Sun, Sea, Santorini

Hello! 

So today I wanted to write about something slightly more cheerful than my surgery and that is my recent trip to Greece including a day trip to Santorini!

Back at the end of May/beginning of June both, my mother and myself set off on a trip to Greece. We both have a love affair with Greece, Crete in particular and I can't explain why apart from the fact it is a stunning place with such raw history and amazing memories. The highlight of this holiday was our trip to Santorini and that is what this blog post is going to focus on.

Santorini has always been somewhere I wanted to visit but there were several aspects stopping me. Firstly the cost; as it is such a beautiful and popular destination, nothing is cheap. Secondly I felt it could be claustrophobic - I need my space whether its laying on a sun-bed or looking around the shops. Therefore because of these drawbacks or worries I jumped at a chance of visiting the island for a day to give myself an idea of what it was like before spending the money on a full holiday there.

The day began very early with a coach pickup as the sun started to rise. As we were staying in Elounda it took several hours to get to the main ferry port in Crete. We chose to do a group excursion with SeaJets to have the benefit of a coach, minimal stress and a slightly cheaper trip.

Once in Santorini, our first stop was Oia. This is on the north side of the island and is a beautiful old settlement. As you can see from the photographs below, it really is a beautiful place. 

As it is build into the side of a cliff, every building is very packed together. We were very lucky on the day we visited because there were no cruise ships in port, however It was still extremely busy and hot to walk down the small paved alleys but it was worth it for these views. 

Our second stop of the day began at Firostefani. We took a 20 minute walk down some very pretty cobbled streets, very close to the edge of the caldera into the capital Fira. From here we could see the volcano and Thirassia Island. Our tour guide was full of information (I have never met someone who spoke so much in my entire life). Whilst I found the background information very interesting, we did end up ditching our group as we were barely left any free time to explore the place ourselves!

The capital of Fira itself is again gorgeous with plenty to do and see. As you can see from the photograph above, there is an old port which you can walk/ donkey ride/ take a cable car down to. There is also plenty (and I mean plenty!) of shops for my fellow shopaholics. In the end we only had time for a bit of shopping plus the best lunch I have ever had (pic below) however given more time there is plenty to do here!

Going on this day trip for me, really affirmed the fact that I want to come back here. There is something magical in the way this island was formed and there is undeniable beauty in the little cobbled streets with houses painted white adorned with bright blue shutters. I do recommend going on a day trip here however I would suggest doing your research and going yourself in a group because it can be very annoying to feel restricted to a tour all day. If you are going to do this I would also suggest, find out what cruise ships are in port and pick a day where there isn't any. 

Personally I do think one aspect of staying on the island (despite the high prices) is that once the tours and cruise ships have left for the day, you are left with just the people staying on the island and lets be honest, exploring in the daytime is very hot anyway! So Santorini.. I will be back. 

Ttfn. 

Hannah

xoxo 

Lumbar spinal fusion - Hospital Stay

I am now finally home! It may have only been 4 days in hospital but honestly it felt like much much longer. Through this post, I want to write a little on my operation and about my stay in hospital, what it was like and what anyone having the same operation can expect. For anyone new let me catch you up - I suffer from grade 2 spondylolithesis and have had a lumbar spinal fusion L5S1.

So firstly I went in on the Monday morning, my admission time was midday, however I could not eat after 7am or drink after 11am. Part of my morning also consisted of drinking a watery lemon concoction (slightly gross) which made sure I had enough energy until I went down. Once checked in to the hospital I was shown to my room and told I would be seen by my surgeon and anesthetist very soon. Sure enough it wasn't long before my surgeon came along, went through the procedure and told me I would be going down to theatre first ('ladies first' - how gentlemanly).  I was very relieved for this as waiting around is awful! I then had the anaesthetist come and check that I knew what I was having done  (ya know - just in case) and he ran through what would happen. I then changed into a very sexy backless hospital gown with some charming knickers that I can only discribe as looking like a plastic shower cap and lastly stocking which I have learnt to hate and off we went.

The walk to theatre was scary. There's no sugar coating that. I walked into the anaesthetists room and layed on the bed. A needle was placed into my hand whilst happy chit chat was made surrounding the topics of my life and the nurses travels. I was then told 'its time to go to sleep' and I don't remember anything else.

