I've booked my surgery now, 21st of March 2013! now getting things in order, anyone else gonna be in thailand around the same time?  I'm gonna be there from the 18th of March till who knows when, I'm thinking at least the 29th of April for recovery.  Anyway, if anyone wants any details, information etc, I'd be happy to share

Also has anyone had their surgery with Suporn, and how long did it take you to resume your normal activity, I've had the conversations, but it would be great to hear from anyone with first hand experience, I'm pretty active and spend at least 2 hours per day in the gym, plus various classes etc, and don't want to lose my fitness again (had an old back injury) I know everyone is different but views would be great

I was back at work 30 days post-op. Actually I went straight to work from the airport but had to leave because of the 10 Tramadol I had eaten on the plane from Thailand (also I needed to dilate). It was certainly possible to go back to work right away, but it was tough and I remember wishing I could have taken more time off. Unfortunately I couldn't because of the huge responsibility I had in my job. I was totally miserable the first two months I was back. I was totally drugged up and completely forgot about the raise my employer gave me during a meeting a week or so after getting back.

Congratulation with your booking btw

Thanks for the response, hope I can get back to things pretty fast, I'm not working right now so I should have the time to recover fully, hoping my back issues aren't gonna come back or tie in (its chronic pain so I pretty much just live with it in the hope it will get better) but I manage pretty well and have a good tolerance for pain so hopefully I can stay of the pain meds as much as possible

I had the same experience.... I'm five weeks postop with Suporn (Aug 2).... I would say take 2 full months, because I'm laying on my back all day and it is still a chore! I couldn't imagine sitting upright for 8 hours the way I am.... I can walk (slowly, carefully), I can drive (with my cushion), but sleeping can be tough and not restful, the drugs can leave you loagy, dilation takes 2 hours a day with prep incl.... so if you can leave 2 months, you'll be very happy.

As for the whole suporn experience, WOW. You will be thrilled. The girls, Aey and Jhai especially, are such utter sweethearts, and Dr Suporn is great too... to call it full service is an understatement.

One thing, they'll give you tramadol pain pills (as above)... I called them my Thailand Taxi, cause they are the same green and yellow, and they do take you for a ride.... great for the plane for sure, but they are VERY addictive. After being on them for 3 weeks plus a hard 25 hours transit taking more than I should by a couple, I quit them getting home. The next three days, I was shaking, burning, freezing, sweating, achy... googling tramadol brought up a bunch of similar cases... great for post surgical pain, but be ready for a come-down. I advise weaning, not cold turkey....

If you have any specific questions about the suporn experience, pm me!
I'd wish you good luck, but you're in great hands.

The fact I find out about this here tells me a lot, sis..

Thanks for the feedback, I've experienced the wonders of tramadol, but thanks for the heads up.
@Kel, I told you weeks ago hun, for sure, when I sent the first email

Congratulations on booking your surgery.  Dr Suporn is a fine choice and I am sure you will do
well. 

For myself I took every day of 3 months off, and I needed all that time.   I worked a very physical
job as an aide in a long-term care facility.  Lots of lifting, kneeling, and pushing wheelchairs.  Standing
up from a kneeling position I made full use of the grab bars that are meant for the patient to prevent
falls.  I needed to use those bars for a good three months after returning.  Judging by your picture, I
am quite a bit older, most likely you will bounce back a bit quicker.

You mentioned that you have existing back problems.  I do as well, I told Dr Suporn about them prior
to booking and also at the hospital just prior to surgery.  There was an order for PT in the hospital,
they came everyday and provided treatment.  Hot packs and a session with electro-stim.  It helped
with pain and it was something to look forward to/fill the time in bed.

Any questions I will be glad to share my experiences.

Best Wishes,
Elaina

Thanks Elaina, the PT sounds like a really good idea, did you have to pay extra to arrange that? (I've got spending money, but by the looks and sounds of things, I'm not going to be going very far post op, if out at all!) Do you have any recommendations for the time spent in bed, I've been told by others that reading may pose a problem, depending on how well I can shut out the pain, at least initially, I was planning on taking my laptop with me and getting a few dvds from the hotel and maybe a few audiobooks before I leave AU.

