My Surgery

[mary9761]

Mary had her back surgery and was awake around 6:30 p.m. Friday night and got to a room and will be spending at least one night in hospital.
She'll post more when she gets home and I spoke with the surgeons a short time afterwards and they felt comfortable in telling me that they thought the operation was a success.
This is Mark her husband; "Thank You"

[Mr. Bloom]

Great News. Tell her that the Silver's are thinking of her!

[colby]

Great to hear. Thanks Mr. Mary for letting us know.

Here's to a speedy recovery, Mary! :D

[7rider]

Thanks for the word, Mark.
Wishing Mary well and a speedy recovery.

[Wahine]

Thanks you for posting Mark. Let Mary know that we're all sending out the TE healing vibes.

[Triskeliongirl]

Yes, thanks for taking the time to post Mark. I've been checking in all night to see how she is doing. I am glad to hear things went well. Wish her my best for a speedy recovery! Maybe you can print out this thread and bring it to her when you visit tomorrow.

[Pax]

Tell Mary there's loads of healing vibes headed over from Champaign.

[TrekJeni]

Tell Mary that Jeni from the Hilly says hi! Hope you're doing well. Thanks to you too Mark - hang in there yourself!
Jeni

[Xrayted]

Thanks Mr. Mary for posting about our wonderful Mary. Our thoughts are with her and we wish her the best. Don't forget to take care of yourself too. We look forward to the time when she can post on here herself.

~X and Kit. :) :)

[Bikingmomof3]

Thank you Mark for taking the time to let us know how Mary's surgery went.

Please let her know that we are all thinking of her and that Bikingmomof3 is praying for her.

Remember to take care of yourself as well. :)

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Yay Mary!!! Things are just going to start getting a bit better for you every week now. :p

[KnottedYet]

thank you, Mr. Mary!

gentle (((hugs))) to Mary!

[cosc]

Mr. Mary thanks for keeping us informed. Here's wishing you a speedy recovery, Mary.

[margo49]

Thanks for the info, Mr Mary.
Sounds like everything went well and that Mary will be feeling much better soon if not sooner
Pass on that margo49 is thinking of her and praying too

[mary9761]

Hi everyone,
and thanks for all the well wishes!!!
Mary came home today after having a pretty nice lunch at the hospital and didn't have too much trouble here at home.
She immediately took some medicine and went to bed following the Dr.'s orders.
I'll try to keep everyone as updated as much as possible & also have a feeling she's still going to be sore for quite sometime,which is understandable.
But I'm going to keep an eye on her never the less making sure she's as comfortable as possible.
Thanks again for the consideration,
Mark

[Running Mommy]

Mark-
Thank you for keeping us updated. Mary is a special lady around here, and I for one was thinking of her and praying. I knew she would be fine though. She's got that great attitude!
Tell her that running mommy sends a big ol wave (insert denise waving) from Sunny AZ...
Denise

[SouthernBelle]

Excellent news. Hoping her pain, both from the surgery and from the original problem, will be a thing of the past.

[mary9761]

hello everyone, this is Mary posting. I am going to be limited on how often/long I can sit, but I'm eating a pot pie for dinner and multitasking. Thank you all for you warm wishes and kind words. I'm very sore and the doctor said I may be more sore for a few days because of how they had to through the muscle. Pardon any typos etc as this is awkward sitting and I have to use a lumbar support. I won't write much but thank you so very much. Mark and I got a big kick out of the Mr. Mary :D I'm going to need outpatient PT and the hardest part so far has been trying to get out of bed. I will write more when I can sit a bit longer but thank yuo all again.
Mary

[SouthernBelle]

Mary, do you have a comfy chair to sleep in? Unless you need to lay flat of course. A recliner makes it much easier to get up and down.

[maillotpois]

Glad it went well! Take care of yourselves!

[DarcyInOregon]

Mary, I am glad the surgery was a success for you. How long does it take to recover? I hope you can bike again soon. If it helps, I have ruptured disks (no surgery but lots of other remedies) and biking and walking are two things I can do well. Gosh, I hope I remembered your medical problem correctly, and that it is disks in your back.

Darcy

[Trekhawk]

Sending wishes for a speedy recovery. Take care of yourself Mary.:)

[Grog]

I'm happy you're on the road to recovery already. Yeah!

[Wahine]

I'm going to need outpatient PT and the hardest part so far has been trying to get out of bed.


