Adventures in Surgery
It has been a wild ride.
On March 22 I had a lumbar laminectomy. I have very vague memories of attempting to remember a taiko sequence while being brought up from anesthesia. I may have been put back down and then moved to be re woken because when I woke up again I was in the hospital room, in a bed, on my back. I don't remember if mom was already there or came in. Just that I was aware there was another patient behind the curtain to my left and I wanted food.
I was later brought soup. I asked for real food. I got real food, don't remember what it was though, just that it was actual solid food after insisting on real food, that it was satisfying, good, and staying down better than the soup was going to. Something vague memories about hysterectomy.
I spent the night in the hospital as I expected, but I also spent most of the time on my back because of a possible headache and a possible spinal leak due to how much of one of the disks had to be removed and how close to the nerve they had to get. Comforting. So, there was much laying quietly, wearing the leg pumps, envisioning things healing up, pumping my ankles and hoping for no blood clots.
The next day before what was supposed to be my first physical therapy session the nurses wanted me to have my albuterol for my asthma. Problem: No outside medicines allowed. Also: they did not have MY stuff. No inhaler. So whatever equivalency they had via nebulizer. I tried to refuse it because I've never used a nebulizer before and one of those makes sure you get every molecule whereas an inhaler does not. Therefore the dose is NOT the same. I ended up getting bullied into it in the end... then did my walking. I didn't get to attempt the stair climbing even though I got through the walking. I had a collapse and had to be caught. My blood pressure spiked. Everything went grey, then black, and it was cold. I was told my lips were blue and white at different times.
So yeah... fun times.
Fludrocortizone to bring up my normally low blood pressure, primary doctor is flabbergasted about the nebulizer thing but it's safe to continue using my inhaler (but NOT a nebulizer and we still aren't certain what the nurses used since they didn't note it and I wasn't in a state I should have just been told it). It may be lucky though it this instance my blood pressure normally runs low.
Anyway, that incident resulted in a much longer hospital stay! Whee... *sigh* And of course the pads and safety bars were up on the bed day and night because of the seizure risk (small, but there). Where did they put the bed control? At the foot of the bed outside where I could not get to it without sitting up and bending in ways I wasn't supposed to. Soooo I couldn't even get comfortable at times I desperately needed to change both elevation and position. That sucked. Sleeping on the side while elevated is a whole new exercise in figuring out ways to get semi comfortable when on the back is no longer tolerable whatsoever.
Those hospital beds? Fully possible to feel the metal frame beneath at just 126 pounds. I am not sure if that is a product of my weight or being thrust back into hyper-sensitive nerves (Princess and the Pea syndrome, hate it).
I didn't get to go home until the 26th. I got a nice wheelchair of my own for when I need it though, and I managed getting through the ride home, even though we took a detour to Mt Shasta Burger King to see my brother and Maxaxle real quick. I was about ready to cry toward the end because my meds were wearing off and I'd been up too long on too firm a surface... but I did.
Then I got home.
And the bed was soft. Ahhhh
Then later on I forget which day, I discovered my hip kept getting stuck in... a hole that developed in the bedframe I'd forgotten, that made log rolling even MORE difficult that in already was. It made me question how hard it must have been for me to learn that feat as a baby and whether I'd been cranky while trying to learn mobility. I bet I was.
Then the next week or two later, my loving little brother and angelic git er done mother stuck an osb board under my spiffy memory foam mattress to teach the whole dang bed who is boss and show that hole what for. The mattress... instantly becomes hard as a rock. I'm not sure if this is more Princess and the Pea crap or not, I've yet to have Merlin test the bed, but Mom agrees that the bed had become hard. So... the next week during my next doctor's appointment we are down in Redding again, so I sourced a fancy foam topper to solve the problem. Now my softness and support problems are both solved and I don't have to stick pillows in funny places to prevent pops, leaving me free to create a nest so I don't fall over in spine-twisting ways.
Right now it's a good thing it's just me in the big bed. It's quite the nest.
Other aspects of life right now are also strange. When not sleeping I still have a few more weeks of wearing a full back brace. I'm not supposed to bend, or lift more than 10 pounds double-handed, nor am I supposed to twist. Rather difficult to restrict myself. I'm also shaky, probably because I don't eat as much as I should, and that's more of an appetite thing than an availability thing (no roaring Athena) but may also be partly a nervous system thing as it tries to figure out rerouting stuff due to the interruption. I remember being this way during the first injury, so I expect a bit of the same as the nerves heal. Need lots of protein for muscles and nerve sheaths.