What a ride! By Cheryl Davidson — Aug 20, 2014 7:49am Yesterday I felt myself declining (getting weaker and losing more feeling below the bra line - same affected area) starting in the morning and the doc came by around 10 AM recommending surgery. After calling Kevin, my dad, and talking with my mom who arrived at the hospital from Albuquerque within an hr, we were all firmly on board with the surgeons plan. But then I waited. And waited. And waited and I felt like I was never going to surgery. In retrospect i dont think I had the ability or presence of mind to communicate or even realize how quickly I was declining. They were doing neuro checks the whole time, but Im sure patient instinct is considered as well. I finally started breaking down emotionally, which was good and necessary. I just wanted to be in surgery. Id been waiting on pins and needles for hours at this point - good thing my life has trained me well for hurry up and wait! My life since Friday had been a series of long waits followed by very quick and drastic action. So I laid here with my mom touching me reassuringly, as moms do so well, and the chaplain sitting with me. We all sat in silence for quite some time (an hour?) as I focused on my breathing with my eyes closed. I wish I could say I spent that time in fervent, scriptural prayer, but mostly I was trying to keep my eyes closed and breathe through the pain and simply focus on...breathing, I guess. It was all I could manage. Breathing was the one thing right in front of me, so to speak. The very last thing to happen before surgery was the OB consult, complete with a fetal anatomy scan via ultrasound. At this point my patience was all but gone. I tried to be as nice as possible and not take it out on anyone, but I was angry the consult didnt happen hours earlier. I was annoyed because I just had a normal fetal anatomy scan at 20 weeks of pregnancy before I left Dallas. And my abdomen is the most tender/numb/you-just-dont-want-to-touch-me-there spot. Anyway, that finally finished and they wheeled me down to the OR hallway. Cue more talking from nurses, docs, anesthesiologists...and thats the last thing I remember. I am so thankful for their ninja surgery sneak attack, because I really psych myself out for needles, etc. Years ago I watched a special on waking sleep or something where they profiled people who had undergone surgery AWAKE and felt everything, and noone could tell during the surgery...so of course that was in the back of my mind too, as it probably will be forever. And yours too now, hahaha sorry! I woke up last night maybe around 10PM, and have been slowly recovering since then. Ive been resting, typing, going through my checks and being rolled (OUCH), finally drinking water. Almost hurling. You know, the standard post op stuff. Starting to feel a little bit like a human again. I was all afraid to move at all until I was told they probably just made a small incision and went through my back muscles. Uhhhh yeah. Not. Turns out they removed the bones. Huh??? I asked the doc how they secured them back, this is what he said: Oh, no we dont need to put them back, the spine is stable without them. HUH??? Its apparently a very common procedure, but I still asked him for a diagram because...Im gonna need to see a diagram. My body feels much the same as it did pre op, with the addition of some back soreness. Next update will likely contain details from surgery of which I am still blissfully unaware. -Cheryl
Posted on: Sun, 24 Aug 2014 03:01:29 +0000
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