Update, three days out.
The people who know me well know that when I'm not posting it's because I'm struggling with the pain. I'm happy to report that for the past few days, it's because the limited capacity I have has been spent on enjoying traveling and sightseeing with my youngest, Lauren.
Here is my catching up on the post-ablation reporting:
Tuesday, late morning spent on diagnostic injections. I had the ablations in the early afternoon (2:30).
I felt much better for the rest of the day. I'm surprised that I stayed down for the evening... almost decided to go see Cologne or Bonn, but thought better of it. I must be getting old (or smarter.) About 10pm, the local wore off and, as Dr. Reul suggested may be a possibility. I felt like I’d been kicked by a horse at the injection/ablation site.
Wednesday and Thursday morning were like every other morning on this trip (but just a bit worse.) I woke up with a pain level > 7 looking for my meds. On Wednesday, I decided to lay low again and just went for a brief meeting with Dr. Reul and a PT session with the AMAZING Gabriella. (I’ll write about her in a separate post.)
We had planned to take the train from Bonn to Maastricth to spend some time with Dr. Zeegers on Wednesday afternoon. On my December trip, the injections were very, very successful, but all the travel and wrestling the bags on and off the trains and through the airports really set me back. I didn’t want to make the same mistake, so I rented a car for 1 day. We’d spend Wednesday night in Maastricht and drive to Amsterdam Thursday morning. The international drop-off for the car was expensive, but the ease of travel in the car instead of on the trains made it well worth it.
I was still on the scarf hunt for Zoey. I had bought her a pink fleece scarf with a stuffed giraffe at the Christmas market in Aachen (on the way to Maastricht) during my December trip. When I told Zoey I was returning to Germany, she asked if I could get her a blue scarf with a Zebra. (Believe it or not, I’ve probably stopped in dozens of shops and stands, playing charades with the shopkeepers, but I think we’ll be disappointing her.) Lauren and I stopped there and walked many miles in Aachen. We got lost and accidentally went back to the same place 4 times… uphill both ways!
We had a wonderful evening and morning with Dr. Zeegers and drove to Amsterdam yesterday morning (Thursday). Our B&B here is great. We were greeted with a “welcome to Amsterdam” drink and a long discussion of all the sights and best places to go. They had prepared maps with highlights, circles and arrows (and a paragraph on the back of each picture, for those of you who remember Alice’s Restaurant.) It’s kind of like Berkeley or Height Ashbury here. It seems like a hippie community, but the canals and beautiful old buildings are wonderful to see. I had to “med up” for the sightseeing here, but we went out and saw the Anne Frank house yesterday, then walked for miles and miles again. The presentation at the Anne Frank house is very moving and well done.
After the work I had to do, I could no longer type at all and had to turn off and stash the computer before I could post an update. However, this morning was so much better than all the others on this trip. (now 2 weeks old) I woke up wondering where the pain was. I did not reach for my meds until I’d been up a while. The breakfast here is very pleasant and we are about to go out for the day. There is so much to see here in Amsterdam, we are very excited about having 2 full days here.
I don’t want anyone to think I’ve found the miracle cure here. After being up a while and typing on my computer, the pain is coming back… just at lower levels. I do expect to have a very active day today. I believe that I’ll be able to do it with less meds than yesterday. I’ll try to keep the updates coming as long as the situation is unfolding.
Take care… all the best,
Mark
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