September 9th surgery

[rohrer01]

Melissa,
You've had so many difficult surgeries with your back, this should be a walk in the park in comparison. I'm not saying hip surgery is easy. But for those that have it that have not experienced the surgical pain that you have, I'm sure it's much tougher. For you, because of what you've already been through, it'll be much easier.

I certainly hope the surgery goes well. It was a real life saver for my one friend as far as pain reduction. Keep chipping away at what hurts and you'll eventually feel good. Are you scheduled for the 3rd?

Didn't Sally just have her hip done? You two can compare notes and support each other.

Hugs!

[mabeckoff]

Melissa,
You've had so many difficult surgeries with your back, this should be a walk in the park in comparison. I'm not saying hip surgery is easy. But for those that have it that have not experienced the surgical pain that you have, I'm sure it's much tougher. For you, because of what you've already been through, it'll be much easier.

I certainly hope the surgery goes well. It was a real life saver for my one friend as far as pain reduction. Keep chipping away at what hurts and you'll eventually feel good. Are you scheduled for the 3rd?

Didn't Sally just have her hip done? You two can compare notes and support each other.

Hugs!

His surgical nurse will call me to set up a date. He operates Tuesdays and Fridays. I do not want surgery on a friday.

I hope that Sally is ok

Melissa

[jackieg412]

How are you doing Melissa? Do take care of yourself--these surgeries are so close to one another--please take care
Jackie

[mabeckoff]

I went to UCI yesterday.I had an endoscopy which showed that my ulcer is healed. That is good news except I still have stomach pain. He gave me a acid reducer . He said to try it for 2 months and then see . I then went to see Dr Bederman. I found out why I was so sick after my last surgery. They gave me
ketamine. He said that it reduces pain after surgery, which lowers the amount of narcotics needed.He said that I should say that I am allergic to ketamine in the future when having surgery. He , also, wants me to wait to have more surgery until the end of August instead of the beginning of the month. He, also, told me to stop wearing my brace. I figured that he would do that . We agreed that I will stop wearing it at home but I can still wear it out of the house. I have 4 weeks to wean it off totally.

Melissa

[Susie*Bee]

Melissa-- those all sound like pretty good reports except for still having the stomach pain. Hopefully the acid reducer will help. It's good to know the cause of feeling so ill after your last surgery. My surgeon also had me take a month to wean off my brace. We reduced the amount of wearing it each day (4 hours on, 2 off, sort of) on a weekly basis till I was down to nothing on the 5th week. It's funny how tired my back was at first, but then it was ok. (smile) Sending hugs, Susie

[susancook]

Hi! I caught up with what you are doing in reading your recent posts. It does take a while for the acid reducers to work. Some people with acid problems have gastritis and that just takes time.

I think of you often and feel that you are finally on the upturn in life....probably not as fast as you want to, but you are on your way.

You are a very strong woman and I know that things will improve.

Hugs, Susan

[mabeckoff]

Thanks everyone for your good wishes. It does feel great to be on the upswing after such a long while of being the other way

[jackieg412]

Hi Melissa--how is your neck feeling now. Did the surgery help the issues? Is it much better now? I really hope so for all of your pain.

[jrnyc]

hi Melissa
i hope your stomach issues resolve soon...
sorry you are not feeling so great...

wow...ketamine...didn't realize they are still using that stuff medically...
it is the same stuff that the street drug "Special K" comes from.....very potent, dangerous stuff...
hope it did not contribute to your not feeling good...

feel better soon...
jess...and Sparky

[mabeckoff]

Hi Melissa--how is your neck feeling now. Did the surgery help the issues? Is it much better now? I really hope so for all of your pain.

My neck is doing great. I have so much more mobility than I did before. Now that I am weaning myself of the brace, my back is bothering me somewhat

Thanks for asking

Melissa

[mabeckoff]

hi Melissa
i hope your stomach issues resolve soon...
sorry you are not feeling so great...

wow...ketamine...didn't realize they are still using that stuff medically...
it is the same stuff that the street drug "Special K" comes from.....very potent, dangerous stuff...
hope it did not contribute to your not feeling good...

feel better soon...
jess...and Sparky

Dr Bederman said that UCI orthopedic department is using ketamine during surgery in order to cut down on post op pain. He said that they felt it was worth it so that less narcotics were needed.

I will never use it again. I lost a whole week of my life.

Melissa

[jrnyc]

so sorry that happened to you....
best to do what he said about telling them you are allergic....
even if not, doctors often do not like to listen to patients if they
say there is a medication they do not like, because of the effect
or after effect...
but allergies doctors have respect for!

feel better...
jess...and Sparky

[Pooka1]

Ketamine is being investigated as a cure, yes cure, for PTSD as far as I know. It looks extremely promising.

Also, ketamine explains the hallucinations that the neurosurgeon had who wrote a book claiming he went to heaven. So even neurosurgeons can be fooled if they have no experience with the drug.

[jrnyc]

interesting...i started to look that up on internet...

it said ketamine can lift symptoms of depression for 7-10 days...
but no mention of PERMANENT relief...

i saw it is in clinical trials for tx of PTSD...as of 2012

but if it didn't relieve the PTSD permanently, then it would be a tx, not
a cure....
????????????????
it did say it worked rapidly...and it reconnects nerves to form new pathways...
it also said it gets rid of fearful memories...

i would think the doctor who wrote and talked about his experience
with heaven...i saw him on TV...would know about ketamine and would
have ruled out the drug as what caused his experience to happen...

jess

[mabeckoff]

I booked my hip surgery for August 15. I will be in the hospital 2-3 days. Quite a change for me. I am then going home as my insurance will not pay for any decent rehab.