Monday, April 29, 2013

One Week - and anxious

One week from today, I will have kissed my husband good night and sent him on his way home. It will be 'day one' of a (what I hope) will be a three day stay in the hospital. I'm having an anterior cervical discectomy and fusion and we hope (know, wish, beg) that this will fix the current and ever present pain, loss of feeling, numbness and weakness that has been a constant August 2012.

Like any major surgery, it has risks. Not having it fixed, also has risks (not having it corrected has a higher chance of serious complication). Overall, I'm okay with the surgery and the plan. I'm not fixated on the 'what if's' and I expect the surgery to be a success. I've got no reason not to think it won't work!

In 2003, I had a lumbar/sacral fusion due to spondylolisthesis. It too was a three day stay - that morphed into an eight day, five infection, wrong medication (twice) hospital stay from hell. I came out the other side with a brand new lease on life and I hit the ground running and never looked back. The surgery was very successful and with in six months, I was back doing what I did before (and more). Pain was minimal and although I did still occasionally suffer from pain (mostly sciatica), I could usually stretch it out and keep going.

In 2007, I tore a disc in my back while pregnant with TroubleMaker. It would appear that pregnant women with previous back fusions don't have the same ability to flex as the baby gets bigger... It's all fine now, thought, it healed on it's own.

So back issues aren't new and even spinal fusions aren't new, but I'm a little worried and I believe that's got a lot to do with being a Mom now... It also has to do with remembering the pain of pacing the hospital hallways for two nights begging for someone to help me - to help ease the pain. To please LOOK at  the surgery site because something was seriously wrong... That was a truly dehumanizing experience that I do not want to relive. (In case you're wondering, I had a staph infection, obtained in the hospital, in my shiny new, 8" long incision. The staff kept telling me I'd just had back surgery and I had to expect some pain. I was up walking, the pain from the surgery was minute compared to burning, stabbing ache of having all the skin around your surgery site (and right around to the front) infected with a staph infection that was causing the problems))

I've stocked the freezers with food for when I get home, I've got a brand new bag of peas (for icing), I've got a back log of my soap opera to watch and I've got a bunch of books and I've got my story (which I've started writing on again - what can I say? I'm week and in love with my characters, I just couldn't walk away from them). :)

So... We'll see you when we see you.

xo
Corrie

3 comments:

  1. Holy sweet Jesus god. I think I would have burned that hospital to ground and had the police take me out. Or become a super villain. Whichever looked better at the time.

    Thankfully you seem to be a better person then me. Or at least less murderous.

    P.S I used mixed vegetables. Nothing says healing like thawing food with your skin!

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    Replies
    1. Oh, Holly... You are the person I wish I could be! That's why I love your blog so much! Your posts take me to that beautiful happy space (in my head) where I unleash my inner tree planting, possum stabbing, tire changing, wine drinking, chicken wrestling, country living awesome ninja (I had to Google possum, BTW and holy sweet jesus god, I'd take on a hospital full of staph infections before stabbing one of those sons a...)

      I'm likely only slightly less murderous but it's because I'm Canadian; we're a very polite people. :)

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    2. Aw, thank you! Ha ha country living. Yup. Sometimes best experienced vicariously.

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