When you seek medical attention, you are often asked "What is your pain right now on a scale of 1- 10?” - 0 being no pain and 10 being the worst pain you've ever had. But it's all relative, isn’t it? My "10" used to be those migraines that put me in the ER. The worst pain I've now had was immediately after my back surgery. I seriously didn't believe that kind of pain was possible. Holy crap! I woke up and starting screaming and bawling. It took the docs an hour to get the pain DOWN to a 10 because it felt like a 100 when I came out of the anesthesia. I now have a new "10" which means that my old 10 is more like an 8. Anyway, they released me on Friday afternoon and all is going as planned. I’m pretty helpless – can’t walk without my cane, can’t bend over, in a lot of pain, etc. But I have the best nurse ever! Gus takes such good care of me. When it’s time to take your meds in the hospital they put the pills in a little plastic cup. Since we have no little plastic cups at home, Gus puts mine in a saki cup which reminds me of shooting saki at a Japanese restaurant with Papa when we were out there last month. Such a nice memory ;-) Kompai!
I’m literally sleeping 18 hours a day since coming home. I'm so dopey and sleepy all the time and I can't remember who I talk on the phone to so if you’ve called I probably don’t recall it! The dopiness and sleepiness are not solely due to the meds because I’ve been on this amount of pain meds before without the same effects. I think the other reason is that being in this much pain wipes me out and my body is so busy doing it’s #1 job of healing and creating the new bone graft. Every day I listen to guided meditations about the body’s ability to heal itself – this it scientifically proven to help. In fact, a few years ago Papa’s insurance company sent him a guided meditation CD to listen to before surgery. If insurance companies believe it works, it must because you can bet your britches they wouldn’t waste money on something “experimental”. HAH! As I write this, Gus came into the room with “healing incense”. Coincidence? No such thing. So here’s what the incense pamphlet says “Aquilaria Aromatic Healing Incense is a traditional Tibetan remedy used to treat headaches, nausea, back pain, stiffness and muscle pain”. Sounds great to me and smells great, too.
I already started tapering down on the pain meds. per doc orders, it was 3 pills every 4 hours but now I decided to do 2 pills unless I’m really hurting BAD like yesterday afternoon when Harve and Lisa came to visit and as they were getting out of their car a doe popped out a fawn right then so I HAD to get up to watch! We got to see it take its first wobbly steps. But I overdid it and was in too much pain.
Today we’re going to shower me – it should be a pretty funny event. Dundee needs a bath, too, so we may make it a family affair.
(By the way, I started writing this on Friday night but can only write for about 5 minutes at a time!)
2 comments:
Hang in there laney- I remember when I had surgery in iceland- you think the pain will never end, but it will and you will be back in action in no time! Love ya- seth
Glad you're home, Laney, and you're quite blessed to have that Gus guy around as your nurse. That Guided Meditation tape/CD was from Blue Cross, for me to listen to a week before, and after my neck and back surgery. I do believe it worked - but I never have been apprehensive before any medical procedures. Haven't had a need to. My course of meds after I got home were pretty basic. I tolerated the pain OK (pretty high pain threshold). It was the 8 days of intense morphine (post surgery) that was a challenge for me. Moderate pain, but intense hallucinations (I've told you about those). You already know the recovery game. Play it well, and play it to win! Rosalie & I will call you next week. We believe this procedure will lead to a much better life style for both you and Scott. Love, Dad
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