Two weeks after the slashing my back still hurts. After thousands of dollars and physician posturing and nursely caretaking, my back still hurts. They say that will go away with time.
I have to use a walker. I don't feel like I have to use a walker but everyone - my wife, the physical terrorist and the doctor all say I need the walker. They're afraid I'll fall down and have to start all over again. I don't want to fall down and I dang sure don't want to start over again but I just don't feel old enough for a walker.
I still can't sleep worth a damn. Get pain and then have to concentrate to turn over in a way that follows instructions. It seems that everyone's afraid that I'll paralyze myself or cause myself permanent structure damage if I turn wrong.
I think they're all going overboard. The surgery was bad and lasted more than 5 hours and I certainly don't want to do it over again so I pay attention. I follow the rules.
I had a laminectomy. That's where you've squoshed a vertebrae down so bad that the gooey center has squeezed out. The gooey center tends to press on nerves that run down your spine and that causes pain. Usually the pain isn't felt there at the back where the injury is. Usually the pain runs down your butt and/or leg and into your feet. Mine had been doing that so long that I was losing feeling below my waist. They say that's bad. When you have a laminectomy they cut you open and clip the excess goo from your vertebra so that it no longer presses on the nerve. Suddenly you have no more pain.
I also had a fusion. That's where - and this is cool - some vertebrae are so screwed up that they need to anchor them to your spine so that they'll stop floating around and making you cry. I saw an x-ray yesterday of the results of that. You can see a strip of metal - titanium. It's as long as 3 vertebrae and lies parallel to them. It's held there with screws. They screw a huge screw through the metal and into each vertebra. So now it doesn't move. They tell me there will be "some restriction of movement". I haven't noticed that yet. Then they took some bone from my hip and transplanted it to that area where the new brace was screwed in. It should grow around the brace and soon become a permanent part of me. That's why I need such a long recovery time. It takes about 3 months for the bone to regrow. Ms. Donna says that the scar runs from the top of my butt upward for a ways. My fingers make me guess it's about 7or 8 inches long. Then there are other scars too. Maybe I'll look sexy now.
Meantime I use a walker (should be able to stop that soon). Do exercises recommended by physical therapy and sit in the chair. I really am tired of sitting in the chair. T.V. is hopeless. I do crosswords and read and try to teach myself Ruby programming and try to write. Going nuts here.
Ms. Donna is wonderful. She picks up the things I drop and she takes care of the dogs and the chickens and the Bob and still keeps a job. She helps me dress and shower and tells me to "Stop that" and "Don't do that" and "Be sure to do that". She's not nagging, I've asked her to pay attention to me because she does that better than I do. I couldn't do this without her. She says I'm her worst patient ever. I say she's the best nurse I could have ever hoped for. Of course, she's the most expensive nurse I could ever have too.
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