Dear Friends,
After a few pre-surgery posts, I zoomed off to New York City and Dr. Boachie took my 65 degree curve down to 23. My fusions were from T4 to L3.
I was in the hospital for ELEVEN days. My stomach did not wake up for a full ten days and they considered doing some sort of emergency surgery, because it was so horribly swollen. In fact, I looked to be in advanced pregnancy at age 55. Fortunately, things started moving . . . finally!
I also had problems with pain management. I was either hallucinating and completely out of it OR I was in such extreme pain that I repeatedly jumped out of bed with the plan of escaping the hospital and getting myself to the nearest pharmacy. Of course, this plan had holes. I just was too drugged out to think of a more realistic approach. Sometimes, I did get way down the hall before I was taken back to bed. Three times, I pulled out my IV. Apparently, I got back my walking skills quite early. In fact, under supervision, I'd walk around and around and around the halls until Dr. Boachie was notified and he told me and the nursing staff that I needed to "cool it" and rest a bit more.
Unlike Shell, the pain management team at the Hospital for Special Surgery came to check on me about four times a day. They tried a variety of meds, hoping to decrease the pain AND kick the stomach into gear. I was on and off the morphine pump three different times, given various injections and oral meds. Sorry, I can't be more specific about those medications and my three young adult children were too traumatized to keep accurate records.
Here's the GOOD PART, as soon as they let me out of there at 9:00 p.m. on the eleven day, my drug haze began to lift and my pain levels went down. According to the pain management director, this is really common.
My daughter, sister and I were at the hospital's guest house for another week before flying back to Utah. On my first morning after leaving the hospital, I was able to shower, blow dry and curl my hair. IT was such a victory, but it DID wipe me out. Right after that, my daughter and I went over to Dr. Boachie's office to check on a little fall I'd taken while packing my luggage on the previous evening. It took over two hours of waiting and then another hour doing x-rays and evaluations. Soooo, I managed a long, long day.
Since then, I have had an amazing recovery. I got all my trouble on the front end and now I'm doing incredibly well. I thought Pam was one in a million, doing the 5K. Well, ever since I got back to Utah, 18 days after surgery, I've been hiking the canyon behind my home. Two weeks have passed, and I now am able to go about a mile up the trail and a mile back down. I was completely prepared to recover at a normal rate, but I am surprising myself more than anyone. I have to give some credit to Pilates. I did two years of Pilates training before my surgery (3 times a week) and that helped to put me in good physical shape. I recommend it strongly. So does Dr. Boachie, since he wrote the forward to the book "Pilates for Fragile Backs"
Anyhow, several of you helped me with postings and private messages. I so appreciate all of the support I've received. My kids got rather tired of me quoting different things that were said on the forum. But the truth is, you have all given me an anchor so I didn't go into this blind.
I have wanted to "give back", but instead of being an active member on the forum, I've done it by recording my surgery experience through a blog with several YouTube clips and lots of photos that help to show some of the realities of recovering from scoliosis surgery.
Here's the link
http://gingerinrecovery.blogspot.com
Best wishes to all my fellow 'scolis'!
Ginger
After a few pre-surgery posts, I zoomed off to New York City and Dr. Boachie took my 65 degree curve down to 23. My fusions were from T4 to L3.
I was in the hospital for ELEVEN days. My stomach did not wake up for a full ten days and they considered doing some sort of emergency surgery, because it was so horribly swollen. In fact, I looked to be in advanced pregnancy at age 55. Fortunately, things started moving . . . finally!
I also had problems with pain management. I was either hallucinating and completely out of it OR I was in such extreme pain that I repeatedly jumped out of bed with the plan of escaping the hospital and getting myself to the nearest pharmacy. Of course, this plan had holes. I just was too drugged out to think of a more realistic approach. Sometimes, I did get way down the hall before I was taken back to bed. Three times, I pulled out my IV. Apparently, I got back my walking skills quite early. In fact, under supervision, I'd walk around and around and around the halls until Dr. Boachie was notified and he told me and the nursing staff that I needed to "cool it" and rest a bit more.
Unlike Shell, the pain management team at the Hospital for Special Surgery came to check on me about four times a day. They tried a variety of meds, hoping to decrease the pain AND kick the stomach into gear. I was on and off the morphine pump three different times, given various injections and oral meds. Sorry, I can't be more specific about those medications and my three young adult children were too traumatized to keep accurate records.
Here's the GOOD PART, as soon as they let me out of there at 9:00 p.m. on the eleven day, my drug haze began to lift and my pain levels went down. According to the pain management director, this is really common.
My daughter, sister and I were at the hospital's guest house for another week before flying back to Utah. On my first morning after leaving the hospital, I was able to shower, blow dry and curl my hair. IT was such a victory, but it DID wipe me out. Right after that, my daughter and I went over to Dr. Boachie's office to check on a little fall I'd taken while packing my luggage on the previous evening. It took over two hours of waiting and then another hour doing x-rays and evaluations. Soooo, I managed a long, long day.
Since then, I have had an amazing recovery. I got all my trouble on the front end and now I'm doing incredibly well. I thought Pam was one in a million, doing the 5K. Well, ever since I got back to Utah, 18 days after surgery, I've been hiking the canyon behind my home. Two weeks have passed, and I now am able to go about a mile up the trail and a mile back down. I was completely prepared to recover at a normal rate, but I am surprising myself more than anyone. I have to give some credit to Pilates. I did two years of Pilates training before my surgery (3 times a week) and that helped to put me in good physical shape. I recommend it strongly. So does Dr. Boachie, since he wrote the forward to the book "Pilates for Fragile Backs"
Anyhow, several of you helped me with postings and private messages. I so appreciate all of the support I've received. My kids got rather tired of me quoting different things that were said on the forum. But the truth is, you have all given me an anchor so I didn't go into this blind.
I have wanted to "give back", but instead of being an active member on the forum, I've done it by recording my surgery experience through a blog with several YouTube clips and lots of photos that help to show some of the realities of recovering from scoliosis surgery.
Here's the link
http://gingerinrecovery.blogspot.com
Best wishes to all my fellow 'scolis'!
Ginger
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