for nerve regenerating, and as terrible as this is to go through, this is a very good sign that the nerve is making new connections. I slept most of the morning away, and by the afternoon I was starting to feel more comfortable. By night time I would say my pain was at about a six, and I was able to get out of bed, and hang out with my family for a couple of hours around dinner time.
Everyone has been worried about my leg, and is wondering how it is doing. For the most part my leg has had some slight improvements over the last two weeks. But, there is still areas that I can not feel, and I can not point my toes up for the life of me. My biggest issue is, that once getting home, I realized that I was not going to be able to drive, since my right leg and foot has lost some of the motor function and feeling. So on Monday my husband drove me to my physiatrist appointment. After an examination we discussed a few options, in Turkey they really thought having an EMG was urgent. Here, the doctor thought this was not the most important test right now, maybe in couple weeks, but not right now. He thought the best test to start with would be an ultrasound. He said if he was not getting the results needed from the ultrasound we would move onto a MRI. These test are to rule out the damage to the nerve and to look for any pockets of blood that might be surrounding the nerve. These test would determine two things, one, we can simply allow the swelling to go down around the nerve and within 2-3 month's everything will go back to normal. Or, two, based on the findings, know that in order to regain the feeling and function back in my leg, I would need to have peroneal nerve decompression surgery. Wow, another surgery, seriously! Not just another surgery, but another nerve decompression surgery. Well, I have to say, based on the slight improvements over the last two weeks, I hope this is a good sign, and with some more time my leg will return to normal all on it's own. After my ultrasound I will let you know the results, for now we just wait, and hope for more improvements.
Today is my two week mark, and I have to say I have had a rough couple of last days. I know that I way over did it in Turkey, taking in some of the sights before leaving, that was followed by a layover in Paris, that came with all play and very little rest, and than an 11 hour flight home. It was a lot to ask of my newly repaired nerve that is trying to heal, and now it's giving me grief. On Sunday and Monday I couldn't even rate my pain it was way beyond anything on the 1-10 scale. On Monday I also noticed things were starting to wake up a little, the numbness is starting to leave, but the nerve is waking up very angry and agitated. OUCH!!! On Monday the pain kept me up for most of the night. I started to get a lot of shocking sensations, or quick zaps of shock like pain. At first it started in a couple of areas in my in-betweens, and before long there was no rhyme or reason, I was feeling the shocking pain all over. I could find no relief, I broke out the strong med's, and for the first time ice was offering no comfort. The way I understand it, is that this is normal for nerve regenerating, and as terrible as this is to go through, this is a very good sign that the nerve is making new connections. I slept most of the morning away, and by the afternoon I was starting to feel more comfortable. By night time I would say my pain was at about a six, and I was able to get out of bed, and hang out with my family for a couple of hours around dinner time.
Everyone has been worried about my leg, and is wondering how it is doing. For the most part my leg has had some slight improvements over the last two weeks. But, there is still areas that I can not feel, and I can not point my toes up for the life of me. My biggest issue is, that once getting home, I realized that I was not going to be able to drive, since my right leg and foot has lost some of the motor function and feeling. So on Monday my husband drove me to my physiatrist appointment. After an examination we discussed a few options, in Turkey they really thought having an EMG was urgent. Here, the doctor thought this was not the most important test right now, maybe in couple weeks, but not right now. He thought the best test to start with would be an ultrasound. He said if he was not getting the results needed from the ultrasound we would move onto a MRI. These test are to rule out the damage to the nerve and to look for any pockets of blood that might be surrounding the nerve. These test would determine two things, one, we can simply allow the swelling to go down around the nerve and within 2-3 month's everything will go back to normal. Or, two, based on the findings, know that in order to regain the feeling and function back in my leg, I would need to have peroneal nerve decompression surgery. Wow, another surgery, seriously! Not just another surgery, but another nerve decompression surgery. Well, I have to say, based on the slight improvements over the last two weeks, I hope this is a good sign, and with some more time my leg will return to normal all on it's own. After my ultrasound I will let you know the results, for now we just wait, and hope for more improvements.
Friday, October 19, 2012
Final Post Op Update In Turkey
Our last couple of days have been filled with post-op visits, and physical therapy appointments for my leg. As I explained in the last post, my pain levels have been high. By the time we get up and get ready to go to my appointments, and then actually get to my appointment, plus the time we spend at the hospital during my appointments, wow...it just completely kicks my butt. Once we get back to our hotel I'm down for the day. When we get to Prof. Erdogru's office he is excited to hear of any progress, his first question is "Can you sit?" I then watch the disappointed look on his face when I say "It still hurts." My pain concerns him, but we have talked, and both agree, that the pain I am experiencing is mostly from the surgery. We also discussed that I probably have a very low pain tolerance, I just tend to be more sensitive to pain than probably most people. With this we have not ruled out a success or not for my surgery. I now fall into the category of his patients where we have to wait and see. Prof. Erdogru and I believe that with time I will see some good results. But remember, we are talking nerves, and nerves can take a long time to recover, repair, and heal, possibly up to six months or longer before we will know anything for sure. I will still keep my progress posted on my blog, and don't worry Prof. Erdogru you will be the first to know of any big news, the first...I promise. Thanks for being such a wonderful doctor, and making our experience in Turkey worth while.
On Wednesday when I woke up I noticed my pain had eased up some, when I first started to experience pain a couple of days after surgery, my pain level was at a 8-9. I was very uncomfortable, and I relied on ice to relieve my pain. On Wednesday my pain level was at a 6-7, which made things a little more tolerable, I felt a little more comfortable and got through my whole day without ice, Yay! So, a sign things are slowly getting better, however everything in my in-betweens are still very numb.
As far as my leg goes, Dr. Dilek, the physical medicine and rehabilitation specialist who has been working with me this last week, seems to think that it could take up to two or three months before I regain full use, and feeling back in my leg. This has been a very slow process, but every couple of days, I do notice a slight change. I hope to prove her wrong, and hopefully after a couple more weeks I will have a fully functioning leg again. We are scheduled to go see a specialist on Monday after returning home, hopefully we will get a better understanding of exactly what's wrong. On Wednesday, she had my boot modified with a rubber sole, so the plastic bottom would not cause me to slip and fall, this also makes walking around a lot quieter.
This is our final post-op update in Turkey, as we are going home tomorrow. Thanks for following my recovery progress, I have had such amazing support throughout our journey to Turkey. Thanks to all for following along.
Prof. Erdogru's Exciting Day
Today is Prof. Erdogru's exciting day, where he will have the opportunity to present his laparoscopic pudendal nerve decompression technique at the annual IPPS conference in Chicago. IPPS stands for the International Pelvic Pain Society. I can't help but wonder, how today may be the start of some big changes for all of the PN sufferers in the U.S. For those of you who are new to the Pudendal Nerve world, there is a conference hosted for doctors and physical therapists, that deal with the patients who suffer with chronic pelvic pain every year in the U.S. Pudendal neuralgia, or pudendal nerve entrapment, although rare, is one of the many topics that will be discussed this year.
On Tuesday, the day before Prof. Erdogru was to leave for Chicago, he shared with me and my husband his presentation that he had prepared for this very special event. He first learned of this pain condition in 2005, and being an urologist of patients with chronic pain he did some more research on this condition. After a couple of years, and having a lot of experience with laparoscopic surgery in the pelvis area, he decided he would try and reach the pudendal nerve, which lies deep in the pelvis area by using a cadaver. He realized that this could be done, and this is how his technique came to be. He has put a lot of research and time into this debilitating condition, and over the last couple of years he has pushed his knowledge to new limits. He has done an amazing job of keeping track of his patients outcomes, and progress for a continued study of his technique. He has also had several successful outcomes. I am so excited that he will get to share his knowledge, and story with the doctors who attend this conference from the U.S.
All it takes is for one doctor to see the benefits of this procedure, over the open surgery approach, to hopefully make this available for future PN patients in the US. I am so grateful that he took the time to share his presentation with me and my husband, and I hope that the doctors who hear his presentation, find it to be just as impressive. Wishing you the best of luck Prof. Erdogru!
On Tuesday, the day before Prof. Erdogru was to leave for Chicago, he shared with me and my husband his presentation that he had prepared for this very special event. He first learned of this pain condition in 2005, and being an urologist of patients with chronic pain he did some more research on this condition. After a couple of years, and having a lot of experience with laparoscopic surgery in the pelvis area, he decided he would try and reach the pudendal nerve, which lies deep in the pelvis area by using a cadaver. He realized that this could be done, and this is how his technique came to be. He has put a lot of research and time into this debilitating condition, and over the last couple of years he has pushed his knowledge to new limits. He has done an amazing job of keeping track of his patients outcomes, and progress for a continued study of his technique. He has also had several successful outcomes. I am so excited that he will get to share his knowledge, and story with the doctors who attend this conference from the U.S.
All it takes is for one doctor to see the benefits of this procedure, over the open surgery approach, to hopefully make this available for future PN patients in the US. I am so grateful that he took the time to share his presentation with me and my husband, and I hope that the doctors who hear his presentation, find it to be just as impressive. Wishing you the best of luck Prof. Erdogru!
Wednesday, October 17, 2012
Last Day In Turkey
Wow, our adventure in Turkey is only hours away from being complete. I am so thankful to Prof Erdogru, and the kind nurses at Memorial Atasehir. Everyone has been so great to me and my husband, as we have been on the other side of the world, for what we hope will be a life changing surgery. We are still anxiously awaiting the outcome for my pudendal nerve decompression surgery. Unfortunately nerves are just a little slow, and it may be a few months before actually knowing the success of this surgery. This was my very last night of (not) sleeping in Turkey, I never really got on board with the Turkey time, and maybe this will be good for our return home.
Oh home, how much we have missed our home, we can hardly wait to get back to all that is familiar again. We are most excited to get back to our kids. Parenting over Skype, and Google Voice is getting super old. We want to thank our ward for bringing meals in, and feeding my family while we were away. We also want to thank our parents for taking care of everything on the home front while we were away, and thank our friends and neighbors who stepped up and shared in this mighty load of looking after and keeping our five kids safe, fed, and loved for us as well. We couldn't have done this without all of your help and support thank you so much, we are forever grateful, and feel completely blessed to have such amazing people in our lives.
I am looking forward to taking hot baths, and laying down in the comfort of my own bed. Kris and I can't wait to get our mouths on some yummy American food again. Food in Turkey isn't terrible, just different. For thirty six years I lived in the same place, and this was my first time traveling out of the country, so it was no surprise that experiencing new food in a different country, would be quite an adjustment. I guess there is two scenarios, You either love it, and come home with some extra pounds, or you're not really that into it and come home weighing less. Let's just say, I am very excited to get on the scale when I get home.
This afternoon we will board our plane, coming home we had several options, but all the options involved a layover, and a lot were overnight layovers somewhere. After going through our options of Venice, Rome, London, Germany, France, Atlanta, New York and some others we chose Paris France. This is a 16 hour layover, we arrive at 6:00 pm and leave the next day at 10:10 am, which will be a direct flight back to Utah. We hoped this would give us enough time to at least go and see the world famous Eiffel Tower, and maybe try some French cuisine. What a great way to end our adventure. After one of my good friends, who had just recently moved to Germany learned this, she instantly offered to drive down to see us. So now we are even more excited to get to Paris. Even though it is a 5 hour drive for her, we are thankful that we will get to experience Paris with a great friend. Plus we will get our own personal tour of Paris from someone who knows a lot more about the city than us. What a great way to end our trip, I am so excited, Thanks Kelly, we are looking forward to meeting up in Paris.
