So, I'm home. After spending such a long time feeling overwhelmed at the prospect of surgery, I'm glad to have it over with. The surgery was the biggest possible version, not the 'minor tweak' to fix the upper curve as I had been painting it to myself and others. Only Bryan really still understood that the surgeon wasn't going to know what he would do till he was in there, although we both went to all appointments. The things we take in when it's you in the patients seat is a lot less than I would like to think. I haven't seen the resulting chop, but my dressing goes from just above my butt to just under my neck. Was weird to have in the past looked at the biggest dressings in the dressing room and never seeing them used, to then having one of those not being long enough and sticking an extra bit on the end.
I had a relatively smooth ride in the hospital, the drugs were good although not eliminating pain, reduced it from a 10/10 pain down to usually around 4-6/10 (Pain scale for dummies, 0=no pain, 10 worst pain ever had in life). Unfortunately when I got home yesterday, after going so well, at night I woke up and was really sick several times. Not fun. Had the worst night yet, and was out of hospital. I think now is a good time to mention, as you can see a fraction of from this blog, that Bryan has been nothing short of wonderful. It must be tough for him too, but he has been at my side what feels like the whole time, and all the time since coming home. It's hard for me to have to lose all my feminine mystery in one foul swoop, but it shows the true extend of his dedication that he is still here, and being amazing. Family have been great too, and have done everything that I ask of them and more. Garry turned up with Skytv for me (some part of his one that he has at home, he's got mysky and I have the extra bit you can have).... there is endless crap you can watch, which is about all I can cope with. Movies are still a bit taxing. Mum and Dad turned up with a Lazyboy, which has been a godsend (but I really really miss my electric bed).
Because of last nights vomiting, I had to go a whole night without pain relief, wasn't as bad as I was expecting but pain 8-9/10... I know what 10 feels like. I've cut back heaps today so am not doing the walking that I was doing, and am needing more help than I have done over the last few days.
The highlight this far has been seeing how wonderful people can be, and Bryan has come out on top.
I have been having to teach people to walk on eggshells around me, when I'm in my chair I can feel every footstep in the lounge throughout my body.
I'll let Bryan fill you in on the rest of the stuff, he's currently erecting fairy lights in the lounge for me. We can thank Sarah K-M for that job for him... she looked around and went "hey, it's not looking festive! We need to decorate!!" and Bryan took the 'hint' and started putting up lights. They look great, and she's promised to come back in time to help decorate the tree. It's up, but there's nothing on it yet.
Thank you to everyone who has been and visited, left comments on the blog, and generally thought about me. It's very much appreciated.
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Pre-op 2000
This is before I had any surgery on my back. It's looking at it front on. You can see the base of the spine is where it connects to my pelvis, and then how the top is out of line with the bottom, This made it look like I had one big hip, because my ribcage was off to one side.
Pre-op 2007
Here is how my spine looks now, you can see that the part that has the rods is straight, then at the top the unfused part goes off at a different angle. The surgery tomorrow is to fix that, by putting a rod from about 2 vertebrae up and 3 or 4 below the junction.
2 comments:
I'll consider myself lucky that I've never experienced a 10 out of 10 on the pain scale. Sounds like you've got a good support system going though, which helps a lot, I'm sure (Yea Bryan)! Take it easy, I hope things get more comfortable at home and we plan to visit (bearing gifts) before we leave this weekend. See you soon!
Regan
Hey Margaret! Yay I am so glad the surgery went well and you're doing ok! You're such a legend coping with all of this, I can't even begin to imagine the pain! Also, HUGE kudos to Bryan. I've been reading the blog every day to see how things have been going. He's obviously been an absolute angel, so three cheers for him :) Take care and I will try my best to pop in next week. Could you get someone to email me your address? Also let me know if you fancy and DVDs or books, although you might prefer them in January?
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