Well, I just finished two full days at the office. That hasn’t happened in a while. My back is feeling a ton better and I’m almost totally pain free!!! I still have a little pain down my leg, but it is relatively minor. As I look back on when I’ve had back problems in the past, this is the pattern. I’m totally out of comission for 2-3 weeks and then I’m back to normal just like nothing happened. I’m hoping not to repeat the pattern. I go back to the doctor next week and I want to understand why this went away and what will make it come back. At times, I feel like avoiding surgery now is just postponing the inevitible.

Anyway, it is good to be back in the routine. I’m lacking a little stamina, but at least I’m back in the game. I have all day meetings the next 3 days so I guess I’ll have to keep it up.

Thanks for all your prayers. I need them!!

Amazingly, Valerie’s parents got NO RAIN at all in Eagle Lake. After being right in the bullseye of the storm before it turned, they went to missing it alltogether. I don’t think anyone would have predicted that a few days ago. I think that they at least expected to get some of the strong feeder bands.

They spent yesterday watering the lawn while they took down the boards on the windows.

Now, hopefully the citizens of the Houston area will realize that they can’t all return at the same time or there will be similar gridlock and gas shortages. For some reason Americans always think that orders are for someone else. When the governor, the mayor and everyone else say, “Don’t come home,” people think, “Surely they don’t mean ME.”; “If he understood MY situation, he would let ME come home!”; “I have to go to work”, etc . .

My prediction is gridlock and gas shortages.

Hurricane Rita
Originally uploaded by Budapest Tom.

As I watch Hurricane Rita move towards the Texas coast, it hits much closer to home for me than Katrina did. Valerie grew up in Eagle Lake which is 60 miles west of Houston. I was born southeast of Houston in Texas City and lived in Clear Lake City until I was 8. Also, after we were married, we lived in Katy on the west side of Houston for 3 years. Therefore, we know many people that are going to be impacted by Rita. Many of them are probably stuck in traffic as I type this.

I’ve been watching Houston news streaming on the Internet and the challenges of evacuating one million people are overwhelming. I know people are tired and stressed, but I’m tired of everyone complaining about the government’s “slow” response. What should a “normal” response time be for this type of disaster. Who knows? Every incident is different and brings challenges. Everyone thinks that they should be totally comfortable and that all their needs should be met immediately. That is just not possible. As someone that plans small events and conferences, I cannot fathom what government officials must go through to mobilize food, water, and shelter for so many people. There just aren’t enough hours in the day.

My prayers are with the people of Houston. I pray that the Lord would protect them, but mostly that they would see their need for a Savior. I pray that they would see that this life is unpredictable and that nothing is for sure. He is “for sure” and He is never late in responding to crisis. He is the only hope for Houston.

Pray for Valerie’s parents, her sister Bonnie and husband Ted, and their two kids, Judson and one week old Carson as they ride out the storm in Eagle Lake.

I stayed up until 1am watching the Cowboys lose to the Redskins. They show the Monday night games here on Tuesday night. Usually, it is shown at 8:30 or 8:45, but last night it didn’t start until 10:30. For some reason, they thought Serbia vs. France in the European Basketball Championship was more important.

I was having trouble staying awake at 12:30am when the Cowboys were up 13-0 with 6 minutes to go. The Redskins weren’t doing anything and it looked like it was over. Before I knew it, it was 14-13 and the game was over. Bummer! It was then that I wished I hadn’t stayed up. Too late.

The upside is that my dad was the winning coach! As you can see, my dad looks a whole lot like Joe Gibbs (the Redskin’s coach). We lived outside of Washington, D.C. back when he coached the Redskins for the 1st time and my dad has been stopped in the airport for autographs. Nice to have a celebrity in the family.

Last night, Valerie and I were talking and she had a realization that shocked us. During this whole back pain/surgery saga, never once has either of us thought or said, “We wish we lived in the US.” or “This would be easier if we lived in the US.” It hasn’t even crossed our minds.

That is totally weird because we have thought and said that regularly over the past two years. Our first year, hardly a week went by that one of us wasn’t ready to call the travel agent and get on the next flight.

I guess this is becoming “home.” (NOTE: for friends and family, this does not mean we are staying here forever. That’s up to God. We would move back to the US tomorrow if God told us to. I’m always listening for Him to tell me that it is time to go back). It is good that we feel comfortable here and that we aren’t ready to jump ship at any signs of trouble.

We just got home from the hospital and our meeting with the doctor. Surprisingly, he recommended that we wait two more weeks and see how my back does. I think he was surprised that I was feeling better and he said that all of the I/V drugs that I’ve gotten over the past few days should work for 2-3 weeks. He said that the disk could shrink in size and stop being such a big problem. On the other hand, he said that if it starts getting worse at all, call him and we would move towards surgery.

We asked about the surgery and he did a lot to calm our fears. First, he said that it would be only 1 night in the hospital. He also told us that the hospital could do several things that would make us feel more at ease (like a private room, etc . . .). He was very kind and understood our concerns.

I’m not sure how excited we are about all this, though. Two more weeks is a long time. And then if I still have surgery, this is going to be a long road. It does give us time to think, though.

