My name is Hanli and I have scoliosis and have been treated by Dr Koos Louw since I was 6 years old. I used to wear a brace, but since then my scoliosis had deteriorated. On 01 July 2010, I had scoliosis repair surgery at the Pretoria East Hospital. The operation lasted about 5 hours.

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Hi everybody! Sorry for not updating in a long while because on Friday (17 September 2010) my dad was rushed to Wilgeheuwel Hospital after coming home in hysterics in his kombi. My mom left us at home and rushed him to the hospital, where the doctors thought it was a stroke, but really it was a tumor on the brain that had begun bleeding. My aunt Runicka picked us up at home. We were going to sleep over at her house with her three children Tristan, Cayla and Rheece until Monday. My dad was sent for a MRI scan, Where they put you in this tunnel thing for a long time and use magnetic fields to scan your body. Before my operation I was in it for 40mins and my dad was in it for 20mins. The tumor was on the left side of his brain so his right hand was "dead" (he could move it but couldn't feel it). It was quite deep in but in an "easy to operate" spot. I visit him often. The first time I saw him he was in ICU.
 His ICU was nice and peaceful and quiet whereas mine was noisy and there was a guy with kidney probems screaming zulu swearwords and the nurses were laughing loudly. It was not nice!  
My dad could move around and everything except he had a fancy looking drip (with tonnes of blue and grey clips and bits on it) a drain in his hand, a drain in his head, a catheter and a big bandage wrapped around his head.
20 september 2010 (the day before yesterday) he came out of the ICU and stood up for the first time. 21 September he was still doing well and had a tonne of visitors. I also recorded my brother Jacques concert for him as he couldn't be there. But it hasn't been a very good year, first with me, then my dad, my Aunt (she had a cracked hip and as her bones are very brittle from cancer it was a serious operation). Our 42yr old helper at home lost her baby too, so it's not the best year ever.