Quote from: Sarah_aus on September 08, 2012, 08:52:34 PM
Thanks Elaina, the PT sounds like a really good idea, did you have to pay extra to arrange that? (I've got spending money, but by the looks and sounds of things, I'm not going to be going very far post op, if out at all!) Do you have any recommendations for the time spent in bed, I've been told by others that reading may pose a problem, depending on how well I can shut out the pain, at least initially, I was planning on taking my laptop with me and getting a few dvds from the hotel and maybe a few audiobooks before I leave AU.

Hi Sarah,

The Clinic took care of all the costs involved with the PT.  I had, and continue to have a lot of faith, in Dr Suporn.
When I was in Thailand one of the girls was bit by a stray dog.  She told me that the clinic took care of all the costs
for her -- she had rabies shots as a precaution.  Taking care of a dog bite was certainly outside of the reasonable
complications/after care of SRS. 

As a side note do be very cautious around dogs and cats while in Thailand.  I went to a Travel Clinic offered by my local
health department before my trip to Thailand.  Along with making sure I was up to date with recommended vaccines, they
did a lot of education regarding health risks.  Proper sanitation of food and water were the biggest.  Malaria precautions
were also covered.  But one thing that stood out from the classes, any animal bite or scratch that breaks the skin needs to be considered a medical emergency.  You will see lots of stray dogs!

As far as filling the time in the hospital.  I was very lucky that I had no pain at all from the surgery.  I was uncomfortable and
felt like I had some sort of saddle strapped to me.  But it wasn't pain.  I filled my time listening to my i-pod, reading on the
internet, Skyping with home and watching movies on the TV.  There are only a few English speaking TV stations available in
the hospital.  One of which was a movie station, I lucked out in that they just happened to playing movies that I was interested in watching.  I travelled to Chonburi alone.  The woman who had surgery the day after me travelled with her
partner.  The partner came and visited me frequently, and I had a visit from another patient at the clinic.

Between these distractions and the reqular hospital routine, 3 meals, a visit from Dr Suporn every morning, a bed bath each
morning, PT each day, and vital signs every 2 hours time just went by pretty much without noticing.  I am sure if I was one
of the patients who have significant/extreme pain, my perception would be totally different.

I would agree with your friends who said to not count on being able to read anything significant.  Even without being in any
pain to speak of my attention span was pretty short and I spent lots of time napping.

Best Wishes,
Elaina     

That's really cool Elaina, has given me lots to think about, hoping I will be just as lucky with the pain, but hey, only time will tell, thanks for the info hus

Congrats

Quote from: Sarah_aus on September 08, 2012, 08:52:34 PM
Do you have any recommendations for the time spent in bed, I've been told by others that reading may pose a problem, depending on how well I can shut out the pain, at least initially, I was planning on taking my laptop with me and getting a few dvds from the hotel and maybe a few audiobooks before I leave AU.

Reading or any other sort of entertainment was for totally out of the question while recovering in the hospital. Most others I've talked to seemed to do pretty well in the hospital but for me it was all one big blur of migraines and vomiting and the occasional sensation of having a red hot sword driven up you know where. I had some revisions done at the same time so my operation lasted over 10 hours. Maybe that had something to do with it. It was bad though, really really bad.

Back at the hotel again I was okay and spent most of my time reading books, surfing the internet, watching movies and TV-shows on my computer and otherwise fighting off the cabin fever. It is mind bottling to think I've spent a grand total of 8 weeks in that hotel. Bring lots of entertainment. When we went there for my BA this summer we even brought a 24" flat screen monitor in my suitcase.

Quote from: vivienne on September 10, 2012, 06:16:37 PM
Wow.. 8 weeks? Did you decide to stay longer when you were already there? I'm sort of worried about going home to soon so I talked to Sophie but she said that 30 days is enough. I'm still thinking about getting a visa though so that I can stay longer than 30 days if necessary or if it just feels better or safer to stay longer.