I woke up in the ICU around 3-4 hours later. I have little memory of this now however I can tell you the basics as I wrote notes on my phone at the time. I felt relieved that the operation was over (although in truth that was the easy part), the morphine was doing its lovely job of making me feel very happy and I felt comfortable - if a little sore. I was able to see my parents briefly however most of my time in the ICU was spent sleeping. On my second day post surgery I started to feel and be sick. Anyone who knows me, knows this is a phobia for me, I hate it and I will do anything to avoid it. Therefore when one of the nurses mentioned it could be due to the morphine, I stopped using it all together. Once I was 12 hours free of morphine and in a fair bit of pain the nurses were great in finding an alternative (unfortunately though this didn't help my sickness). Also on my second day, the physio came around and got me out of bed for the first time. All I remember from this was eye watering pain. The physio told me I could cry but I remember breathlessly saying 'that hurts even more!' I didn't manage to walk on that day only stand for a couple of seconds.

Day 3 was my last morning in the ICU before being moved to my own room back in the wards. What we hadn't realised before was my epidural was leaking and my spinal block was becoming ineffective. (Which was probably why I was in so much pain when I stopped using the morphine!) This led to my back becoming swollen with the epidural fluid however once the epidural was taken out, the fluid slowly leaked out too and my swelling went down. As I said before I do not remember much from the ICU apart from a lovely nurse called Loraine who gave me my morning wash, my first attempt standing and feeling very nauseous in general.

My last couple of days in my own room can be quite easily described as a mixture of 'I'm in pain' , 'I'm going to be sick' and 'I want to go home.' Being brutally honest I felt very lonely, I saw people only when I called for help, when someone gave me food or took my stats, my physio and the couple of hours my family came to visit. I had physio once daily (which can be fairly awkward when someone has to carry your pee!) However, I quickly learnt the best way to get out of bed and be slightly more mobile so they could take out my catheter and I could be slightly more independent (Minus the fact I had to say when I needed to pee as they wanted to measure it and the oh so charming question of 'have you opened your Bowls today?') By this point, around day 3/4, my medication started being reduced and I was in a lot of pain and struggling to both eat and sleep due to nausea and pain however I coped and if anything this made me more determined to get out of hospital and go home where I knew I would be more comfortable.

 I was told I would be in hospital 5 nights, it turned out to be 4 and for that I am thankful. Although I know I have a long way to go in terms of recovery, the worst is now over and I can see slight improvements every day.

So there it is in a nutshell. Please comment with any questions or anything in the comments below! My next post will be a little bit more in depth about the things they don't tell you before you have an operation as there are definitely a few things and hope someone finds them useful. 😊😊

Ttfn
Hannah
Xoxo

Travelling & Spondylolithesis

Hello there! 

So this blog has been a long time in the making! I’ve thought about writing one before but never took the steps to start it. However right now I am at a point in my life where i'm both incredibly scared and excited for whats around the corner. Just over a week ago, I graduated with a degree in Photography and in just under a week I will face spinal surgery to correct my Spondylolithesis. After I recover from that I hope to travel and find a job, therefore I want to share this journey with anyone and everyone who is interested. 

I want this blog to mainly share the best things about life - Travelling! Discovering new places, new worlds to explore. Hopefully offering some insight into the best places to see and the best time to go see them. However my main reason for starting this blog today is in a few days time, I am going to have an L5 S1 spinal fusion for my spondylolithesis. I have searched the internet far and wide reading people’s stories and experiences to gain knowledge and perspective and overall prepare myself for whats to come. However I struggled to find a case where the person was born with the condition and chose to have an elected surgery like myself rather than those that have had an accident and forced to have surgery in order to recover. Im hoping that by writing about my journey, it will help anyone else that potentially has to go make this decision and go down this path. 

I hope you join me on this journey and are as excited (and nervous) as I am to see whats around the corner. My next couple of posts will be on my recent trip to Greece and more in depth about my Spondylolithesis/ Spinal Fusion; what it is and how I've come to the decision of surgery. 

TTFN 

Hannah 

xoxo