Entry for latest ever surgery announcement (late but long!).
I wanted very much to announce this sooner (along with questions - guess you're spared that!), but there was a possibility of delay two weeks ago for reasons I look forward to discussing with you all - hint, has to do with new world of Pain Management docs and by the time it was resolved, it was - (almost) now.
I just got word that I'm to be at the Hospital for Special Surgery at 5:30 AM for a 7:30 op. Gauging by the accidental message I got informing me the plastics guy is scheduled to come at 4 PM, I 'm guessing Dr. (Frank) Schwab is expecting my procedure to last 8+ hours - a good bit longer than he guesstimated to me.
I'm to have a fusion from T4 to the pelvis with one T-LIF, iliac crest harvesting (posterior - new approach, thank goodness). BMP and odds and ends probably to try to open up some of the pinched nerves governing elimination and left foot drop. Without any real hope that they can be corrected, though, after all the delay in the surgery (couldn't proceed until son basically grew up enough to be willing and able to help afterwards). I DO still need to hire female help, for hands on personal care we've all agreed is not up sons' alley). Probably to be in hospital a week or so, before moving to PA rehab (acute, sub-acute? As yet unknown, but we've visited two we liked - hope they are approved and have openings.)
I've been so frantic preparing owing to snafus and last minute applications of Murphey's Law, I didn't have time to write much of anyone in my internet social circle - not even you all who have done so much to help inform my decisions on and off during the last seven years. That’s when I began to investigate the great What If? This is now my loss, as I missed out on one of your great bennies - the super support system. Hope it can be somewhat mobilized still, though more to help with my recovery (the big question mark) than helping psych me up to taking the leap.
Perhaps that's as it should be, because my extreme busyness made it almost impossible to worry about what lay ahead. I expect it will hit me as I lie shivering in the pre-op room talking to the anesthesiologist and hoping I get a good phleotomist (not one who harpoons me on the pretext of “rolling veins” like two ops ago). In fact, I’ve had five operations since this time last year, and that AFTER breaking my leg (so I know it’s not my veins). It’s been quite a year, though none of those problems were structural. I didn’t even sleep last night owing to a combination of lost sleeping aid and a suddenly loosened dental implant. (That required spending much of today tracking down an urgent care dental clinic to screw it in tighter. Do NOT think they’d have agreed to intubate me with a mysteriously loose tooth.)
The die was cast. I figured my back wasn't going to get better on its own, and as the kyphosis was deteriorating ever more rapidly, I 'd better take a shot at an improved quality of life. Besides, at seventy, I knew I was bound to run into a disqualifying condition, waiting. Last year's breast cancer was a sample shock, despite my blessed reprieve. My fears are the usual ones, adding in special worry about sciatica since I have thus far had no leg pain (JINX!) not counting foot drop on one side. Then too, being no stoic, I am anxious about today's pendulum swing demonizing opiates (what if I'm one of the unlucky ones who end up in more pain afterwards - and am expected to make do with accupuncture or other makeshifts?)
Before I know it, I will probably be waking up in (let's face it) excruciating pain - perhaps with little sense of the passage of time. I'm no stranger to pain but from the vivid descriptions I've followed, I gather this is a whole new altitude in pain. I've never yet rated my pain a 10 leaving room for what I knew COULD be, so I hope I can top out there and stand it in the faith that it WILL get better. Besides, I don't want to scare my sons who will be there with me, even though they are now adults. I am infinitely grateful for their helping out. And for you.
And now to fill out my medical directives update, while moving my gear from the wheeled bag they don't allow. Sons have already flipped coins to see who had to apply my antiseptic sponge (the sponge-stick thingie won't do). And then to bed until...
,
Dan or Ted will probably update you afterwards. God bless them both! (When they grow up, they really do come in handy, don't they?)
I wanted very much to announce this sooner (along with questions - guess you're spared that!), but there was a possibility of delay two weeks ago for reasons I look forward to discussing with you all - hint, has to do with new world of Pain Management docs and by the time it was resolved, it was - (almost) now.
I just got word that I'm to be at the Hospital for Special Surgery at 5:30 AM for a 7:30 op. Gauging by the accidental message I got informing me the plastics guy is scheduled to come at 4 PM, I 'm guessing Dr. (Frank) Schwab is expecting my procedure to last 8+ hours - a good bit longer than he guesstimated to me.
I'm to have a fusion from T4 to the pelvis with one T-LIF, iliac crest harvesting (posterior - new approach, thank goodness). BMP and odds and ends probably to try to open up some of the pinched nerves governing elimination and left foot drop. Without any real hope that they can be corrected, though, after all the delay in the surgery (couldn't proceed until son basically grew up enough to be willing and able to help afterwards). I DO still need to hire female help, for hands on personal care we've all agreed is not up sons' alley). Probably to be in hospital a week or so, before moving to PA rehab (acute, sub-acute? As yet unknown, but we've visited two we liked - hope they are approved and have openings.)
I've been so frantic preparing owing to snafus and last minute applications of Murphey's Law, I didn't have time to write much of anyone in my internet social circle - not even you all who have done so much to help inform my decisions on and off during the last seven years. That’s when I began to investigate the great What If? This is now my loss, as I missed out on one of your great bennies - the super support system. Hope it can be somewhat mobilized still, though more to help with my recovery (the big question mark) than helping psych me up to taking the leap.
Perhaps that's as it should be, because my extreme busyness made it almost impossible to worry about what lay ahead. I expect it will hit me as I lie shivering in the pre-op room talking to the anesthesiologist and hoping I get a good phleotomist (not one who harpoons me on the pretext of “rolling veins” like two ops ago). In fact, I’ve had five operations since this time last year, and that AFTER breaking my leg (so I know it’s not my veins). It’s been quite a year, though none of those problems were structural. I didn’t even sleep last night owing to a combination of lost sleeping aid and a suddenly loosened dental implant. (That required spending much of today tracking down an urgent care dental clinic to screw it in tighter. Do NOT think they’d have agreed to intubate me with a mysteriously loose tooth.)
The die was cast. I figured my back wasn't going to get better on its own, and as the kyphosis was deteriorating ever more rapidly, I 'd better take a shot at an improved quality of life. Besides, at seventy, I knew I was bound to run into a disqualifying condition, waiting. Last year's breast cancer was a sample shock, despite my blessed reprieve. My fears are the usual ones, adding in special worry about sciatica since I have thus far had no leg pain (JINX!) not counting foot drop on one side. Then too, being no stoic, I am anxious about today's pendulum swing demonizing opiates (what if I'm one of the unlucky ones who end up in more pain afterwards - and am expected to make do with accupuncture or other makeshifts?)
Before I know it, I will probably be waking up in (let's face it) excruciating pain - perhaps with little sense of the passage of time. I'm no stranger to pain but from the vivid descriptions I've followed, I gather this is a whole new altitude in pain. I've never yet rated my pain a 10 leaving room for what I knew COULD be, so I hope I can top out there and stand it in the faith that it WILL get better. Besides, I don't want to scare my sons who will be there with me, even though they are now adults. I am infinitely grateful for their helping out. And for you.
And now to fill out my medical directives update, while moving my gear from the wheeled bag they don't allow. Sons have already flipped coins to see who had to apply my antiseptic sponge (the sponge-stick thingie won't do). And then to bed until...
,
Dan or Ted will probably update you afterwards. God bless them both! (When they grow up, they really do come in handy, don't they?)
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