On Friday afternoon we will finally arrive home, I have so many stories to share, I can't wait to get them posted on my blog. Some things you can look forward to in my upcoming post, are the sights that we were able to go to while in Turkey, and the crazy merchants and store owners of the Grand Bazaar. What a wild experience, and of course my recovery updates, I can't wait to share. This will be my last post I write in Turkey. I will have to play catch-up once I get home. Thanks to everyone for checking in on our adventure, and my recovery while we have been away. Thanks for all of the prayers and well wishes over the last couple of weeks, and all of the support from my family and friends. Because of this journey I made many new PN friends, as well as some perfect strangers that have been following my story. I feel as if you have all been here by my side throughout this amazing journey. I'm completely overwhelmed with so much love, your love has been a key element in my recovery and healing process. Thanks again to everyone, sending all my love, Shirlayne
Oh home, how much we have missed our home, we can hardly wait to get back to all that is familiar again. We are most excited to get back to our kids. Parenting over Skype, and Google Voice is getting super old. We want to thank our ward for bringing meals in, and feeding my family while we were away. We also want to thank our parents for taking care of everything on the home front while we were away, and thank our friends and neighbors who stepped up and shared in this mighty load of looking after and keeping our five kids safe, fed, and loved for us as well. We couldn't have done this without all of your help and support thank you so much, we are forever grateful, and feel completely blessed to have such amazing people in our lives.
I am looking forward to taking hot baths, and laying down in the comfort of my own bed. Kris and I can't wait to get our mouths on some yummy American food again. Food in Turkey isn't terrible, just different. For thirty six years I lived in the same place, and this was my first time traveling out of the country, so it was no surprise that experiencing new food in a different country, would be quite an adjustment. I guess there is two scenarios, You either love it, and come home with some extra pounds, or you're not really that into it and come home weighing less. Let's just say, I am very excited to get on the scale when I get home.
This afternoon we will board our plane, coming home we had several options, but all the options involved a layover, and a lot were overnight layovers somewhere. After going through our options of Venice, Rome, London, Germany, France, Atlanta, New York and some others we chose Paris France. This is a 16 hour layover, we arrive at 6:00 pm and leave the next day at 10:10 am, which will be a direct flight back to Utah. We hoped this would give us enough time to at least go and see the world famous Eiffel Tower, and maybe try some French cuisine. What a great way to end our adventure. After one of my good friends, who had just recently moved to Germany learned this, she instantly offered to drive down to see us. So now we are even more excited to get to Paris. Even though it is a 5 hour drive for her, we are thankful that we will get to experience Paris with a great friend. Plus we will get our own personal tour of Paris from someone who knows a lot more about the city than us. What a great way to end our trip, I am so excited, Thanks Kelly, we are looking forward to meeting up in Paris.
On Friday afternoon we will finally arrive home, I have so many stories to share, I can't wait to get them posted on my blog. Some things you can look forward to in my upcoming post, are the sights that we were able to go to while in Turkey, and the crazy merchants and store owners of the Grand Bazaar. What a wild experience, and of course my recovery updates, I can't wait to share. This will be my last post I write in Turkey. I will have to play catch-up once I get home. Thanks to everyone for checking in on our adventure, and my recovery while we have been away. Thanks for all of the prayers and well wishes over the last couple of weeks, and all of the support from my family and friends. Because of this journey I made many new PN friends, as well as some perfect strangers that have been following my story. I feel as if you have all been here by my side throughout this amazing journey. I'm completely overwhelmed with so much love, your love has been a key element in my recovery and healing process. Thanks again to everyone, sending all my love, Shirlayne
Tuesday, October 16, 2012
Our Hospital Stay
After learning about the complication with my leg, we were told that we would not be able to leave the hospital on Thursday as planned, and that I would need to stay until Saturday. Bad news, two more days of very interesting Turkish hospital food.
On Thursday morning, Prof. Erdogru came by to see us, he removed my drain line, and examined my incisions. He told the nurses they could remove my IV lines, and gave me the okay for a shower.
It was so nice to get up without dragging a bunch of lines and bags around, yay, I was free.
Walking around was still a little difficult, even with the boot, my leg felt very unstable. When I would get up, I felt dizzy and weak, and I relied on my husbands support in getting around. A shower sounded nice, but I hadn't really put a lot of thought into it. The only way I could stand on two legs was with my boot, and the support of my husband. I knew my boot could not get wet, and I'm pretty sure my husband didn't want to get wet either. So I looked in the shower to see if there was a bench to sit on, nope, one more thing we get to go ask for at the nurses station. How do you say "shower bench" in Turkish? Luckily, somehow between saying shower and then sit, while pointing to my leg, they got it. One of the nurses stepped into a room and came out with a plastic bench. Nice, we got exactly what we needed again without too much confusion. Whew! Shower problem solved!
Later in the afternoon, Prof. Erdogru stopped by to check in on me again. He brought by a stack of DVD's of my surgery, and said he would come back a little later to go over the surgery with us. He came back just as it was getting dark, and spent about an hour going over my surgery. He would get very excited when he could point out a stage in the surgery where he was able to fix an issue with my nerve. He truly is passionate about the work he does, and for this I am thankful.
On Friday morning when I woke up, I noticed I didn't have any more "pins and needles" sensations running through my left leg and foot, and after poking around on it, everything felt normal. I was so happy, one leg down and one more to go. This helped me to get up a little better and walk around without much help. I also noticed that I didn't feel dizzy or lightheaded anymore, this was nice. I started to get around much better and little faster all by myself.
Our days at the hospital were pretty much the same, at night we would talk to our kids and family on Google Voice. We would go on walks late in the night, around 1:00- 4:00 in the morning, (we were still on Utah time) and fall asleep between 5:00-7:00 in the morning, Kris always before me. It seemed just as the sun was coming up I would start to feel sleepy. Most of the nights it was just us in the hallways, but sometimes there would be a very friendly Turkish man walking around as well. I'm not sure what his excuse was for being up so late in the night, but we always smiled at each other and a couple of times tried to talk with each other. The most that came of our conversations was that he learned we were from the United States, and he was from Turkey. One day he said "good morning" and we said "merhaba." which means hello in Turkish. This made him smile so big, and he said something else that we could not understand. I wish we could've chatted, he seemed to be a very interesting person, with some great stories to share. Once we'd get to sleep, the interruption's would begin. They would bring the breakfast tray in early, me and Kris would listen to them come in and set it down, neither one of us would get up. About a hour later they would come back in to get our untouched trays. The only thing we would get up for was to talk to Prof. Erdogru, after he left we would sleep until lunch. We would pick at our lunch, and we would get a visit from the physical therapist for electro shock therapy. Then we would use the rest of the afternoon checking in on Facebook and updating my blog. Kris would always make a run to the Palladium Shopping Center for dinner, and we would count down the hours before we could call home again to check in with our kids and family. 1:00- 2:00 am Turkish time was 4:00- 5:00 pm Utah time. Our days in the hospital, not too exciting, I know.
The hospital staff was very friendly and extremely patient with us, overall our experience was very good. We learned that the night time nurses worked a 14 hour shift, and the daytime nurses worked for 10 hours. Our first night before surgery a nurse came in to help us with all of the preparations. Her name was Duygu, her name means "feeling" or "emotion". She could speak English pretty well, which was very helpful during our hospital stay. We were always excited to see her during our stay, she was very kind, and we were always able to communicate with her. Thanks for being an amazing nurse Duygu!
Finally, Saturday came, we really hadn't seen much improvement with my leg over the last couple of days, and I was worried that I may have to stay longer in the hospital. What a relief when they gave me the okay to finally be discharged. Prof. Erdogru wrote out a couple of prescriptions, and asked us to come by his office on Monday for a post-op examination. While we were waiting to get discharged, Kris wanted to go and get my prescriptions filled before we took off for our hotel. The pharmacy is just outside the hospital on the main road, next to the yummy fruit stand. He asked if I would like to come along, I didn't have to think twice about his offer, I was ready for a change, and outside sounded nice. I thought I was doing so well getting around in the hospital, and than we got out into the real world. I felt a little disappointed, because as we walked down the road to the pharmacy, it was clear I was moving very slowly as everybody hurried past us. It was a quick reality check that I had a lot more improving do.
Once getting back to the hospital, someone from the International Marketing Department came in to help us with our bags, it seems they are always followed by their driver, they were there to help us get to our hotel. They insisted that I leave in a wheelchair, I truly am much better off walking than sitting in a wheelchair, but nobody really gets it, and I didn't have the energy to explain my situation. So, for the sake of wasting no more time of getting out of the hospital, I do as they ask, and we finally leave our hospital days behind us.
On Thursday morning, Prof. Erdogru came by to see us, he removed my drain line, and examined my incisions. He told the nurses they could remove my IV lines, and gave me the okay for a shower.
It was so nice to get up without dragging a bunch of lines and bags around, yay, I was free.
Walking around was still a little difficult, even with the boot, my leg felt very unstable. When I would get up, I felt dizzy and weak, and I relied on my husbands support in getting around. A shower sounded nice, but I hadn't really put a lot of thought into it. The only way I could stand on two legs was with my boot, and the support of my husband. I knew my boot could not get wet, and I'm pretty sure my husband didn't want to get wet either. So I looked in the shower to see if there was a bench to sit on, nope, one more thing we get to go ask for at the nurses station. How do you say "shower bench" in Turkish? Luckily, somehow between saying shower and then sit, while pointing to my leg, they got it. One of the nurses stepped into a room and came out with a plastic bench. Nice, we got exactly what we needed again without too much confusion. Whew! Shower problem solved!
Later in the afternoon, Prof. Erdogru stopped by to check in on me again. He brought by a stack of DVD's of my surgery, and said he would come back a little later to go over the surgery with us. He came back just as it was getting dark, and spent about an hour going over my surgery. He would get very excited when he could point out a stage in the surgery where he was able to fix an issue with my nerve. He truly is passionate about the work he does, and for this I am thankful.
On Friday morning when I woke up, I noticed I didn't have any more "pins and needles" sensations running through my left leg and foot, and after poking around on it, everything felt normal. I was so happy, one leg down and one more to go. This helped me to get up a little better and walk around without much help. I also noticed that I didn't feel dizzy or lightheaded anymore, this was nice. I started to get around much better and little faster all by myself.
Our days at the hospital were pretty much the same, at night we would talk to our kids and family on Google Voice. We would go on walks late in the night, around 1:00- 4:00 in the morning, (we were still on Utah time) and fall asleep between 5:00-7:00 in the morning, Kris always before me. It seemed just as the sun was coming up I would start to feel sleepy. Most of the nights it was just us in the hallways, but sometimes there would be a very friendly Turkish man walking around as well. I'm not sure what his excuse was for being up so late in the night, but we always smiled at each other and a couple of times tried to talk with each other. The most that came of our conversations was that he learned we were from the United States, and he was from Turkey. One day he said "good morning" and we said "merhaba." which means hello in Turkish. This made him smile so big, and he said something else that we could not understand. I wish we could've chatted, he seemed to be a very interesting person, with some great stories to share. Once we'd get to sleep, the interruption's would begin. They would bring the breakfast tray in early, me and Kris would listen to them come in and set it down, neither one of us would get up. About a hour later they would come back in to get our untouched trays. The only thing we would get up for was to talk to Prof. Erdogru, after he left we would sleep until lunch. We would pick at our lunch, and we would get a visit from the physical therapist for electro shock therapy. Then we would use the rest of the afternoon checking in on Facebook and updating my blog. Kris would always make a run to the Palladium Shopping Center for dinner, and we would count down the hours before we could call home again to check in with our kids and family. 1:00- 2:00 am Turkish time was 4:00- 5:00 pm Utah time. Our days in the hospital, not too exciting, I know.
