Yesterday was a bit of a more eventful day, my parents stopped by in a 2002 Toyota MRS that they had purchased seemingly on impulse that morning. Thanks to that, they were feeling particularly festive and helped Bryan decorate the bare christmas tree with the box of decorations Garry found left behind at an office he was moving. My tree is now groaning under the weight of the dozens of baubells (sp?) and lights, but made an impressive sight on walking outside this evening. We wandered down the street a fair way and could only see one other, but no-where near as fancy looking as ours. I can't see us turning into Franklin Road any time soon, but I love fairy lights.
I'm feeling much better today, my tummy has settled down a lot. I've been off all morphine since the day after I got home. Although I was adamant before surgery that Tramadol does nothing for me, it seems to have some effect- although I can't really tell when it wears off. I'm glad to be feeling comfortable most of the time, with my tummy being the worst part lately. I get breakthrough pain at times though, which usually comes after lying in one spot for a while. It literally takes my breath away. I felt well enough for Bryan to leave me at home alone for 20min or so to whip down to the pharmacy in the morning, then an afternoon trip to Browns Bay for a frappacino. I feel up to a car trip, but Bryan's racing suspension doesn't appeal considering I have to remind people to tread softly around me in the lounge. Everyones footsteps can be felt in my body. It's not painful, but an unpleasant sensation like fingernails on a blackboard. I guess a spinal fusion effectively removes your natural shock absorbers in your spine- the layers of cartilige between your vertebrae, and packs the spaces with solid bone.
One of the best things has been the home baking people have done for me. Yesterday Bryan's nana stopped by with some ginger crunch, which on an upset tummy seemed to be really good. A few days prior Bryan's mum Glennis made me some really good anzac biscuits. Then Regan and Andy brought around a care package wtih some pumpkin bread they had made, along with some other goodies. Bryan has been helping out with the chocolate, I think all the running around after me has made him hungry. Being stranded helps me moderate my consumption of goodies, needing them all brought to me or being released from my chair to fend for myself briefly.
It's about 4am Monday, I'm still not sleeping through the night but thankfully the worst of the dreams seem over. Bryan is up with me at the moment reading his book waiting for me to feel ready for sleep again. It seems that between 3 and 4am is when I wake, but can usually get back to sleep. Bryan is still being wonderful, and I'm hoping that he won't get burnt out. He's wondering how best to spend his now enourmous pile of brownie points he's earned from being my 24 hour carer.
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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.
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