Olga Biguria is a 77-year-old patient from Guatemala who came to Instituto Clavel Barcelona after living with pain for many years. She was suffering from degenerative disease of the lumbar spine and scoliosis. The surgery she needed was complex, but now, a year later, she tells us that she has her quality of life back.
Making the decision to undergo surgery is not easy. Olga Biguria took her time thinking it over, and first tried other conservative treatments. Although she noticed improvement for a while, unfortunately, the pain caused by her spinal pathology reappeared.
In May 2022, she flew to Barcelona from Guatemala to have surgery at Instituto Clavel, and today, she shares what her experience with us was like and how she is feeling now.
How did your problem start?
I started having pain 20 years ago. In 2005, we went to China; it was a long trip and it "killed" me. I checked with my doctor and they diagnosed me with spinal hernias, but they did not recommend surgery.
I tried an ozone treatment for 6 years with some Italian doctors who came to Guatemala. The doctors told me that it was not going to cure me, but my condition would improve by 85%. It did help me quite a bit. Then I tried other treatments.
During all those years, even though I was in pain, I felt pretty good. However, when the pandemic arrived, I got worse. I started walking very fast around my neighborhood, and I had a sudden back spasm. It wouldn't go away so I went back to the doctor. They performed infiltrations at all five lumbar levels in the hospital, and they put my left leg to sleep for 24 hours, since I had pain in my ankle. This worked for four months.
When did you decide to have surgery?
After all this I went back to my doctor and told him that I wanted to have an operation, I couldn't take it anymore. Since my surgery was complex, he told me that he was going to select the best surgeon for it and he recommended Dr. Pablo Clavel.
The appointment via Skype was organized for me with the help of Olga Bogdanova. I had to send them my most recent MRI, and I had to wait a bit for the appointment because the doctor was on a medical mission in Ethiopia for the Fundación Clavel.
After Olga had confirmed the date scheduled for my surgery, I made my plans to go to Barcelona and stay for 2 weeks after the operation.
I always felt confident that Dr. Clavel was going to perform the operation and that he was capable of doing it. When I had the interview and he said yes, I was ecstatic. The operation was going to be difficult because my scoliosis is quite pronounced in the lower back, but this didn’t bother Dr. Clavel. His attitude gave me a lot of confidence, and helped me feel very calm.
How did it go when you arrived in Spain?
We arrived at 7 in the morning and at noon, I had an appointment with Dr. Clavel, so we just left our luggage at the hotel and went directly to the Hospital QuirónSalud. It was so nice to finally meet Olga, because she is such a kind person.
The surgery was eventually moved earlier, to May 2nd, in order to allow for more recovery days. When the doctor opened my back, he realized that it was worse than what was seen on the CT scan. They operated from L1 to S1, and I had to spend two days in the ICU afterwards. We had not expected this to be the case, but luckily, I didn't have any problems.
After the surgery, I had to remain catheterized because I couldn't get out of bed, and the bad thing was, that the nerve in L5-S1 had been compressed for so long, I still had neuropathy in my left leg. I spent a total of eight days in the hospital.
How were you treated while you were in the hospital?
They pampered me a lot. Olga is a very special person and Sonia Hernández too. They visited me every day to see if everything was okay. I had a very nice, large room.
They even arranged for the brace I would need to wear. It took several days to make, and they arranged for it to arrive on time on Friday, otherwise I wouldn't be able to walk until after the weekend.
What was the recovery process like?
On Monday I started therapy at Instituto Clavel Rehabilitation.
Miriam Pascual was the physiotherapist who treated me at Instituto Clavel Rehabilitation, and it went very well. My son filmed the exercises because we had to do them twice a day. Afterwards, we made the half-hour walk back to my hotel, and in the afternoon, we would walk around for another half hour on Passeig de Gràcia.
After that, we would sit on a bench and watch people go by. The recovery in Barcelona was marvelous.
How are you doing now?
The doctor has not yet cleared me 100%, but I’m doing very, very well. The first three months were hard with therapy every day in Guatemala. I had to wear a brace and that was the most difficult because I couldn't move much. The neuropathy went away after a month and a half or two, with the help of a physiotherapist who was trained by the Instituto Clavel, and who works with a wonderful team.
Three months after the surgery, they reviewed my x-rays and told me I could stop wearing the brace. The therapy sessions were reduced to three times a week, and now, only two times a week.
I can now stand for even more than two hours without pain. I walk every day between 5 and 6 km. At first, just inside my apartment, which is very large, and now I can go outside for a walk.
So I feel like I have come back to life. I hadn’t realized how much pain I was suffering. Even my face looks different! People ask me what I've done to myself, and it's just being free of pain that changes your face. I give infinite thanks to God for finding Dr. Clavel, he is a wonderful, kind person, and blessed with skillful hands. His work is amazing.
Any advice for other people who are going to have this surgery?
I have recommended Instituto Clavel to about 10 people and I always tell them to take their time. Dr. Clavel does 90%, but you have to do the other 10%. Do your therapies, be patient and wait until the specialist tells you when you can return to your usual activities. If you try to do it sooner, you might not get good results.
In my case, I have needed almost a year to recover. You might experience discomfort until the spine adapts to the new situation. But the difference is between night and day. I have even lost weight, and my cholesterol is better thanks to exercise.
Categories: Spine pathologies, Surgery, Testimonials