The best technique is to log roll onto your side, bend hips and knees to 90 degrees and drop feet off the side of the bed so that the weight of your legs can help to pull you to the upright position.

Good luck with your recovery and we'll look forward to hearing more from you when your sitting tolerance improves.:) :)

[DrBadger]

The best technique is to log roll onto your side, bend hips and knees to 90 degrees and drop feet off the side of the bed so that the weight of your legs can help to pull you to the upright position.

Good luck with your recovery and we'll look forward to hearing more from you when your sitting tolerance improves.:) :)

Well Wahine you beat me to it... I was going to suggest the same technique for getting out of bed.

Mary, that is the technique that I was told to use after I had my back surgery, it works really well, and I even still use it as it is a lot easier on the back.

Glad to hear that everything went well, rest up, you'll be back on the bike in no time!

[wannaduacentury]

Mary had her back surgery and was awake around 6:30 p.m. Friday night and got to a room and will be spending at least one night in hospital.
She'll post more when she gets home and I spoke with the surgeons a short time afterwards and they felt comfortable in telling me that they thought the operation was a success.
This is Mark her husband; "Thank You"

{{{Mary}}} I hope she heals quickly. Give her my best wishes. Jenn

[LBTC]

Mary, your recovery wil amaze you! Keep track of the improvements each day and the time and the recovery will fly by!

Big purple, yellow and brillian blue butterflies filling your room and helping you move around....

Hugs,
~T~

[sbctwin]

Mary, my prayers are for a successful recovery. Your DH was kind to post and let us know how you were doing. Let's hope your next days are comfortable and you take time for yourself to heal.

[mary9761]

Hello again everyone, I thought I'd check again, I've been resting but watching Survivor and now I'm sitting up for a short time. I hope everyone had a wonderful mother's day even it you are not a mother. I had a wake up call this morning and I heard my cell phone ring (my son's ring tone) when I answered I hear "Happy Mother's Day Grandma!" from my 3.5 yo grandson and some squeals from the 1.5 yo. I'm glad my son called because I was not really very happy with him from before, during and after my surgery. He didn't call me before, after or until I was already home yesterday. I didn't call him and I was very disappointed in him (as was the rest of my family as well) My mom had everyone over today and I figured it would NOT be such a good idea for me to try to visit with everyone. I'm not supposed to be up much and I know I would want to hold my grandsons and they would want to be on my lap, as wiggly as they are one wrong move and I could be in some real trouble with my back.
I asked the doctor what exactly they did and he said that they took a portion of the disc out at L5-S1 where it was pinching my sciatic nerve. I don't have any hardware or moved bone stabilizing that are so I do have to be especially careful since everything is going to have to resettle and heal. They basically took the laparascope and made a tunnel through the muscle then removed the small piece of disc.
The Physical therapist told me it will definitely be a while before I'm back on a bike again PERIOD. She asked what my goals were and I told her basically I wanted to get back to where I was before my back went out and those activities included watching my grandsons who are both under the age of 4 AND that I wanted to be able to get back on my bicycle. She asked if I meant stationary or on the road, and I told her both. I explained to her my history and she said it will be some time yet before I'll be able to ride, so we'll have to take things a day at a time, I'll do what she says and hope that perhaps I can do better than she expects sooner than she expects.. ;) For now, a day at a time and thanks to you all. I'm apologizing ahead of time right now for any typos as my meds are trying to hit and I'm getting groggy. I'm trying to get up and move around like I've been told and not spend the whole day in bed, but there are times the bed looks sooooo inviting.
Take care all and thank you again. Be sure I am being very well taken care of here at home. I'm married to a real sweetheart. I am watching to make sure I don't have some sort of infection somewhere (even though I don't feel like there's a problem) because I'm running a bit of a low grade. 100.2 so far has been my highest, but I'm going to keep an eye on it partly because I had already drank a bit of room temp coolaid stuff. I've been feeling pretty warm since after my surgery.

[Running Mommy]

Great to hear from you Mary. Just take it a day at a time and be strong. I have no doubt that you will surprise your PT. It's all about that great attitude you have.
And for the record, you have a great hubby too! aka 'Mr. Mary"
Take Care!
Denise

[Pax]

Good morning Mary!! Hope you had a restful night and are feeling much better today.

[smilingcat]

Hi,

speedy recovery and sending my positive thoughts to you. And thank you for keeping us posted. You are in my thoughts.

