It’s great to see that Tim’s surgery went well and I wish him all the best in his recovery.  Those photos are pretty cool!

I had an appointment with my GP today and had a good chat about my recovery and pursuing reimbursement from our provincial healthcare system.  He put me in touch with someone that had success in the fight previously and we’ll see where that takes me.  He ok’d the reqs for my xrays at 3 months, 6 months and 12 months as requested by Mr. Boeree, and a six weeker that I wanted for myself.

I’m also trying to sort out my expenses from my London work trip for the week pre-surgery.  Expense reports suck at the best of times, and are even more of a chore after spinal surgery!  So many little receipts, so limited my time in the sitting position!  Back to the real world, eh?

Netflix has been a god send.  It works on my macbook, iphone and tv.  No matter where I’m at, I can always watch a movie.  I’m also finally reading Shantaram – 900 pages should keep me wrapped up for a little while at least.

I’m going back into my physio on Monday and have been doing some of the very gentle core exercises as well as my walking.  I haven’t altered my speed or time on the walks yet and probably won’t until week 4 or 5.  My discomfort is getting  a little better each day and I’ve tried a couple little, gentle bends… NO PAIN LIKE BEFORE.  It is quite remarkable.  I still get the tightness and discomfort if I’ve been standing or sitting too long, but the sharp pains I’d get from a slight bend or getting up out of a chair are completely gone.  I will not try extension or twisting until well after 6 weeks.

I’d like to get back into my glucosamine/chondroitin supplementation, but I’m worried about the ginger and tumeric that is included in Animal Flex.  They are both natural anti inflammatories and are cox-2 inhibitors… just like NSAIDs.  I’m guessing they could serve as bone growth inhibitors.  I’ll post on ADRSupport to see what they say.  I really want the gluco/chond to help protect the rest of my cartilage and prevent any future surgies if possible!

I’ve officially worn out my first pair of Birkenstocks! I bought them to help my back last fall and have worn right through the cork with all of my pre-post surgery walking.

These flight socks are getting more annoying each day.  It’s almost like wearing a toque for too long.  Only 3 more weeks!

Lastly, I still feel weird about having a piece of metal and polymer in my back.  I don’t really know how to describe it, but I’ve had to augment myself because my own biology has failed me.  The M6-L is better than what I had, but will never be as good as the real thing.  I still have a number of reservations about how well this device will last and whether or not it will cause complications for me down the road.  Only time will tell.  From a more philosophic side of things, I watched a great documentary on Netflix called Transcendent Man.  It talks at great length about the pace of technology growth in our society and the idea of augmenting ourselves.  It’s worth a watch, especially for us cyborgs.

-Brett