November 9th!!

[jackieg412]

Happy thanksgiving. Looks great.

[osumike]

Had an interesting thing happen yesterday. So I was laying in bed, the hospital bed in this rehab place, with the back tilted up a ways. So I was laying, but my torso was angled up at,I dunno, let's say a 45° angle. All of a sudden, the bed gave out, and the part that was tilted up just fell down about 4" I'd guess. Very abruptly, which also means my body was very temporarily not in contact with the bed, and slammed down on it after the bed caught and stopped falling. It wasn't very far, but it definitely hurt to land on my back like that.

Go figure, it was thanksgiving, but they did have a maintenance man come in to take a look. He had no clue because this bed was borrowed from the hospital because of its extra length. I am like 6'7" or so... So we ended up just laying the bed flat and unplugging it so it couldn't be moved overnight accidentally. They're supposed to be delivering a new bed this morning sometime around 10:00.

In the meantime, I'm stuck sitting in what they call a cardiac chair...? I've never heard that term. Basically just a small recliner that's electric that will recline, extend the foot rest, and also move itself into position to help you stand up. Not the most comfortable, but it is what it is. My back felt like it was on fire after that bed collapsed like that yesterday, and the best they would do for the pain was give my meds a half hour early.

Anyway, other than that, I really do feel like everyday is getting better. I'm trying really hard in PT and OT, I just want to get out of here and get home! I'm having my girlfriend, mom, and dad go out and buy me a nice recliner for when I do get home(which I'm expecting will be absolutely no more than two weeks.) Probably more like one week. My dad is tall like me, he's 6'6", so I talked him into going out on this crazy shopping day to sit in a few to see if they're big enough.

Have a great day everyone!

[Pooka1]

Hey Mike. That's crazy about the bed. Sorry that happened.

Your spirits seem high which is so good. That will help so much.

[titaniumed]

Mike,

You didn’t eat the stuffing did you? This probably contributed to the failure of the hospital furniture. He he Hope this new pain passes quickly....

The scars look good, keep an eye on them. If there is any doubt, redness, swelling etc, have your doc take a look. Incisional infection is serious. Is your fluid pocket improving?

I can understand about wanting to break out and go home.....

Are you log rolling out of bed now? or using the tilt table?

Things do get better everyday.....

Ed

[osumike]

No tilt table. I was on it maybe 3 times, and doc said forget it, and I've been doing the log rolling method. Just got the bed fixed, repair guy said he'd bet his life that it wouldn't happen again. We'll see. My family from Ohio showed up here yesterday evening, they'll stay for the weekend. I've been wanting to get a nice recliner for when I do get to go home, so since today is black Friday, I figured I'd try talking them into it. They agreed, and since my dad is 6'6", I talked him into going with the women so he could test out the size for me... Haha.. They picked a nice one out, and it'll be waiting for me whenever I get to go home.

[titaniumed]

Mike

Your approx 18 days now. You hanging in there?

I’m wondering what kind of meds your taking being as large as you are? I peaked out at around 5 weeks post on well over 100Mg of Percoset. I’m having trouble remembering this stuff lately.

What do you think on breaking out? Do I need to post some Thin Lizzy? (smiley face)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRo3u04vY1E

Ed

[osumike]

Funny you should ask... I just texted Jenn I'm ready to break outta here! They're actually doing the home assessment this Wednesday, so I'm planning on going home after that. Just need a couple handles installed. One right by the entry door in the garage that goes into the house, and at least one just outside the shower. I'm hangin, but I'm ready to get home.

Meds... Ah yeah.. So before surgery I was taking 60mg of morphine twice a day, 10/325 Percocet at least twice, sometimes three, and rarely four times a day, and a muscle relaxer twice a day.

Right now I'm taking 20mg of oxycodone every 3-4 hours, 60mg morphine twice a day, I think it's 100mg of gabapentin twice a day, Tylenol a few times a day... I was taking valium every 4 hours, but as of last evening,I told the nurse that I'd like to stop taking that one. I'm not real sure it was doing much, but mostly I just didn't want another med to try to kick later on. They're also giving me vit c, iron, and senna for my bowles. I know this is kinda gross but I actual had to request a butt pill a couple times because I just couldn't go, and I didn't want that to get too far out of hand. Since the last one it's been all good.

