Part 6: The Journey Home

This is me after 2 weeks in the hospital. I feel much better and according to some; look better too! (After what I had to go through, please allow me this little bit of self-appreciation). I lost 4.5 kg! I am now much more independent but still had to go around in crutches. According to my doctor it will take months before I could finally walk without them. Once the doctor said that, I figured; if I'm going to be around in crutches, I might as well do it in style - so I went to Amazon and ordered a pair with more stylish and quite a sporty look...

The only thing that bothering me was, almost like clockwork, for the last three days I would be woken up at around 5:00 am every morning and will be having a terrible radiating pain in my entire left leg. The problematic leg last time was the right one but for some reason now it's shifting to the left? I mentioned that to three different doctors and all said that, "You just had two major spinal surgeries within a span of 48 hours just less than a week ago. You should 'expect' to be in pain...!" I guess they're right... and furthermore it only came once a day in the early morning and normally would just go away with a dose of painkiller.

For the few days after that we were busy making all the arrangements to get home. Due to flight availability, we had to shift one day to Monday, 10 December 2012. Thanks to the efficient support system that I had, between the insurance company, my office and our HR department, all have been set for us to go on Monday evening. It will be wheelchair - ambulance - wheelchair - aeroplane - wheelchair - ambulance - home!

Oh, I forgot to mention earlier - my surgeon, Dr. Jan Bodnar happens to be a biker too! Everyday when he comes and visit me, we would talk about my recovery first and then quickly switch to bikes. He even brought me motorbike magazines for me to read. So, on behalf of those who said that I should not be riding my motorbikes again, I asked him, "Can I ride my motorbikes again?" "Of course...!" he said. "I'll fixed you and you'll be back on your motorbikes as soon as you get back!" And of course, for the record; I made him repeat that in front of Zarina again...

This was the picture I put on my Facebook the afternoon before we left London that evening and captioned it, "I'm going home today! Last pic with the man who saved my life - Dr. Jan Bodnar." For good effect, he actually threw my crutches aside and held me on my shoulder. If he had let me go that moment, I would have tumbled to the floor in seconds!

The day finally arrived. I had my last doner kebab for lunch and then we started getting ready for the journey home. I was so excited I didn't remember to take a single picture! As I was pushed on the wheelchair out of the ward I just realized that I have not left the ward for a whole 2 weeks. The ambulance driver let me sit in the front passenger seat next to her and for the first time I get to see road view after have been travelling lying down on a stretcher for the last two trips. I get to see the busy traffic in Hammersmith (we passed by my favourite kebab shop!) and then along A4 and M4. I felt alive again...!

The airport was busy but the lucky thing about being on a wheelchair is you get to cut all the queues. Funny how my secretary had offered to arrange for me a wheelchair every time I had to travel during any of my sciatica attack episodes but I just brushed her off again and again, and finally I had no choice but to go on one! I can almost picture her with her victorious smile... Anyway, it wasn't that bad being an OKU after all... Other than the security at the scanning machine, everyone else was super-nice to me...

In the flight, it so happened that the head steward for that flight is the same one from my incoming flight so all the crew members were well aware of my condition - which is, in a way good. Nevertheless, despite being able to lie flat this time, I still get some radiating pain in my left leg. I check the time and realize it was my '5:00 am pain' again. A few painkiller tablets help this time. I'm not sure whether to be worried or not but I was really hoping that this is just a case of decompression and compression and also the vibration on the aircraft and assured myself that I would be fine... I couldn't really enjoy the luxurious treatment due to the pain but I am glad enough that it was nowhere near as bad as on the way in. And besides, this time I'm heading home instead.

I wasn't expecting a grand welcome, in fact I wasn't expecting any kind of welcome but as it turned out there there was 4 of my colleagues, with teddy bear and stuffs and all waiting for me at the arrival hall! Such an icing on the cake for a sweet end to the ordeal. Just a short ambulance ride away then I had all my kids in my arms again...

I finally get to sleep in my own bed again that night... with my beloved wife next to me and all the three kids on a futon on our bedroom floor - upon their request. We were reunited again as a family... I dreamt a happy dream that I was walking again that night... only to be woken up at 5:00 am (somehow the pain knows how to change the time zone by itself!) and this time it was one of the worst! Iman, my daughter, was woken up by my muffled scream of pain and sat next to my bed until the pain went away after an hour... again with the help of my good friend, "Tramadol".

The rest of the next day was quickly back to normal. In fact, just like one of our normal day except I needed my crutches to go anywhere and would every now and then need to ask for help from my three kids. I'm so glad that they willingly and happily helped. In a way I felt closer to them.

When Zarina didn't notice, I would sneak out and have a look and even tinker a bit with my koi pond. She was still adamant that the koi pond was to be blamed for my back pain that leads to these. A pile of DIY stuffs were still lying around on my porch from the last 'pond improvement' project before I left for Milan. By the look of it; they're going to be there for a while...

That night I got clever. I set my alarm clock at 4:00 am, so that I could get up, take my painkiller pills and avoid my 5:00 am pain... and it worked!!! Well, at least it was not as painful as the few nights before. In any case, I have my follow-up appointment with my neurosurgeon in PCMC that day so I'm sure he'll be able to fix it somehow...