The hospital staff was very friendly and extremely patient with us, overall our experience was very good. We learned that the night time nurses worked a 14 hour shift, and the daytime nurses worked for 10 hours. Our first night before surgery a nurse came in to help us with all of the preparations. Her name was Duygu, her name means "feeling" or "emotion". She could speak English pretty well, which was very helpful during our hospital stay. We were always excited to see her during our stay, she was very kind, and we were always able to communicate with her. Thanks for being an amazing nurse Duygu!
Finally, Saturday came, we really hadn't seen much improvement with my leg over the last couple of days, and I was worried that I may have to stay longer in the hospital. What a relief when they gave me the okay to finally be discharged. Prof. Erdogru wrote out a couple of prescriptions, and asked us to come by his office on Monday for a post-op examination. While we were waiting to get discharged, Kris wanted to go and get my prescriptions filled before we took off for our hotel. The pharmacy is just outside the hospital on the main road, next to the yummy fruit stand. He asked if I would like to come along, I didn't have to think twice about his offer, I was ready for a change, and outside sounded nice. I thought I was doing so well getting around in the hospital, and than we got out into the real world. I felt a little disappointed, because as we walked down the road to the pharmacy, it was clear I was moving very slowly as everybody hurried past us. It was a quick reality check that I had a lot more improving do.
Once getting back to the hospital, someone from the International Marketing Department came in to help us with our bags, it seems they are always followed by their driver, they were there to help us get to our hotel. They insisted that I leave in a wheelchair, I truly am much better off walking than sitting in a wheelchair, but nobody really gets it, and I didn't have the energy to explain my situation. So, for the sake of wasting no more time of getting out of the hospital, I do as they ask, and we finally leave our hospital days behind us.
First 24 Hours After Surgery
Waking up from the seven hour surgery was brutal, as I started to come to, I can remember literally trembling so violently, and having such terrible pain. I was practically jerking, my teeth were chattering, and my jaw would not stop quivering, the only word I could mutter through my chattering teeth was hurts. I kept saying hurts, it hurts, but I wasn't sure if anyone really understood, because all I could hear was Turkish voices. Finally someone grabbed my shaking hands and said, (I have no idea, it was in Turkish) and soon I was out. They must have given me something good, because the next thing I remember was waking back up in the hospital room where my husband had been waiting. I woke up feeling very little pain, and was able to rest quite comfortably. I remember Prof. Erdogru coming in to talk to me and my husband, but honestly I can't remember very much of that conversation, maybe a little something about my numb legs, but that is all. I was in a rather odd state for the next 6-7 hours, I was somewhat aware of what was going on around me, but feeling so sleepy, my eyes just wanted to be closed. This seemed to bother my husband a little, he mentioned he didn't like not knowing if I was really sleeping or not, because every time he thought I was asleep, I would talk to him...with my eyes closed.
After coming out of that foggy state, I felt a little more alert, and I also had more understanding of my situation. I definitely felt sore, and I also thought it was odd that my legs seemed so heavy, and that I was unable to move them. I did a quick examination, okay, I see two legs, I can see my toes, but I was unable to pick my legs up and move my feet from side to side or back and forth.. Hmm... that's weird, so I wiggle my toes, with more effort than expected my left toes move just ever so slightly, hmm, okay, but my right toes, absolutely nothing. I feel a sense of alarm, I know this can't be good. I go through the whole process again, with the same results, oh, oh, something is definitely wrong. This sensation was feeling very familiar to me, like the times I have had an epidural during child delivery, so just like after giving birth I assume with time they'll eventually wake up. I told myself it would be fine, after a couple of hours my legs will wake-up, I hope?
I was feeling very nauseous, I really thought that I might throw up at any second, I kept the little throw-up container very close, but managed to avoid this over the next few hours. My mouth was extremely dry, and I had a terrible bitter taste that would not go away. I wasn't sure if this was due to the sleepy medicine prior to surgery, or something else during surgery. Between the nausea and bitter taste, I really wanted something in my stomach, anything. Here in the U.S. they're really good about starting you on clear liquids after surgery. Usually, they start you out with ice chips, and then offer something like apple juice or a slushy, if you can keep that down they offer some broth and maybe some crackers. I just wanted that nasty taste out of my mouth. After a couple of hours, I remembered I had some gum in my purse, I asked my husband to please get me a piece. I was so glad I had this, after three pieces I finally got rid of the nasty taste, but my stomach still felt nauseous. At one point in the night I asked if I could have some water, I felt so thirsty, the nurse said "no, you can't have anything yet, I would have to wait until the next day." this was really hard, I really didn't understand why they had me wait so long, I would have never made it without the help of my gum.
The night was very long, besides feeling like I needed something in my stomach, I was starting to get very uncomfortable. Not because of pain, because I was hooked to a morphine pump, and this help manage the pain really well. It was because with the exception of some areas on my left leg, everything from the waist down was numb. I didn't like the position I was in, but there was nothing I could do about it, I was stuck. I asked my husband what time it was, he told me it was almost 1:00 am in the morning, I felt very discouraged, because it was going to be a long time before morning, and I counted the hours until Prof. Erdogru would come. When the door opened in the morning it was only the hospital staff bringing a tray of food, he pointed to me and shook his head "no," he than pointed to my husband who was asleep on the fold out chair and then pointed back to the tray of food while nodding his head up and down. Double whammy, no Prof. Erdogru, and still no food or water for me. About an hour later the door opened again, finally it was Prof. Erdogru, I was so excited to see him come through that door, I knew this meant some changes would soon happen.
He explained that once the nurses removed the catheter, I could get up and walk around. Umm, big problem, how am I suppose to get up and walk around when I can't even move or feel my legs? I explained my situation about my legs to Prof. Erdogru, he became very concerned. He said he would call in some specialists to evaluate my legs, he apologized repeatedly and left. Soon a doctor from Orthopedics came by, after his examination he said that within 3-4 days my legs would be back to normal. That didn't seem too bad, then a doctor of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation came by. She had me try to lift and bend my legs, curl and flex my toes, and than she used her reflex tool and started tapping away on my legs and feet. After, she used the same tool, which also had a sharp pin like pricker attached to it, and began pricking around to get an idea of lost sensation. After her evaluation, she too thought this would only be temporary, and told me she would have one of her physical therapist come by for treatment. I guess sometime after surgery the night before, I had already talked to Prof. Erdogru about my legs, my husband told me that a radiologist came by with an ultrasound machine, and checked for deep vein thrombosis. I really have no memory of this, I must have been really out of it, but my husband told me everything checked out okay. After about a hour Prof. Erdogru stopped back in, he had went back and reviewed the Cd's from surgery. He was happy to inform us that after reviewing the surgery, he was confident that my leg complication was not the result of anything done during surgery. We were all relieved to know this, and I am thankful he cared enough to take the time to double check. He asked, "have you puffed," and I said "yes," I then got the okay to eat. Who knew that would be the only requirement.
Imagine how disappointed I was when I got my first tray of food, there was something about the way it looked and smelled that instantly made me lose my appetite. (I've never been good with the hospital food in the States either, it reminds me too much of school lunch.) Kris offered to butter my pre-packaged roll, he thought I should at least eat that. I took a bite, between my very dry mouth and the hard roll I had a hard time chewing it up small enough to swallow, I spit it out, I was afraid I would choke if I kept going. They brought a hot red liquid of some sorts in a bowl, I gave it a smell, it smelled a little sweet. I managed to sip some spoonfuls of this, maybe comparable to jello water, but hot, and not as sweet. So there you have it, some hot red liquid and water, I really wasn't satisfied. I remembered that there was a fruit stand not to far from the hospital, I asked my husband to go down and get some bananas. He returned, but the bananas were a little spotted. I'm pretty picky when it comes to bananas, I like them just barely ripe and no spots. I felt disappointed, but ate one anyway, even with spots, I was finally satisfied. I had finally gotten something in my stomach, and I felt better.
In the afternoon the physical therapist stopped by, she hooked my legs up to the TENS unit, or as they called it, "electro shock therapy." After she was done she showed my husband some exercises, she wanted him to do each motion 100 times, once a day. She said she would return tomorrow.
Before going home Prof. Erdogru stopped by one last time that day. He removed my catheter and said someone would be by to fit me with a walking boot. He said that I should be able to get up and walk around with the boot. Good, I was getting anxious to get out of bed, I was tired of laying there. By that evening I was able to lift my left leg up, and reposition it anywhere in the bed, but my right leg was still stuck in the same position. He apologized some more for my leg, and left.
A little later, a man showed up with a bag, he pulled my new walking boot from the bag, and put it on my leg. He then unwrapped a plastic T-shaped device, which my husband called my wings, and velcroed it to the bottom of my boot. He helped me sit up, and with the help of my husband they helped me get to a standing position. Finally, after 33 hours, and with the support of my husband, I am on my own two feet, a little wobbly, but I am up. The man has me walk around the room a couple of times, I can do it, but only with the help of my husband. He gives us a smile, he seems satisfied and he leaves. Later that night with my IV's, pain pump, and drain line still attached, my husband helps me take my first, very slow walk, up and down the hospital corridor.
After coming out of that foggy state, I felt a little more alert, and I also had more understanding of my situation. I definitely felt sore, and I also thought it was odd that my legs seemed so heavy, and that I was unable to move them. I did a quick examination, okay, I see two legs, I can see my toes, but I was unable to pick my legs up and move my feet from side to side or back and forth.. Hmm... that's weird, so I wiggle my toes, with more effort than expected my left toes move just ever so slightly, hmm, okay, but my right toes, absolutely nothing. I feel a sense of alarm, I know this can't be good. I go through the whole process again, with the same results, oh, oh, something is definitely wrong. This sensation was feeling very familiar to me, like the times I have had an epidural during child delivery, so just like after giving birth I assume with time they'll eventually wake up. I told myself it would be fine, after a couple of hours my legs will wake-up, I hope?
I was feeling very nauseous, I really thought that I might throw up at any second, I kept the little throw-up container very close, but managed to avoid this over the next few hours. My mouth was extremely dry, and I had a terrible bitter taste that would not go away. I wasn't sure if this was due to the sleepy medicine prior to surgery, or something else during surgery. Between the nausea and bitter taste, I really wanted something in my stomach, anything. Here in the U.S. they're really good about starting you on clear liquids after surgery. Usually, they start you out with ice chips, and then offer something like apple juice or a slushy, if you can keep that down they offer some broth and maybe some crackers. I just wanted that nasty taste out of my mouth. After a couple of hours, I remembered I had some gum in my purse, I asked my husband to please get me a piece. I was so glad I had this, after three pieces I finally got rid of the nasty taste, but my stomach still felt nauseous. At one point in the night I asked if I could have some water, I felt so thirsty, the nurse said "no, you can't have anything yet, I would have to wait until the next day." this was really hard, I really didn't understand why they had me wait so long, I would have never made it without the help of my gum.
