The view from Budapest

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]