Here's my Story.....
Got up and arrived at Gatwick at around 5am. Checked through the convoluted check-in procedures, and headed for some breakfast as had been told no food or drink after 7am UK time. Thought about the usual pre-flight drink, but passed on that. Headed to Garfunkels and had a condemned man’s meal of Steak. In the meantime kept sipping water until it went out of fashion. Boarded the squeezy jet flight, arrived at Barcelona in one piece, albeit with an aborted landing as another plane was mucking about on the runway….
Once we had got through customs and baggage, gave Aida a call as the driver wasn’t there, after a little confusion caused by the original driver crashing and the back-up driver being at arrivals ‘B’ and us at arrivals ‘A’ we were on our way. Arrived at the hospital, it’s only been open around a month, so outside is having finishing touches. The hospital is very impressive, check-in including blood tests etc was very swift, and I was soon in the room. The room had a bed, a sofa bed for the missus’ and en-suite shower room. There is a multimedia TV, however no English channels, so you really need to take your own entertainment, luckily we had.
Aida was available for the main bits, had blood pressure taken, an ECG (evidently standard practice in Spain and started at school, and used as a preventative measure). Was given a gown, unfortunately being 6’ 5” and the Spanish being short, this didn’t cover my crown jewels, lucky I had back-up pants. Dr Benito came in, drew over my chest, answered a few questions and left. I had a shower, trying not to rub of the drawing (be a good idea to have showered first instead of relaxing on the bed). One of the nurses came in, gave me a pill, I nodded off for a while, and then it was time to go down.
The porter took me down to the theatre area, the bed/trolley is in two halves and they slide the bed bit through a hole in a wall. They take cleanliness here very seriously unlike the state of most British hospitals. Went through to pre-med, few more tests, checked the ECG tests, blood tests etc, a needle in the hand, bit of sedative, next thing recovery room. They made sure my pain was under control before they allowed me back to the room. Dr Benito came in to see how I was, and commented it went fine.
Back up, a little uncomfortable, otherwise fine. Intravenous drips, one with a sugar/salt food mix, another with antibiotics & sickness suppressant. Both are checked regularly throughout the night. Didn’t sleep too badly and pain was well under control. The next day, food was fine, although bland as some people suffer with sickness following a general anaesthetic; I don’t so sent the other half for more flavoursome food. Dr Benito came in around 8am, looked at the drainage bottles, stated everything looked fine, and would be back later to remove the bandage and bottles. I was told I need to get up and walk around. So after the nurses had removed the IV lines out of my hand, got dressed, strapped the drainage bottles to my combat styled shorts and went for a wander up and down the ward.
Dr Benito came back in the afternoon (thought my gun slinging drainage bottle quite funny), removed the bandage…I’m glad I’m not hairy! Next the drainage (these are under vacuum pressure) the first one coming out was one of the most unpleasant experiences I’ve had in a while, the second is a doddle as the pressure in the body has gone by then. If you’ve scuba dived, you’ll know what I mean. I was pleased with the chest contour, even taking into consideration the swelling. Next the compression vest. Now as mentioned, I'm quite big, used to play a far amount of sport and have quite a large frame, albeit I’ve lost muscle definition, I was amazed to be and it was fairly painful being squeezed into a medium sized compression vest although needed Dr Benito and the missis (evidently need to wear between 1 & 4 months dependant on how my skin contracts and the fluid moves). 26 eye hooks, three rows so as time goes by the compression can be kept uniform as swelling goes down, the chest area has double strength panels.
Rest of the day watched around 5 films, read a few mags, got a bit bored (evidently a good sign), the nurses came in periodically with oral drugs (pain, antibiotics’ and sickness suppressant). Evening meal was better, a tapas selection. Meals come approx 9.30, 13.30, 17.00 & 20.00. That’s night sleep was restricted by the vest, but swelling had reduced quite significantly by Friday morning. Was checked out given some pills, Thrombocid cream (brings out the bruises etc) spoke with Aida and had our driver back to airport. Flight was fine, and ride home from Airport not too uncomfortable. Now Saturday morning, off the pain killers and swelling is reduced. Bruising looks OK and not really an issue, entry wounds are tiny and highlighted on one of the photos.
Last night (Friday) gave myself a massage with the cream, the slopping feeling of fluid moving and hopefully moving out my chest area was an interesting experience. Second nights sleep in the vest was a lot easier, swelling has come down a lot already and although I’ve lost a few sizes with the compression vest on, I like my new t-shirt styled chest area..
Overall good experience, definitely their levels of care is on par (if not higher) than UK. This includes both NHS & Bupa experience. The main hospital staff speak a little English, although it’s not really a major issue, and quite funny sometimes. Would I do it again, yes in a shot. Would I recommend, without a shadow of a doubt as from the initial consult in Harley Street, emails and operation cannot be faulted. I need to book my first check-up for October, then one a few months after. All covered in the original £2500 fee. Add on Squeezy Jet for us both, a 30 euro a night charge for the misses to stay in the hospital room, and parking at short stay Gatwick (I wasn’t going to walk/take a bus) It would be around £2675 all in.
Post op front looks odd....that's the missus' taking the photo at an odd angle.
Topic: Surgery On Wednesday 12th September - Now with Photos & story... (Read 10354 times)
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