The night was very long, besides feeling like I needed something in my stomach, I was starting to get very uncomfortable. Not because of pain, because I was hooked to a morphine pump, and this help manage the pain really well. It was because with the exception of some areas on my left leg, everything from the waist down was numb. I didn't like the position I was in, but there was nothing I could do about it, I was stuck. I asked my husband what time it was, he told me it was almost 1:00 am in the morning, I felt very discouraged, because it was going to be a long time before morning, and I counted the hours until Prof. Erdogru would come. When the door opened in the morning it was only the hospital staff bringing a tray of food, he pointed to me and shook his head "no," he than pointed to my husband who was asleep on the fold out chair and then pointed back to the tray of food while nodding his head up and down. Double whammy, no Prof. Erdogru, and still no food or water for me. About an hour later the door opened again, finally it was Prof. Erdogru, I was so excited to see him come through that door, I knew this meant some changes would soon happen.
He explained that once the nurses removed the catheter, I could get up and walk around. Umm, big problem, how am I suppose to get up and walk around when I can't even move or feel my legs? I explained my situation about my legs to Prof. Erdogru, he became very concerned. He said he would call in some specialists to evaluate my legs, he apologized repeatedly and left. Soon a doctor from Orthopedics came by, after his examination he said that within 3-4 days my legs would be back to normal. That didn't seem too bad, then a doctor of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation came by. She had me try to lift and bend my legs, curl and flex my toes, and than she used her reflex tool and started tapping away on my legs and feet. After, she used the same tool, which also had a sharp pin like pricker attached to it, and began pricking around to get an idea of lost sensation. After her evaluation, she too thought this would only be temporary, and told me she would have one of her physical therapist come by for treatment. I guess sometime after surgery the night before, I had already talked to Prof. Erdogru about my legs, my husband told me that a radiologist came by with an ultrasound machine, and checked for deep vein thrombosis. I really have no memory of this, I must have been really out of it, but my husband told me everything checked out okay. After about a hour Prof. Erdogru stopped back in, he had went back and reviewed the Cd's from surgery. He was happy to inform us that after reviewing the surgery, he was confident that my leg complication was not the result of anything done during surgery. We were all relieved to know this, and I am thankful he cared enough to take the time to double check. He asked, "have you puffed," and I said "yes," I then got the okay to eat. Who knew that would be the only requirement.
Imagine how disappointed I was when I got my first tray of food, there was something about the way it looked and smelled that instantly made me lose my appetite. (I've never been good with the hospital food in the States either, it reminds me too much of school lunch.) Kris offered to butter my pre-packaged roll, he thought I should at least eat that. I took a bite, between my very dry mouth and the hard roll I had a hard time chewing it up small enough to swallow, I spit it out, I was afraid I would choke if I kept going. They brought a hot red liquid of some sorts in a bowl, I gave it a smell, it smelled a little sweet. I managed to sip some spoonfuls of this, maybe comparable to jello water, but hot, and not as sweet. So there you have it, some hot red liquid and water, I really wasn't satisfied. I remembered that there was a fruit stand not to far from the hospital, I asked my husband to go down and get some bananas. He returned, but the bananas were a little spotted. I'm pretty picky when it comes to bananas, I like them just barely ripe and no spots. I felt disappointed, but ate one anyway, even with spots, I was finally satisfied. I had finally gotten something in my stomach, and I felt better.
In the afternoon the physical therapist stopped by, she hooked my legs up to the TENS unit, or as they called it, "electro shock therapy." After she was done she showed my husband some exercises, she wanted him to do each motion 100 times, once a day. She said she would return tomorrow.
Before going home Prof. Erdogru stopped by one last time that day. He removed my catheter and said someone would be by to fit me with a walking boot. He said that I should be able to get up and walk around with the boot. Good, I was getting anxious to get out of bed, I was tired of laying there. By that evening I was able to lift my left leg up, and reposition it anywhere in the bed, but my right leg was still stuck in the same position. He apologized some more for my leg, and left.
A little later, a man showed up with a bag, he pulled my new walking boot from the bag, and put it on my leg. He then unwrapped a plastic T-shaped device, which my husband called my wings, and velcroed it to the bottom of my boot. He helped me sit up, and with the help of my husband they helped me get to a standing position. Finally, after 33 hours, and with the support of my husband, I am on my own two feet, a little wobbly, but I am up. The man has me walk around the room a couple of times, I can do it, but only with the help of my husband. He gives us a smile, he seems satisfied and he leaves. Later that night with my IV's, pain pump, and drain line still attached, my husband helps me take my first, very slow walk, up and down the hospital corridor.
Monday, October 15, 2012
Post Op Update #7
Today we went back to the hospital to follow up on Shirlayne's surgery and her leg. First we went to the department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. The plan was for her to first receive electric shock therapy and than have an EMG on her leg. They told us the cost would be 942TL (about $500) for the EMG. We asked about using our medical insurance but it didn't seem like under the time constraints that they would be able to work that out. Maybe if we had set up the EMG well in advance, something could have been done. So with that information, we decided to forgo the EMG here in Turkey and begin working with our physicians back at home to get things scheduled. We will continue to have electric shock therapy while we are here but nothing else. Shirlayne is still having trouble with her leg, and part of it is still numb. There has not been much improvment in her right leg over the last few days.
After the electric shock therapy, we met again with Prof. Erdogru to follow-up with Shirlayne's progress. Shirlayne explained that she is still having pelvic pain, and it is difficult to sit. She said she does not know, but she thinks that the pain is coming more from recently having surgery, rather than the previous PNE pain. Prof. Erdogru agreed and then performed a quick ultrasound and examined her incisions and everything looked normal. After that we made an appointment to see him again tomorrow.
We are leaving Turkey on Thursday and we are excited to get back home and be with our kids again.
After the electric shock therapy, we met again with Prof. Erdogru to follow-up with Shirlayne's progress. Shirlayne explained that she is still having pelvic pain, and it is difficult to sit. She said she does not know, but she thinks that the pain is coming more from recently having surgery, rather than the previous PNE pain. Prof. Erdogru agreed and then performed a quick ultrasound and examined her incisions and everything looked normal. After that we made an appointment to see him again tomorrow.
We are leaving Turkey on Thursday and we are excited to get back home and be with our kids again.
Final Hours Before Surgery
Prof. Erdogru and Pervin discussed that switching our hotel accommodations would be best for our post-op visits. Originally Prof. Erdogru's office had arranged our first four nights in Istanbul at the Memorial Guesthouse, before being admitted to the hospital for surgery. At my consultation, Prof. Erdogru asked for us to get checked into the hospital at 5:00 the night before surgery, for pre-admitting and pre-surgery testing. This meant we would need to ask for a refund for our last night at the Memorial Guest House. Pervin would get this done for us, but we would not receive the full refund, only half, since we would be there for part of the day. Also, to our surprise, we had racked up some additional charges at the hotel. First, 156TL for outgoing phone charges. At home we purchased a phone card with a local Istanbul number. We were using the phone card to call home, but apparently even calling Istanbul numbers is very expensive. That was an expensive lesson to learn, oops! As you can tell, we called home a lot on our first day or two. Next, 32TL for our omelet breakfast we ordered, we somehow had a misunderstanding, we were given instructions that we could order anything from the breakfast menu (for free), but apparently not. Now we know why so much food came on our first morning, our free breakfast was the large platters of cheeses, cucumbers and tomatoes, meats and olives, with tea and rolls, which we ended up sending it all back. So now, instead of receiving a refund we owed additional money. After getting the additional charges figured out for us, Pervin, then told us she would be by on Monday at 3:30pm, to get us to the hospital.
I was super tired, from getting no sleep the two previous night, so I climbed into bed for a three hour nap. After getting some rest, we were hungry. We hadn't had anything to eat since our omelet, so Kris gets the Domino's Pizza ordered. We are now using Skype or Facetime to communicate, although it is not always the easiest to communicate, due to the poor Internet connection from the hospital, we use this because it is free. We were up late in the night again, we spent more time talking to our kids, and I used this time to post on my blog. Kris fell asleep around 4:00 am, and I got to bed by 7:00 am, we both slept until 1:00 pm the next day. This is the most sleep I had gotten in a few days, and I felt better. Sunday would be our only day to go and do a little sight seeing, after sleeping through most of the day, we decide to stay in and take it easy. Traffic in Turkey is like nothing we have ever experienced, instead of trying to find a taxi, and having a stressful drive to the sights, and not being sure what is and isn't open on Sunday's, staying in seemed to be the logical choice. Maybe we will get the chance to go see some sights before we leave, we'll see.
Since I couldn't eat my hot dog and corn pizza from the night before, because I was completely turned off, we are feeling hungry again, and so we decided to go to the hospital cafe once more. I really liked my chicken burrito from last time, so I play it safe, and order it again. Kris went for a hamburger, but it seems it comes with no bun, we have to point to a picture of the chicken sandwich, which does have a bun, to ask for his hamburger to come with the bun. Our server seemed to understand. Kris doubted they would have ketchup for his fries, so we just waited to see. They did it again, everything came out exactly as ordered, including ketchup. We are not doing too badly, considering the huge communication gap. We had a little problem when we went to pay, our server brought back our credit card and shook his head "no". We assumed this meant it didn't go through, but we are not sure why? Holding the credit card machine up for us, and telling us to read the message didn't help. I pull a different card from my wallet, he shakes his head no again. Hmm, what is going on? Kris pulls out his iPad and uses google translate to figure this out. We finally figured out that the credit card machine is down, but, at this point, we had not gotten any Turkish Lira from a bank yet. An idea comes, we ask if they can charge it to our room, and he makes a call and says "yes", whew! problem solved, we can now go.
We had learned, the morning of the day we were leaving for Turkey that our ward was going to have a special prayer and fast in my behalf, (Thank you, Cobble Creek 2nd ward!) so me and my husband chose tonight to start our own prayer and fast. We had a very quiet night, it was the most calmest evening we have had in over a week, we talked with all the kids again, and worked on the blog some more. My blog has been great for filling in extra time, and a great distraction for my upcoming surgery, in giving me something else to focus on. We went to bed by 3:00am, I actually went to bed before the sun came up, finally, I think I am making some progress with the time change. I am surprised when I wake up at 7:30, I decide to get in the shower, and start to gather my things for the stay at the hospital. Kris must have been really tired, because he is still sleeping after everything I did. I worked on my blog, and I finally wake Kris up at 1:00pm. We didn't need to worry about eating since we were fasting, but I needed him to get up and get all of his things together, because we would not be returning to this hotel after today. We had a knock on the door at 2:20pm, it was Pervin, she was already here and she explained we would be leaving by 3:00 instead. Okay, we will be ready, at 2:45 we get another knock on the door, it is Pervin again, she says "come, we must go now," she had a hotel assistant or porter with her to get our bags. We quickly gather our things and go with her. She leads us to the parking garage and has the porter place our bags against the wall. She then leads us up to the cafe to sit down, because our ride is not there yet. I'm not sure why all the urgency, we sat in the cafe for twenty minutes, before heading down to the parking garage for our ride. It was raining outside, and we again, get to travel across the Bosphorus Bridge to the hospital, it is a very beautiful sight in Istanbul.
