Hi Everyone,
Even though my life has become very mundane, and not very blog worthy, I keep hearing from folks who are checking in to the blog! So I need to update! Thank you all for your interest in my recovery.
Today was a big day. I drove my car (about a mile) to physical therapy. I have a wonderful therapist who appreciates the impact of my surgery on every part of my body. So I have some new assignments (stretches, etc.) to work on every day.
Recovery continues to move along really well. I am taking tylenol only now - a big relief. I feel much more normal without the pain medication. I still have to rest a lot. Not much pain, but a feeling of "unease" - or under the weather - just a hint from my body that there is a lot of healing still to be done, and I need to rest in order for that to happen.
Otherwise, I am walking and taking the stairs w/ no problem. The walker and special toilet seats have found a spot in the basement. The hospital bed will be picked up on Thursday. Tomorrow, I am going to resume my visits to the gym - but just for careful walking around the track. YAY!
I feel bad for Dave, who has had to take on all the laundry, shopping, dog walking, etc. Hopefully, I will be able to take on a little cooking before long. And I still haven't taken advantage of the "shop on line" service at Busch's - you send the order, and they bring it all out to your car! We did it a few times before the surgery to test it out - amazing. Just need to be a little more organized than we are so far.
Thanks so much for caring for me. I am really doing quite well. I am trying to concentrate on how far I have come vs. how far I still have to go...
LOVE,
NANC
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Friday, September 17, 2010
settling in
A big thank you to all of you who are taking such good care of me!
So many wonderful family and friends have come with meals, good wishes, and their willingness to help me with the little things I still can't do.
I'm walking really well - using the walker only when I get up in the middle of the night. I'm still resting a lot during the day. I sort of feel like you do at the end of an illness - you are ready to be normal again, but not quite there... I know it's going to take awhile. It is time to be patient, and take it easy.
Dave took me out for a drive one evening - it was great to be outside in the beautiful fall weather! The next night we even went to a local restaurant for dinner - that's a big step!
One of the hardest things to deal with has been the heavy duty painkillers I've been on. I'm working on weaning myself off of the worst one. It made for a couple of uncomfortable nights and a generally yucky feeling, but it is a big relief to have my appetite back and feel more like myself.
SO, just checking in to let you know that I am FINE and getting better day by day! I appreciate you all so much.
LOVE
Nanc
So many wonderful family and friends have come with meals, good wishes, and their willingness to help me with the little things I still can't do.
I'm walking really well - using the walker only when I get up in the middle of the night. I'm still resting a lot during the day. I sort of feel like you do at the end of an illness - you are ready to be normal again, but not quite there... I know it's going to take awhile. It is time to be patient, and take it easy.
Dave took me out for a drive one evening - it was great to be outside in the beautiful fall weather! The next night we even went to a local restaurant for dinner - that's a big step!
One of the hardest things to deal with has been the heavy duty painkillers I've been on. I'm working on weaning myself off of the worst one. It made for a couple of uncomfortable nights and a generally yucky feeling, but it is a big relief to have my appetite back and feel more like myself.
SO, just checking in to let you know that I am FINE and getting better day by day! I appreciate you all so much.
LOVE
Nanc
Friday, September 10, 2010
progress
Hi Everybody,
I wanted to bring you up to date on my recovery ~ Going very well!
Patty is here taking good care of me. She's running errands, doing laundry, cooking, etc., plus I just love having her here - we always have fun together.
I go upstairs to sleep, but spend my days in the main living area - I have a hospital bed in the living room, and try to take a nap twice a day. I'm walking really well - sometimes without my walker, and I feel really tall!
I stood in one spot for about 20 minutes yesterday, talking to a visitor, and realized that my legs did not get tired! This is a result of the surgeon clearing out the vertebrae that were constricting my spinal cord. Before my surgery, I had to bend my knees slightly to compensate for my scoliosis, and would tire after about 10 minutes.
I'm doing better with the pain. When I first got home, I would count the minutes until my next dose of pain medicine. Now I hardly notice that they the meds are wearing off, and even let one "pill time" come and go before I realized it.
So... I'm happy to report that things are going really well. I am so grateful for all of your prayers and expressions of love and concern.