;)
smilingcat

[bikerchick68]

Mary! I've not been here for a while but I am SO excited that they finally figured out and fixed the issue for you! Last time I was on you were hurting and really frustrated. Great news that you've had a successful repair of that injury...:) No matter what, follow the docs orders to a T! My mom has now successfully recovered from her laminectomy, is doing water therapy and has a personal trainer now at the recommend of her surgeon and PT person... like you, she is determined to heal correctly and prevent any further issues by being strong... gentle hugs lady... happy to see you on here recovering finally! :)

[Ninabike]

Glad you're back home Mary and doing as well as can be expected. I couldn't post before today, but thank Mark for posting the first couple of days. Best wishes for a speedy recovery.

[Thistle]

really happy for you that you're home mary. so much easier to get better at home i always feel :)

take care
thea

[pooks]

Thank you, Mr Mary! (And I'm sure you know how much we respect and adore Mary, so by giving you that name we are bestowing you with a great honor!)

And I'm glad you're doing so great, Mary.

Here are my predictions.

You will have more ups than downs from this point forward, and will have a wonderful healing period during which you will watch television, read, oh and do PT. (Housework of any kind is never good PT, I am sure.)

You will amaze your PTherapist by doing so well that she will allow you to start riding sooner than she anticipated.

You will be sailing down the road on your bike with the wind whistling by, and all of this will be a fading memory.

Hugs!

[mary9761]

Good afternoon again everyone, I'm glad to say I got my first shower today and got to take my bandages off. I have my first PT scheduled for 5 June, not sure what we'll do, but thankfully, it's starting to finally get a bit easier to get out of bed. I will say that it's still pretty rough trying to stand up, but it's still an improvement from the first couple days.
I had a surprise this morning, I got flowers delivered from my mother-in-law, sister-in-law and aunt-in-law... The biggest surprise, there was a little bike in the flower arrangement. :D My MIL told me I would have gotten the flowers yesterday, but the flower shop had to get the bicycle to put in the arrangement. I'd imagine they don't get many requests for bikes in flower arrangements.

I almost cried when I saw the little bike. :cool:
http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a361/mary9761/15%20May%202007%20Mary%20flowers/15may07maryflowers10.jpg
http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a361/mary9761/15%20May%202007%20Mary%20flowers/15may07maryflowers19.jpg

Miss Whiskers decided she wanted to smell the flowers with mommyhttp://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a361/mary9761/15%20May%202007%20Mary%20flowers/15may07maryflowers07.jpg

Miss Frisky couldn't resist seeing what was going on either
http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a361/mary9761/15%20May%202007%20Mary%20flowers/15may07maryflowers11.jpg

[spokewench]

that was very thoughtful of the inlaws - and your kitties are so cute! Hope you a quick recovery.

spoke

[pooks]

How sweet of them to think of including a bike, even though it took extra time and effort. That personal touch made the flowers mean so much more.

Cute kitties!

[Bikingmomof3]

Beautiful flowerrs, cute bike, and lovely kitties. :)

[ShubieGA]

Glad you are up and getting to shower! The flowers are beautimous, as are the kitties (of course). :)

[silver]

Hi Mary! the flowers are beautiful! Just wanted to check in and see how you were doing.....hope it's good!!!

[Zen]

Were they really interested in the flowers or was it the irresistible allure of Garfield?

[SouthernBelle]

Kewl. Even when the flowers are gone, you'll still have the little bike.

[mary9761]