And man, I used to listen to thin lizzy a bunch!

[titaniumed]

My surgeon asked me how many steps I had in my home quite a few times. I have 2 leading into the house......It was all about falling. No steps, no treadmill. Anything to keep from falling.

We have to become lower GI experts after spine surgery. Opioid’s have a tendency to lock us up, and opioid constipation is extremely painful. It’s a careful balance of spine pain or lower GI pain.

I was saved by the Magnesium Citrate. Sold over the counter, $2 per bottle, it would be a good idea to have a few bottles of this laxative on standby, it will save a trip to the hospital in case you lock up again.

With me, it seemed that the lower GI pain outweighed the spine pain, and that was what made me quit the meds. After 6 weeks of this, I was willing to accept some spine pain over bowel issues. I replaced the meds with nutrients, thru smoothies. It takes a lot of energy to heal, eating and re-supplying that energy becomes a necessary thing. I lost 40# in 40 days and was withering away and turning grey.

I would boil in my tub and listen to a queen concert dvd over and over since it was not a priority changing the disc! I listened to “Another one bites the dust” hundreds of times, and came close, but no dusty for me!

My survival along with healing was my priority back in those days.....There were no outside distractions, everything other than maintaining myself was put on the backburner. I wasn’t going to worry about anything other than healing. It was my time to recover......

Ed

[osumike]

Yeah, I've also decided I need to just focus on me as much as possible. My full recovery is most important at this point.

So it appears I might have developed a seroma on my lower back. It's been swollen a bit since I left the hospital and came to this rehab place, and it has appeared it's been pooling fluid. It hasn't bothered me at all, really, pain wise. Until yesterday. It's as big as it's ever been, and it's starting to get pretty painful. Painful to the point that it affected my physical and occupational therapy. My next appointment to see my surgeon was Dec 22, and I just didn't think that was soon enough. I sent some pictures of the bulge, and pretty much right away I got a call from his nurse saying they want me to come in on the 5th. Of course that made me extremely nervous that something more serious was going on, but then she described the fluid and how my body just isn't reabsorbing it. My family doc is also coming in here to see me today, so I'm hoping to hear it's just a seroma, and it'll need to be drained.

Here's a couple pics of the "bulge".......

[titaniumed]

Mike, Seroma has been mentioned here in the past.....

Be sure to let us know what your family doc thinks....

I was told that if I had anything happen to simply come on down to the office. It didn’t matter if my surgeon was there, they had multiple docs, nurses, and PA’s hanging around.

How often are you up and walking each day? Since I couldn’t sleep much or sit, I was either walking or pacing most of the time. I assume that this helps with the draining and equalizing process. I had my ileus and my feet and ankles were huge from edema.

I hope this passes quickly

Ed

[osumike]

The nurse practitioner here at rehab thought the "bulge" deserved immediate attention. She contacted my surgeons office, who wanted me to come in today. Which was great, because I was in a lot of pain, and I just wanted an answer about whether this was something to worry about or not.

I wasn't able to see my surgeon, but one of his associates, and another ortho scoli surgeon, which was fine with me. We quickly and obviously determined it wasn't spinal fluid, because I didn't have a headache that felt like my head exploded. (I've had a headache from spinal fluid leakage before, and it is absolutely the worst. EVER.) So it is a seroma. They decided they were going to drain it right there. They removed 500cc of fluid, and definitely could've kept going, taking more out. He was like pushing fluid down my spine and incision area to where they had the syringe sucking all that junk out. Kinda gross, but here's a pic of all the fluid they removed:

http://www.scoliosis.org/forum/attac...2&d=1480466908

I'm back laying in bed on my back right now, and my pain level is much better, BUT, I've taken all my meds a little over an hour ago. They fitted a sort of corset for me, to help my body absorb the rest of the fluid. If that doesn't work, they'll put a drain tube in me, and admit me in the hospital for a couple days. If THAT doesn't work, then they'll have to surgically go in and clean everything out. Hoping it doesn't come to that.