Cheers,
Nancy
I wanted to bring you up to date on my recovery ~ Going very well!
Patty is here taking good care of me. She's running errands, doing laundry, cooking, etc., plus I just love having her here - we always have fun together.
I go upstairs to sleep, but spend my days in the main living area - I have a hospital bed in the living room, and try to take a nap twice a day. I'm walking really well - sometimes without my walker, and I feel really tall!
I stood in one spot for about 20 minutes yesterday, talking to a visitor, and realized that my legs did not get tired! This is a result of the surgeon clearing out the vertebrae that were constricting my spinal cord. Before my surgery, I had to bend my knees slightly to compensate for my scoliosis, and would tire after about 10 minutes.
I'm doing better with the pain. When I first got home, I would count the minutes until my next dose of pain medicine. Now I hardly notice that they the meds are wearing off, and even let one "pill time" come and go before I realized it.
So... I'm happy to report that things are going really well. I am so grateful for all of your prayers and expressions of love and concern.
Cheers,
Nancy
Monday, September 6, 2010
2 weeks post op
Hi Everybody,
It's SO nice to be home.
I can't expect every day to be better than the last, but over all, I see improvement.
Dave is taking great care of me. Sharon and Audrey (daughter and grandbaby) were here yesterday and today as well. Sharon made an awesome tortellini soup - and Audrey is a powerful endorphin machine!
I'm walking really well, sometimes without the walker! I have a hospital bed set up in the living room so I can be where the action is. I go upstairs once a day to sleep and shower. You heard me. I TOOK A SHOWER!!
The pain medication is very effective. That's the good news. The bad news is that the side effects are a pain the rear end. The most annoying one has to do with my digestive track (nuff said). And I've been really forgetful...my ability to correct Dave has been severely compromised by these drugs (sez Dave).
My sister, Patty is arriving tomorrow from Seattle and staying for a week. Since Dave is back to work, she'll be keeping an eye on me.
I'm figuring out how to move in my new body. My spine is fused from T1 to the sacrum - so I can't bend my back at all. Getting into and out of bed requires rolling to the edge, getting my knees to go over, and carefully pushing myself up sideways. The challenge is to always have my shoulders and hips in line. No twisting at all. After a year goes by, and the spine is fully fused, I'll be able to squat to pick things up - gotta keep those leg muscles strong!
I think I'm almost 3 inches taller. When Dave puts his arm around me, he says he feels like he's with another woman - a little disconcerting!
All for now,
HUGS,
NANC
It's SO nice to be home.
I can't expect every day to be better than the last, but over all, I see improvement.
Dave is taking great care of me. Sharon and Audrey (daughter and grandbaby) were here yesterday and today as well. Sharon made an awesome tortellini soup - and Audrey is a powerful endorphin machine!
I'm walking really well, sometimes without the walker! I have a hospital bed set up in the living room so I can be where the action is. I go upstairs once a day to sleep and shower. You heard me. I TOOK A SHOWER!!
The pain medication is very effective. That's the good news. The bad news is that the side effects are a pain the rear end. The most annoying one has to do with my digestive track (nuff said). And I've been really forgetful...my ability to correct Dave has been severely compromised by these drugs (sez Dave).
My sister, Patty is arriving tomorrow from Seattle and staying for a week. Since Dave is back to work, she'll be keeping an eye on me.
I'm figuring out how to move in my new body. My spine is fused from T1 to the sacrum - so I can't bend my back at all. Getting into and out of bed requires rolling to the edge, getting my knees to go over, and carefully pushing myself up sideways. The challenge is to always have my shoulders and hips in line. No twisting at all. After a year goes by, and the spine is fully fused, I'll be able to squat to pick things up - gotta keep those leg muscles strong!
I think I'm almost 3 inches taller. When Dave puts his arm around me, he says he feels like he's with another woman - a little disconcerting!
All for now,
HUGS,
NANC
Saturday, September 4, 2010
Gee but it's great to be back home!
Hi Everybody,
We got home around 6 pm - the trip went as smoothly as it possibly could. Cab to the airport, wheelchair at check in, went to the ladies room w/ my walker (!), Easy flight, wheel chair to luggage claim, waited at entrance while Dave fetched the car, came home.
