Hey there everyone-

Just wanted to let you know that our very own Danny Ilias had emergency back surgery a couple of days ago in Kelowna.

Seems that he's been suffering from a previously undiagnosed severely herniated disc for the past few weeks/months. It's been putting all sorts of pressure onto his sciatic nerve, to the point that he had to go to the emergency room shortly after his new hotel's grand opening.

He was up in Kelowna on business a couple of days ago when he had to go to the emergency room (for a second time) due to the pain, and an MRI and CAT scan showed the problems. It was then serious enough that the Dr. there put him under the knife. The doc is actually a very well-respected neurosurgeon, so Danny lucked out big time.

Anyway, he remembers nothing of the surgery (he thought he was still being put out when he was waking up in the recovery room), and is already feeling much, much better.

He is staying at the Delta hotel in Kelowna (go figure) until he feels well enough to have Anne drive him home. He's thinking it might be as early as tomorrow.


Andrew Lee was kind enough to send him flowers on our behalf, so "thanks Andrew!".


Anyway, here's to wishing Danny a quick and complete recovery.



...jeff

Thank you very much guys for your well wishes! The flowers were a nice touch and the genuine concern from this community is touching. It shows how great our club really is!

I dodged a big bullet in a lot of ways! Partially my fault for wanting to pull through a condition that was only going to get worse. So my lesson for the day is to listen to your body and dont play hero, seek help as it may get really ugly...

Here is the timeline of events:

On Sunday night I traveled by car to Kelowna in BC for our annual conference. My back in general was hurting for over a month and it was just getting worse by moving to the left sciatic nerve with some real excruciating pain for a week or so. After the long ride, i could barely walk to my room. I took some painkillers and through some creative posturing in bed I managed to sleep for a couple of hours.

Monday morning, I walk ( barely) to the conference room, stayed for the first part of it clenching my teeth through the pain. My colleagues see me and i was shipped by my boss to the local public hospital. I was shown to the ER and after 20 minutes the doctor pulls me in and check my back and left foot which at this point was numb and I could barely move it up and down. He says, stay here we are going to do a cat scan on you. An hour later I do the cat scan, completely drugged out with pain killers. The doctor comes back and says, you have a massive problem my friend, I'm calling the neurosurgeon. Cut the long story short, the neurosurgeon orders an MRI. Waited a couple of more hours and do the MRI. By now its 9pm and I'm back at the ER. Here comes the neurosurgeon and he saw me! He said to me that he looked at the cat scan and MRI and I have a severe disk slip on L5- L4 and that needs surgery otherwise I will risk of loosing some of my nerves going down my foot. He asks me if I want to do it in Vancouver, I said that i heard he was a great Doctor and if he wanted he could do it and I would stay in Kelowna as long as I had to. Then I was released from the hospital back to the hotel with the instruction to return the next morning.

Tuesday morning I get wheeled to the Hospital back on the ER, the doctor there tells me that I'm going under the knife tomorrow or after tomorrow!!! He sends me to check in to the hospital, so up on the 4th floor and I'm admitted. More drugs and super friendly nurses.

Wednesday I'm kept with out food or water, I have an IV stuck on me and more drug *bleep*tails to ease the pain. Wednesday almost comes and goes, I thought oh well its going to be tomorrow... 8pm I'm sitting in the TV lounge, the nurse comes and says, go back to your bed you are up for surgery! Off then to the OR, the anesthesiologists between cracking jokes about by back and asking me a ton of questions injects a drug and says you are going to be out cold really soon. The next sentence I hear is " are you ok"? I'm like yeah, when do I sleep? she laughed and said "its all over" !!! By 10.30pm I was vegging in my ward and every hour the nurse would come and check my vitals up until 2am. Then they let me sleep.

The next day I checked out of the hospital and recovered a bit at the Delta Grand Okanagan Resort. It pays to have friends

I must say that I take my hat off to the team of Doctors and nurses of the Kelowna Memorial hospital. Unbelievable treatment and I will forever be grateful to them...

So for the next 2 weeks I will be home recovering, doing some physio and then back to work I hope, although i will be taking it easy...

Thanks again guys for your concern and well wishes.

Danny