The doc said this is fairly common, especially given the size and severity of surgery I had.

Ed, I have been up and walking quite a bit, the nurses here have been telling me how great and fast my progress is going. But now that I'm thinking about it, I think I should be getting up a lot more frequently just to take a walk around.

[titaniumed]

Mike, good call on your nurses part....Glad you got some relief. That is a lot of fluid...

It would be logical to say that any infection involves worsening pain....and your ability to feel this pain change over your current medication dosage is critical, along with having professionals monitor your seroma and your incisions. It would also be logical to say that early detection of infection would be beneficial.....I am guessing you will be hanging out for a little while longer...

Have you experienced any night sweats? I had that happen every few days for months, I am guessing that it was my body fighting off infection, that, and a combination of the meds. (anesthesia meds) I was also very cold for a really long time. I didn’t have an electric blanket, but that sure sounds like a good idea. Freezing/sweating/and freezing, again and again.

My surgeon warned me about being sedentary in my recovery and didn’t want me hanging out in bed all day long.....I didn’t see what the problem was since sleeping for me was so hard even being as tired as I was.....if I wasn’t sleeping, I was up, and I was up like 20 hours per day. Standing is also exercise, and that leads to walking....I have no idea how exercise affects fluid absorption, all I can say is that it did work for me with ileus and edema. I didn’t have a seroma....

I hope this mellows out....

Ed

[osumike]

Hey Ed, as far as they could tell, that was not an infection at all, just fluid that wouldn't be absorbed by the tissues in my body. There was still quite a large bulge even after they took all that fluid out, which I thought was odd. I mean, there's clearly more fluid in there, you've already got a huge needle in me, why not try to remove as much as you possibly can at that time? Last night I put on that corset, as tight as I could get it, and took quite a long walk around this place. I took it off before I went to bed, and as I'm typing this, I can physically feel that the bulge isn't nearly as big as it was. Could be a coincidence, but it's encouraging, so I'll definitely be wearing that thing more often than not.

The first week or so after surgery, the night sweats were absolutely terrible. I would wake up in the middle of the night, and feel like I was just in a swimming pool. Just absolutely soaked. I'd have to change my clothes and sometimes call a nurse in to change my bedding. It was awful. That's gotten much better, although sometimes, I do wake up in the middle of the night, like right now, and my back is a little sweaty. I think that's just because I keep this room a little warm, because like you, I've felt freezing cold ever since surgery. Sometimes I just can't get myself to warm up. I mean, I am in Wisconsin, but it's only been in the 40's, and I've not been outside too much. I've been layering on clothes though! I do feel like I'm starting to get over that as well lately.

Before I went to see the surgeon yesterday, we went to my house to do a home evaluation about my coming home soon. I've already ordered a ton of medical equipment from Amazon that'll be delivered today... Raised toilet seat with handles, a walker, grab bars for the bathrooms and one for the door going into the house, I got one of those bed rails that sit between the box spring and mattress, have legs on the floor, then a rail that goes up above the mattress so I'll have something to help push myself up when I logroll out of bed. Yeah, the plan is still for me to go home tomorrow. There's really nothing more that I can do at this rehab place that I can't do at home, so I'm busting out. Pt has recommended in home therapy for a while after I go home, which is fine with me. It'll be 2 or 3 days a week.

Later today I'll go see my family doctor, I suppose just for a general checkup, and for him to sign off saying I'm good to go home. It's about 3 weeks earlier than originally expected, but I really have made great physical progress since I've been here. Other than that damn fluid pooling.

Well, it's like after 3am here and I feel wide awake, so maybe I'll put my corset on and go for a quick stroll..

[jackieg412]

Hi Mike. I live in Illinois and can relate to freezing. One thing I found was wearing a polar fleece vest helps. It keeps you core warm. I sometimes even sleep with it on. Try it. It can't hurt anything.

[osumike]

Yeah I actually got one of those moisture wicking, under layer things, long sleeve..... It's super thin material, and you'd never think it would keep you warm, but it works really well... Very surprising. This is actually exactly what I've been wearing:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00SC...?ie=UTF8&psc=1