ABOUT: CHICAGO -AREA MEMBERS: S.O.S. from

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My very dear friend :

It has been quite a while since we last spoke. I don't know what happened, but since my mother's tragic death everything has been very hard for me.

Now today I read your post and I am amazed at what you are going to go through. As I understand, this procedure will help you ease the pain with this devise, but you will not be going through revision surgery. Is that it?

I will have you in my thoughts and prayers! You'll see that this will pass in no time. Is revision surgery considered in the future?

I have all the numbers that you have posted here and I will be in touch. Please take care my dear friend. Remember that our Lord and all his Angels will be with you through all this ordeal. Have a lot of faith.

May God Bless you always my dear friend ! Big Hug!

Yoly Perea

In a message dated 5/15/2005 12:08:15 PM Atlantic Standard Time, poetryperson@... writes:

I am so impressed with the Boston-area Feisty members and how they have worked it out to get together and meet, support each other in the hospital, etc. I understand that not all of us are up to that level of involvement with our fellow Feisties, and I certainly would never want to burden anyone unduly in this group. I know from hard personal experience (i.e., giving up my volunteer work last year after just five or six weeks) how difficult it can be to get out and help others when you face ongoing pain and disability.I also understand that specific members here in the Chicago area may have pressing commitments in other areas of their lives (work, family, etc.). That said, however: If anyone feels she might have the time or inclination to contact me or visit me while I am on complete bed rest at Northwestern next week, this would mean a great deal to me.I am going into the hospital tomorrow (Monday) morning. It turns out that I may not have quite the degree of outside support or presence this coming week that I might have expected or hoped for.I will mostly be in the Neuro Step Down Unit, which recently moved to 10 Southwest in the Feinberg Pavilion. This is sort of in between the ICU and general neurosurgery in terms of patient care; i.e., they wake you up every two hours at night and monitor you around the clock. (One nice rule-change this year, though: They do allow flowers in patient rooms now.) I frankly had some upsetting experiences in this unit last year, in part because I was emerging from a post-anesthetic delirium at the time. I have been working on visualization exercises and the like before "returning to the scene of the trauma" this year. I am also making sure to bring my mindfulness meditation tapes with me.I will first be going to Interventional Radiology in the morning, to get a lumbar drip under fluroscopic guidance. (As some of you know, I am a somewhat tricky case after two fusions and six revisions, with fusion to S-1 and all kinds of hardware). I will have this indwelling cebrospinal fluid catheter for much of the week and will be confined to complete bed rest. Dr. Rosenow, my neurosurgeon for this portion of my scoliotic odyssey, will be conducting a trial of intrathecal medication -- trying different doses, rates, etc. -- to test the viability of an intrathecal morphine protocol for treatment of my severe chronic pain. If the trial is successful, I will go the O.R. next Friday for implanation of a permanent Medtronic pump and internal catheter.The hospital website is www.nmh.org The hospital is in the large medical-academic complex located between North Michigan and Lakeshore Drive (not too far south of Water Tower Place). The Feinberg Pavilion, where I will be, is bounded by Superior on the north, Erie on the south, St. Clair to the west, and Fairbanks to the east. The parking garage for patients and visitors is at 222 East Huron, accessible from Huron or Superior Streets, with two walkways onto/into the Galter and Feinberg Pavilions. A receptionist can validate your parking ticket. The cost is $7.49 for seven hours or less. Visiting hours are 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. The Neuro Step-Down Unit (nursing station) phone number is 312-926-3095. The Department of Neurological Surgery office (neurosurgeon Rosenow and nurse-practitioner Laurel Hook)can be reached at 312-695-8143 (during business hours, 8-5, M-F). Email addresses: JRosenow@... and LHook@... My email address is poetryperson@... I hope to have access to the Internet from my room but will need to set up a phone connection for this. I do not have a hospital room number or phone number as yet.Best,