Just wanted to update you all...my surgery was last Thursday, December 14th with Dr. Burkus at the Hughston Orthopedic Hospital in Columbus, GA. I can't say enough wonderful things about Dr. Burkus and his assistant Brian and the nurses and entire staff at the clinic & hospital.
At the pre-op the day before they took more standing and bending x-rays, and then told me that in 5 months since my last appointment, I had developed pretty severe arthritis at L4-L5 (which totally surprised me, I'm 20 years old and have never heard of someone my age with arthritis but it explains a lot of my pain when standing or sitting for any length of time). Originally, they had planned for the anterior approach and fusing T11-L3 with a rib removal. But because of the L4-L5, they decided to fuse T10-L5 instead...which meant that they would do the posterior approach instead. I was all for it, even though I was prepared for the anterior surgery and it meant a longer fusion. I know the posterior surgery is more traditional...to me it just sounds less risky, though I know that the rate of complications is about the same. I was happy about the change anyway.
Day 1-surgery day...I was pretty calm the morning of the surgery, we stayed in Columbus overnight and got to the hospital at 6am. They got things moving pretty quickly...lots of things to sign, I met the anesthesiologist and the person who would monitor my spinal cord & brain during the surgery, and a couple of nurses who would be in the OR. My doctor's PA came by as well to answer any questions, and at around 8:00 they gave me 2 Valium & a Pepcid. They put all kinds of electrode things all over me and started my IV and I was taken into the OR around 9:30. I remember it was freeeeezing and talking to the nurses then my doctor came in and told me they were going to take good care of me. I don't remember them telling me they started the anesthesia, suddenly it was the next night though! haha. I don't remember anything about the wake-up test, though I knew they were going to do one. The surgery took about 3 and 1/2 hours I think, then I was in recovery for a couple of hours, then was taken to ICU (where I had one-on-one care the entire time). My mom and boyfriend said I was in quite a bit of pain on Thursday and was awake and crying, but I don't remember it at ALL. I remember opening my eyes maybe once and noticing the color shirt my boyfriend was wearing for some reason, but that is absolutely all I remember about the day of the surgery. I think this is the day they gave me my blood I donated before the surgery. Apparently I lost 800cc during the surgery...? I don't know if that is more than normal or not.
Day 2-I don't remember anything until late Friday night when my mom and nurse gave me a bed bath. It's strange to me how I don't remember anything up until then, my mom said I even pressed my morphine PCA pump a few times (though she did it a lot for me when I was in a lot of pain) and my family and boyfriend tell me things I said (mostly I asked the same questions over and over again). I even asked my mom to call one of my friends from school and let me talk to her, but I don't remember the conversation! haha
Day 3-This is the first day I was really alert at all. I was in some pain, but used the PCA to manage it. I remember being extremely itchy all over from the morphine. They gave me shots of Vistaril (sp?) which is "anti-spasmodic, anti-nausea, anti-itch"...miracle drug for me that day, and Benadryl through my IV. I was also irritable because I was tired of the catheter and because they had to come and measure me in bed for the brace because they made the wrong kind or something. (I was measured for it pre-op originally). PT and OT also came that day and made me sit up and then move to a chair, which was pretty painful (and irritating because of all my "attachments" and the catheter and all). The nurses had sat me up sometime on Thursday or Friday but this is the first time I remember really moving much. It was just a long day and all I wanted to do was lay in bed, but it seemed like tons of people kept coming in for one reason or another. Plus I had family visiting again that day and I wasn't really up to visiting. Oh, and also, I got a yeast infection that day due to the antibiotics, so I was really upset about that (it just wasn't what I needed right then!). This was definitely my worst day at the hospital, but I had the best nurse that day that got me through it. I was really sad when she had to take me from ICU to a regular room that evening, but she came and visited me the next day.
Day 4-I didn't sleep well the night before, they had taken me off the morphine and started me on Percoset orally and gave me shots of Diloted (sp) in the hip as needed, though I don't remember if that's a pain medicine or an anti-muscle spasm medicine. They also gave me Soma, an anti-muscle spasm pill. I started feeling somewhat better during the day though, I walked up and down the hall with PT and took a shower that evening.
Day 5-This was Monday, they told me I could go home a day early if I wanted to, because all they were doing was giving me pain medicine. I walked some more, got an x-ray taken, took a shower again, and left that afternoon. I don't know exactly what degree of correction they achieved, but I'll know for sure at my 1 month post-op appointment on January 16th. They weren't able to correct as much as expected (I was about 46 degrees and he expected to get me to less than 15 degrees). He told me it was corrected more than 50%, but I was more stiff around L4-L5 than expected. No one said an exact measurement.
I'm having good days and bad days this week at home, I have a lot of pain in my right hip from the bone graft (they also used BMP to accelerate the fusion. How long does that usually take for the bone graft pain to go away? When my Soma starts to wear off, the muscle spasms are pretty painful, but not excruciating. All of my pain is manageable. I have lost some sensation in my upper right leg...it's strange, I can feel pressure, temperature, pain, but not touch, it feels numb. I also have some pain in my right leg sitting up. My hip flexor on that side has been weak and kind of painful ever since the surgery, I can't lift that leg as far as my left. A PT told me it may have something to do with how I was positioned during surgery. I'm not sure, but I hope it comes back eventually. It's not something I couldn't live with though, I can get around fine, except for tightness in my hamstrings and quads. At about 6 days post op, I walked around my block. I haven't been able to do this every day. Like I said, there's good days and bad days. Also, some nights I sleep well and other nights I wake up quite a bit.