Continue to pray that we will have wisdom as we look at options and discern where the Lord is leading us.

After everyone at the hospital yesterday told me over and over that the doctor would meet me at 9am this morning to discuss the surgery, he never showed. We waited until 9:40 and then one of the junior doctors said that he didn’t know where he was and that I should meet him at 1:00pm on Monday.

So, I went ahead and took my daily IV treatment. Valerie was with me and she took some pictures of me in the room. As you can see, there were 4 of us in one room and there was hardly any room to walk between the beds. I think the exercise helped Valerie understand my apprehensions to having the surgery here.

I guess the decision gets posponed until Monday. I’ll let you know.

It has been a busy couple of days. I went to see Dr. Peter Paul Varga, the Hungarian back specialist, yesterday. Jerry took me and blogged about our experience. Rather than tell you again, just click here.

Today, my friend Steve took me back to the hospital to get another I/V drug dose. When we walked in the doctor’s office at the hospital, there was 2 ladies and 2 men in the room. They were speaking Hungarian, of course, but after a few minutes we realized that they were talking about me and my case (I’m not sure whether they changed when I walked in, or they were already talking about it). Before I knew it, I was on the phone with Dr. Varga. I realized that I was getting a little specialized treatment because I’m American and a paying customer.

The news from Dr. Varga wasn’t good. I have a severely Herniated Disk between L5 & S1 (if that means anything to you). He said that it can’t be helped by therapy and that we should move quickly towards surgery. Valerie & I will go tomorrow morning to meet with him and discuss the situation.

Now the big decision. I never imagined myself having surgery in Hungary. If I did, I wanted to do it at the Private Hospital in the country that caters to Westerners like me. It appears that if I have this surgery done here, it will be in a city hospital that looks like something from 50 years ago. I have total confidence in the doctor because he is a leading expert in the field and does these surgeries all the time. I don’t have confidence in the hospital where I’ll have to spend 3 or so days recovering. Having surgery and being in the hospital is stressful in the US and it seems like adding language barriers, cultural differences, etc .. . will increase that level significantly.

On the other hand, should I return to the US to do the surgery? That means a long plane flight (this whole thing got really bad on the last plane flight I took), and probably a long stay in the US in order to recover. It would be difficult to be away from my family that long.

I also have some Insurance that would pay for me to go to another European country that has better quality of medical care, although I probably can’t find a better doctor than the one here in Budapest.

Please pray that we will have wisdom. At this point, I don’t have a clue what to do. It seems like things are leaning towards doing it here, but I really, really don’t want to. Lord, HELP!!!!

A little side note: I asked the doctor for a print-out of my MRI results and he gave me a whole CD. I posted a few of the pictures on the web. It probably won’t mean anything to you, but I was amazed that they were so easy to get. Check them out here if you dare.

How well do you know what the ceilings of your house look like? I’ve been memorizing mine over the past 6 days. That is because on the return flight from Kiev my minor back problems turned into major ones and I’ve been flat on my back ever since. Total drag.

On Friday, I went to the doctor and he gave me a shot. The shot wasn’t bad. It was the 1 hour in the van to and from the office on incredibly bumpy European streets that really hurt. The shot seemed to help give me some relief over the weekend.

Then, this morning, while making coffee, I coughed. Just a small cough, but it was enough to make the knives return to my back. I tried to join Valerie in our language lesson from the couch, but I couldn’t concentrate. Valerie decided that I needed to see a doctor soon so she stopped lessons and started making some calls. I’m not sure how it happened, but within 15 minutes, there was a Hungarian Anesthesiologist in my bedroom giving me a big ‘ol shot. She made a call to the school nurse’s office and they knew this guy and gave him a call on his mobile phone. He happened to be at a gas station near my house so he said that he would stop by. WOW!!!

He came in with his nurse, medicine, and everything. God even provided in that our language teacher was still here to translate for us. I wasn’t very excited about the chance to go to the doctor because I didn’t think I could make it and God came through incredibly. I’m not sure this doctor really exists. God just sent him from heaven. I think if I tried to find him again, I’m not sure I could

That’s one plus for Hungarian Health care – they still make House Calls. The price was right too at $50.

Tomorrow, I’m going to see a World-Renowned Hungarian back specialist that has pioneered a back surgery method that is now used in the US. In fact, Americans have come here to have surgery. That is unheard of. I pray that I’ll be able to get there and that we can get to the bottom of the problem. I’ve had back problems off and on for 13 years and it is time to figure this thing out.

I’m so proud of Valerie. Last night she ran in her first race after training all summer. It was a 6.5K (4.1 miles) in downtown Budapest at night. We were supposed to run it together, but my back went from bad to worse on Thursday’s return flight from Kiev. Therefore, the hardest part for Valerie was driving downtown by herself at night, finding a parking place, and figuring out how to register for the race (totally in Hungarian). After she got all of that done, the race was a piece of cake.

She’s already making plans to run another one in a month or so. Hopefully, I can run with her this time.

Leave her a comment and tell her how awesome she is!!! Way to go Sweetheart!!