More about the surgery

I was home after three nights in the hospital and had my staples removed on Monday, the 12th. I am walking okay for short periods, but still can't sit for more than a few minutes without massive pain. The surgeon has advised me not to sit for a month. So, I just lie down popping pills and take short walks. Still, this is head and shoulders above my prior recovery period.

During my lifetime, I have heard the following phrases a lot:

"We have never seen THAT before"

"First time we've seen THAT"

"THAT certainly is unique"

"I think I once read about a guy who had that happen (with astonished look)"

After the surgery, my surgeon told my wife that something really rare happened during my operation. After he put in the screws and the rods to stabilize the L4/L5 vertebrae to a normal spacing, my "destroyed" disc sucked back into that space and resumed looking like a good disc. So, what he did was put a bone graft along the lateral sides of the disc and the posterior part where the hardware is.

So, I technically have had a spinal fusion, but I still have the disc. This should help with the healing process and allow for more normal movement in the future. Next time I see the doctor, I will ask him more about this, as I still don't understand exactly how that all worked.

As for the hospital stay itself, it was mostly uneventful, except for one nurse from hell. The IV port in my wrist was having trouble taking the pain injection without being flushed first with saline. The other nurses knew this and handled it fine. This one did the pain injection first and while I screamed she just looked at me and smiled while saying, "You want your medicine, don't you?" Thankfully, my wife and the CNA (Thanks, Donna!) who was helping me got the nursing supervisor to take over until I was discharged. I cannot wait until I get the customer satisfaction survey from the hospital.

As you can see from my posts, I am having fun surfing the web from my bed. Thanks again to those who wrote with their good thoughts - they worked!

Original post about the surgery.

June 19th Update

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