Wednesday, Nov. 19
My goodness! Today epitomizes what all the Stenum Staff loves. Today we packed up, took “goodbye pictures” and said goodbye to Jennifer, my roommate who also had disc surgery, and her mother, Joyce. These gals were from California.






Pictured here is Malte Petersen, International Director of Stenum, and Dr. Georg Zechel, Head of Surgery at Stenum, and the doctor who was one of 4 who worked on me. I was given a doggie bag of drugs that would be unheard of in the US, hugged the doctors, nurses and physical therapists goodbye, and set out for the big world of Bremen.





Silke, my favorite taxi driver, greeted us at the door and gave us the scenic route. Of course, every time we’d see something more exciting we’d start getting excited and laugh, and then we’d hug our sides so the stitches wouldn’t burst. It’s been a very exciting day. A very European day! A very blessed day!! We drove thru Bremen, and over the Weser (sounds like Visa) River, and into the “posh” part of Bremen which sounds like Schnorr. I’ve no idea whether I’m close to spelling it correctly, but it’s a gorgeous part of town.

We were escorted into an immense hotel, with grounds that made the White House look small by comparison.









We were escorted to our rooms, which were lavishly appointed. There was a large kingsized bed, a sitting area, a bathroom with a separate shower and soaking tub. And a large closet, wardrobe area with fullength mirrors and woodwork in mahogany. Very pretty.






The American “wing” has us close to our roommates, so that’s nice. John unpacked while I explored the expanse of the bed for a few minutes….or maybe I should say hours.








The hotel is beyond description. Yes, Duane, comparable to our London Royal Horseguards in lavishness, only ten times bigger. Hans visited my hotel room at 4:30pm, and gave John a map to some of the local places to see. We are given a taxi voucher each day, good for one trip to and
from anywhere we want to go. We haven’t used it yet. Perhaps for dinner tonight. We’ve been told the breakfasts here are extraordinary. (They were in Stenum, too!) But to avoid the $$ of lunches and dinners. While I examined the effectiveness of Tylenol with codeine, John made a quick jaunt through the 100 acres of park that surround the hotel and took a few pictures. I believe that tomorrow we’re going to see about taking the train to Oldenberg. Hans says it’s much more
manageable than Hamburg (a couple thousand people versus 2 million) . He said, “You’d get out at the train station at Hamburg and go, “where on earth do we go or start?” He said in Oldenberg, you say “Stattmitten?” (City Center?) people point, smile, and you spend the day taking pictures of old Germany, get back on the train at 5pm and go back to the hotel. Sounds doable to me. Now whether or not we do it tomorrow may be another matter. I understand that Bremen has a museum of art of the old masters that I’d like to see, as well. We’ll see. I’m just allowing myself some time to heal. Having that extra week here makes tourism less demanding, fortunately.

I just gave myself my first solo heparin injection. It wasn’t nearly the worst (or best) shot I’ve ever had. So I’m not afraid to do it again, tomorrow. John just went down for a couple of sandwiches from a Greek kiosk down by the train station. He was asked whether or not he wanted chicken or beef; John replied, "one of each," and the fellow gave him 2 beef. So much for nuances of communication. Right now, I’m back on a very nice comfy soft bed, tummy full, muscles relaxed, and on a few more pain killers. We took a brief jaunt around the hotel, but that was “it” for me. So I’ve returned to see how long it takes me to hook up to the internet here, upload the blog and a few more pics to Flickr.