Road to Recovery

Always at My Side

I didn't realize just how restricted I would be after surgery, but I've been a couch potato long enough for a hundred people. I go back for my second post op check on February 14th. I've come a long way since December 3 (a very memorable day--sort of). I'm very grateful to my doctor. I had excellent care at St. Joseph's and couldn't ask for more.  I don't think they'll know if the fusion was a success until between three and six months. Even at that, I hope for some improvement in pain while standing and walking since there was more than enough to fix. I saw the x-rays at my first post op check--it looks like I have a bird cage inside of me! I'll spare everyone details of the surgery and recovery. The first few weeks were experienced through a drug haze of sorts.

Now, I can take pain pills every 4 to 6 hours, but have whittled it down to one in the morning and one at night and a half if I wake between 3 to 5 a.m. Haven't had to take that one for almost a week, now.

I get my exercise by walking around the house and trying to keep it above Board of Health standards. I hate clutter, but I have to keep everything at table height as reaching, bending, stretching, lifting, sitting, etc., are off limits.  I could make another dog from dog hair, but I get some of it up by improvising with my own method. I'm breaking the last (sitting) for just a few minutes. Still not proven is whether the pain is eliminated walking past 5 minutes. I am craving a "test walk", outdoors, without pain.

Jack has been ever faithful, but he sure looks forward to Susan coming to walk him. She has been wonderful--she's my link to sustenance and Jack's link to the outside world. We don't know what we would have done without her.

Well my 15 minutes is up. Down I go. Miss all my friends and blogging friends. Still a ways to go, but hopefully will get back to normal, in the near future.

(Note: I wrote but didn't publish some posts before surgery because I didn't want to alarm family in New York. My sister has enough on her plate to worry about. I guess I should have proofed them before I hit "publish"--I have no recollection what I said. It's old news, but there for the record.