Happy Pills

Post surgery, a time for recovery. The Surgeon came to my room the day after the surgery to look things over & see how I was doing. He seemed pleased with my progress and said I could go home after my back brace came or I could stay another night if I wanted too. Why would I want to stay – no sleep, nurses every ½ hour taking stats, lights on all night, …the happy pills were always being brought in. Happy pills in my case turned out to be percocet’s. Upon going home, Laura went to fill my prescription. The surgeon, as it turned out, prescribed a bottle of 200 percocet tablets – up to 10 per day. There’s a nice way to start an addiction.
For the last 3 days, I have needed to take a total of 10 tablets (no addicts here). I believe I am handling the recovery pretty well right now. I was able to walk about 7-8 block circle today after walking a few blocks yesterday. I am trying to keep a grip on my diet till I can start back up at the gym. Matthew asked me last week to tell if & when I am tempted to “cheat” on the diet. I was tempted on Monday at Walgreen’s in the candy isle, but walked through it to just pick up my vitamins I needed. It really was a challenge for me, tried to justify only one before the Surgery. Besides, I had reached my next benchmark of 280 lbs. (279 on Monday, 280 was my goal before surgery). I found a compromise in a healthy 100 calorie bar, I can live with that.
Laura counted 17 staples in about 8” on my back. These are painful to put pressure on, so I have trouble sleeping still. Next Thursday, Feb 11th they come out @ 2:20 PM. Until then, Laura gets to be my nurse & change the dressing daily. I really couldn’t get through this without her. My dad & Rita came over last night; I struggled to stay focused since I had just taken a happy pill. I have a lot of paperwork and school work to do as well as taxes, but I need a couple more days to clear my head & become less dependent upon the little round feel-goods. I believe it will happen soon enough.
Well, I’ve reached my limit for sitting for now, so I'm off to take another happy pill, more later ...

Surgery

Surgery day is upon us on Ground hogs day. In just over 12 hours, the surgeon will start cutting but I wont really feel it till later. The actual procedure will take about 1 ½ to 2 hours, followed by 2 hours in the recovery room. The surgeon will cut out the entire L-4 disc in my back and replace it with a synthetic disc, attached with 4 titanium screws. The entire idea of the procedure amazes me.

Growing up as a child in the 60’s, just knowing someone who had gone through a surgery was not very common. In fact, Going to the doctor was not even that common of an event. With a back problem like mine, the surgery would have been a fusion, keeping the patient hospitalized for a week. Now, 1 night and go home.

The best part of having the surgery is the anticipated results. My prognosis is to have 97% total mobility in less than 5-6 months, something I have not had in 5 years. My surgeon is very good at what he does and has a high success rate, so I feel pretty good about it. Based upon my prior surgeries, I know this will be a rough time of recovery over the next 4-6 weeks. I really pray that laura, my loving spouse, can tolerate me through all this.

As I recover, I will keep this blog site posted when I can bear sitting at the computer.