My friend Susan came over to give us a fantastic meal (THANK YOU, SUSAN). Since then I've been rela\xing in the hospital bed we are renting. It did go well, but I have a feeling I will pay tomorrow. Pretty exhausting!
I will write again tomorrow -
LOVE YA
NANC
We got home around 6 pm - the trip went as smoothly as it possibly could. Cab to the airport, wheelchair at check in, went to the ladies room w/ my walker (!), Easy flight, wheel chair to luggage claim, waited at entrance while Dave fetched the car, came home.
My friend Susan came over to give us a fantastic meal (THANK YOU, SUSAN). Since then I've been rela\xing in the hospital bed we are renting. It did go well, but I have a feeling I will pay tomorrow. Pretty exhausting!
I will write again tomorrow -
LOVE YA
NANC
Friday, September 3, 2010
Heading Home Tomorrow
We're preparing for the logistical challenge of travel tomorrow, hoping that the flight is smooth for Nancy, and that the turbulent vestiges of the hurricane winds don't rock her world.
A couple of days ago I rolled her in the wheelchair a few blocks to get some lunch and even the pebbled surface of the sidewalk (combined to some degree with the ineptitude of the driver) made the trip very uncomfortable for her. Between the ride to the airport, the lack of any place to lie down for many hours, and the Michigan roads home, I'm just hoping for the best.
When we finally get there, home will be a much better environment for recovery. We have a hospital bed in the family room so Nancy can spend as much of her day on one floor as necessary. Also, sister Patty is coming in for several days, and we'll get to see Sharon, (hopefully) Keiron and the birthday girl Audrey this Sunday. Calls from Mike and Deborah have a great effect as well.
The pain seems to be somewhat less intolerable and unmanageable for most of the four-hour duration of the pills, and the worst part of the interval appears to be getting shorter and less intense. Easy for me to say, I know...
I'm glad to be getting home to some kind of routine, and grateful Nancy feels up to the trip earlier than expected. This hotel room is very nice, but I am going nuts here. I fondly recall living in a 16 foot camping trailer for a few idyllic months when we were 19 years old and I was finishing my freshman year at Sonoma State. I know I can't possibly have over-romanticized those days...I guess I have developed late onset claustrophobia or something.
A couple of days ago I rolled her in the wheelchair a few blocks to get some lunch and even the pebbled surface of the sidewalk (combined to some degree with the ineptitude of the driver) made the trip very uncomfortable for her. Between the ride to the airport, the lack of any place to lie down for many hours, and the Michigan roads home, I'm just hoping for the best.
When we finally get there, home will be a much better environment for recovery. We have a hospital bed in the family room so Nancy can spend as much of her day on one floor as necessary. Also, sister Patty is coming in for several days, and we'll get to see Sharon, (hopefully) Keiron and the birthday girl Audrey this Sunday. Calls from Mike and Deborah have a great effect as well.
The pain seems to be somewhat less intolerable and unmanageable for most of the four-hour duration of the pills, and the worst part of the interval appears to be getting shorter and less intense. Easy for me to say, I know...
I'm glad to be getting home to some kind of routine, and grateful Nancy feels up to the trip earlier than expected. This hotel room is very nice, but I am going nuts here. I fondly recall living in a 16 foot camping trailer for a few idyllic months when we were 19 years old and I was finishing my freshman year at Sonoma State. I know I can't possibly have over-romanticized those days...I guess I have developed late onset claustrophobia or something.
Thursday, September 2, 2010
New and Improved!
Hey, what about them x-rays!!? O M G !!!
We were finally presented with my before and after x-rays yesterday. I couldn't wait to see them, and I must say that I do have a particularily compelling set! We decided not to show the "before" pictures before my surgery - they are just a little too scary...
If you look at the front facing "before" picture, in the lower curve,you can see where I had a severe case of lumbar stenosis (I mean you can't exactly see it - but that's where it was). At L4/L5 (that's vertebrae talk) my spinal cord was being squeezed so that last year's MRI report said there was no spinal fluid detected in that area! When we were here for my pre-op appointment in July, Dr. Lenke was looking at my x-rays with his entourage of fellows and we heard him say, "It's really a mess in there". yikes. Without intervention, my spine would have kept curving, causing BIG problems down the road!
