Day Three - The shave

Hello everyone, thank you for your well wishes and prayers.

We were up and on the road by 6am. The best part of this trip so far has been the company that was hired by Passport Medical to pick us up and drive us to all the appointments. The staff are very friendly, fun and calm while driving. After two days of being in Costa Rica I know that I will never, ever drive here. The road are narrow and with car eater pot holes (I call them small sink holes). One of the drivers said to us "in your country people that swerve on the road are drunk, people in my country are drunk if they drive straight"

We made it to the Hospital no problem. The Hospital is beautiful, everything looks so brand new and Don's private room is huge. It has an Ikea like futon, a big comfy chair and huge bathroom.

Nurse came in and helped get Don into his gowned, then the shave. We were told yesterday by someone who just had the surgery that my mother should shave Don's groin area. They usually enter through the left leg just below the crease in your groin area but shave the other side incase they can't enter through the left. Well this turned into a joke that lasted the whole day. How much to shave, don't nick anything, Brazilian? or landing strip? Well turns out they opted for the nurse, a trained professional to do it.

Next was a neurologist who ask Don some questions about general health. Does he have any allergies, do you smoke, eye sight... pretty much the same as yesterdays neurologist.

Then we had a part of the surgical team come in and talk with us. One of the reasons to come to Costa Rica (using Passport Medical, no way we could have don't all this on our own, no way) was the cost, the proximity, physiotherapy, and the Doctors here are doing it right. They are going above and beyond and here is why. The surgeon said that there is currently no guidelines for the amount of stenosis in a vein so if there is ANY stenosis the doctor will open it up. The nurse/interpreter told us that yesterday she was in a surgery and the Doctor was opening small viens around the back of the heart. She thought that was amazing.

Well that's where this update stops, they just wheeled Don out to surgery so the next update will be in a few hours.

Info email and they want to keep in touch