Once we arrive to the hospital Pervin takes us to patient admissions, they take a copy of our passports and have us sign a couple of forms. The hospital then takes the first half of payment for my operation, 9,500TL or $5,000. Pervin than explains the hospital is getting my room ready and we will wait twenty minutes. She had us go to the lobby and explained someone would be down to get us once the room was ready. She tells us goodbye, and wishes me good luck on my surgery. We stayed in the lobby for just over a hour. We walked back down to patient admissions to see if we were forgotten about, and the girl makes some phone calls. Within five minuets we are shown to our hospital room. The hospital is very nice and very clean. It is about 5:30 pm and I am beyond hungry, we had been fasting, and I hadn't had anything to eat since the chicken burrito from the cafe' the night before.We say a prayer to break our fast, and let the nurses know at the nurses station, we are leaving to get some dinner. They tell us we can get food in the lobby at the hospital across the street, we knew what she was talking about, it is a small cafe in the hospital that serves rolls and breads, and coffee and tea. We were hoping to have some real food tonight, so we tell her thank you, and stick with our plan.
Kris had already decided we were going to go to the Palladium mall to eat, he already checked out the restaurants online and knew there would be some familiar options. We needed to get a taxi to get us over to the mall, I thought since New York taxi's accepted credit cards, that Istanbul would as well, especially since getting around by taxi in Istanbul is so common. We went to the hospitals reception desk and ask her to call us a taxi, we ask if taxi's take credit cads, and she says "no." We then use google translate to explain we do not not have any Turkish Lira, and ask about an ATM, Google translate was not doing a very good job at translating her response, nothing was making sense, she finally gestures to us to follow her. She takes us on the elevator and up to the 2nd floor, same floor as Prof. Erdoghru's waiting room, she then starts to head for the back door of the hospital and right outside the door was an ATM. Yay! We finally have cash to use in Turkey. We go back to the lobby and have the same girl call a taxi for us.
The ride to the mall is very short from the hospital, the mall is enormous, and a very pretty structure. We find the food court and have our dinner. We don't stick around because we knew the hospital needed us back to prepare me for my surgery.
Once getting back to the hospital, the staff gets to work. They have me sign some papers and ask me questions about my past medical history. Someone comes in and does an EKG, a very fast and painless test of the heart. Someone else comes by with a wheel chair, they want me to get in, I try to tell him I am fine, but he is very adamant about me getting in the wheel chair. I give up, it is too hard to explain when neither one of us can communicate with each other. I get in the wheel chair and he takes me to the elevator, and we go down a couple of floors, he had taken me to radiology for a chest x-ray. Also very fast, he then takes me back to my room. We settle in for the night, we talk with our kids and family one last time before the surgery. I work on my blog some more and try to get to sleep around 4:00 am. When I wake up it is only 6:00 am, I turn on the laptop and check in on Facebook, for only just joining a little over a week ago, I am completely addicted.
Considering that I'm about to have surgery in a foreign Country on the other side of the world, I am feeling unbelievably calm. I have no doubts, fears, or anxiety, just a strong sense of relief, that I am finally coming to an end of a very long and painful road. I know I made the right decision. From the time I learned of this surgery in Turkey, everything leading to this day seemed to fall into place effortlessly. It feels this path to Turkey was clearly marked with all the right signs, and it was a very smooth and easy road to follow.
A few minutes before surgery a nurse brought a small cup to me with some liquid medicine. She told me to drink it, it was medicine to make me feel a little sleepy before surgery. My husband warned me, he said, "you know that is going taste so nasty." He was right, it tasted terrible, it made me shiver, and left a bitter taste that I could not get out of my mouth. Soon they were there to get me, and the surgery that I had been waiting for, was only minutes away from starting. I was so excited, and relieved that my countdown to a pain free life, was about to begin...
I was super tired, from getting no sleep the two previous night, so I climbed into bed for a three hour nap. After getting some rest, we were hungry. We hadn't had anything to eat since our omelet, so Kris gets the Domino's Pizza ordered. We are now using Skype or Facetime to communicate, although it is not always the easiest to communicate, due to the poor Internet connection from the hospital, we use this because it is free. We were up late in the night again, we spent more time talking to our kids, and I used this time to post on my blog. Kris fell asleep around 4:00 am, and I got to bed by 7:00 am, we both slept until 1:00 pm the next day. This is the most sleep I had gotten in a few days, and I felt better. Sunday would be our only day to go and do a little sight seeing, after sleeping through most of the day, we decide to stay in and take it easy. Traffic in Turkey is like nothing we have ever experienced, instead of trying to find a taxi, and having a stressful drive to the sights, and not being sure what is and isn't open on Sunday's, staying in seemed to be the logical choice. Maybe we will get the chance to go see some sights before we leave, we'll see.
Since I couldn't eat my hot dog and corn pizza from the night before, because I was completely turned off, we are feeling hungry again, and so we decided to go to the hospital cafe once more. I really liked my chicken burrito from last time, so I play it safe, and order it again. Kris went for a hamburger, but it seems it comes with no bun, we have to point to a picture of the chicken sandwich, which does have a bun, to ask for his hamburger to come with the bun. Our server seemed to understand. Kris doubted they would have ketchup for his fries, so we just waited to see. They did it again, everything came out exactly as ordered, including ketchup. We are not doing too badly, considering the huge communication gap. We had a little problem when we went to pay, our server brought back our credit card and shook his head "no". We assumed this meant it didn't go through, but we are not sure why? Holding the credit card machine up for us, and telling us to read the message didn't help. I pull a different card from my wallet, he shakes his head no again. Hmm, what is going on? Kris pulls out his iPad and uses google translate to figure this out. We finally figured out that the credit card machine is down, but, at this point, we had not gotten any Turkish Lira from a bank yet. An idea comes, we ask if they can charge it to our room, and he makes a call and says "yes", whew! problem solved, we can now go.
We had learned, the morning of the day we were leaving for Turkey that our ward was going to have a special prayer and fast in my behalf, (Thank you, Cobble Creek 2nd ward!) so me and my husband chose tonight to start our own prayer and fast. We had a very quiet night, it was the most calmest evening we have had in over a week, we talked with all the kids again, and worked on the blog some more. My blog has been great for filling in extra time, and a great distraction for my upcoming surgery, in giving me something else to focus on. We went to bed by 3:00am, I actually went to bed before the sun came up, finally, I think I am making some progress with the time change. I am surprised when I wake up at 7:30, I decide to get in the shower, and start to gather my things for the stay at the hospital. Kris must have been really tired, because he is still sleeping after everything I did. I worked on my blog, and I finally wake Kris up at 1:00pm. We didn't need to worry about eating since we were fasting, but I needed him to get up and get all of his things together, because we would not be returning to this hotel after today. We had a knock on the door at 2:20pm, it was Pervin, she was already here and she explained we would be leaving by 3:00 instead. Okay, we will be ready, at 2:45 we get another knock on the door, it is Pervin again, she says "come, we must go now," she had a hotel assistant or porter with her to get our bags. We quickly gather our things and go with her. She leads us to the parking garage and has the porter place our bags against the wall. She then leads us up to the cafe to sit down, because our ride is not there yet. I'm not sure why all the urgency, we sat in the cafe for twenty minutes, before heading down to the parking garage for our ride. It was raining outside, and we again, get to travel across the Bosphorus Bridge to the hospital, it is a very beautiful sight in Istanbul.
Once we arrive to the hospital Pervin takes us to patient admissions, they take a copy of our passports and have us sign a couple of forms. The hospital then takes the first half of payment for my operation, 9,500TL or $5,000. Pervin than explains the hospital is getting my room ready and we will wait twenty minutes. She had us go to the lobby and explained someone would be down to get us once the room was ready. She tells us goodbye, and wishes me good luck on my surgery. We stayed in the lobby for just over a hour. We walked back down to patient admissions to see if we were forgotten about, and the girl makes some phone calls. Within five minuets we are shown to our hospital room. The hospital is very nice and very clean. It is about 5:30 pm and I am beyond hungry, we had been fasting, and I hadn't had anything to eat since the chicken burrito from the cafe' the night before.We say a prayer to break our fast, and let the nurses know at the nurses station, we are leaving to get some dinner. They tell us we can get food in the lobby at the hospital across the street, we knew what she was talking about, it is a small cafe in the hospital that serves rolls and breads, and coffee and tea. We were hoping to have some real food tonight, so we tell her thank you, and stick with our plan.
Kris had already decided we were going to go to the Palladium mall to eat, he already checked out the restaurants online and knew there would be some familiar options. We needed to get a taxi to get us over to the mall, I thought since New York taxi's accepted credit cards, that Istanbul would as well, especially since getting around by taxi in Istanbul is so common. We went to the hospitals reception desk and ask her to call us a taxi, we ask if taxi's take credit cads, and she says "no." We then use google translate to explain we do not not have any Turkish Lira, and ask about an ATM, Google translate was not doing a very good job at translating her response, nothing was making sense, she finally gestures to us to follow her. She takes us on the elevator and up to the 2nd floor, same floor as Prof. Erdoghru's waiting room, she then starts to head for the back door of the hospital and right outside the door was an ATM. Yay! We finally have cash to use in Turkey. We go back to the lobby and have the same girl call a taxi for us.
The ride to the mall is very short from the hospital, the mall is enormous, and a very pretty structure. We find the food court and have our dinner. We don't stick around because we knew the hospital needed us back to prepare me for my surgery.
Once getting back to the hospital, the staff gets to work. They have me sign some papers and ask me questions about my past medical history. Someone comes in and does an EKG, a very fast and painless test of the heart. Someone else comes by with a wheel chair, they want me to get in, I try to tell him I am fine, but he is very adamant about me getting in the wheel chair. I give up, it is too hard to explain when neither one of us can communicate with each other. I get in the wheel chair and he takes me to the elevator, and we go down a couple of floors, he had taken me to radiology for a chest x-ray. Also very fast, he then takes me back to my room. We settle in for the night, we talk with our kids and family one last time before the surgery. I work on my blog some more and try to get to sleep around 4:00 am. When I wake up it is only 6:00 am, I turn on the laptop and check in on Facebook, for only just joining a little over a week ago, I am completely addicted.
Considering that I'm about to have surgery in a foreign Country on the other side of the world, I am feeling unbelievably calm. I have no doubts, fears, or anxiety, just a strong sense of relief, that I am finally coming to an end of a very long and painful road. I know I made the right decision. From the time I learned of this surgery in Turkey, everything leading to this day seemed to fall into place effortlessly. It feels this path to Turkey was clearly marked with all the right signs, and it was a very smooth and easy road to follow.
A few minutes before surgery a nurse brought a small cup to me with some liquid medicine. She told me to drink it, it was medicine to make me feel a little sleepy before surgery. My husband warned me, he said, "you know that is going taste so nasty." He was right, it tasted terrible, it made me shiver, and left a bitter taste that I could not get out of my mouth. Soon they were there to get me, and the surgery that I had been waiting for, was only minutes away from starting. I was so excited, and relieved that my countdown to a pain free life, was about to begin...