So it's a huge improvement, huh! And it will never get any worse. :)
Except for a drug induced state of loopy-headedness, things are going really well, I'm getting stronger every day, able to do more and more. In fact, we've decided to go home a little early - Saturday. YAY.
I noticed something cool yesterday - I've had a few standing x-rays in the past year, where you get into this booth and have to stand still for 10 minutes or so. In the past, because of the leg weakness caused by the stenosis, standing still without support was really hard. So yesterday,I got into the booth, and even with all the new aches I have, I realized that I didn't get fatigued while standing! And my new aches will go away... Awesome. We are anxious to go home - can't wait!
Thanks for your love and support. I
LOVE
NANC
We were finally presented with my before and after x-rays yesterday. I couldn't wait to see them, and I must say that I do have a particularily compelling set! We decided not to show the "before" pictures before my surgery - they are just a little too scary...
If you look at the front facing "before" picture, in the lower curve,you can see where I had a severe case of lumbar stenosis (I mean you can't exactly see it - but that's where it was). At L4/L5 (that's vertebrae talk) my spinal cord was being squeezed so that last year's MRI report said there was no spinal fluid detected in that area! When we were here for my pre-op appointment in July, Dr. Lenke was looking at my x-rays with his entourage of fellows and we heard him say, "It's really a mess in there". yikes. Without intervention, my spine would have kept curving, causing BIG problems down the road!
So it's a huge improvement, huh! And it will never get any worse. :)
Except for a drug induced state of loopy-headedness, things are going really well, I'm getting stronger every day, able to do more and more. In fact, we've decided to go home a little early - Saturday. YAY.
I noticed something cool yesterday - I've had a few standing x-rays in the past year, where you get into this booth and have to stand still for 10 minutes or so. In the past, because of the leg weakness caused by the stenosis, standing still without support was really hard. So yesterday,I got into the booth, and even with all the new aches I have, I realized that I didn't get fatigued while standing! And my new aches will go away... Awesome. We are anxious to go home - can't wait!
Thanks for your love and support. I
LOVE
NANC
She's here and she's packing hardware.
If you clicked on the animation (not at all gross, but quite interesting) in Nancy's previous post, you'll get an idea of the 'mechanical engineering' side of this procedure. I could relate to it right away, because at work we have a lot of bakery racks that magically bend out of shape when in the presence of truck drivers, all of whom apparently have the Uri Geller-like ability to distort metal objects without actually touching them. This miraculous occurrence is coincidentally accompanied by the same sly look of practiced innocence. Go figure.
The repair method we employ at the shop takes a few minutes of careful bracing, followed by the application of sudden and precise force at the strategic point of the bend. The exact amount force is calibrated according to to the size of the guy jumping on the bent rack, the height from which he jumped, etc. I don't want to bore you here with an overly technical scientific description.
Clearly though, the approach used by Dr. Lenke at the hospital is even more precise and effective, especially considering that welding is not an option for them. Or jumping, probably.
Here are a couple of the x-ray images of Nancy's spine before and after - They were shot at different scales, so I tried to give a realistic comparison of the height gained.
The most amazing thing to me is the way they were able to clean up her right side, shown above on the leftmost photo, on the left side. The doctor described it as 'a mess' with her rib cage resting on her tilted hip and her spine so restrictive on the spinal cord that it was creating stenosis and weakness in her legs.Despite the pain and weakness following the surgery, she can tell already that her legs are stronger. Now that's all fixed and unlike our bakery racks, it will stay fixed.
I'll leave some good news for Nancy to relate.
D
The repair method we employ at the shop takes a few minutes of careful bracing, followed by the application of sudden and precise force at the strategic point of the bend. The exact amount force is calibrated according to to the size of the guy jumping on the bent rack, the height from which he jumped, etc. I don't want to bore you here with an overly technical scientific description.
Clearly though, the approach used by Dr. Lenke at the hospital is even more precise and effective, especially considering that welding is not an option for them. Or jumping, probably.
Click to enlarge these.
Here are a couple of the x-ray images of Nancy's spine before and after - They were shot at different scales, so I tried to give a realistic comparison of the height gained.
I'll leave some good news for Nancy to relate.
D
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