The Final . . . Spinal

Well, here we are not at the end of the journey, but the end of the treatment.
Not the beginning of the end but the end of the beginning.
We started the day rather uncharacteristically, with me getting up to have my coffee with my fellow ICM patients, only to discover La - AWAKE! and already up, showered, out and conversing with my compatriots.

The schedule was to start off with physical therapy at 1pm and then meander across the CIMA grounds to the "Cirugia Endoscopia" to get my injections. No, you read that right; yesterday did not qualify as the ultimate therapy session, today was more of a debriefing and physical testing session. I did well, by the way :) My therapist said I showed a marked improvement.

To further our good spirits, we got to the waiting room and were amongst the first let in - as opposed to the last, as our previous experience had been. Yeah, I know, we had oh, so many other places to be. As usual, the doctor started off with a shot of pain-killer which, contrary to his warning, was NOT a little prick. The spinal injection was less objectionable; in fact, as I braced myself for what I was sure was to be the impending 'jab' of the needle,the doctor said, "Okay, all done!" As had become the usual practice he showed me the syringe with my name printed on the label to reassure me that I had indeed gotten the correct shot. It reminded me of nothing less than the presentation of the wine cork by a sommalier. After that and the injection of my fat cells into my elbow IV, it was just a matter of lying on my back and doing nothing again.

After hearing that we would be in-country until the end of the month (a 'just-in-case' sort of thing) one of the doctors very graciously invited us to Thanksgiving dinner at at ICM.

This concludes the medical treatment portion of our programming..stay tuned for "Fear and Loafing in Costa Rica"........