Thanks again everyone,
Yesterday was a nightmare, I'm sorry I didn't post an update any sooner. We spent the day at the ER and it was late when we got home. Wednesday evening I noticed a large lump under the incision site that was quite painful when I would try to lay down. I called the neuro office and they suggested going to the ER to have it checked.
When we got to the ER of course we had to wait to be seen, wheel chairs are quite uncomfortable when you're not supposed to be sitting for long periods of time anyways and the pain meds I took before leaving home were starting to wane by the time they finally called to to a room. They eventually come in and give me some morphine to make me more comfortable, the doctors don't know if it's an infection started (don't think that it is but not sure) or if it's blood pooled in the muscle from the scope having to tunnel through the muscle tissue to get to my spine during surgery.
There is mention of CT scan or MRI, at the mention of MRI I immediately say STAPLES!!! They didn't end up doing either, but did draw blood to see if they could see any sign of infection. In the meantime, one of the neuro docs come to see me and say that he thinks that it probably is blood in the muscle tissue. There is no drainage the incision looks fine, I'm finally told that NO, I DON'T have to wear the stockings full time, NO, I don't have to keep bandages on the incision full time either, I CAN get the incision wet in the shower, I don't have to cover it with plastic. Sheesh... Ok up to this point other than being uncomfortable, this has been a bit better than typical for this ER and hospital. That would be short lived.
While I'm waiting for test results and as the morphine has begun to wear off I'm getting uncomfortable again. I see a nurse come to the door and I ask him does he have something for pain for me and he says, "that depends, what's your name?" I answer him and he said yes, I ask what it was this time as it looked different for some reason. He told me this was deladed (sp?) and that it was stronger than morphine, I asked him if he knew how my tests were coming along and he said he didn't and started to ask me about my pain level as he's injecting the medication into my iv, I try to answer him as I melt into the injection. I figured since they were giving me such a strong medication, I was going to be there for a while longer. Very shortly after the injection, I think I hear my name being called to come to be released?? I'm nearly passe out on the gurney, and shortly after a nurse comes in and says "Mary, are you ready to go?" I questioned the fact that I just had been given something so strong I didn't even know if I could feel my legs at the time much get out of the bed and have walked to the desk. Anyways, she brings a chair and says that I can wait a short time to which I thought good thing because I sure wasn't able to move at that moment and could see myself falling directly out of the chair.
When I came to enough to feel my extremities I asked my husband to get someone to help get me out of the bed and into the chair so someone else could have the bed. We needed to call my father for a ride home, so we wait for my paper work and the nurse removes my IV bandages it and I of course bleed under the plastic bandage, luckily she'd put it on or I would have had blood on clothes etc. We change the bandaging and stop the bleeding, call dad and wait. They've given me a prescription for antibiotics so we will need to hopefully get to the hospital pharmacy before they close. Dad gets there, they get me in the car and we head to the next building to get the meds filled. Mark goes in and I'm hoping he doesn't have a long wait (typical there) since I'm sitting and really need to get home. We see him go in the pharmacy then eventually come out, still carrying the Rx! WHAT??? There's a note from the pharmacists can she take this? Sbe's ALLERGIC to penicillin!! I lost it, why do they even ask what I'm allergic to if they're going to write a script for meds I'm allergic to (not the first time I'd had that happen at this hospital!!) So we had to go BACK to the ER, get me out of the car, into a wheelchair and raise holy you know what with the docs in ER! We get in there and I'm crying (combination of stress, heavy medications, and pain) asking them why do they even bother to ask what you're allergic to, I guess I had the attention of most of the ER from what I can vaguely remember. We go back INTO the ER area we'd just left and they could see that I was obviously upset in pain or something and I hear UH-OH... I go off about the script and then tell them I'm afraid we won't get this filled in time if we get it fixed then they say that although the keflex is related to penicillin, it is also related to something else I have taken successfully without reaction. The doctor said I should be ok, Mark said I'm going to hold you to that. Sooooo by this time the pain relieving effects were waning QUICKLY and we had to get me back into the car again and hope we get to the pharmacy before they close. The number that was blinking was still the number Mark had so he went straight in and I knew what was going to happen before it did, the woman went in, dragged him out saying he needed another number and I was ready to go in and confront her if it killed me to get in there. By now Dad has had it too, he'd told the police officer at the ER he wasn't moving the car to the garage while we figured out what was going on when they fouled things up in the ER/pharmacy. Dad goes in to say something to the woman and I can see them "discussing" what was going on and the fact that Mark's number was still showing etc when a Sherrif's car pulls up in front of the pharmacy flashing his lights to chase people off who were parked outside the pharmacy. Cars scattered like rats and I could see Dad still talking to this woman, waiting for Mark to get the script filled when the sheriff walks up behind Dad's car to write him a ticket. This was my final breaking point! I started screaming NO, NO, NO!!!! Don't give my dad a ticket! and beating the car door next to me, I was crying hysterically this could not end like this I wasn't going to let it if I ended up having to be taken in handcuffs or a straight jacket, the meds, the pain, the hassle of the ER and phamacy and now a ticket NO!!!!! The police officer had waited for my dad to get out of the car before he pulled up, I know it. He came to the front of the car and I'm bawling for him to not give my Dad a ticket etc, I'm sure I was by this time fairly incoherent and shortly after he came to the door, my dad came back out and was talking to him, Mark was at the window getting the meds (hopefully) and we would be gone in a few minutes.
Finally Mark did come to the car with my meds and we came home. I got something to eat and it was time for my meds so I took them and collapsed exhausted mentally, physically, etc for the night. I slept through the night and woke (in quite a bit of pain around 10:30 this morning)
I'm really hoping that I don't end up with an allergic reaction to the keflex as that would be the last thing I need on on top of that. I haven't laid down for a while and I've got a lot of catching up to do, but I wanted to check in. What a couple of days it's been. I get my staples out next week.