Saturday, October 13, 2012
Post Op update #6 (Shirlayne's Story)
On Friday morning I woke up with a completely recovered left leg and foot, no more numbness and no more tingling. Unfortunately, my right foot and leg is still very numb, along the top of the foot and the outside of my calf, and all around my ankle. Every day since surgery I have had a physical therapist come to my room and do electric shock therapy for twenty five minutes. We have seen very little improvement, my husband also works on the exercises with me that the physical therapist taught him. When Prof. Erdogru came by to visit this morning he was very disappointed in the progress of my leg. He wants us to come back on Monday and meet with the neurologist for an EMG test, and to set up a plan for when we return to the US. He has been very apologetic to me for this complication, he is very sincere, he still thinks I will have a full recovery with my leg.
As far as my pain goes, I am starting to get back some sensation in my pelvic area, however my in-betweens are still very numb. On Friday I started having a lot of burning sensation return, after a couple hours, I couldn't deal with the sensation any longer, I really needed some ice. Kris really didn't think we would be successful at getting any, so, before we left our room, I looked ice up on google translate, the word came up buz, that's easy, I can say that. So we walked down to the nurses station and I ask for ice. They give me a puzzled look, so I say buz (it sounds like buzz) she looks at me a second and says, "oh buz" (booze) she goes to gets some ice, and I get reacquainted with my good old friend "Ice" once again. I am so thankful for ice, it offers me some much needed relief when my pain is unbearable. I continue to stay very uncomfortable the rest of the day. When I woke up today, I felt a little better, but as my day has gone on, I am dealing with high levels of pain once again. My nerve went through a lot of trauma during surgery, I think with time it will calm down, and I will than have a better idea of my outcome with this surgery.
In my defense, as far as the "big ole" mattress topper goes, let me explain. My only relief from pain comes from laying down. At the Memorial Guest House their mattress was extremely hard, and super uncomfortable. For the first time since living with this condition, laying down at the Memorial Guest House actually caused more pain in my in- betweens, even Kris complained about his back. So when we arrived at our hotel today and the bed was just as hard, or maybe harder, than the Memorial Guest House, I honestly didn't know how I was going to get through the next five days. I am already super uncomfortable from surgery alone. Our options, switch hotels, and hope they have a softer bed, or try and figure out a way to make this bed more comfortable. I really like my new mattress topper, comfort is key when healing and recovering. I think Kris may be a little jealous too, he already called my side of the bed for naps. (Ya right! In his Dreams) For now, I am loving this. Thank you Kris, for realizing how important my comfort is right now, and going along with my crazy hair brain idea, and last, for carrying that "big ole" mattress topper around the mall, and all the way back to the hotel. I love You... Who knows? Maybe I'll share! (After all, you have been stuck in that fold out chair at the hospital for the last few days.)
As far as my pain goes, I am starting to get back some sensation in my pelvic area, however my in-betweens are still very numb. On Friday I started having a lot of burning sensation return, after a couple hours, I couldn't deal with the sensation any longer, I really needed some ice. Kris really didn't think we would be successful at getting any, so, before we left our room, I looked ice up on google translate, the word came up buz, that's easy, I can say that. So we walked down to the nurses station and I ask for ice. They give me a puzzled look, so I say buz (it sounds like buzz) she looks at me a second and says, "oh buz" (booze) she goes to gets some ice, and I get reacquainted with my good old friend "Ice" once again. I am so thankful for ice, it offers me some much needed relief when my pain is unbearable. I continue to stay very uncomfortable the rest of the day. When I woke up today, I felt a little better, but as my day has gone on, I am dealing with high levels of pain once again. My nerve went through a lot of trauma during surgery, I think with time it will calm down, and I will than have a better idea of my outcome with this surgery.
In my defense, as far as the "big ole" mattress topper goes, let me explain. My only relief from pain comes from laying down. At the Memorial Guest House their mattress was extremely hard, and super uncomfortable. For the first time since living with this condition, laying down at the Memorial Guest House actually caused more pain in my in- betweens, even Kris complained about his back. So when we arrived at our hotel today and the bed was just as hard, or maybe harder, than the Memorial Guest House, I honestly didn't know how I was going to get through the next five days. I am already super uncomfortable from surgery alone. Our options, switch hotels, and hope they have a softer bed, or try and figure out a way to make this bed more comfortable. I really like my new mattress topper, comfort is key when healing and recovering. I think Kris may be a little jealous too, he already called my side of the bed for naps. (Ya right! In his Dreams) For now, I am loving this. Thank you Kris, for realizing how important my comfort is right now, and going along with my crazy hair brain idea, and last, for carrying that "big ole" mattress topper around the mall, and all the way back to the hotel. I love You... Who knows? Maybe I'll share! (After all, you have been stuck in that fold out chair at the hospital for the last few days.)
Post Op Update #5
Today we are being discharged. This morning started with a visit from Prof. Erdogru. He went over the instructions for the upcoming week. We will stay at our hotel the next two days (Sat. Sun.) and then come into the hospital Monday for a Physical Therapy appointment and a follow-up with Prof. Erdogru. We were kind of excited to be out of the hospital and be staying on our own.
Prof. Erdogru prescribed both anti-inflammatory and anti-biotic medicines for the next week. Shirlayne and I decided to take a walk together down the street (less than a block) to the pharmacy. We had to use the iPad to help us translate with the pharmacists, because the word "generic" doesn't translate well. After getting our medicine, Shirlayne grabbed some bananas from the fruit stand on our way back.
We chose a hotel that wasn't right next to the hospital, but is about 3 blocks away. The hospital helped us to arrange a car to take us and our bags to the hotel. When we got to the hotel Shirlayne was very tired. She laid on the bed, and suddenly she got really worried. The bed was very hard. In her situation, she is going to spending a lot of time laying down, and needs a comfortable bed. She started to think that maybe we would have to change hotels and a find a nicer bed. She decided to give it a try, so she took a very uncomfortable rest on the hard bed. That was enough for her to know, that this "was going to be a problem" After the rest it was time for us to find something to eat. Since neither of us is feeling adventurous we decided to go to the mall and get something to eat.
We asked the hotel to help us get a taxi. They made a call but there were no available taxis, and instructed us to go flag one down. So... okay, we will give it a shot. As we walked to the main street, I mentioned to Shirlayne that I forgot to write down the address of the hotel. Oh well, I am sure the taxi drivers will know where it is when we come back. Amazingly, the first taxi we saw, stopped when we raised our hand. Much easier than New York. So after a quick trip to the mall we ate at Arby's (yum) we walked around the mall for a while. Shirlayne thought that she would be able to look for a "mattress topper" that would make the bed softer. I had my doubts that she would be able to find such a thing in Turkey, even in a big mall, but I'm free tonight. I don't have anything else to do. In case you are wondering, "mattress topper" does not translate into Turkish well on the iPad. So it takes a lot of hand signals and misunderstandings, to find out they didn't have what we were looking for. Finally, after walking around for a while, we saw a Serta/Temperpedic store. Walking in there, we finally found a memory foam pad, on display. Shirlayne asked how much for one of these. After some funny looks, we got the answer back that the display model is the only one they have left and they would give us 10% off. Shirlayne was not in the mood to negotiate, and said how much. The lady wrote on a paper, $297 TL, so with the discount $266 TL ($146). Shirlayne said we will take it! She figured that it is cheaper to buy this, then to try and find a more expensive hotel that has much softer beds. So, after a quick stop at the supermarket in the mall, for some water, and snacks, we walked out of the mall with a big 'ole roll of mattress topper in our arms.
As we climbed in the taxi to take us home, I told the driver the name of our hotel. He said "okay", and we were off. About half way there he took a wrong turn (I don't know many streets, in Istanbul, but I knew this one). A minute later he pulled up to the wrong hotel. We said "uhhh, this isn't it." He took us to one with a similar name. After that he gave us a pretty big lecture in Turkish about always getting a hotel card when we leave. (At least I think that is what his lecture was about.) I directed him down the street, and was able to find our hotel without any more drama. We paid, and then took our big 'ole roll of mattress topper to our room. With my fingers crossed Shirlayne laid down, and she said it was much better. I think she is right, although, I won't get to use it because the size is only a single. So I will be sleeping on a rock tonight. :( Then, I started off on a quest to see how to watch the University of Utah football game on the computer. Found it on some streaming site (hope I don't have a virus now), and watched it. Needless to say, I was not pleased with the outcome. And just so everyone knows, I am pretty tired of the post-game phrase "we played our hearts out today." Strange how the winning team never says that.
That was pretty much our day...
Oh ya, on the home front we learned there was a fish tank catastrophe...our three year old thought the fish would like a whole bottle of antacids and a whole container of fish food. The outcome...only one casualty, a very panicked twelve year old (big sister, not sure what to do, she face timed us and with the help of grandma we helped them step by step to get the tank cleaned), one very sad seven year old (his fish and fish tank), and one very frustrated grandma (person in charge and was making lunch for the kids while the three year old, well, did what three year old's do best...made a mess)....poor grandma, what a mess!
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| Our hotel room. |
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| Our little kitchen. |
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| Connected the laptop to the TV to watch the game. |
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| Shirlayne's "big 'ole" mattress topper. |
Friday, October 12, 2012
How Do You Flush This Thing
Interesting differences between Turkey and the US.
1) You push down the switch to turn the lights on. I didn't believe it at first, but every light switch is the same. I will not get used to that in two weeks. So every time, I switch it wrong first, and then right on the second try.
2) No clocks. In both our stay at the guest house and in the hospital, there has not been a clock on the wall, or anywhere. Not even an alarm clock on the nightstand. Maybe Turkey is just smarter than the US, and knows everyone is just going to use their cell phone anyway.
3) I have only spent maybe a grand total of 5 minutes watching TV. Oddly enough, I can't understand a word they are saying. But, flipping through the channels one or twice, I could not believe it, but they have at least two channels, out of around 20, which are dedicated to futbol (soccer) 24/7. Two really?
4) In Turkey they don't have the little buttons you push when you want to cross the street. I saw the "walk" sign on the street post across from me, but could not find the button. But, to my surprise when the light turned red, and it was my turn to cross, the sign across the street switched to "walk" (I assume). That got me to wondering, why do we need all those little buttons on street posts in America, why can't it just say walk automatically even if no one is there to see it. Hmmm. Not sure.
5) Flushing toilets. Well, I have seen it all now, but each toliet has two buttons on the wall. One generally larger than the other. Yes, some of you are already getting the picture, but depending on how you are using the toilet depends on how you flush it. I have not got a clear explanation of this one, mostly because I really don't know how to ask appropriately. My best guess is that the small one uses less water, and the large one more. So in an effort to use less water (when appropriate) there are two buttons. And yes, I know that you are dying to know but this is Europe (or pretty close) and they do have integrated bidets in the toilets. I will spare you any addition details, but you can have a look at the photos.
Ok. Maybe this is a little gross, but inquiring minds want to know...
These aren't such a big deal, but in case you were wondering.
1) You push down the switch to turn the lights on. I didn't believe it at first, but every light switch is the same. I will not get used to that in two weeks. So every time, I switch it wrong first, and then right on the second try.
2) No clocks. In both our stay at the guest house and in the hospital, there has not been a clock on the wall, or anywhere. Not even an alarm clock on the nightstand. Maybe Turkey is just smarter than the US, and knows everyone is just going to use their cell phone anyway.
3) I have only spent maybe a grand total of 5 minutes watching TV. Oddly enough, I can't understand a word they are saying. But, flipping through the channels one or twice, I could not believe it, but they have at least two channels, out of around 20, which are dedicated to futbol (soccer) 24/7. Two really?
