A personal project

Hi guys,

This is a message to all my English-speaking friends, PMI staff, fellow volunteers and business associates:

Last Monday (August 10) I had a sudden, excrutiating back pain episode. Lots of painkillers to handle the situation, doctor appointment on Tuesday afternoon, still in a lot of pain, and paralysed from the waist down early Wednesday, when I was removed to the hospital.

After about 12 hours of tests, pain and a lot of moving from one bed to another,  I underwent back surgery from Wednesday night to early Thursday. The doctors removed a big part of a tumor the size of about a golf ball lodged in my spine and compressing the marrow, causing swelling, pain and the numbness. Serious stuff!

The surgery was a success, the "thing" seems to be benign (not some sort of cancer, but that is  being thoroughly explored) and now (Tuesday morning, five days after surgery) I am siting at a hospital bed writing this message to you. My current and most important project is to be back on my feet again and run with my girls in the park near home, and I called it "Recover 2015". Seems corny, but it is what it is :)

Recovery time is uncertain, I am counting maybe two more weeks here, and then physical therapy and all the rest. I canceled all my face-to-face professional appointments for the next six weeks (until September 25) and my current goal is to be available to be back "on the road" then. Sorry to those of you with whom I had cancel appointments, but if there is something we can call "force majeure" this is it :)

Feel free to use this blog post to make any comments, it feels good to read get well messages and stuff, and I hope to meet most of you in the upcoming months!

I wish you all the best :)

Ivo Michalick

Picture taken from my hospital window

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Belo Horizonte, August 18, 2015

BRAZIL