Here’s a little timeline of our day today so far:

7:00am - Wake up, Get Dressed
8:00am – Breakfast at the hotel – very european (bread, coldcuts, cheese, yogurt) –
8:30am - Waiting for time to leave – Valerie reads, I have some time with the Lord to prepare my heart
9:30am - Drive the 1/2 mile to the hospital (my last time to carry suitcases for a while and probably last time to drive the car as well)
10:00am - Admissions Desk – Take a number and wait
10:15am – Another American Couple walks up and we help them find a number. We later found out they were from Oregon and he is having the same surgery.
10:45am - They call our number. The lady doesn’t see our name on the list so she calls someone and tells us to go up to the Nurse’s station (everyone else had spent 10-15 minutes with her so we begin to figure something is wrong)
11:00am – Nurse’s station – We tell them we are there and they look concerned and tell us to wait
11:15am – The nurse tells us that my surgery is scheduled for TUESDAY and that we aren’t supposed to check in until tomorrow. WHAT!!!@#$$^!@#$
11:20am – I call Anita, the Internation Patient Coordinator for the doctor, and she is as surprised as me. She finds out that they changed the date and failed to tell her or me. What’s up with that?!@#$^ She says that we are probably better off just going back to the hotel and waiting until tomorrow. There are already a full load of surgeries tomorrow and we probably can’t be fit in.
11:30am – One of the doctor’s shows up and tell us the same thing. They messed up, but there really isn’t anything they can do.
11:45am – We head back here and I start typing this blog.

Our emotions are doing pretty well considering the circumstances. I had been gearing myself up for everything so it is a little bit of a relief. Call me a nut, but would you rather have an enema and a bunch of blood tests or spend another night in the hotel? I know that people are praying so I’m sure the Lord is sustaining us.

I think we will head into Munich today. We wanted to go to Wal-Mart, but Valerie just found out that it is closed on Sunday We might go anyway just to see what we can find.

Just back your prayers up by a day and keep praying.

MamawBdayjpg

Originally uploaded by Budapest Tom.

Yesterday, I attended Valerie’s grandmother’s 100th Birthday. It is the second time that I’ve attended such an event without Valerie. I went to the 95th birthday as well when I just happened to be in Texas. Valerie is totally bummed out that she couldn’t make it.

We had a great time celebrating! The country cooking was wonderful as well. It was fun to see Valerie’s family and celebrate MamMaw’s 100th year. I’m already making plans to leave Valerie at home so I can go to the 105th.

Click on the image to see more pictures!!

Stars Sighting

Originally uploaded by Budapest Tom.

Today we went to the Dr. Pepper Stars Center in Frisco (north of Dallas). In the paper this morning we saw that the Southwest Regional Figure Skating Championships were going to be there and we thought it would be a fun, free thing to do.

We enjoyed the figure skating and watched it for about an hour or so.

After the figure skating, we walked passed the 2nd rink and the Dallas Stars were practicing. WOW!! It was unbelievable to see the size and speed of major NHL hockey. We were able to stand right on the glass while they practiced. The picture is a shot of the Stars’ top player Mike Modano (in the middle standing upright.) He was a head taller than most of the team. We jumped out of our skin several times when shots missed and hit the glass right in front of us. My ears are still ringing.

We had a great time and the chance to see the Stars was unexpected and really cool. Grant, Cooper and I could have stood there all day.

I got an answer I didn’t expect. Dr. Gill was wonderful and I had a very pleasant visit with him. Here’s what he said.

First of all, he said that the surgery I need is a Disc Replacement. If I just have a disc removal, then I will still have pain. He showed me that artificial disc and it is a plastic material with two pieces of metal that connect to the vertebrae. It is inserted through a small incision in the stomach. People go back to work in only a week.

Secondly, he said that the best person in the world to do this surgery is an Austrian doctor that does surgery in Vienna. Dr. Gill said that he has done 100 of these surgeries while the Austrian doctor has done 1400. Also, only Version 1 of the artificial disc is available in the US, while in Europe Version 2 of the disc is available and that is what the doctor there uses. Also, Dr. Gill works and speaks with this doctor regularly. He is going to Vienna in January to do surgery with him. His practice is first class and the hospital conditions are very similar to the US.