No, I didn't stay any longer than I had to but I've been there three times (ffs, srs, ba). Adding them up I come to a total of about 8 weeks spent in different rooms at Chon Inter Hotel (or Mercure Hotel as it was once called). 30 days is enough, and should you have to stay longer you can sort out the visa while you are there. You don't want to stay longer than you have to. I was about to go mad after 20+ consecutive days and nights in the hotel.

Thanks for the feedback Maria, I'm thinking of paying the extra to upgrade to one of the deluxe/executive suites, they have a home cinema according to the website, and the extra room would be good, at this stage I've got a few different people coming with me (in and out at different times) so would be good, I'll probably do the nerdy thing and watch every episode of star trek from beginning to end or something like that lol, I've got a handful of audiobooks that I'd like to listen to as well, Stephen Fry reading Harry potter sounds great so far, and I've got a few other long books too.
I'm just hoping for a speedy recovery, getting healthier everyday though, so fingers crossed i'll be one of the lucky ones that recovers fast and doesn't suffer too much, either way its totally worth it!

Interesting thing that I don't think has been mentioned.... although I doubt Star Trek will do it, don't bring anything that will cause you, um, to be even slightly aroused. My partner and I brought a ton of movies on hard drives to watch, nothing nasty, just various romantic ones....the worst was the whole queer as folk and L word serieses.... suporn ordered no "sexy thoughts" for two months. Or you will bleed. No kisses, either. Be prepared!

Quote from: Sarah_aus on September 11, 2012, 05:54:09 AM
Thanks for the feedback Maria, I'm thinking of paying the extra to upgrade to one of the deluxe/executive suites, they have a home cinema according to the website, and the extra room would be good, at this stage I've got a few different people coming with me (in and out at different times) so would be good, I'll probably do the nerdy thing and watch every episode of star trek from beginning to end or something like that lol, I've got a handful of audiobooks that I'd like to listen to as well, Stephen Fry reading Harry potter sounds great so far, and I've got a few other long books too.
I'm just hoping for a speedy recovery, getting healthier everyday though, so fingers crossed i'll be one of the lucky ones that recovers fast and doesn't suffer too much, either way its totally worth it!

I've never been in the executive suites but stayed in the duluxe room first week after getting out of the hospital. They are nice but we chose the normal room last time. The main difference was nicer interior decoration and an LCD-TV instead of the old style CRT.

Hey GendrKweer, lol thanks for the suggestion, I honestly hadn't thought about that, but I will keep it in mind when choosing my entertainment.
That's good to know Maria, might not be worth spending the extra money for the suite if there isn't really a difference, after all I'm gonna be in bed most of the time anyway, right

Quote from: Sarah_aus on September 11, 2012, 07:52:14 PM
Hey GendrKweer, lol thanks for the suggestion, I honestly hadn't thought about that, but I will keep it in mind when choosing my entertainment.
That's good to know Maria, might not be worth spending the extra money for the suite if there isn't really a difference, after all I'm gonna be in bed most of the time anyway, right

The room was quiet a bit nicer looking but I didn't feel it was really worth paying 2x for. Back then there was an extra incentive to stay in one as those were the only ones that had wifi.

Quote from: TessaM on September 11, 2012, 08:02:03 PM
Thanks for starting this thread Sarah. First I want to say congrats and good luck!
Also, im interested in recovery time. Im going to see Dr. Brassard in exactly 2 weeks (ok 2 weeks and one day) from now so I guess ill ask him in person. Its just that my current predicament is... im in college, and the program I want to get into (i have till Nov 1st to apply... and it starts jan 15th) only gives you a two week break for summer vacation. Im wondering if I can go to school after two weeks. Ill be sitting down all day, no heavy lifting I think? Its a nursing program. Am I nuts for assuming that I can do this, all other girls ive asked have said YES. Maybe I can get the surgery done on the 8th of december and have enough time to go back to normal activity by the 15th of January?
God, sucha predicament on what to do! I want it done NOW and I dont want to spend more time in college than I have to (theres also a 3 year program available which will include a summer break from end of my to end of august).

Do you mean 2 weeks AFTER the 3 weeks of recovery? The 5-6 weeks with the Dec 8th date sounds reasonable.