Suregery status (executive summary): My back surgery went well, Im home, and after a couple of days of significant post surgery pain Im fairly pain free, thanks to the pain meds Im taking. Each day is noticably better than the last, and Im able to get around on my own, with some significant limits on motion. No bending, twisting or lifting more than 10lbs, I have to wear a back brace whenever Im out of bed and I cant drive. Surgery status: Monday afternoon I had spinal fusion surgery, which took 4 hours. I was expecting to be in the hospital until Wednesday. Immediately post-op I was in no real pain, probably due to the major pain killers I was on. I slept on and off till Tuesday morning at 6:00 when my doctor came in to tell me that everything went well, with the exception that he could only install a single set of screws and rod, instead of the usual two sets This was because the part of the bone (pedicle) that one of the screws was supposed to go into was too small, and there was a risk of injuring the nerves, or breaking the bone. Apparently many doctors only install the screws and rod on one side, so he expects everything to be fine. Shortly after that they removed the Foley Catheter, which, if you havent gone through the process, isnt all that bad, but is really not an experience you want to have on your bucket list. Trust me... After that, they informed me that I had until 12:30 to pee on my own, or they were going to have insert another catheter, this time while I was awake. Um, ya, no way thats happening. Bring me some water, juice, popsicles, anything I can drink... Keep it coming! At 11:30 I feel like my bladder is about to burst, and I thought, Oh Ya Baby! Im good to go! Half a dribble later Im done... WTF? BRING ME MORE LIQUID!!! A half hour later Im thinking OK, NOW Im ready... Another half a dribble, and nothing... OK, lets be patient. Sit there for a few minutes more and all of a sudden the flood gates open. Whoopee! And again 15 minutes later. And again 20 minutes later... And again... Well, at least no catheter. :^) A bit later in the morning the Physical Therapists [AKA torture experts ;^) ] came, showed me how to get out of bed, generating the most pain possible, without actually injuring my back, and had me walking the hallways. I did pretty well, walking maybe a hundred feet, with a walker. I slept for a couple of hours after drinking my lunch of dish water and orange jello, and then they were back for more torture. After dragging my arse out of the bed for the second time I walked at least twice as far as I did earlier, including walking up and down a half dozen stairs. Then they took me for another set of Xrays, to make sure everything was still aligned properly. It was... When I got back to my room they said I was doing very well and could probably go home that evening. Wait, WHAT? It wasnt Wednesday yet.!.! I guess they wanted me out of there pretty badly, because they had all the paperwork ready by 5:00, and wanted to get me dressed and out to the street to wait for my ride. Unfortunately Linda wasnt going to get there after work untill around 7:30, so I explained there was no rush and Id just as soon be comfortable back in bed till then. I asked what the rush was and they told me that they had had a number of people come in with severe flu symptoms, and the longer I stayed the more likely it would be that Id end up catching the flu or something else. Around 7:30 Linda showed up and brought me home then went out and picked up the prescriptions that I needed. I went straight to bed and slept on my back the entire night for I think the first time in my life. Not because it was comfortable, it wasnt, I was lying on my incisions, but I was totally unable to turn over onto my side or reposition myself in bed at all. My legs were painful and werent working well, and trying to roll even a little was very uncomfortable. The pain got considerably worse as the night went on, even though I was taking the pain meds every 4 hours, as I was supposed to. In fact it had gone from a 3-4 to a 7-8 by morning, when we realized that I had been taking the wrong pills all night. I had so many pill bottles that they got confused, and I hadnt had any pain meds in 12 hours by that time. NOT GOOD, but actually great because it meant that nothing had gone wrong with the surgery and getting the pain meds back into my system should help immensely, and within an hour or so I was feeling much better. Since then Ive gone from not being able to get in/out of bed without help, and barely being able to walk with a walker, to being able to move around in bed, get in/out of bed by myself and walk around on my own. So, the pain that I had in my back and legs is pretty much gone, which was the goal of the surgery, and the new pain from the surgery is manageable, and getting better every day. In a week and a half I go back to the doctor to make sure everything is still going well, then another 4 weeks after that I see him again and hopefully get the OK to drive and remove some of the other restrictions that I have. If youre interested in the surgery that I had on my back here are 2 videos that show the different procedures that were done to remove the disk and fuse my L4/L5 vertebrae: https://youtube/watch?v=k6bjtYqcCfs https://youtube/watch?v=cMxAcs5RgRo
Posted on: Sat, 24 Jan 2015 22:44:56 +0000
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