I made a post this morning explaining that my surgery was rescheduled for today as opposed to tomorrow. I have yet to read over it again, but to be honest I was completely hopped up on pain medicine and some anesthesia that had yet to wear off. I'm going to assume it was coherent enough to understand where we're at now!
Before I start actually telling you about this whole process, I have to take a moment to complain about the stupidity of technology. I had a picture of myself that captured the pure sex appeal of that hospital gown and hair net thing. and my dumb phone didn't save the picture! WUT.
So, I believe I left off around us making the 75 mile trip home and the 75 mile trip back to Philadelphia after making the choice to spend in the night in the hotel instead of driving back at 3 in the morning!
When I woke up for the surgery this morning, I was in excruciating pain. I think my back was trying to rebel and have its one last "moment" before it got fixed! I got to LSI (Laser Spine Institute) at 6:30 in the morning, which was exactly when I was scheduled to arrive.
I was exhausted! Luckily, I got to go back to sleep for a few hours while they went to work on me. ;)
I walked into the surgicenter (I think that's what they call it!) and I was so impressed with how quickly they took care of me. I signed in and didn't even have a chance to sit down before they whisked me away to the back room to prepare. As soon as I got back I was greeted with a hug and some positive words from Kathy, one of the anesthesiologists I mentioned previously. Everyone working at this place is incredibly understanding and so, so nice. I've never been around so many warm, caring people in my life. I kept waiting for the freaky axe murderer to show up...never happened! :)
[Insert picture of me in hospital gear here!]
The gown and cap actually reminded me of my Beauty School Drop Out costume from my "Grease" days earlier this year:
Those were the days... O.o
After I got all suited up, they put me up in a bed and brought my Aunt Joan back to be with me. SIDE NOTE: The couple next to my little cube of space were from MILLTOWN!!! I mentioned to my nurse that I was from the "East Brunswick area" of New Jersey (because let's face it, no one knows where Spotswood is) and she told me that the man next to me was from New Brunswick. Then my aunt came back and said they were from Milltown (said New Brunswick because, again, no one knows what Milltown is). Talk about a small world, right?!
They asked me 2345678976545678 questions (rough estimate) and had me sign probably 10-15 consent forms, then the fun began! They took all my vitals and brought back the woman to start the IV. ...cue the panic. again, the medical assitants and nurses were phenomenal and held my hand, etc., through the whole thing. I was so grateful for them. LSI uses a beautiful numbing medication (applied through a tiny shot in the hand/wrist/wherever they find a vein) and I literally felt nothing with the IV. that didn't stop me from freaking out, but at least I couldn't feel it! Now I've got myself all freaked out and gross feeling because I'm thinking about the IV again. Time to change the topic!
My favorite part was the "anti-nervous" medicine they gave me. As Kathy said, "it'll make you a new woman in about 30 seconds." They gave me a bit more whenever it would start to wear off and I was really comfortable the whole time! My surgeon came over and spoke with me a bit to make sure I was feeling okay with the whole thing, and they carted me off to the back room.
In the operating room, they had me lay on my stomach on the table. The table had some pretty uncomfortable blocks that you have to position your hips on, but there is so much going on and you go out so fast it's not a huge issue. In addition to that, they stuff about 6 pillows under your chin to make sure you're comfortable up there. For me, this caused A LOT of pain in my teeth when I woke up, most likely because I was clenching my jaw the whole time. I have no memories of when I first woke up, but Kathy told me that I kept telling her me teeth were falling out. I'm happy to announce that they did not!
Can you tell that Kathy and I are now BFFLs, btw? She is seriously da bomb.
Next thing I remember is when I started to wake up. Word of caution: don't try to force yourself to wake up. I was doing that and it was making me really frustrated and light headed. It's best to just let yourself wake up naturally. As soon as I was conscious (enough) they fed me some chipped ice and gave me some peanut butter crackers <3 and apple juice <333.
Allegedly (according Kathy, of course!) I woke up telling her that there were horses next to my bed. The horses were, in fact, wheel chairs.
= 
The resemblence is uncanny.
Once I was awake-awake they took my vitals again, unhooked me from the machines and sent me off to the bathroom to put my clothes back on.
LET ME TELL YOU SOMETHING. I have not been able to walk, stand, or move without pain for a little over 3 months. Even having just had surgery on my SPINE, I felt amazing when I stood up. I couldn't get over the complete lack of pain. I'm a little sore now that the localized anesthesia has worn off, but still - I can stand. I even went for a 10 minute walk around the hotel (required by the post-op care).
according to, well, every single person I talked to, the surgery was hugely successful because "he got a good chunk of disc!" The disc compressing my nerve so badly was the biggest issue. The surgeon's goal was to remove as much of the disc as he could, but there was a chance that it was already connected to the nerve and he wouldn't be able to remove any - a factor he wouldn't know until he opened me up and went in there. As it turns out, he was indeed able to remove a good amount of disc, and they showed me the pictures to prove it (GROSS, btw). He got a bit over 4 centimeters out! Huh...I guess there was a reason for the excruiating, unbearable, horrific, praying-for-death pain I've been experiencing for the last few months. Go figure!
After I met with the surgeon, I was free to go. They took out the IV which wasn't painful at all. What WAS painful were the patches of hair on my arm the tape took off. I now appear to be arm-balding. They fed me a bagle, slapped on a backbrace I'm confined to for 2 weeks and wheeled me out to our car and off I went to the hotel. (the back brace is highly recommended, btw. It gives me a lovely hourglass figure. ;)).
After arriving at the hotel I proceeded to sleep for hoursandhoursandhours. Then I got up and went to dinner downstairs with my aunt, and now I'm going to go back to sleep again! I'm very exhausted, it's been an insane two days. But just today I can already tell how much my life has changed from this surgery. My Aunt Joan, who saw first-hand how terrible my back was when she came to Chicago for parents' weekend a few weeks ago, keeps saying, "this is just crazy. I can't believe this." It's a beautiful thing!! Hopefully it keeps getting better from here. :)
Thank you for reading! Tomorrow is my "day of rest" where I will mostly just be laying in bed aside from a 5-10 minute walk every hour or so. This should be good!
what the hell am I doing in that picture?
ReplyDelete