4) In Turkey they don't have the little buttons you push when you want to cross the street. I saw the "walk" sign on the street post across from me, but could not find the button. But, to my surprise when the light turned red, and it was my turn to cross, the sign across the street switched to "walk" (I assume). That got me to wondering, why do we need all those little buttons on street posts in America, why can't it just say walk automatically even if no one is there to see it. Hmmm. Not sure.
5) Flushing toilets. Well, I have seen it all now, but each toliet has two buttons on the wall. One generally larger than the other. Yes, some of you are already getting the picture, but depending on how you are using the toilet depends on how you flush it. I have not got a clear explanation of this one, mostly because I really don't know how to ask appropriately. My best guess is that the small one uses less water, and the large one more. So in an effort to use less water (when appropriate) there are two buttons. And yes, I know that you are dying to know but this is Europe (or pretty close) and they do have integrated bidets in the toilets. I will spare you any addition details, but you can have a look at the photos.
Ok. Maybe this is a little gross, but inquiring minds want to know...
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| Notice the two buttons above. |
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| Needs no explanation |
These aren't such a big deal, but in case you were wondering.
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| Single Light Switch |
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| Dual Light Switch |
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| European Outlet |
Post Op Update #4
Last night Prof. Erdogru stopped by our room at about 5:00pm. He brought with him 4 DVDs that he gave to us. This was our copy of the video that was taken during surgery. He told us that he had a few more things to do, and then he would come back to our room and review some of he highlights with us. After he left I commented to Shirlayne if we were in the United States and we wanted a copy of this video we would have to fill out numerous forms, go stand in line somewhere, probably pay a fee, all just to get a copy of our own medical records and documents. Before Shirlayne came over here she spent a couple of weeks on the phone with receptionists, faxing forms, emailing forms, going to a notary to get their stamp, all just to get her own personal medical records, so that she could have the complete story when he arrived here in Turkey. Here Dr. Erdogru made a copy and personally delivered it to us. That is how it should be.
At about 7:00pm Prof. Erdogru came by. (I don't know if he noticed the Burger King sack or not, but if he did he didn't say anything.) I had already copied all the DVDs on to our laptop to make it easier for him to show various parts of the surgery without having to constantly switch DVDs. He walked through both the left and the right sides. Showing us the Pudendal Nerve on both sides, and describing the process that he took to get to it. He said that the sacrospinous ligaments are usually thin and soft, but Shirlayne's were hard, thick and tough. He had a hard time cutting through them with his small laparoscopic instruments. He did get through them and freed the nerve from the ligament on both sides. He found scar tissue around the rectal branch and perineum branch of the Pudendal nerve, more on the left, but also on both sides. He completely cleared out the scar tissue by cutting and extracting. Before he was done he had a clear view of the Pudendal nerve and all three branches. Then as he told us he would, he wrapped the nerve and branches with an omentum flap. Because of the surgery scar tissue will form again, but by wrapping the nerve with omentum (a healthy living tissue), the scar tissue should be kept away from the nerve permanently. Because it comes from Shirlayne's body, there is no chance for rejection of a foreign body. I believe in the literature I have read lately that this technique is now called the Tibet Technique, named after Prof. Erdogru. He was very pleased with the surgery, and said that he was able to completely decompress the nerve on both the right and left side. Now it is up to Shirlayne's body to heal. We asked a couple more questions, and he showed us different areas of the surgery. After about an hour of watching the video, he said he needed to go. Prof. Erdogru has been very anxious about Shirlayne's ability to sit without pain, as of last night everything in the pelvis is still very numb from surgery, Shirlayne says it feels similar to after receiving a nerve block. Prof. Erdogru says that for some patients it is not always immediate, and can take one, two, four, or even up to six months for improvement. Her nerve was very aggravated during the surgery, and for this reason we now will have to wait. We know Prof. Erdogru did all that he could on his end, and is very satisfied with the outcome. We now pray, that over time Shirlayne's nerve will heal and she will become pain free.
Every Friday Prof. Erdogru flies down to Antalya in southern Turkey, where his first practice was. He returns to check on his former patients there and also sees new ones. So he said that he will not see us tomorrow but will see us on Saturday before we leave.
That night we went for several walks around the 8th floor of the hospital (very romantic). Shirlayne is walking a little faster now, and able to pick her knee up higher. She can walk without the support of me and no longer feels lightheaded on her walks. She still needs the support of the boot to walk very far. She can get out of bed and make the short walk to the bathroom without her boot, she kinda drags her foot along the floor to get there. I am hoping that before we go home, she won't need it anymore. I guess we will see.
After that it was another night of staying up late talking to the kids, grandmas, and our friends and neighbors who are helping us with our kids. (Thanks everyone!!) We finally decided it was time to go to sleep at about 4:00 am.
At about 7:00pm Prof. Erdogru came by. (I don't know if he noticed the Burger King sack or not, but if he did he didn't say anything.) I had already copied all the DVDs on to our laptop to make it easier for him to show various parts of the surgery without having to constantly switch DVDs. He walked through both the left and the right sides. Showing us the Pudendal Nerve on both sides, and describing the process that he took to get to it. He said that the sacrospinous ligaments are usually thin and soft, but Shirlayne's were hard, thick and tough. He had a hard time cutting through them with his small laparoscopic instruments. He did get through them and freed the nerve from the ligament on both sides. He found scar tissue around the rectal branch and perineum branch of the Pudendal nerve, more on the left, but also on both sides. He completely cleared out the scar tissue by cutting and extracting. Before he was done he had a clear view of the Pudendal nerve and all three branches. Then as he told us he would, he wrapped the nerve and branches with an omentum flap. Because of the surgery scar tissue will form again, but by wrapping the nerve with omentum (a healthy living tissue), the scar tissue should be kept away from the nerve permanently. Because it comes from Shirlayne's body, there is no chance for rejection of a foreign body. I believe in the literature I have read lately that this technique is now called the Tibet Technique, named after Prof. Erdogru. He was very pleased with the surgery, and said that he was able to completely decompress the nerve on both the right and left side. Now it is up to Shirlayne's body to heal. We asked a couple more questions, and he showed us different areas of the surgery. After about an hour of watching the video, he said he needed to go. Prof. Erdogru has been very anxious about Shirlayne's ability to sit without pain, as of last night everything in the pelvis is still very numb from surgery, Shirlayne says it feels similar to after receiving a nerve block. Prof. Erdogru says that for some patients it is not always immediate, and can take one, two, four, or even up to six months for improvement. Her nerve was very aggravated during the surgery, and for this reason we now will have to wait. We know Prof. Erdogru did all that he could on his end, and is very satisfied with the outcome. We now pray, that over time Shirlayne's nerve will heal and she will become pain free.
Every Friday Prof. Erdogru flies down to Antalya in southern Turkey, where his first practice was. He returns to check on his former patients there and also sees new ones. So he said that he will not see us tomorrow but will see us on Saturday before we leave.
That night we went for several walks around the 8th floor of the hospital (very romantic). Shirlayne is walking a little faster now, and able to pick her knee up higher. She can walk without the support of me and no longer feels lightheaded on her walks. She still needs the support of the boot to walk very far. She can get out of bed and make the short walk to the bathroom without her boot, she kinda drags her foot along the floor to get there. I am hoping that before we go home, she won't need it anymore. I guess we will see.
After that it was another night of staying up late talking to the kids, grandmas, and our friends and neighbors who are helping us with our kids. (Thanks everyone!!) We finally decided it was time to go to sleep at about 4:00 am.
Thursday, October 11, 2012
Tonight, the Food was Great
Well tonight I broke down. I wanted something besides hospital food. With Shirlayne's permission, I ran (literally) to an upscale mall called the Palladium (about 0.6 miles away). Google said 13 mins, I think I beat that. Once there, I went through the metal detectors, yes metal detectors to get into the mall. I know, what do they think this is, a Jazz game. Anyway, I was going to snap a picture tp prove it, but the security guard did not think that was a good idea. I moved on (quickly). Once inside, I could then choose from any of my favorite fast food restaurants (except Panda Express, bummer). Interestingly though, as you walk by each of these places the employees call out to you, trying to get you to come to their place. A little like those really annoying guys at carnival games or Lagoon, who you try not to make eye-contact with. It was pretty easy for me to ignore them, I had no idea what they were saying. Although a did hear the sound "burger" mixed in with a whole bunch of other words, once in a while. I decided on Burger King, because I wanted it "my way", and ordered a Whopper combo, large size (no they don't have super), with ice. I know your not supposed to drink the water (Shirlayne says that means ice as well), but I was living on the edge tonight. Lucky for me, the kid I talked to knew his numbers in English, or me holding up four fingers, not sure which. Also, a big shout-out to whoever it was that came up with the idea to number each of the combo meals.That helped immensely Well, I paid for it, hoped the kid was honest with my change, and waited until it arrived. It tasted great, although I quickly found out my stomach is no longer as big, now, as when I left. I couldn't even finish it. Oh well, probably, for the best. Shirlayne put in a request in for a chicken sandwich before I left, so after I finished eating, I grabbed her a grilled chicken sandwich, and jogged back to the hospital. Shirlayne enjoyed her sandwich even though I "forgot" to ask for reduced sauce. How would I ask anyway? How many fingers do you hold up for that? I don't really know how much money that just cost, but whatever it was, it was worth it.
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| My #4 combo - large size (with ice) |
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| I can't read the menu but I luckily I didn't need to. |
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| It would probably be really silly to call it Turkey Fried Chicken. |
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| We don't have these in Utah but, had them before and it is good. |
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| If you look close you got an Arby's. A Beef and Cheddar also looked good. |
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| And of course the Colonel is there still smiling. |
Post Op Update #3
Shirlayne is continuing to take short walks around the hospital floor each time she gets up. Her boot helps to give her foot and ankle additional stability for balance. When she walks it does stretch the muscle in her calf which causes some pain. But, we think that it is "good" pain and that using and stretching this muscle will help it and the nerve controlling it back to normal. Shirlayne has had her catheter and drain line removed, and has had all the IV's removed. She is now using only oral medications to control the pain.
Prog. Erdogru explained that Shirlayne's surgery was more difficult because of the thickness of her abdominal wall. In fact, during the surgery, Prof. Erdogru had the nurses call around to other hospitals in the area to locate longer instruments. They made those calls and he received those instruments while still in surgery, which helped him finish the surgery. Because of this issue Shirlayne has one additional incision that needed to be made in order to complete the surgery. Prof. Erdogru is still very concerned and sincerely apologetic over what happened to Shirlayne's leg and is already taking measures to change the way the patients leg will be supported in future surgeries. He hopes to avoid this same issue happening to someone else. He has already ordered some new equipment for the hospital which supports the patient differently, and hopefully will avoid someone else having the same issue. Prof. Erdogru is going to review the surgery video with us and show us the nerve and the decompression. We are looking forward to that.
Shirlayne's pelvic area is still very numb.There has been some occasional pain in her left side, but that could be from many different things and does not necessary indicate whether the surgery was successful or not. She is still very swollen inside, and it will likely be a few more days before she can distinguish various types of pain
One last thing, Shirlayne is requesting a nice big bowl of chicken noodle soup, if any of you know how we can get that here in Turkey. If not, I have a feeling it will be on the first to eat list when we return. For me, I have seen Coke and Pepsi, in many different places, but I have yet to find a can of Mountain Dew.
