My Surgery

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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...

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~

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

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?

Hey Mary,

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

Shubie

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

Thinking of you, as are so many TE gals

Arohanui, na Raven

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...:)

Gentle Hugs to you Mary!!!

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

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. :(