[Bikingmomof3]

Oh Mary, what an ordeal. ((((((((((((((MARY))))))))))))))))))

[margo49]

Oh, Mary.
You must've been absolutely beside yourself!
Now it is over and I hope things go smoothly from now on. Please try not to worry over it, it's history and you've got a whole new life to live ahead of you.
Thinking of you...

[LBTC]

gentle hugs for you, Mary

It sounds like that was awful, but you made it through. It's got to get better and keep getting better from here.

Loads of healing green butterflies for you,

~T~

[Ninabike]

Mary, Just checking in after a couple of days off the board. How are you feeling this morning?

[bikerchick68]

holy cow, what a mess! there is nothing worse than having to deal with nonsense when you're sick and hurting... ugh.

How's the Keflex for you? Any reaction or are ya doing OK with it?

[ShubieGA]

Hey Mary,

I hope you are doing better today. Hopefully the Keflex will work ok, and you will be up and about soon!

Shubie

[RoadRaven]

Hey there Mary... been a long uneasy haul for you

Thinking of you, as are so many TE gals

Arohanui, na Raven

[jeannierides]

Oh, Mary, I just read your update!:eek: So sorry to read you had to go through so much! Hospitals/ER's can really be a challenge - trust me, this I know (I discovered I had a *sensitivity* to morphine when I was in the ER)! But hopefully you got everything back on track, and you'll be back on the road to recovery without incident. (The L5, btw, was one of my fractures, but was considered a minor one with all the pelvic fractures.)

Sending healing thoughts your way...:)

[bmccasland]

Gentle Hugs to you Mary!!!

I hope you're feeling better now, no troubles with meds, doctors, or just plain getting around.

[mary9761]

Thanks everyone again. It's been a couple days since I've checked in so I thought I'd check in again before I go lie down again. On top of all of this, I've also got a fresh crop of stress related cold sores:mad: I HATE them, and I just hope they don't end up turning into shingles anywhere either as I know cold sores, chicken pox (which I've had) and shingles can all go together when the body is stressed.
I got my staples out yesterday, I'm more sore than before. I tried to walk as much as possible at the hospital yesterday and I got further than I had since surgery, but before I got very far, my right leg started going numb and I was having trouble walking (lifting my leg etc) Mark ended up having to get me a wheelchair to make it to the pharmacy. He and dad pushed me to the pharmacy and I came home, took some more pain meds and passed out for a while.
After the doc took my staples out yesterday, he was checking to see if the lump under my incision is a hematoma or a deep infection so he was squeezing at it, hurt like the blazes (self edited). I'm more sore today than I've been in a while. I've been having Mark take photos for me daily so I can keep track of the healing and what my incision looks like and not only am I very sore and exhausted yet today, I have a fresh new BRUISE over my spine, just to the left of the large knot.
While I was up moving around last night trying to fix some light dinner of ramen and soup etc, I noticed my right leg trying to go numb from my bum down again. Looks like I'll be having to watch that. Originally I was only going to have to go in for a follow up June 18, now I have to go back to have the incision checked May 30th and I may still end up needing CT and/or MRI to check for infection or see exactly what's going on under the incision. There's a possibility of having to reopen the incision to drain it in that case YUCK! I know what that entails as my sister had a cesarean that had gotten infected and had to be reopened and left to heal from the inside out. NOT something I even want to think about considering I can't sleep on anything but my back right now and that would be what I'd be lieing on. I'm not happy to even think about what I might have to go through yet!
Take care everyone, and I'll try to catch up on some of the rest of the forum later this evening. We haven't turned the air conditioning on in the house yet either so it's getting pretty miserable in the house and they're talking about possibly getting up to 90 or warmer today UGH! Worst thing about that is even if we put the air on, it's not strong enough to cool much and surely won't cool our bedroom. We have a brick and jolocie (sp?) window enclosed porch which faces west. When we got the house, I thought the porch would be wonderful to be able to sit out on and enjoy NOT! Our bedroom is right off the oven which is called our porch so it's usually the warmest room in the house even all night. There are times during the summer that our bedroom stays in the 80's to 90's all night. :(