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| Shirlayne's boot with wings. |
Prog. Erdogru explained that Shirlayne's surgery was more difficult because of the thickness of her abdominal wall. In fact, during the surgery, Prof. Erdogru had the nurses call around to other hospitals in the area to locate longer instruments. They made those calls and he received those instruments while still in surgery, which helped him finish the surgery. Because of this issue Shirlayne has one additional incision that needed to be made in order to complete the surgery. Prof. Erdogru is still very concerned and sincerely apologetic over what happened to Shirlayne's leg and is already taking measures to change the way the patients leg will be supported in future surgeries. He hopes to avoid this same issue happening to someone else. He has already ordered some new equipment for the hospital which supports the patient differently, and hopefully will avoid someone else having the same issue. Prof. Erdogru is going to review the surgery video with us and show us the nerve and the decompression. We are looking forward to that.
One last thing, Shirlayne is requesting a nice big bowl of chicken noodle soup, if any of you know how we can get that here in Turkey. If not, I have a feeling it will be on the first to eat list when we return. For me, I have seen Coke and Pepsi, in many different places, but I have yet to find a can of Mountain Dew.
Wednesday, October 10, 2012
Post Op Update #2
This morning an Orthopedic Specialist visited Shirlayne and checked out her right leg. He spoke good English and was able to communicate well. He said that he thought Shirlayne's issue was due to her leg being in an awkward position during her long surgery. He thought that the numbness and pain would dissipate in the next 3-4 days. He suggested that the next step was to have a Physical Therapist evaluate her leg.
Not long after another doctor came to visit with Shirlayne. She was a doctor of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, and spoke great English. She was able to explain to us what she thinks the problem is. She explained that she also believed the reason for the numbness and pain was due to the sciatic nerve which splits below the knee. It seems that one of these branches which runs along the calf was irritated during the surgery. She also believes that this will come back over time, although she was not 100% sure.
Soon, another assistant came in to perform electro shock therapy on Shirlayne's leg. It was just a large "tens" unit for those of you who know what that is. She also taught us a couple of exercises that we can do ourselves to help stimulate the nerve. She will come back tomorrow for another treatment. Pervin called to let us know that these extra doctors and treatments are going to cost an additional 900₤ (around $500), but it is all we can do at this point.
Prof. Erdogru also stopped by before going home. He had reviewed the video of Shirlayne's surgery and didn't see anything that he did internally that would have caused this issue. He is concerned but also encouraged, because it seems to be only affecting a specific portion of her leg, which likely means that there is no damage higher up in her pelvis where he was working. He asked Shirlayne if she had "puffed", we chuckled and said yes, and he gave her the ok to start eating. With all of this we are now scheduled to stay in the hospital through Saturday, rather then go to the hotel tomorrow.
They fitted Shirlayne for a walking boot with wings to help stabilize her when she is on her feet. With that, Shirlayne and I took a short walk tonight... very slowly. She has started to regain a little movement in her arms and legs. Her abdomen where the 6 incisions were made and the instruments inserted for surgery, are still hurting her the most.
We will continue to work and pray for the best.
... more to come
Not long after another doctor came to visit with Shirlayne. She was a doctor of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, and spoke great English. She was able to explain to us what she thinks the problem is. She explained that she also believed the reason for the numbness and pain was due to the sciatic nerve which splits below the knee. It seems that one of these branches which runs along the calf was irritated during the surgery. She also believes that this will come back over time, although she was not 100% sure.
Soon, another assistant came in to perform electro shock therapy on Shirlayne's leg. It was just a large "tens" unit for those of you who know what that is. She also taught us a couple of exercises that we can do ourselves to help stimulate the nerve. She will come back tomorrow for another treatment. Pervin called to let us know that these extra doctors and treatments are going to cost an additional 900₤ (around $500), but it is all we can do at this point.
Prof. Erdogru also stopped by before going home. He had reviewed the video of Shirlayne's surgery and didn't see anything that he did internally that would have caused this issue. He is concerned but also encouraged, because it seems to be only affecting a specific portion of her leg, which likely means that there is no damage higher up in her pelvis where he was working. He asked Shirlayne if she had "puffed", we chuckled and said yes, and he gave her the ok to start eating. With all of this we are now scheduled to stay in the hospital through Saturday, rather then go to the hotel tomorrow.
They fitted Shirlayne for a walking boot with wings to help stabilize her when she is on her feet. With that, Shirlayne and I took a short walk tonight... very slowly. She has started to regain a little movement in her arms and legs. Her abdomen where the 6 incisions were made and the instruments inserted for surgery, are still hurting her the most.
We will continue to work and pray for the best.
Here is a picture of dinner tonight. I got the carrots and dessert sticks, and Shirlayne got the soups.
She actually ate some of the red soup. Nothing else got touched.
She actually ate some of the red soup. Nothing else got touched.
... more to come
Post Op Update #1
It has been just over 24 hours since Shirlayne went in for surgery. She is in good spirits, she has bouts of nausea once in a while, but her biggest problem is with her right leg. She is numb from her hip down to her feet, almost like her leg is asleep. This numbness makes it difficult for her to move her leg and impossible to walk. Shirlayne mentioned it to Prof. Erdogru last night before he left, and he had a radiologist perform an ultrasound on her leg to rule out Thrombosis. Luckily, the radiologist found no sign of a blood clot.
Prof. Erdogru returned this morning hoping to find the problem was better, but when it wasn't, he requested help from an Orthopedic Specialist and a Psychical Therapist. Right now, their collective feeling is that the numbness is a result of the way she was positioned during surgery, or from inflammation due to the surgery itself, and that it will go away on its own. Unfortunately, walking is one of the major steps to get the tubes, and IV removed, as well as, be released from the hospital. We are hoping that soon, she will regain feeling and control over her leg, and be able to attempt to walk and get around.
As for the PNE pain, it is still undetermined. She is still on pain medication, and won't know the results until she is able to get up and move around.
...more to come
Prof. Erdogru returned this morning hoping to find the problem was better, but when it wasn't, he requested help from an Orthopedic Specialist and a Psychical Therapist. Right now, their collective feeling is that the numbness is a result of the way she was positioned during surgery, or from inflammation due to the surgery itself, and that it will go away on its own. Unfortunately, walking is one of the major steps to get the tubes, and IV removed, as well as, be released from the hospital. We are hoping that soon, she will regain feeling and control over her leg, and be able to attempt to walk and get around.
As for the PNE pain, it is still undetermined. She is still on pain medication, and won't know the results until she is able to get up and move around.
...more to come
Tuesday, October 9, 2012
Surgery is Complete
About 8:45 am (Turkey time) Prof. Erdogru stopped by and said hello. He asked if Shirlayne was ready and she said that she was. At that point, they gave her some oral medicine to make her sleepy. Shirlayne complained about the taste for a few minutes and then she rolled over and fell asleep.
At 9:09 am they brought in a gurney and moved Shirlayne from her bed to the gurney. I told her I will see you soon, but she didn't hear me, and they wheeled her down the hall towards the operating room. About two minutes later they came in to get her contact lens case, Shirlayne had forgotten to pull them out.
At 10:25 am, I received a phone call from Pervin explaining that Dr. Erdogru has begun the surgery and was beginning to perform the decompression. At this point, everything is going well.
At 11:51 am, I received another phone call from Pervin explaining that Prof. Erdogru was now at the nerve and working on her left side and that things are going a little slower than he thought they would, but everything was still going well.
At 12:12 pm, they brought a hospital lunch in to me. I realize now that we are going to have a serious problem when she returns. There is simply no way Shirlayne is going to be able to eat this hospital food for two days. I will have to find a way to go out and get her something else. Let me tell you about lunch. I opened and tasted everything they brought. A funny stew that had tons of cooked soggy zucchini, a light red soup that I hoped tasted like tomato, but didn't, a salad comprised of only shaved carrots and lemon juice ( I did eat a bite of that). So I did the same thing for lunch that I did for breakfast that morning, grabbed the roll and ate that. I told Shirlayne before we left that I expected to lose weight on this trip, and at this point I am sure of it.
At 1:54 pm, I received a phone call from Pervin that Prof. Erdogru had completed the left side and was now working on the right side. The surgery was still going well.
At 4:02 pm, I received a phone call from Pervin that the surgery was complete and Shirlayne was in the post-operative area, and when she wakes up and stabilizes, she will be brought back to our room. I can't wait to see her.
At 5:12 pm, they opened the door and wheeled Shirlayne back into the room. She looked good for having been under anesthesia for about 7 hours. She was able to talk and communicate with me, although she is very tired.
At 5:23 pm Prof. Erdogru also came into the room. He said that the surgery went well, and that he was able to see and reach everything he was supposed to. He was pleased with how the surgery went. He said that he would stop by tomorrow morning. We said "Thank you for everything." and he left.
At this point, it is too early to tell if it worked. Shirlayne has a pain pump which she controls and because of that she isn't going to feel much pain right now anyway. Her biggest complaint is from the compression socks that they use to limit blood clotting in her legs during surgery. Before long she is back to sleep.
... more to come
At 9:09 am they brought in a gurney and moved Shirlayne from her bed to the gurney. I told her I will see you soon, but she didn't hear me, and they wheeled her down the hall towards the operating room. About two minutes later they came in to get her contact lens case, Shirlayne had forgotten to pull them out.
At 10:25 am, I received a phone call from Pervin explaining that Dr. Erdogru has begun the surgery and was beginning to perform the decompression. At this point, everything is going well.
At 11:51 am, I received another phone call from Pervin explaining that Prof. Erdogru was now at the nerve and working on her left side and that things are going a little slower than he thought they would, but everything was still going well.
At 12:12 pm, they brought a hospital lunch in to me. I realize now that we are going to have a serious problem when she returns. There is simply no way Shirlayne is going to be able to eat this hospital food for two days. I will have to find a way to go out and get her something else. Let me tell you about lunch. I opened and tasted everything they brought. A funny stew that had tons of cooked soggy zucchini, a light red soup that I hoped tasted like tomato, but didn't, a salad comprised of only shaved carrots and lemon juice ( I did eat a bite of that). So I did the same thing for lunch that I did for breakfast that morning, grabbed the roll and ate that. I told Shirlayne before we left that I expected to lose weight on this trip, and at this point I am sure of it.
At 1:54 pm, I received a phone call from Pervin that Prof. Erdogru had completed the left side and was now working on the right side. The surgery was still going well.
At 4:02 pm, I received a phone call from Pervin that the surgery was complete and Shirlayne was in the post-operative area, and when she wakes up and stabilizes, she will be brought back to our room. I can't wait to see her.
At 5:12 pm, they opened the door and wheeled Shirlayne back into the room. She looked good for having been under anesthesia for about 7 hours. She was able to talk and communicate with me, although she is very tired.
At 5:23 pm Prof. Erdogru also came into the room. He said that the surgery went well, and that he was able to see and reach everything he was supposed to. He was pleased with how the surgery went. He said that he would stop by tomorrow morning. We said "Thank you for everything." and he left.
At this point, it is too early to tell if it worked. Shirlayne has a pain pump which she controls and because of that she isn't going to feel much pain right now anyway. Her biggest complaint is from the compression socks that they use to limit blood clotting in her legs during surgery. Before long she is back to sleep.
... more to come
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