Day Zero ... The beginning of the beginning

So, here I am in a little place called Stenum, Germany, a small suburb of Bremen. I arrived after an 18 hour overnight flight. I was met at the airport by the cab they sent for us (my dad is with me for the first week or two). Next stop was a little hotel right next to the hospital. We went over to the hospital and took a tour guided by Melanie. We had a pretty good question and answer session which I let my dad lead, since most of it was a rehash for me. I felt a good bit more comfortable after that though. The most interesting thing so far was a visit I had with a couple of patients at the suggestion of Melanie. I entered the hospital room expecting to see two people who felt pretty dang bad. Wrong. I was shocked! They got out of bed and stood straight up. They didn't lean to one side. THEY HAD SURGERY A WEEK AGO. Now granted, their surgeries were not as significant as mine is to be. Each of them had two artificial discs implanted at L4-L5 and L5-S1. I will have a much more invasive operation to include refusion of T12-L2, and adding L3 to that, AND THEN installing three artificial discs at L3-L4, L4-L5, and L5-S1. Even still, I was impressed with the condition these guys were in a week after a fairly invasive procedure. I hope that I can reach that point after two weeks.

At that point they will ship me off to a special rehab center where I will recuperate for another two weeks. I'm hoping to make it home by April 30th, just in time for my son's birthday party. We'll see.

That's the update for tonight. I'll make my final decision sometime around noon Bremen time, after spending the morning with the doctors here. Right now, I'd say I'm about 95% sure I'm going to do it. We are six hours ahead of you here, so by the time you wake up in the morning, I should know what I'm going to do. I think I already know, but I also think it's important to go through the excercise of due diligence. Wish me luck and pray for me.

Night folks.