I’m leaning towards taking this option. Who would of thought that the best place to get this done was only 150 miles from my home. I will contact the doctor tomorrow and see if everything will work. If so, then I’ll probably have the surgery there. If something doesn’t work out, then I might try to have it hear.

I’m so excited to have a definitive answer. Also, it is a surgery that should leave me with no pain and fully healed. That is awesome. Pray that I would have wisdom about whether to do it in Vienna or here.

Thanks for your prayers.

Not to be outdone by Jerry & Rob, I have upgraded my blog using WordPress.

I’m hoping to clean things up in coming weeks, but at least the big hurdle is cleared!

Let me know what you think and if you have suggestions for me!!!!

This morning I checked my webstats just out of curiosity and low and behold, I had 288 visits in one day. I’ve never had more than 100 so I knew something was up. When I looked at where people had come from, I saw that I was linked to from John Lopez who is a writer for the Houston Chronicle! He has a blog on the Chronicle’s website and he wrote about the Astros’ big win the other night. Somehow he found my blog entry about watching the game. Here’s a quote from his column.

Astros fans from all corners of the world checked in for this one. None regretted a moment of it.

The words “Astros fans” was a link to my blog. He has two other links in the sentence which are to a blog in Illinois & Washington DC. I’m not sure how Budapest, DC, & Illinois make up “all corners of the world,” but there it is.

It’s pretty cool to make the paper. I guess this is the online version of cutting the article out and putting it in my scrapbook.

Here’s a link to the article.

At 7pm last night, our whole family gathered in the living room to watch the Astros and the Braves play in the Division Series (around the computer, not the TV). Since Valerie grew up there, she is a huge fan, and I’m a pretty big fan since I was born there. Also, the kids were excited because we went to a game this summer while we were in Houston so the kids had been to the stadium.

It started out pretty bad. At 9pm when the kids went to bed, it was 6-1 Braves. It was pretty much over! I kept watching just in case. In the bottom of the 8th, at about 10pm, Lance Berkman hit an unbelievable GRAND SLAM (two Grand Slams in one game). Then, at about 10:20 or so, Ausmus hit a Home Run with two outs in the ninth to tie the game.

At this point, Valerie was back watching with me again. Then came the 10th – 18th innings with no runs scored. Valerie held on until about midnight in the 15th inning. Every inning, we would groan and moan that it has to get over soon. I stuck it out until 1am to see homer by Chris Burke to win it for the Astros!!! 6 hours later. WOW!!!

I’m regretting my decision to stay up a little this morning, but as soon as I get waked up, I’ll be glad!!!! What a game!! The longest playoff game in history.

I’m not sure the Astros will have anything left to play the Cardinals with, but they sure have a ton of momentum.

New Bread Knife
Originally uploaded by Budapest Tom.

Okay, not better than sliced bread, but just sliced bread.

Most of the bread in Budapest comes in large loafs like this one. Therefore, our days are filled with slicing bread. We have a huge Chicago Cutlery bread knife that we brought when we moved and yet we still have struggled for 2 years with slicing thin slices without tearing up the bread. We waste every other slice because the bread crumbles or it is too think to go in the toaster.

Yesterday, we had the novel thought that maybe we needed a new knife. Valerie bought one for $10 and it has changed our lives. Now slicing bread is super easy and we can get it thin. I think Valerie probably sliced 10-15 slices this morning that we didn’t even need because it was so easy.

We felt really stupid. How could we go for 2 years with inferior tools? Another chapter in life overseas. Another lesson learned.

October Sunday Lunch
Originally uploaded by Budapest Tom.

The weather here in Budapest has been unbelivable. It is October 9th and yet the temperature is still in the 70′s.

When we walked out of church yesterday, the city was calling our name. It was just too pretty to go home. We stopped by one of our favorite restaurants and all they had was inside seats and we couldn’t handle that on such a beautiful day.

So, we went home and had lunch on our porch. Valerie whipped up a feast of sandwiches, cheeses, pickles, and pasta salad. The weather was beautiful and the lunch was great!!!

It can’t last forever. I’m sure in a few weeks, the porch will be closed until April.