Good Morning!

Well, the "easy" part is over and the hard part begins.

We arrived on time at 5 a.m. yesterday.  Registration, IV, review, etc .  I met the resident, the anesthesiologist, the nurses who would be in the OR. My fear of the spinal was already noted in my chart.   I was rolled to the  back (crying), I sat on the edge of the bed, slightly hunched over a pillow, leaning on a nurse and the anesthesiologist said 'I just gave you some medicine and it will take about a minute to work."  What spinal?...lol.  The next moment I remember is being woken up in recovery.

Surgery was at 7 a.m., I was done by 11 a.m., and in recovery until around 1 p.m. and then moved to my room.  I was in a lot of pain because the vicodin was not yet working, and the durned therapist shows up at 2 p.m.  That was pretty traumatic...I'll honestly admit I was sobbing in pain when he tried to get me to stand up.  I became lightheaded and on the edge of passing out, so thankfully that PT session ended.

IV Dilaudid was started, and the vicodin administration updated to every 4 hours (and not a second past it).  I tried again at 4 p.m. to get up...better but no go yet; 8 p.m. was the magic time!!!  I have been up 3-4 times since then to go to the bathroom, brush my teeth, etc.  Getting up definitely hurts, (pain level 5-6); walking hurts a little but once I get going, I would rather keep going.   When returning to bed, I have to remember to not "plop" into it as I let go of my walker.

Speaking of my walker, it's all blinged out and everyone has been commenting on it.  They love it!  In spite of MY insistence, the PT insisted I use the hospital one.  However, later when I was trying to stand with the nurses assistance, she brought me the hospital walker and I said, "I want to use mine from home; it has love and magic in it".  No problem she said, and out into the hallway went the hospital walker!  Whew!