I'm sorry this is so long, but I wanted to get everything out while I'm feeling up to it! Thanks for listening. This forum has been a big help to me ever since I started considering surgery.
-Ashley
At the pre-op the day before they took more standing and bending x-rays, and then told me that in 5 months since my last appointment, I had developed pretty severe arthritis at L4-L5 (which totally surprised me, I'm 20 years old and have never heard of someone my age with arthritis but it explains a lot of my pain when standing or sitting for any length of time). Originally, they had planned for the anterior approach and fusing T11-L3 with a rib removal. But because of the L4-L5, they decided to fuse T10-L5 instead...which meant that they would do the posterior approach instead. I was all for it, even though I was prepared for the anterior surgery and it meant a longer fusion. I know the posterior surgery is more traditional...to me it just sounds less risky, though I know that the rate of complications is about the same. I was happy about the change anyway.
Day 1-surgery day...I was pretty calm the morning of the surgery, we stayed in Columbus overnight and got to the hospital at 6am. They got things moving pretty quickly...lots of things to sign, I met the anesthesiologist and the person who would monitor my spinal cord & brain during the surgery, and a couple of nurses who would be in the OR. My doctor's PA came by as well to answer any questions, and at around 8:00 they gave me 2 Valium & a Pepcid. They put all kinds of electrode things all over me and started my IV and I was taken into the OR around 9:30. I remember it was freeeeezing and talking to the nurses then my doctor came in and told me they were going to take good care of me. I don't remember them telling me they started the anesthesia, suddenly it was the next night though! haha. I don't remember anything about the wake-up test, though I knew they were going to do one. The surgery took about 3 and 1/2 hours I think, then I was in recovery for a couple of hours, then was taken to ICU (where I had one-on-one care the entire time). My mom and boyfriend said I was in quite a bit of pain on Thursday and was awake and crying, but I don't remember it at ALL. I remember opening my eyes maybe once and noticing the color shirt my boyfriend was wearing for some reason, but that is absolutely all I remember about the day of the surgery. I think this is the day they gave me my blood I donated before the surgery. Apparently I lost 800cc during the surgery...? I don't know if that is more than normal or not.
Day 2-I don't remember anything until late Friday night when my mom and nurse gave me a bed bath. It's strange to me how I don't remember anything up until then, my mom said I even pressed my morphine PCA pump a few times (though she did it a lot for me when I was in a lot of pain) and my family and boyfriend tell me things I said (mostly I asked the same questions over and over again). I even asked my mom to call one of my friends from school and let me talk to her, but I don't remember the conversation! haha
Day 3-This is the first day I was really alert at all. I was in some pain, but used the PCA to manage it. I remember being extremely itchy all over from the morphine. They gave me shots of Vistaril (sp?) which is "anti-spasmodic, anti-nausea, anti-itch"...miracle drug for me that day, and Benadryl through my IV. I was also irritable because I was tired of the catheter and because they had to come and measure me in bed for the brace because they made the wrong kind or something. (I was measured for it pre-op originally). PT and OT also came that day and made me sit up and then move to a chair, which was pretty painful (and irritating because of all my "attachments" and the catheter and all). The nurses had sat me up sometime on Thursday or Friday but this is the first time I remember really moving much. It was just a long day and all I wanted to do was lay in bed, but it seemed like tons of people kept coming in for one reason or another. Plus I had family visiting again that day and I wasn't really up to visiting. Oh, and also, I got a yeast infection that day due to the antibiotics, so I was really upset about that (it just wasn't what I needed right then!). This was definitely my worst day at the hospital, but I had the best nurse that day that got me through it. I was really sad when she had to take me from ICU to a regular room that evening, but she came and visited me the next day.
Day 4-I didn't sleep well the night before, they had taken me off the morphine and started me on Percoset orally and gave me shots of Diloted (sp) in the hip as needed, though I don't remember if that's a pain medicine or an anti-muscle spasm medicine. They also gave me Soma, an anti-muscle spasm pill. I started feeling somewhat better during the day though, I walked up and down the hall with PT and took a shower that evening.
Day 5-This was Monday, they told me I could go home a day early if I wanted to, because all they were doing was giving me pain medicine. I walked some more, got an x-ray taken, took a shower again, and left that afternoon. I don't know exactly what degree of correction they achieved, but I'll know for sure at my 1 month post-op appointment on January 16th. They weren't able to correct as much as expected (I was about 46 degrees and he expected to get me to less than 15 degrees). He told me it was corrected more than 50%, but I was more stiff around L4-L5 than expected. No one said an exact measurement.
I'm having good days and bad days this week at home, I have a lot of pain in my right hip from the bone graft (they also used BMP to accelerate the fusion. How long does that usually take for the bone graft pain to go away? When my Soma starts to wear off, the muscle spasms are pretty painful, but not excruciating. All of my pain is manageable. I have lost some sensation in my upper right leg...it's strange, I can feel pressure, temperature, pain, but not touch, it feels numb. I also have some pain in my right leg sitting up. My hip flexor on that side has been weak and kind of painful ever since the surgery, I can't lift that leg as far as my left. A PT told me it may have something to do with how I was positioned during surgery. I'm not sure, but I hope it comes back eventually. It's not something I couldn't live with though, I can get around fine, except for tightness in my hamstrings and quads. At about 6 days post op, I walked around my block. I haven't been able to do this every day. Like I said, there's good days and bad days. Also, some nights I sleep well and other nights I wake up quite a bit.
I'm sorry this is so long, but I wanted to get everything out while I'm feeling up to it! Thanks for listening. This forum has been a big help to me ever since I started considering surgery.
-Ashley
Comment