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Another bad haircut day for me today Had a fair sized benign tumor removed from the base of my skull / top of my neck yesterday under a local anesthetic. Bit of a strange and slightly unpleasant experience talking and joking with the doctors and the medical student while they cut and burnt it out from the back of my head while I was face down on the operating table. It was suppose to be a quick 30min cyst removal but when they went in they found out it was a bit of a bigger job than they thought so ended up taking about 1.5 hours and a bit more digging than expected. At least the medical student got a good lesson in how a simple job can change into a much bigger and complex one when you least expect it, along with a few pop quizzes along the way from the surgeons. At least the bad headaches shold back off now and my helmet should be a bit more comfortable to wear once the wound heals up. I guess the morale of the story is to get any suspicious lumps and bumps seen to sooner rather than later it might be a bigger issue than you or your doctor think. Barber is going to freak out when I ask him to fix up this haircut though

After a whirlwind of activity at the Hospital yesterday I was released back home into my own care yesterday afternoon. HUGE THANKS to Jason fro Briskites who came into to visit me just as news that I was being released came in just before 1pm yesterday. He was a champion and helped me pack my gear and transported me out to the airport just in time to make my flight. I can't thank him enough for going out of his way to do that for me, that is truly unbelievable customer service you won't see other kite stores giving that level of service. 12:45 I was informed my flight was at 15:15 just as I was sitting down to lunch. Quickly ate lunch and packed gear into my bags and Jason went out to grab the 4WD. A quick dash across Brisbane to the airport with a bit of a display of the Mighty VW's agility at the green lights and we arrived with just enough time to spare to run through all the medical forms (8 pages) at the Qantas passenger Check in, a quick escort through security where I was given a swab test because I was all sweaty looking (yes terrorists must look similar to spinal patients just released from hospital, still even had the armband on). Still don't know how the detector didn't light up like a Christmas Tree with all the prescription drugs in my system from surgery and recovery . Then a quick dash out to the plane via golf cart and a little over an hour later wheels down in Rockhampton to be picked up by my mate at the airport. It was awesome to get home and collapse into my own bed last night. I haven't slept much since Monday when the whole adventure started. By the time I unpacked had a shower and collapsed into bed last night I was having trouble seeing straight as I had blurred double vision from a mix of painkillers, lack of sleep and exhaustion. My biggest problem this morning was waking up with a very full bladder and then discovering I couldn't move my head enough to look down and take aim at the bowl.

Been off the Fentanyl Intravenous Delivery System for nearly 24 hours now and the pain at times has been excruciating. I was flat out lilting the medicine cup with my painkillers in it to my mouth before. I can see it's going to to be a very long couple of months while all the muscles that have been stripped away from the back of my neck slowly rebuild.

Another couple of years have gone past since last lot of spinal surgery and once again I find myself waiting to go under the knife again for more work. Currently lying in a hotel room in Brisvegas trying to sleep on the eve of some major spinal work being done. Tomorrow the Neurosurgeon is going to cut a large slot in the back of my neck, cut away all the muscle from the back of my spine behind the neck and cut a couple of large wedges out to f the back of my spine and give my spinal canal a port and polish so I don't end up a quadriplegic. Hopefully tomorrow night if all goes well I will still have the use of my arms and legs. It's been an interesting and frustrating year with my fine motor skills slowly degrading and all manner of nerve pain throughout my body. Hope to be back on the beach kitchen again within a few months. I have asked the Surgeon for a few holiday snaps of the procedure as this is how I'm spending a big chunk of my long service leave recovering from this one. Hope to report back in on a successful operation in the next couple of days.