Dr. Monegal / Spain / Bilateral Femurs / Fitbone / August 25, 2015

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Day 8: I reside at MIC Sant Jordi until November 3rd.

The physiotherapist, Claudio—who also acts as a radiologist at Clinica Diagonal—stretched me this morning. I followed up and stretched in my bed too several hours later.

A restaurant and cafe sits on the ground floor of the apartment facility, and carries food to the rooms of patients, or anyone including the general public can enter and eat. I commend the dining! They serve it on fine plates, with metal dome lids to preserve the hot food.

Furthermore, the 24-hour nurses of this place will voluntarily pick up essentials and medications at the pharmacy for you upon request; so for example I needed ice packs, bandages, prescriptions, etc. and they retrieved them all for me, and declined my tip!

At the moment, due to the alternate factors of this, I will update my previous rating:

- Dr. Monegal: 9.5
- Physiotherapist: 9.5
- Food: 9
- Nurses: 8

Total = 9 / 10

Fairly impressed so far. Not a single person in Barcelona has ever been rude to me in any way; quite the opposite.

Also, I stood unaided for the second time today (under monitor of Claudio), and also rode the bicycle machine!

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View of stitches on left leg


View of black and blue on left thigh


View of three-course meal the restaurant gives

• Spaghetti in mushroom sauce
• Chicken leg
• Chocolate cake
• Side of bread
• Bottle of water

View of me seated in wheelchair (covered for discretion)

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QuoteHow are you doing now? How is the pain level and scars?
I feel content. Pain remains low, although a bit annoying when lying down for extended periods of time. I have no real idea about the scars as of yet.

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Extremely impressive meal today:



- Rice with tomato sauce and a fried egg
- Sausage and beans
- Bread
- Cheesecake

I literally eat better dishes here than in the US.

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Man, you are in fking BARCELONA !!! This is like the best and most amazing city in Europe. The food is amazing, I guess, just google some stuff on tripadvisor, from time to time, like once in 3 days, order some nice meals from outside, the food is really good...
Do not miss a chance to visit a game of F.C. Barcelona and witness the best player in history of soccer - Leo Messi, who is, ironically, only 169

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QuoteMan, you are in fking BARCELONA !!! This is like the best and most amazing city in Europe. The food is amazing, I guess, just google some stuff on tripadvisor, from time to time, like once in 3 days, order some nice meals from outside, the food is really good... Do not miss a chance to visit a game of F.C. Barcelona and witness the best player in history of soccer - Leo Messi, who is, ironically, only 169
Authentic Catalonian food has no comparison. The restaurant in this facility has genuine chefs—not generic cooks—and they whip up very cool dishes. To be honest, I eat better meals here than when back in the U.S.

I hit 1cm today, and I can both feel and see the mutation in the composition of my legs. My knees appear further away according to my eyes.

I can stand by myself once stretched, and walk about 40 foot with hand support on the parallel bars. I ride the stationary bike for at least 10 minutes each day now, and my degree of flex hits 90 degrees.

No complaints, although I will confirm that I wake up in the middle of the night, and need to re-configure my legs in multiple ways to finally fall asleep again.

I would like to commend both Claudio and Dr. Monegal, who both reply to text messages within 15 minutes any time of day or night.

One other thing, for those of you who consider Spain a location for your procedure, or for those of you who do *not* consider it so—I will say that virtually every person here speaks English to a certain extent, they play American music in cabs, on radio, on television, the hospital clinic seemed cutting edge and modern, etc., furthermore, they possess almost the exact same goods and services that you would find in a normal American city.  In other words, undergoing the treatment in Spain sort of mirrors undergoing it in the United States, and in many ways it becomes indistinguishable. Besides England, Spain may be the nearest locale for an experience tantamount to the U.S.—if that matters to you!

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hey bohemia,

if you fancying the meals at MIC that much....how much do they charge for it? and how can you get groceries to your room?

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Quoteif you fancying the meals at MIC that much....how much do they charge for it? and how can you get groceries to your room?
Full three course meal for about 14 Euro. They create a new menu of dishes every single day, so they print it off and translate it for their English patrons. Then a nurse will shuttle it to your room at any time you request between 9 am - 5 pm.

Also a nurse will shop for anything you like within walking distance (pharmacy, supermarket, etc.); or you can wheel your own ass down to the grocery—which I did today and will not do it again, because it requires crossing streets, and pushing up inclines and such, only to discover the grocery lies underground and requires a downward escalator which I could not utilize.

Wheelchair hands


Papaya, banana, milk smoothie in the cafe

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Can you ask Dr. Monegal, whether he would do what dr Paley is doing - femur and tibia within one month ?

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I underwent both femurs at the same time, and will remain here from August 25 to November 3, which amounts to about 2 months and a week.

For split segments (femur/tibia) he lets you travel back once you discharge from 7 days in the clinic (as far as I know), but for both femurs or both tibias he would require two months in Barcelona under his care.

I encourage you to email him any questions; he usually replies swiftly. And I would prefer not to misspeak for him.